# I did it!!



## JTroyner (Feb 18, 2012)

After much effort and studying of Hoke and the forum, my first attempt at refining is a success. Check out my fine looking .69g bb:







I took the photo in the melting dish to show the color of the borax. My only problem is the yield. My feedstock was 6 lbs. of ram sticks. I stripped the components with HCl, then used AP method, and dissolved with HCl/Cl. After dropping with SMB i washed like a crazy man ala Harold. Does the yield seem short? I would love some input from you veterans out there.

Also, many thanks to everyone on the forum that spends their valuable time helping others learn the art of refining. Without you guys, none of this would be possible.


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## patnor1011 (Feb 18, 2012)

6 lbs of RAM is 2721g.
If we take that one RAM stick is approx. 20g you had about 136 pieces of RAM which will yield about 136g close cut fingers.
That is 0.29 lb of fingers. 2g of Au from pound of fingers is agreeable yield so your 0.69 is correct or nothing wrong with that. It seems to me that you squeezed whatever was possible to get from them.

Another thing is that 136 RAM sticks will have about 1000-2000 chips so you have another 1-2 kilo of material with gold inside. There may be 1 to 2g in kilogram so you can have another 1 to 4g still at hand if you did not discarded them.

Every RAM stick may contain about 1g of monolythic capacitors and resistors where you can get 1-2% of Pd and up to 10% of Ag from total weight.


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## JTroyner (Feb 18, 2012)

patnor1011 said:


> 6 lbs of RAM is 2721g.
> If we take that one RAM stick is approx. 20g you had about 136 pieces of RAM which will yield about 136g close cut fingers.
> That is 0.29 lb of fingers. 2g of Au from pound of fingers is agreeable yield so your 0.69 is correct or nothing wrong with that. It seems to me that you squeezed whatever was possible to get from them.
> 
> ...



Thanks Patnor,

I have been saving the chips and capacitors until I aquire the right equipment. It feels good to hear I squeezed as much as I could from the stick!


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## glondor (Feb 18, 2012)

I would say Pat is right on the money. I did 10 lbs ram, produced 12 oz fingers and got .98 g button. Similar result. Your bb looks very nice 8)


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## JTroyner (Feb 18, 2012)

glondor said:


> I would say Pat is right on the money. I did 10 lbs ram, produced 12 oz fingers and got .98 g button. Similar result. Your bb looks very nice 8)



Thanks Glondor!


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## JTroyner (Feb 18, 2012)

By the way Pat, I read your .pdf for processing the chips a few days ago and found it very informative. This is the next process I will try to learn. Thanks Pat!


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## Smack (Feb 19, 2012)

Looks good.


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## JTroyner (Feb 19, 2012)

Smack said:


> Looks good.



Thanks Smack!


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## Geo (Feb 19, 2012)

great shine. you can tell its really pure. if you magnify, you can see the camera.


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## JTroyner (Feb 19, 2012)

Geo said:


> great shine. you can tell its really pure. if you magnify, you can see the camera.



Thanks Geo! I've learned alot from reading your posts.


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## artart47 (Feb 19, 2012)

Hi Guys!
Inspiring thread! I have about 50lbs of ram. half is defingered and half is tin fingered. I'm trying to deside weather to take it with and sell it to boardsort or to process it myself!
I'm gonna go home and do some figuring and weighing. Hummm?
artart47


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## golddiggingdude (Feb 26, 2012)

patnor1011 said:


> Every RAM stick may contain about 1g of monolythic capacitors and resistors where you can get 1-2% of Pd and up to 10% of Ag from total weight.



Or you can refine just the gold fingers, and resell the fingerless RAM to Boardsort at $7+/lb.


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## golddiggingdude (Feb 26, 2012)

glondor said:


> I would say Pat is right on the money. I did 10 lbs ram, produced 12 oz fingers and got .98 g button. Similar result. Your bb looks very nice 8)



This is a revealing thread, I think. Let's walk through the numbers...
10lbs RAM = 12oz fingers (correct me if I am wrong, but that's 7.5% of total weight)
(Is that mixed RAM? There's different types of RAM with different weights.)

Based on current ebay auction prices (incl. shipping costs);
RAM sticks are selling for an average of $17/lb.
Gold Fingers sell for $80-$110/lb.

Based on various measurements I've seen posted here in this forum, gold fingers produce roughly .005 % - .007% of its initial weight in gold powder.

But based on glondor's numbers; 
10 lbs of RAM sticks = 12oz. fingers = 1gm of gold

That only works out to .003% of its initial weight in fingers. That's much different than the averages I've read about and researched. I would expect at least 1.5gms from 336gms of fingers. And if we plug in glondor's numbers with current ebay prices, e-waste would seem unusually overpriced. However, if you plug in the .005% estimate, the ebay numbers make more sense to me.

Anyone want to set me straight on this?


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## Geo (Feb 26, 2012)

everything on Ebay is unusually overpriced. the people that buy this stuff on Ebay do so for various reasons, the biggest reason is ignorance. they just don't know what its really worth. others that know what its worth but buy it anyway could be speculating that the price of PM's will rise and they will make a profit. others that know and buy anyway are the minority, are the people that buy the material just to have the experience of refining (practice if you will). but whatever the reason, just like anything else, its consumer driven. as long as people are buying, people are going to sell at the best price they can get.

yields are relative. no two people will achieve the same results. too many variables in processes and equipment used. even the environment makes a difference.especially when you are talking about a beginner versus a veteran refiner.its better to underestimate yields and in that way your pleasantly surprised instead of the other way around.


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## Acid_Bath76 (Feb 26, 2012)

What a great looking BB! Great info on this thread. Thanks for sharing!


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## AztekShine (Feb 27, 2012)

JTroyner said:


> After much effort and studying of Hoke and the forum, my first attempt at refining is a success. Check out my fine looking .69g bb:
> 
> 
> 
> ...




What kind of torch and gas did you use to melt it? And which crucabel did you use?


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