# silver from mylars



## Geo (Sep 18, 2013)

this is the results of recovering silver from mylars. 580g of mylar produced this bar which weighs in at 14.9g. this is melted from cemented silver. i carried it in my pocket all day so it rubbed off some of the shine but i think it turned out ok.





next im going to try the yields on silver mica caps.


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## etack (Sep 19, 2013)

Cool that's a 2.5% recovery from them useful number.

I often wonder when doing the mylars if you were to add a small amount of HCl to the nitric a 98:2 you could use the nitric for an extended period of time. The Ag would precipitates as AgCl and be easier to recoup. Also you will get no Cu contamination from the cementing process.

Eric


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## maynman1751 (Sep 19, 2013)

Geo, thanks for the post! What process did you use on the mylars?


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## Geo (Sep 19, 2013)

maynman1751 said:


> Geo, thanks for the post! What process did you use on the mylars?



i incinerated the mylars in a pyroceram baking dish on my turkey fryer on high. the ash was glowing red from bottom to top. i ran this ash through my blender to break it down to a fine powder. i was left with a 1 cup measuring cup full of powder.i added this powder and 500ml of distilled water into a coffee pot and warmed. i added nitric in small increments 5-10 ml's at a time until i couldnt get anymore reaction. after sitting and cooling, i filtered the solution until it was clear. it cleared easily and looked like water.after rinsing, i placed all the ash and what filters i used into the dish and heated it to red hot while stirring. from this, i reclaimed another gram or so. this was just an experiment to see what i could get out of the mylars i had. i possibly lost some in all that moving around but what i got came out nice and shiny.


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## jmdlcar (Sep 19, 2013)

Geo,

How long did you leave it in the turkey fryer? Do you think it would work with the silver test strips I have? And good job on the mylar.

Jack


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## Geo (Sep 19, 2013)

i actually had a few hundred silver test strips in with the mylars. it took about an hour for the whole mess to to be totally incinerated. after it reaches a dull red heat, the carbon left will not be reduced anymore. i used a paint scraper to move the ashes around ever so often to ensure its reduced all the way through. it would take about the same amount of time for large lots of the same material.


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## jmdlcar (Sep 19, 2013)

Geo,

It should for gold strips too. I have about 2000 of gold strips. Do you think charcoal with a hair dryer to force air make it hotter? I could keep adding strips as they melt down. I could use HCL 32% and CL to refine the gold. Over all do you think it will work?

Jack


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## Geo (Sep 20, 2013)

i would not force air into anything that i was trying to incinerate that was that small. a good hot bed of charcoal is plenty of heat to incinerate plastic. dont get carried away, all you want to do is remove the resins and reduce the plastic to ash.


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## Woodworker1997 (Sep 20, 2013)

Geo,

Did you have the dish covered? During incineration did you witness anything floating away? Possible loss of silver?

Derek.


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## Geo (Sep 20, 2013)

Woodworker1997 said:


> Geo,
> 
> Did you have the dish covered? During incineration did you witness anything floating away? Possible loss of silver?
> 
> Derek.



i did cover at first because the plastic was bubbling and splattering as it gassed off. after the bubbling stopped, i uncovered the dish to let air in to finish the incineration. other then a little dust as i stirred the ash, nothing floated out.


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