chemicals to buy

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kobus

Member
Joined
Oct 8, 2012
Messages
12
Hi guys
I am going to buy my chemicals next week i just want to make sure i get every thing i need (only gold refining for now still learning other processese of other metals)
so here is my list for now.please tel me if i am missing chemicals :arrow:

hcl 30%
nitric acid 70%
sulfuric acid ?%
hydrogen peroxide ?%
distilled water
bleach
urea

thanx...
 
kobus
That would be a good beginning for chemicals, my list could fill two pages, but is best to wait until you are sure what you will need, and what and where to get them, depending on what process you will be using, some of the chemicals I use I make from the other chemicals I have on hand.

What bothers me about your list is I see nothing there that would let you deal with waste, or help in a cleanup when things go south, or for your safety.

Here is a short list of some of the ones I would begin with, but only buy something when you have a use for it, most of these can be found locally at hardwaer stores pool supplys stores or grocery stores, some I order online, some I drive 250 miles to get, my full list would be a lot longer, and your list will grow as you do different processes.
Sodium hydroxide, NaOH, Lye, caustic soda, (I like prills).
Baking soda, NaHCO3
Borax, Na2B4O7-10H2O, twenty mule team laundry soap, sodium tetraborate decahydrate
Bon Ami, glass cleaner soap
Potassium dichromate K2Cr2O7 (to make silver testing solution)
Sodium Hypochlorite NaClO (house hold bleach)
Ferrous sulfate FeSO4, copperas (can make with iron transformer laminates and 10% H2SO4).
Dimethylgloxime, DMG (palladium test solution)
Sodium Bisulfite NaHSO3 (pool chemical)
Sulfuric acid H2SO4 (32% battery acid from auto parts can be diluted or concentrated)
(98% H2SO4 drain cleaner caution if diluting always pour acid into water never pour water into acid)!
Sodium metabisulfite SMB Na2S2O5 (wine bottle sterilizer)
Calcium Oxide CaO, Lime
Saline solution (eye wash)
Tin Sn (95% tin solder) (to make stannous chloride SnCl2 gold testing solution)
Sulfamic Acid H3NSO3 (sulfamic acid grout cleaner home depot) Used to De-NOx Aqua regia, much safer than urea and less problem of byproducts.
Urea use it to make your grass green forget about using it in recovery or refining.
In my opinion there is no need for Urea, it can be dangerous, and if you learn to refine using the methods taught on the forum you would be wasting your money on fertilizer, you also probably would be loosing gold from not knowing the proper methods or guessing when you had enough urea in solution.
Hydrochloric acid, HCl acid, Muriatic acid 32%
Nitric acid 70% HNO3.
Ammonium hydroxide NH4OH (3% household ammonia and water) caution it can make explosive compound if used improperly.
Zinc, copper, pure iron....
Sodium nitrate NaNO3 (pure or fertilizer used to make HNO3 sometimes in flux)
Potassium nitrate KNO3, (pure or fertilizer)
The list goes on and on…

study the safety and dealing the waste, understand the processes and how to perform them properly, before you begin playing chemist and mixing dangerous chemical, this way you will not hurt yourself or others.

When an accident in the lab happens and your eyballs are burning out of your scull is no time to go and try to find a book and find out what your supposed to do, or when lying in the hospital is not a good time to read and learn what you did wrong, and how you should have done it.
 
The most important thing to get is
butcher said:
Tin Sn (95% tin solder) (to make stannous chloride SnCl2 gold testing solution)
or you would be running blindly without knowing where your gold is when it is in solution.

/Göran
 
Hi butcher and goran this is only for the refining process i already have 95% tin solder and baking soda and some other chemicals this is only for the basic gold recovering/refining process how much should the hydrogen peroxide % be.

thankx for your reply's
kobus :p :p :p
 
It depends on the purpose or process,
To dissolve copper from the gold we use 3% H2O2.
But if your dissolving gold you need 30% peroxide.
It all depends on the process your working with, and what you are using the chemical for.
There are other processes I use hydrogen peroxide for and the strength again depends on its purpose.

You should study the processes first, and use the recommended strengths, too many times people ask questions of why things are not working, many times it is because they really have not done there home work or followed directions, either using way too much acid or oxidizers, or not eliminating base metals before trying to dissolve the gold, or dissolving troublesome metals with their gold like tin from solder. Sometimes I think they just read enough or watch some video and jump in the middle mixing acids and metals thinking this is simple, and just end up with one big mess, these same people are putting there lives in danger, and others around them, then they want step by step answer of how to get out of a mess, if we help them out of this mess will they learn and start studying, or will they just jump right into the next mess?

Kobus to be honest with you, answering questions as basic as these, I do not know I am helping you, because you should be studying the processes, and already have an understanding of what chemical you need, what strength, and how much to use, and how to deal with the toxic waste generated from these, and dangers involved, before you even think about buying the chemical.
 
Butcher is right, Do some Studing and read Hoke, I once made the mistake of watching a few videos and buying a "home refining kit" (Very Bad Idea) and thinking i was ready to do this put it all together, well it didnt go so well I ended up with a very contaminated acid, that took a lot of wrk to get my PM's out of and I still think I didnt get it all so Study Study Study, This has become a very rewarding hobby for me now that i know what I am doing (Dont get me wrong I am still learning new things every day) and read the Forum I havent found a topic here that dosent answer some question i have, Sometimes it is even a question that i havent thought of asking yet
 
I want to start metal recovery from old electronic junks. How do I get this your Home's book.
 
I want to start metal recovery from old electronic junks. How do I get this your Home'
s book.
I mean Home's book .
 
I think you may mean Hoke's book. You an get a digital copy from Frugalrefiners link found in this link

https://goldrefiningforum.com/phpBB3/viewtopic.php?f=54&t=19798#p201558

I see Dave beat me to it, :D
 
study the safety and dealing the waste, understand the processes and how to perform them properly, before you begin playing chemist and mixing dangerous chemical, this way you will not hurt yourself or others.

When an accident in the lab happens and your eyballs are burning out of your scull is no time to go and try to find a book and find out what your supposed to do, or when lying in the hospital is not a good time to read and learn what you did wrong, and how you should have done it.

Thank you so much butcher, your posts are great really, very useful, thank you for your much time also.
 
Ariaana,
Welcome to the forum, like you and others here I have an interest in the metals and I am also facinated by the chemistry of them, and enjoy learning what I can about them, I enjoy learning from every member here, we all have different experiences, and all have something to share, and we can all learn from each other.

I can just share what I have learned from others and some of my experiences, so, I thank you and every other member here on the forum for helping me to learn something new every day and I am thankful to be able to share it with others.

Educating ourselves gives us the tools we need to understand, with understanding we can perform the work and gain expierience.
 
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