# 1108.8 grams of silver contacts



## Jimmi (Aug 14, 2012)

I just got done melting and flaking out all these silver contacts. 1108.8 grams in total. They were melted and then poured into a stainless steel vessel 18 inches deep full of cold water I will digest them and nitric acid this evening and then begin cementing them back out tomorrow.
I think this time I will just post pictures of this batch from start to finish. Well other than the initial melt I hadn't thought of taking any photos that.


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## Jimmi (Aug 14, 2012)

For some reason it didn't upload with the original message.


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## jeneje (Aug 15, 2012)

Nice!
Ken


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## Geo (Aug 15, 2012)

just an observation, you really didnt need to melt the contacts before the dissolution. as a matter of fact, if they contained any Cadmium you may have exposed yourself to this highly toxic heavy metal. for future reference, keeping the contacts whole (except for sweating them off of the base) is the safest way to process them.


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## Jimmi (Aug 15, 2012)

Yes thank you Geo Im aware of cadmium issue. And doing things and safely as possible is important to me. That said, some of the material had previously been melted together. So I wanted it to be much thinner to decrease the time needed to dissolve.


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## Jimmi (Aug 16, 2012)

The first edition of nitric acid inside of the fume hood.


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## Jimmi (Aug 17, 2012)

After several additions of nitric acid there is still a little bit left. so I have added another 50 millimeters with heat.


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## Jimmi (Aug 17, 2012)

All but a few small pebbles of the initial lot of silver has been digested. Now I have added in tungsten silver contacts that need to have the silver removed from them as well.


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## Jimmi (Aug 17, 2012)

The solutions were filtered and combined. Here is the beg from the combine solutionsinning of the cementation of the silver


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## Smack (Aug 17, 2012)

I would run those tungsten contacts some more, I bet you get more out of them.


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## Jimmi (Aug 17, 2012)

I agree Smack. They are still currently digesting. I will just cement out the rest of the silver from their solution after they are completed.
Here is another picture of some of the silver cemented out on copper busbar.


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## Jimmi (Aug 18, 2012)

Now there's a hole in my buss bar...


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## etack (Aug 21, 2012)

Just an FYI I put a buss bar in some silver a few days ago and the bottom fell out of the beaker. Last time for that I now have a 1gal. bucket for cementing. I think it is palladium that says not to waste lab glass on cementing Harold too I think he used plastic for it also. It's just too expensive to use glass. I do like your 2000ml beaker I need to get some like that.

Eric


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## Jimmi (Aug 22, 2012)

The cementing was actually done in a 4000 ml beaker. I just did the dissolution in the 2 litre beaker. I can see your point about breaking beakers though. I am however really gentle about how I set it in.
I'm currently washing all of the cemented silver. I should be melting and casting more anodes this evening. I will post more pictures later on. 
Hope everyone out there is having a great day!


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## Jimmi (Sep 4, 2012)

A couple of my anode plugs with flux still on them.


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## Jimmi (Sep 4, 2012)

Some of the big crystals already coming out of the cell. most of them are single hard crystals that look like spear points.


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## Jimmi (Sep 4, 2012)

Same crystals with a ruler for scale.


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## Jimmi (Oct 2, 2012)

So I just finally got around to melting all the silver crystals from the cell for this batch. ( i was in West Virginia and Ohio on business ) The big 1 weighed in at 10.011 Troy ounces. all the others ( save one ) were well over a troy ounce. The remainder of the weight of crystals will be used for a nother electrolyte. And I also saved all the big crystals! 8) I give them to my 3 year old who is almost four now. He says they're his treasure. :mrgreen:


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## Jimmi (Oct 2, 2012)

My personal new favorite bar... what do you think? I personally love the large crystal patterns.


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## Palladium (Oct 2, 2012)

Very well done Jimmi! The crystal pattern speaks of the bar's purity.


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## its-all-a-lie (Oct 2, 2012)

Jimmi said:


> I give them to my 3 year old who is almost four now. He says they're his treasure. :mrgreen:



I cant think of a better treasure than silver or gold! If i remember right that crystal formation means it is .9999+, looks great to say the least.


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## tek4g63 (Nov 14, 2012)

Great post! Thank you for sharing.

Sorry if I mussed this in the topic but, about what was the total starting weight of the silver in this batch, and what was the total refined weight? I know that you did a couple of different batches and combined them, just didn't see the weight for both of them together. I ask because I'm collecting silver contacts right now and I really don't want to try making my first silver cell until I can run a batch about as big as you have just done.

I'm also playing with making my own graphite moulds. And I'm going to make one that looks like a doubloon to make a few for my 3 year old son. He is always trying to steal my gold and call it treasure, like your son, but I don't recover enough gold to let him run off with it :lol: 

Thank you again for your post!
Thad


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## Jimmi (Nov 17, 2012)

Thad, I'm not sure anymore what the weight of the tungsten silver contacts was. And I don't remember the total weight of the refined silver crystals because I melted some of them and used the rest from a new electrolyte.
I like the idea of making the boy a round mold.I'm giving my son one of the small bars for he birthday on Wednesday. 
T
Remember you could just make a smaller cell and start that way. I started with a 400 ml beaker. And took the Crystals from that to make a larger volume of silver nitrate. 
Good luck with the molds.


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