# old electrical service panel



## rewalston (Nov 7, 2013)

I have picked up an old service panel with the screw in fuses and I was wondering what all might have PMs in it. I will post pictures of everything that I've pulled from it later today. So far what I've checked (the bars) are non-magnetic but they are silver colored. I believe the base metal is copper from what I can see through the screw holes, but I'm not sure of anything else. I don't know how to look up data sheets on these things to check composition. Any help would be appreciated, especially once I get pics. Thanks guys (and gals).

Rusty


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## niteliteone (Nov 7, 2013)

In the mid 70's they used a lot of aluminum in place of copper in power systems, so a quick scrape with a knife will tell for sure which it is.


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## rewalston (Nov 7, 2013)

Here are the pics I took.


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## Anonymous (Nov 7, 2013)

Oooh surely some of that has antique value?


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## rewalston (Nov 7, 2013)

well I weeded it down to the buss bars, screw-in fuses, large fuses and the contacts from the main circuit breaker (had 4 nice contacts in it). Not sure yet if there is anything in the fuses. but everything else is copper (scored the bars definitely copper).

edited to add the following:

Just out of curiosity, I took some schwerter's solution and put it on one of the buss bars, the following picture tells the tale. The spot didn't change color at all but it took the coating off and left copper.


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## butcher (Nov 8, 2013)

I cannot tell from the picture, but it is most likely a very thin coating of silver on the copper (common in electrical equipment).
I doubt much antique value there, but some good buss bar copper to cement your silver or values out of a dirty solution.


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## rewalston (Nov 8, 2013)

butcher said:


> I cannot tell from the picture, but it is most likely a very thin coating of silver on the copper (common in electrical equipment).
> I doubt much antique value there, but some good buss bar copper to cement your silver or values out of a dirty solution.


 That's what I thought Butcher. The buss bars are the only thing, except for the 4 contacts that I'm keeping, everything else is going to scrap.

Rusty


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## Anonymous (Nov 8, 2013)

butcher said:


> I cannot tell from the picture, but it is most likely a very thin coating of silver on the copper (common in electrical equipment).
> I doubt much antique value there, but some good buss bar copper to cement your silver or values out of a dirty solution.



Hey give me a break Butcher- I wasn't referring to the bars mate :lol:


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## rewalston (Nov 12, 2013)

ok I have a question, I have the silver clad buss bars from this box and the contacts as well. Could I drop this all into my bucket of AP as well as some silver plated silverware that I have to dissolve the base metals and get the silver as a chloride? I know it's a long way around but I don't have access to nitric at the moment.

Rusty


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## bigjohn (Nov 12, 2013)

The silver you recover wouldn't cover your chemical cost. Some buss is tin plated and not silver. I'm a electrician who deals with high voltage and amperage everyday. Alot of stuff nowadays is tin plated to keep the cost down. I install tons of burndy 4/0 and 535 mcm lugs and always kept the rejects. I tested a few and sure as could be they were tin plated. I sell them off as #2 copper.







edited for spelling


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## rewalston (Nov 12, 2013)

bigjohn said:


> The silver you recover wouldn't cover your chemical cost. Some buss is tin plated and not silver. I'm a electrician who deals with high voltage and amperage everyday. Alot of stuff nowadays is tin plated to keep the cost down. I install tons of burndy 4/0 and 535 mcm lugs and always kept the rejects. I tested a few a sure as could be they were tin plated. I sell them off as #2 copper.


thanks Bigjohn, I did test the bars with schwertzer's solution and it dissolved the cladding. I figured I already have the AP bucket might as well use it...no additional costs involve.

Rusty


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## yar (Nov 13, 2013)

Rusty I had the same thought as you as far as using ap. I started with some silver plated pins that I pulled from some telephone equipt. I put 50 grams in ap last Monday. As of yesterday 90% of the plating has stripped off in the form of Ag flakes. Next I am going to try it using buss bars from 30 amp 277 volt breakers.
I am going to deeply score each side of the bar so the ap can hopefully etch the copper to the point where there will be nice sized Ag flakes. I also feel that the copper will not completely dissolve before the Ag is removed. So I should still have some large pieces of copper that are still sellable to a scrap yard. 
When they are stripped I am planning on washing the Ag flake in hot HCL to remove any remaining copper and then attempt to melt the flakes as i would with Au. 
When my experiments are completed I will post results.


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## rewalston (Nov 13, 2013)

Thanks Yar, that was my thinking but will have to see. 

Rusty


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