# Any Ideas on what this might be?



## Darkstein (Jan 6, 2015)

I pulled this stuff out of a bunch of test equipment and I'm not sure what it is. The whole box is 7lbs. One of the pieces (the longer one with the black plastic down the middle is 7 oz. When I put the 10k test acid on it there is a really slow reaction it just turns a little darker. The 14k test acid turns blue or green

One of the model #s is

HP Agilent 5182-1203 Gold Pin Switch 51821203


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## g_axelsson (Jan 6, 2015)

It's a bunch of gold plated microwave boxes. Probably aluminum or aluminum alloys.
Scratch the surface and put a drop of nitric acid on it. If you're lucky it will dissolve the nickel barrier and the gold foils will flow off without affecting the aluminum base. (Aluminum is inert in nitric acid.)

Some of the connectors will be made of brass and can't be processed that way, the base metal will react with the nitric acid.

But before doing any experiment or trying to extract the gold you need to read the introduction to the forum, about safety, about dealing with wastes and so on.
Then use the search to find articles about gold on aluminum and you will find a lot of information about the scrap you got.

By the way, that is not how test solutions are used.

Welcome to the forum!

Göran


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## Darkstein (Jan 6, 2015)

Would the aluminum be yellow all the way thru? I have done deep scratch tests, ground it down and cut it in half. Some of them are aluminum (they are incredibly light and silver in the middle) but some are gold colored all the way through.


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## necromancer (Jan 6, 2015)

you also may want to look up some of those parts, they can sell for much more then any gold value on them.


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## Darkstein (Jan 6, 2015)

I probably messed that up already. most of them are pretty beat up from being in that box.


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## g_axelsson (Jan 6, 2015)

If it's yellow and heavy then my guess would be gold plated brass.
And yeah, whatever value it might have had as components it's gone by now. A lot of those components are trimmed by adjusting screws, by opening the lid the trim is lost and the component is just scrap.

Göran


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## ssabovic (Jan 6, 2015)

THIS IS DEFINITLY BRASS , AND ALUMINUM GOLD PLATED MATERIAL , I SEE ON ONE PEACE BERYLIUM OXIDE CERAMICS (WHITE CERAMIOCS WHICH CAK BE DENGEROUS IF YOUY BREAK IT)FOR HEALTH . BRASS REACT ON NITRIC ACID BY BLUE/GREEN COLOR.


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## necromancer (Jan 6, 2015)

ssabovic said:


> THIS IS DEFINITLY BRASS , AND ALUMINUM GOLD PLATED MATERIAL , I SEE ON ONE PEACE BERYLIUM OXIDE CERAMICS (WHITE CERAMIOCS WHICH CAK BE DENGEROUS IF YOUY BREAK IT)FOR HEALTH . BRASS REACT ON NITRIC ACID BY BLUE/GREEN COLOR.




please do not type in all caps


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## ssabovic (Jan 6, 2015)

ok,thank you,
regards


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