# gold plated iron pins



## andees78 (Aug 22, 2010)

hello
why cant i process the iron base pins with the rest of the pins?

thanks


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## Barren Realms 007 (Aug 22, 2010)

You solution will disolve the copper, it will also dissolve the iron. When you run both in the same solution your copper disolves and then it is cemented out of solution onto the iron ans has to be redisolved again. It makes it harder to keep your solution under control to where it will dissolve the metals. Run your copper stuff nd then run your iron afterwards in the same solution.


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## andees78 (Aug 22, 2010)

thankyou br. that makes sense at last.

excuse my questions but i really want to learn. 
the other, non magnetic, pins i have white in colour , i mean under the plating, what material are they? note:all my harvest is from motherboards, cards, ribbons and connecting cables.


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## Barren Realms 007 (Aug 22, 2010)

They are actually not white that is just the color of material that is cementing onto your pins. your gold is still plated under the white percipitate. Have paitence.


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## andees78 (Aug 22, 2010)

sorry br. but i meant that i can see the gold plating but when i see the section it is not copper colour? 
and your answer brought another question. :mrgreen: are there pins with gold under the external plating. please if you have photos of some examples. cause i already threw some.


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## Barren Realms 007 (Aug 22, 2010)

Gold should be the final layer that you see. There is no benifit to plating something with gold and then plating over the top of that. Gold is used because it will withstand the wear and tear of abuse nd will not corode, so there is no reason for a layer of other material on top of it.


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## andees78 (Aug 23, 2010)

hello br
thanks for answering. and what base metal is the square pins like the ones on the cd-rom , floppy drive, or hard drive? when i cut them the base is a white colour metal. please bear my questions?


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## Barren Realms 007 (Aug 23, 2010)

andees78 said:


> hello br
> thanks for answering. and what base metal is the square pins like the ones on the cd-rom , floppy drive, or hard drive? when i cut them the base is a white colour metal. please bear my questions?



Generaly they are steel or copper.


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## dtectr (Aug 23, 2010)

Barren Realms 007 said:


> andees78 said:
> 
> 
> > hello br
> ...


 I keep some hard drive magnets around to test them.


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## andees78 (Aug 23, 2010)

thanks br and detktr


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## qst42know (Aug 23, 2010)

Many of the square pins are yellow brass.


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## Claudie (Aug 23, 2010)

So we should separate any magnetic pins from the non magnetic ones before dissolving anything?


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## dtectr (Aug 23, 2010)

BR 007 reccomended it to me, and i wish I would have asked for advice before I did. Its easier to prevent a mess than to clean it up.


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## Claudie (Aug 23, 2010)

Thanks


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## Claudie (Aug 25, 2010)

I have some strong magnetic pins that I have separated into a different pile. Most all of my other pins are "slightly" magnetic. I am assuming that these are Copper pins, with Nickel & Gold plating. Is it the Nickel in the pins that is causing them to be slightly magnetic? I am using a Neodymium magnet from a scrapped hard drive. I am planning on using the AP method on these pins. If someone sees me doing something stupid, please stop me.


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## glorycloud (Aug 25, 2010)

Some folks prefer using HCL in a crock pot for pins. Some prefer an electrolytic cell. Some use nitric acid. HCL in a crockpot purchased from
Goodwill has worked for me and I have used nitric as well.
I'm not brave enough to do the the cell method. 8) 

Good luck and let us know which way you choose.


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## Claudie (Aug 31, 2010)

I chose the AP method but will probably go with the crock pot from now on. I can feel myself getting older waiting on these pins in the AP.


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## lazersteve (Sep 1, 2010)

AP is not the best choice for high iron content scrap. HCl in the crockpot or hot dilute sulfuric acid are a much better choice depending on the alloy of the iron.

Steve


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## Oz (Sep 1, 2010)

I know this may muddy the thread for some but it is worth saying. Although this type of pin is not “high grade” in my opinion, a concentrated sulfuric cell is an option. 

Feedback Steve?


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## lazersteve (Sep 1, 2010)

Oz said:


> I know this may muddy the thread for some but it is worth saying. Although this type of pin is not “high grade” in my opinion, a concentrated sulfuric cell is an option.
> 
> Feedback Steve?



Oz,

The cell will also work, but there are some complexities to setting up the sulfuric cell properly to handle cpus. Chris (GSP) has run lots of cpus in the cell using a brass (?) rack design and reports good success. Some other members have used the smaller cell design to run cpus one at a time and have reported difficulties getting the gold to stip from all of the legs as they are not all electrically connected. 

I have considered designing a screen type of anode rack along the lines of what Chris has discusses in previous threads. I have yet to get around to getting the idea off of paper at this point.

Thanks for pointing this out Oz.

Steve


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