Gold deplating cell

Gold Refining Forum

Help Support Gold Refining Forum:

This site may earn a commission from merchant affiliate links, including eBay, Amazon, and others.

Jimmyjuggles1

New member
Joined
Jan 3, 2016
Messages
1
Hello all. I have been working with a sulfur deplating cell.
Cell consists of 1 quart container with lead cathode and copper anode basket with a 3amp charger set to 12 volt. I have been working on deplating 3000g of military grade gold plug pins. My question is to find out if anyone has had a problem with their cell working in a very spotty way. By this i mean that some days i can get at least 3 or 4 runs in before the charger will quit charging my electrolyte and i have to stop for the day. Other days i cant even manage to get one run completed before it acts as though i have nothing in the cell at all. And almost always i have to pick through the pins because several are only partially deplated.
I have decanted my electrolyte thinking it may be too saturated but it makes no difference. Any opinions similar experiences would be greatly appreciated.
 
I must admit to been no exper on this cell but the one point I can answer is about the need for the pins to be exposed to the acid for depleting to occur, if some are covered they won't strip.
Give us a full break down of exactly what you have built and from what and how you work it perhaps an obvious answer will be forthcoming.
 
What type of charger do you have? 3 amps sounds a bit low and maybe you are driving it too hard. Does it have a thermal shutdown?

Göran
 
Jimmy,

Am I to assume you are doing this as a business based on the section you posted it in? No matter if you are, everyone is welcome here. You will find that the more facts you give about your process, like volume of acid, area of anode basket, quantity of pins you put in the basket, and temperature of the acid when it shuts down. More facts, better answers. Pictures help too.

Welcome to the forum.
 
I find heating is the problem that slows things up and creates a lot of black foam as you are using a small cell. Watts are amps times volts, 3 amps at 12 volts is a 36 watt electric heater in a small quart container, easily heating the electrolyte to where the is cathode is almost melted. I have your same basic arrangement in a round crockpot cell placed in a cutoff 5 gallon plastic bucket that I pack with ice.
 
The one real problem with the cell is to keep the sulphuric concentration high as the acid is very water hungry even taking water from the atmosphere so covering the cell after use is essential as is keeping the rinse water out of the cell, good connections are also advisable because the shorting heats the cell even faster.
 
Sounds like heat, the "jump charger", (I assume that's a battery charger), is over heating after 3 or 4 runs and shuts down for self protection.

Get a small plating rectifier made for the job, or at least a regulated DC power supply. You'll have better control over current and put the cell in cold ice water as Hank posted.
 
I have to learn to read posts better before replying. This guy made this one post and hasn't been back, almost a year now.
 
"Deplating cell using NH4Cl/HCl as electrolyte?"
I believe this is similar the chemistry that Shor uses in their "refining" cell.
As a deplating cell, everything would go into solution, including gold. So, not very efficient.
 
Actually the gold is not dissolved, it is recovered as slime. Tried it with vinegar and table salt and it works.
http://youtu.be/dMIXZyewSxQ
 
Owltech said:
Actually the gold is not dissolved, it is recovered as slime. Tried it with vinegar and table salt and it works.
http://youtu.be/dMIXZyewSxQ
That is not a gold deplating cell, it dissolves the base metals under the gold and the gold plate is floating away.

15 minutes... that was like watching paint dry.

Göran
 
AP is a slow recovery method yet many prefer it over quicker but not so safe methods.
Regarding the term "deplating" I think its still applicable since gold is being removed from a gold plated item.
15 min was the length of the video, which solely purpose was to show that removing gold plate from an object, using electrolyte different from sulphuric acid is possible. Faster stripping can be achieved with ease. I believe that the products of this methods are easier to work with (no dilution needed nor time for settling) hence faster overall gоld recovery process.
With the post I meant to propose an option, looking into it is up to you.
Cheers.

PS. Some people are able to learn a lot just by observing how paint dries.
 
Deplating is a well defined concept, removing the plating without damaging the surface below.

To say that your video shows deplating is just wrong. By muddying the definitions it makes it harder for people to learn and discuss. With your definition "the plating fell off" we could just as easy call dipping in aqua regia or melting as deplating, the plating isn't going to survive that either.

I would still describe your video as loosening the plating by attacking the base metal.

PS. I'm just warning people that the first 10 seconds of the video is the same as the rest of the 15 minutes. Not everyone would like to watch paint dry while waiting for some revelation.

Göran
 
Please correct me if I am wrong but I think you are failing to see the forest for the trees.
The goal of the process is to recover gold from a gold plated item with minimum health risks and costs. If this is not the goal, or the described method fails to achieve it, please do accept my apologies.

Oh and for the sake of it lets call it a gold stripping process :)
 
I'm seeing both the forest and the trees.

I'm not disagreeing with your goals, I like to get my gold as easy as possible too. :mrgreen:
I just think that we should have a clear terminology so we don't mislead people.

I'm far from sure but I think what you describe could be called a "break down cell".

A search on the forum gave me 288 posts with those words, many didn't concerned cells but I don't have time to go through everyone to see which matters.
http://goldrefiningforum.com/phpBB3/search.php?keywords=break+down+cell

In this post by Lou he is mentioning the name.
http://goldrefiningforum.com/phpBB3/viewtopic.php?f=43&t=21493&p=253816&hilit=break+down+cell#p253816

Göran
 
g_axelsson said:
I'm seeing both the forest and the trees.

I'm not disagreeing with your goals, I like to get my gold as easy as possible too. :mrgreen:
I just think that we should have a clear terminology so we don't mislead people.

I'm far from sure but I think what you describe could be called a "break down cell".

A search on the forum gave me 288 posts with those words, many didn't concerned cells but I don't have time to go through everyone to see which matters.
http://goldrefiningforum.com/phpBB3/search.php?keywords=break+down+cell

In this post by Lou he is mentioning the name.
http://goldrefiningforum.com/phpBB3/viewtopic.php?f=43&t=21493&p=253816&hilit=break+down+cell#p253816

Göran

Thanks Göran!
 
I would like to take this back to the first post.

Spotty stripping was the question, correct me if I am wrong.

One thing I don't remember being stated or addressed was the issue of electrical continuity.

Any kind of loose gold plated material will have spotty results, because some of the material will have good electrical contact (Gold removed),

some will have poor electrical contact ( gold partially removed),

and some may have no electrical contact at all (no gold removed).

Uniform and consistent electrical contact through all the material must be present. This is nearly impossible to achieve with loose material. Putting some form of pressure (weight) on top of the material would help.

The use of a concentrated solution is for good reason. In very simple terms, Oxidation only takes place on the surface, if it occurs fast enough it creates an oxidized barrier which stops further oxidation of the base metal in that area. Your current is doing the work of literally ripping the gold off and drawing it away from the point of oxidation.
Fluid discoloration is the small amount oxidized ( or dissolved ) base metal.
 
Back
Top