# My first Buttons



## joekbit (Feb 25, 2015)

Well I got it done 8) Thanks to a lot of reading, and help from many members. 2 buttons total weight 5.9 grams. I discovered that it's very hard to get a good photo of gold. So far I have worked with very little material with solder. The second / small button, well that needed a second refine. It had a grey tone to it. I think was due to solder from a few small depopulated boards. My resolution was to flatten the button and break it up. I then did multiple HCL washes followed by water rinses. I then followed up with HNO3 to ensure all the copper was removed and preformed water rinses. At the end of it all AR was used producing the most golden solution I have ever seen. I knew then that I had it clean. The drop with SMB took about 20 min and the solution was as clear as water.


----------



## FrugalRefiner (Feb 25, 2015)

joekbit said:


> Well I got it done 8) Thanks to a lot of reading, and help from many members. 2 buttons total weight 5.9 grams. I discovered that it's very hard to get a good photo of gold. So far I have worked with very little material with solder. The second / small button, well that needed a second refine. It had a grey tone to it. I think was due to solder from a few small depopulated boards. My resolution was to flatten the button and break it up. I then did multiple HCL washes followed by water rinses. I then followed up with HNO3 to ensure all the copper was removed and preformed water rinses. At the end of it all AR was used producing the most golden solution I have ever seen. I knew then that I had it clean. The drop with SMB took about 20 min and the solution was as clear as water.


Remember, it's always good practice to incinerate when you're switching from HCl to HNO3, or vice versa. The HCl can form insoluble metal chlorides which will not be rinsed away. When you add HNO3, a tiny amount of aqua regia can be created, which can dissolve a tiny amount of your gold. 

Dave


----------



## shmandi (Feb 25, 2015)

Congratulations!
It is always good information where the gold came from.


----------



## MarcoP (Feb 25, 2015)

It's probably the picture but the biggest button's surface doesn't seems to be smooth as others buttons I've seen. For your first it is still a great job, congrats!

Instead of nitric, would pickling the powder with dilute sulfuric do a good job in removing the cooper...and possibly avoid incineration? I'm looking at those small plastic-portable-battery sonicators used for dentures and jewellery just for this job, 10% sulfuric pickling, always if you guys thinks it will work.


----------



## Smack (Feb 25, 2015)

It's like one of those bad U.F.O. pictures, keep hitting the sharpen button :x


----------



## Long Shot (Feb 25, 2015)

I have two phones, one from work (iPhone) and an Android (personal). I need to take lots of close up pictures and the Android does sooo much better than the iPhone. Regardless, good job Joekbit, I am yet to make it to this level, need some warm weather so I can work outside again.


----------



## joekbit (Feb 26, 2015)

Where did the gold come from? Ok, the large button. Cell phones, Glucose test machines, / some odds and ends so to speak, 10 pounds of etching test plates, 6 satellite boards. All in all the large button came from a mixture of material processed over a long time. Oh 200 AMD socket cpu pins, = 186 grams of pins. So it was a lot of material.

The second button came from 1 pound of ram fingers and a small amount of mud I had from reverse electro plating. The small button is 1.88 grams. Another thing I have put into practice is keeping my solutions separate. I have jugs for each type of used solution, AR, AP, H2SO4, and HNO3. Before I was placing all my used solutions in one jug, (stupid move).

I built a home made forge but it's not getting hot enough to melt the gold. So now I just fire it up as a base heater and use my hand held bowl with tongs which I set over the top of the forge opening then use the cheap propane torch to top heat the powder. I think the 4.02 gram button pressed it to its max ( the rough look). It just can't sustain enough heat for any more volume. 

I believe in my own heart that I lost gold by mixing spent solutions. So we live and learn as the saying goes. The knowledge attained is far more valuable than the gold, and will help me to do better in the future. Oh and the CPUs' I still have them. 

I'm confident in the processes, but each process requires it's own system. So that's where I am now, trying to develop the best system relative to the process being used. 

Thanks again to all those who knowingly and un knowingly helped.

(Added)

Well I used my jewelers test kit, its about 1 month old, 22k passed with flying colors. Even after several hours of sitting there was no change. So I think its safe to say the buttons are between 22 and 24k.


----------

