# From Keyboard Mylars To Relatively .999 Fine Silver



## Anonymous (Jan 3, 2013)

Hello members!!!! I did it. I did my first full refining. It's silver, but it's as pure as I can get it and it looks good too (besides the pour I did outside in 27F degree temp).

I want to first thank *Noxx* for having such a unique and awesome forum. I also want to thank especially.....

*my wife*
*GoldSilverPro
butcher
Geo
samuel-a
Smack
joem
Harold_V
lazersteve
Lou
Oz
patnor1011
4metals
philddreamer
glondor
kadriver
myself*
...and many more of you that I haven't mentioned. I haven't forgotten you at all.

This is a partial refine from 1 lb of keyboard mylars. I haven't rinsed and washed the other portion from this batch yet, but I'll be doing it tonight.

So far, I refined 5.8 grams of silver, and I have more in my other beaker from the same 1 lb batch. I did notice that some of the silver did get through the filter and I saved the rinse solution, which means I will have to let that pile up and dry it out. I can easily see around 3 grams or so already from my wash/rinse water.

I expect to get somewhere around 12 - 15 grams of silver per lb of mylars when it's all said and done. Again, this is my first batch and I have over 50 more lbs to process. I'll post my final yield from this 1 lb batch once I complete it.

Thanks again to all of you. Much Love!

Kevin
















[*UPDATE/Addition*]

I just had to add *etack*. I've been following you too on this forum.

*[edit]*
From the advise of a member, I had to move my wife from the bottom of the list to the top of the list above.  (thanks *scrapman1077*)


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## etack (Jan 3, 2013)

Nice test. good job.

Eric


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## philddreamer (Jan 3, 2013)

Very good Kevin!
Phil


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## jmdlcar (Jan 3, 2013)

Nice job hope to do it someday. I only have 1/2 lb of mylar so far I been saving keyboard for 3 month now.

Jack


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## silversaddle1 (Jan 3, 2013)

Holy cow! I have about 130 pounds of mylars!!!! I guess it's time to learn the process.


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## tek4g63 (Jan 3, 2013)

That is great work! Hopefully I will be working with some silver soon myself. Can't wait to see all of your silver after you get the 50lbs finished.


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## glondor (Jan 3, 2013)

Excellent job! Your silver looks great!


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## Anonymous (Jan 3, 2013)

silversaddle1 said:


> Holy cow! I have about 130 pounds of mylars!!!! I guess it's time to learn the process.


From what I've been learning, you have approximately $960.70 in silver in those mylars. This isn't exact science, even for me, but that's what I would expect no more than at today's spot price... and considering *IF* you'll actually get 15 grams of silver from 1 lb of mylars. All mylars aren't created equally.



tek4g63 said:


> That is great work! Hopefully I will be working with some silver soon myself. Can't wait to see all of your silver after you get the 50lbs finished.


At today's spot price, I have around $770 in silver to recover. Somewhere around 25 ozt of silver.



jmdlcar1 said:


> Nice job hope to do it someday. I only have 1/2 lb of mylar so far I been saving keyboard for 3 month now.


From what I've done so far?.... you need waaayyyy more than 1/2 lb to make it even worth it to do, if you're looking for a profit. Remember, at today's spot price, even if you actually get 15 grams of silver from 1 lb, you would need 2 lbs of mylars to get 1 ounce of silver. What I showed is only around $5 and some change. That's nothing, but it's everything, because it's a precious metal.

Don't forget about the chemicals and the time involved. Actually, now I know how to safely do it, depending on how many lbs you have, you can dissolve, wash, rinse and dry the powder in one day. I let mine air dry naturally.

My next goal is to do the gold. I have plenty of lbs worth gold connector pins. Not hard drive or motherboard pins, but connector pins. Once I get that down packed, I'll have a better and a more basic understanding of refining, more than what I know as of now.

Kevin


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## jmdlcar (Jan 3, 2013)

testerman said:


> silversaddle1 said:
> 
> 
> > Holy cow! I have about 130 pounds of mylars!!!! I guess it's time to learn the process.
> ...


I know 1/2 pound is not enough but by this summer I hope to get 2 pounds and hope for more.

Jack


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## Anonymous (Jan 3, 2013)

jmdlcar said:


> I know 1/2 pound is not enough but by this summer I hope to get 2 pounds and hope for more.
> 
> Jack


I should have mentioned to you Jack that if you're wanting to at least learn the process of refining keyboard mylars, you have have more than enough to start with. I only did half of a lb so far. It took me few days due to my lack of understanding and the respect for the acids. So I put it on hold until I felt I wasn't going to check out immediately.

If I were you, especially if the weather is right, I'd go ahead and process those 1/2 lbs of mylars. Believe me, it's worth it for that experience.

*** Don't do it inside at all if you don't have a fume hood. I don't even trust "*Good Ventilation*" Either a fume hood, or do it outside. (Thanks *Smack*)

*** Wash the mylars in warm water with Dawn dish washing liquid and rinse them, then make sure to dry them good before putting them in any acid solution(s). (Thanks *Geo*).

*** Rinsing and washing should be done with "Distilled Water", even though tap water will work. But the problem with tap water is the chlorine, and then adding copper to the solution. It will give off an odor of either and (or) chlorine, which could be deadly in a confined area.
*
** Rinse the solution(s) after adding copper with "*HOT - Distilled*" water. You have the main solution and you have the rinse solution. You *CAN* combine both solutions to make just one solution, but you must filter, especially if you don't wash the mylars first.

What I learned so far I know this much.....

*1.* Sort the mylars by color. Some mylars have black markings. Some have beige markings, and some have almost white markings.

*2.* From that sort, sort the mylars by the type. What I mean is match mylars that are *EXACTLY* alike. Put them together. From what I have read, mylars that are black are basically "carbon", and won't react with the "nitric acid". I'm no expert on any of what I'm telling right now, but the experience has given me some comfort in doing what I'm doing.

*3.* Keep your solution(s) and rinse solution(s). They *WILL* contain silver. Process them later when you have more to add to it.

*4.* *DO NOT RUSH THIS!*..... It's a process and it's meant to teach you things about refining you don't know. *DO NOT* let money be the main factor. Actually, at this stage if you haven't done it at all, don't let money be even in the equation. Don't do it!


Once you feel confident enough to give it a try and have studied all you need to know to give it a try........ give it a try.

Be safe and respect *EVER*Y chemical you'll ever come into contact with. One mistake can cost you and others. I felt that scare just about 1 week now. 


Kevin


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## jmdlcar (Jan 4, 2013)

testerman said:


> jmdlcar said:
> 
> 
> > I know 1/2 pound is not enough but by this summer I hope to get 2 pounds and hope for more.
> ...


I'm going to wait tell spring or tell it gets warmer. I will have to buy my Nitric Acid first. I want to thank you for all your help and I know when I start you and other will help me to.

Jack


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## Geo (Jan 4, 2013)

hey Kevin, im glad to see it worked out for you. that is some very clean looking silver. if that amount came from your rinse water, you may have underestimated the total weight a tad. from the pictures, it sure looks like more than double from your solution than from the rinse.i hope its way more than you think it is, although its always best to underestimate weight instead of overestimate.


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## Anonymous (Jan 4, 2013)

Geo said:


> hey Kevin, im glad to see it worked out for you. that is some very clean looking silver. if that amount came from your rinse water, you may have underestimated the total weight a tad. from the pictures, it sure looks like more than double from your solution than from the rinse.i hope its way more than you think it is, although its always best to underestimate weight instead of overestimate.


I think I may have to recalibrate my scale, and check my battery on that one too. I have (3) gram scales, but I don't use them all, all the time. It might be that time.

I thank you again *Geo.* 

Kevin


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## scrapman1077 (Jan 4, 2013)

Kevin, I would put the wife on top of the thanks list


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## Anonymous (Jan 4, 2013)

scrapman1077 said:


> Kevin, I would put the wife on top of the thanks list


Yeah... good point.

Kevin


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## Anonymous (Jan 10, 2013)

Geo said:


> hey Kevin, im glad to see it worked out for you. that is some very clean looking silver. if that amount came from your rinse water, you may have underestimated the total weight a tad. from the pictures, it sure looks like more than double from your solution than from the rinse.i hope its way more than you think it is, although its always best to underestimate weight instead of overestimate.


I rinsed and dried out my main solution batch. I haven't melted it just yet, but it weighs in at "unbelieably", 5.8 grams. Exactly from my other batch. My scales have been calibrated too. I have some silver residue at the bottom of my solutions and I will need to process them.

Oh, and I didn't mention this before... some of the mylars had the rubber outlines still stuck to them from the ones with the rubber buttons on them. I didn't process them at all yet. They're still in the drawer outside. That's another reason I don't have at least 15 grams, yet, I know why, and I do have silver residue at the bottom of my rinse jars.

I say on this batch, especially once I melt it all together, and get the other silver beads off my crucible, I'll be definitely 12+ grams, upto about 15 grams.

I'll post a photo once I melt what I have just processed and add my 5.8 batch to it and melt them together. I'm confident I'll have at least 13 grams. And I still have beakers with obvious silver residue sitting on the bottom of them. I even seen some of my silver filter through my filtration, and actually start turning the rinse water colors, by adding grey to it. That's the silver.

I'll post photos tomorrow. Love you family!

Kevin


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## butcher (Jan 20, 2013)

Nice job, where else could you have this much fun, studying the chemistry of metals.


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## Anonymous (Jan 20, 2013)

Geo said:


> hey Kevin, im glad to see it worked out for you. that is some very clean looking silver. if that amount came from your rinse water, you may have underestimated the total weight a tad. from the pictures, it sure looks like more than double from your solution than from the rinse.i hope its way more than you think it is, although its always best to underestimate weight instead of overestimate.


I forgot to update you all on this batch. I finally got around to dealing with my waste solution and surely enough, another 3+ grams of silver came out. 

So, for what I've processed so far, I calculate I have 14.6 grams of silver. And guess what?. I still have one more beaker that I put on hold to work on the sulfuric cell that still has my main solution that had been dropped with copper. I'm going to filter that beaker today so I can dispose of the spent solution.

And don't forget about the keyboard mylars I told you about that was part of the 1lb batch I didn't process because of the rubber outlines on them. Those were equal to a few grams, at least. So, I can say from my experience so far, on *average*, a person can expect around 15 grams of silver from 1 lb of mylars.


*(Thanks to all that told me how to safely suspend the solution for safe disposal).*




butcher said:


> Nice job, where else could you have this much fun, studying the chemistry of metals.


In my opinion, there's not a single place online where anyone can learn this much about chemistry of metals, and then process them too. This is one forum that I'll never try to find another to learn what I've learned here. I don't want to be getting conflicting information.

Kevin


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