# getting started on my Christmas fund



## Geo (Dec 4, 2012)

well, its time for me to start work on my Christmas fund for the year. ive saved this stuff back from some of my stuff ive processed this year. you would be surprised how much stuff you can collect from a piece here and there. this is not near all of my surplus but it is what i have set aside to buy gifts and spread joy with this year. not pictured is about 6 pounds of fingers and 10 pounds of misc. pins that is in 25 gallons of copper chloride right now.the boy wants a mountain bike and the rest of my gaggle of kids want money (dont we all) the twins needs everything and my baby needs a new pair of shoes (you know how it goes). hopefully santa will bring me a new gold nugget but i doubt it so ill just have to make one myself.












i hope everyone gets a big shiny nugget this year.


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## glondor (Dec 4, 2012)

Good luck with it! Do let us know the outcome. Can't wait to see the button!


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## Palladium (Dec 4, 2012)

Looking good Geo. Funny you should mention the Christmas fund. I was talking to my brother the other day about where i could generate some extra cash for Christmas. I haven't run my stock pot or filter residues yet and i have been doing this for about 1 1/2 years full time now. That's going to be a whole new learning experience for me and hopefully a nice one at that. It's ashamed because if i hope for high numbers from those materials then i guess that tells me i haven't been doing my job properly, but then again in the refining world i think the proper quote is " The house is the best customer " :mrgreen: 

I also accumulate a lot of other materials from lots that come in to be refined. I call it rejects. They can add up faster than you think. Wait till you see the ebay auction i'm going to have. I tell them and tell them what the rules are and they still send me screwed up materials i don't run, the house keeps it. I have to do it that way or with the number of lots i run i would never get ahead to make money. I don't clean materials of heat sinks or crazy things like that. I'm a refiner, not a materials processor. People are already trained that way in other market segments not to bring trashy recyclables in or you will get penalized. My customers except it really without objection. I cater to my customers, but only in certain areas. I make my customers feel that it's as much an honor to do business with me as i do with them. You get crazy with me and i will drop you quick. I find when i set them standards my profit margins went up and my problems went way down. It's just smart business. 

I got one guy though that don't seem to mind. To tell you the truth neither do i. About once a month i get a package of gold filled watch cases from him. Mainly wrist watches. Sometimes pocket watches make up about 30%. He never takes the movement out of about half the cases. Takes me a little while to go through and clean them, but i figure for the movements it's worth it. I've got a box over here just full of them. I have another client who repairs watches and sends me his gold filled. Bet you can't guess what i trade them free watch movements for? I have another client i trade them small diamonds to that comes out in the filter residues. Got to learn to maximize your revenue streams. One mans trash is another mans treasure. Some of them watches are so old that it brakes your heart to see them go into a beaker. Yes sir! I'm going to hell for the history i have destroyed. Just imagine the stories behind the gold. Now here it is at my hands reborn again to make it's way through history repeatedly. After all this all started in the heart of a dying star. From it sprang new life. Where's that gold going to be in another 100 years?

Hummmm...... I need to get started.


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## nickvc (Dec 4, 2012)

It's amazing how the bits and pieces add up especially if your busy. Your stockpot should be an interesting project but remember that if your busy it's an accumulation of many hundreds of jobs and processes and even 0.1 gram from each will mount up rapidly and that much is easy to miss from each.
Sorting the scrap materials and wastes for your own benefit is what makes the difference between making a living and making a good living and where customers can't be bothered, it's not your job to do so unless they are willing to pay for the privilege, your getting paid by profiting from the effort and I see no wrong in that.


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## Geo (Dec 8, 2012)

ive incinerated about half of the chips and all the VGA chips. heres a couple of pictures of some of the bonding wires. my gold pans are in storage so im stuck with a kitchen bowl. i washed about half the gold out trying to wash it down so i could get a good shot of the wires.


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## kronix (Dec 8, 2012)

Nice!!!


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## Geo (Dec 8, 2012)

heres a better look. [youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SWTVb56d9i0&feature=plcp[/youtube]


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## AndyWilliams (Dec 9, 2012)

Geo said:


> heres a better look. [youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SWTVb56d9i0&feature=plcp[/youtube]



Great video Geo! So how much weight do you think there is so far?


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## Geo (Dec 9, 2012)

theres too much trash in it to guess a weight. i dissolved what was in the catch pan and bowl today and dropped it tonight. ill let it settle due to the fine ash overnight. theres still another two pounds incinerated but not crushed and another 3-4 pounds of the big ones on the boards (about an hours worth of work) to remove. the ten pounds of mixed pins are about completely dissolved in the AP barrel. perhaps a half pound to go.ill try to get some nice pictures of the foils.i still have the ceramic processors to do. i wanted to do a contest.i still have enough material but the only thing i have for a prize is a couple of mint $20 double eagle replicas clad in 24K. not sure it would make it interesting enough.


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## Barren Realms 007 (Dec 9, 2012)

Try and find you a strainer that will let the gold go thru but retain the silicone chips.


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## Geo (Dec 11, 2012)

this is the prettiest of the foils from the pins i mentioned. it looks like all the base metal has been dissolved.

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q4T1V77zz7M&feature=plcp[/youtube]


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## Geo (Dec 27, 2012)

well, i only completed 2/3 of what i had planned due to bad weather and family illness. here is the refined gold and the bar from it. theres still some borax on the top but the purity seems to be good.


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## jmdlcar (Dec 27, 2012)

Geo,

That a nice gold button. Some day I would like to have one that big.

Jack


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## Geo (Dec 28, 2012)

just keep at it Jack. you will eventually make something happen.


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## damezbullion (Jan 12, 2013)

dont mean to act dumb but by what do you mean incinerate? ( burn )?


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## necromancer (Jan 12, 2013)

damezbullion said:


> dont mean to act dumb but by what do you mean incinerate? ( burn )?




yes (incinerate = burn)

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Incinerate


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## damezbullion (Jan 12, 2013)

necromancer said:


> damezbullion said:
> 
> 
> > dont mean to act dumb but by what do you mean incinerate? ( burn )?
> ...



thank you so much for the wiki link, i know what it ment literally but maybe it ment something different in gold refining terms ( live and live for example ) 2 meanings. after all incinerating your gold doesn't sound to good to me so i had to ask.
so the material was incinerated and what was burnt? the chips (ceramic) i take it gold just melted and dropped to the bottom?


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## Geo (Jan 12, 2013)

incinerating serves several purposes.when moving from one process to another (hcl to nitric or nitric to hcl) the material needs to be incinerated to remove all the acid residue.you cant remove acid by rinsing.accidently mixing these two acids by cross contamination will cause you to lose values.

incinerating reduces the volume of solid waste to a more manageable size.

incinerating removes carbon and other organics.

incinerating liberates metallic components from entrapping materials.

incinerating helps convert sulfides to sulfates making it easier to be removed from your material.


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## butcher (Jan 12, 2013)

I was typing and Geo beat me to the answer, I do not know if mine is any different from his but I will post anyway.
Incineration is not hot enough to melt most metals, although it can volatilize some really reactive metals,(or some of the metals in certain salts like gold chloride, or silver chloride), or melt some metals with very low melting points, it will burn off organics, oils, plastics, human remains tissue fingernails, hair, bugs, leaves, trash, and Geo's peanut butter sandwich..., it will also drive off acids, not really what happens but is best way so far we can think of to describe it, (example heating copper chloride to drive off chloride {the acid that formed the copper salt} forming copper oxide powders), incineration will not melt ceramics, the incineration is normally done at around 800 degrees (temperature is not important as long as it is hot enough, and will not melt the metal, incinerated until the metal powders glow red hot, the powders are kept crushed, stirred and exposed to plenty of air, or oxygen is introduced to help oxidize base metals, and finish burning off organics.


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## Geo (Jan 13, 2013)

butcher said:


> and Geo's peanut butter sandwich...,



i do likes my peanut butter.at least i dont brush the crumbs off in my gold.  :lol:


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## damezbullion (Jan 13, 2013)

of course thanks you guys, i suppose if gold melts around 2000 so the incinerator would burn everying else i,e organic material sulphates and basically anything that would incinerate under the gold melting point , i dont think ill be able to use this process yet, iv not an incinerator or any material to build one, so i guess it off to you tube to find out.
thanks


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## g_axelsson (Jan 13, 2013)

damezbullion said:


> I dont think ill be able to use this process yet, iv not an incinerator or any material to build one, so i guess it off to you tube to find out.
> thanks


You don't need expensive equipment or large machines if you are just running small batches. And why searching on youtube when you already found the forum. The information here is so much more reliable than anything found on youtube.
Here is a starter, Harolds posting on incineration.
http://www.goldrefiningforum.com/phpBB3/viewtopic.php?f=38&t=1997&p=16764&hilit=incineration#p16764

Göran


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## damezbullion (Jan 14, 2013)

g_axelsson said:


> damezbullion said:
> 
> 
> > I dont think ill be able to use this process yet, iv not an incinerator or any material to build one, so i guess it off to you tube to find out.
> ...


 im a nightmare im just getting used to my surrounding, like, im a google man so much i dont even know what yahoo is or even attempt to use it, why fix what isnt broken, ill get used to the change soon... and the search bar lol i am going to attempt this on my last cycle of cpu ( ceramics ) i will crush them along with the flatbacks off the ram sticks and (ar) the lot


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## g_axelsson (Jan 14, 2013)

damezbullion said:


> im a nightmare im just getting used to my surrounding, like, im a google man so much i dont even know what yahoo is or even attempt to use it, why fix what isnt broken, ill get used to the change soon... and the search bar lol i am going to attempt this on my last cycle of cpu ( ceramics ) i will crush them along with the flatbacks off the ram sticks and (ar) the lot


If you are a google man, try this tips when searching : https://www.google.se/search?q=site%3Agoldrefiningforum.com+incineration+chip Notice the site:goldrefiningforum.com

Göran


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## damezbullion (Jan 15, 2013)

g_axelsson said:


> damezbullion said:
> 
> 
> > im a nightmare im just getting used to my surrounding, like, im a google man so much i dont even know what yahoo is or even attempt to use it, why fix what isnt broken, ill get used to the change soon... and the search bar lol i am going to attempt this on my last cycle of cpu ( ceramics ) i will crush them along with the flatbacks off the ram sticks and (ar) the lot
> ...


thanks man, thats a bit better the search engine on here dont quite pin point what im looking for, or im just used to it


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## chambersjr (Feb 9, 2014)

Hey Geo,
Big fan of your contributions here. I've also learned a lot from your YouTube video. As you stated, the button it's beautiful & appears to be of high quality. 

My question is on the recovered weight...did that weight include 2/3 of the material pictured as well as the 10lbs of pins you mentioned? I estimated somewhere between 25g-1toz from the items you pictured & pins. By that logic 2/3 would be in the 16-22g range. Of course if you're counting all of the weight together, what 2/3 you processed would play a role as 1/3 of the items pictures prob have 70% of the gold value by my estimation.


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## Geo (Feb 9, 2014)

this got broken up over several parts. the 10g bar in the photo came from the incinerated flatpack chips, the same part as the bonding wires in the red bowl. the processors were were a different part of the same batch. i didnt show each part as i finished it and i do apologize about that but sometimes things happen and i dont get the chance to take pictures or just plain forget to, i am getting on in years. :lol: all together, it was well over an ounce. i really dont put as much work into collecting material as i should i suppose but i just let things gather until i get enough to make the refine worth it. it takes about as much time and effort to refine a few grams as it does to refine an ounce at a time.


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## bmgold2 (Feb 9, 2014)

Geo, Your pictures answered a question I never even asked. I wondered if the weight of the refined, precipitated and dried gold powder was the same as the weight of the melted gold you will get from it. Looks like it is pretty close. Maybe a little stuck in the melting dish or a slight lose somewhere along the way but close enough for an estimate.


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