step by step info

hello everyone,
I had been thinking about setting up a recovery cell for some time when I ran across some 'instructions" on ebay. well naturally I bit. but after reading thru the material I found the process to be rather vague.in one instance the guide says to use sulphuric acid and glycerine for my mix and a paragraph or two later says to use muratic acid. so now I am a little confused. the guide also says that it is best to use a graphite anode because no gold will stick to it but reading thru this forum,I have only been seeing lead being used,am I missing somthing?I have two bags of ram and 80 gold faced processors on the way and would like to start recovering some gold when they get here. Can someone give me step by step instructions on the process?any help will be appreciated.
thanks,
Tom

Tom,

Welcome to the forum and thanks for the post. Sounds like you got some bogus instructions. You should watch the videos of the electrolytic cell in the Tutorials section here:

http://goldrefiningforum.com/phpBB3/viewforum.php?f=22

The memory sticks are not easily processed using the cell.

If you send me a PM with your address info and a link to this post you will be a winner in the Silent Newbies Contest as listed in the General Chat section here:

http://goldrefiningforum.com/phpBB3/viewtopic.php?t=275

Good Luck! Keep us posted on your progress.

Steve

Hi dtshirah

After reading your delemia about the carbon rod as an anode. I bought one of these systems some time back and it wound up to be more trouble than it was worth. The one I had used a carbon rod for anode and a peice of stainless metal for a cathode. Same surfhuric and glycern mix. You put the plated items in the mix and the gold mud collected on the cathode (stainless) material. The carbon rod will slowly deteriate and the residue becomes mixed with your gold. it was a big fat pain in the back side.

You may want to look at the tutorial section on electrolytic cells construction and operation by the master on electrolytic cells Lazersteve. Beleive me, you will appreciate the videos after you view them. I would seriously consider not fooling with the carbon rod system. The electrolytic sytem that steve has shown here will do every thing you want as far as gold recovery. You may want to master this technique before messing with muraitic acids in Aqua Regia. Thats some pretty serious stuff.

Just wait, you will get some posts from some folks that really know what they are talking about. Just follow thier advice, you can't go wrong.

Lots of luck

Catfish

catfish said:

You may want to master this technique before messing with muraitic acids in Aqua Regia.

Click to expand...

I'd like to comment in that regard.

While stripping with a sulfuric cell is an excellent way to recover gold from plated objects, it, in no way, should be construed as a refining operation. Recovery-----yes-----refining-----no.

I realize that anything you do to improve the level of quality of gold is, in a sense. refining, so my comments more or less present a slippery slope, but there's method to my madness.

If your objective is to recover gold to sell for profit, and you have no desire to deal with end consumers, there's nothing wrong with recovering gold, melting and selling to a refiner or other recycling establishment. You'll never get top dollar for your product, but you also won't have invested excessive time.

If, by chance, you're interested in establishing any kind of clientele, you will be forced to refine, to insure that you market gold of acceptable quality. That opens doors to new sources of gold (buyers are often benchmen that may be willing to use your refining services), but more importantly, you can sell for spot, or even demand a premium.

Learn the AR process (for refining, not stripping) right along with the stripping process. They are not to be considered an either or option, but sequential operations, essential to you becoming a recognized refiner.

All bets are off if you have no desire to be so known!

Harold

I agree with Harold_V 100%. Diffrent scrap requires diffrent methods of refining/recovery. 486 chips for example, I remove the gold plates and process the rest of the chips using AR. I am hoping to use Lasersteve's cell the recover the gold on the plates to save time and chemicals. I will let the board know if I get the same yield.

On the 486 chips, the sulfuric will dissolve the plating but, I have doubts that it will dissolve the richest part of the plates (lids), the thick gold/tin braze around the perimeter. I remember trying it years ago, without much luck. Steve, how have you fared on completely stripping the braze?

An soak in acid peroxide does the trick without even damaging the ceramic or core. It will also strip the pins at the same time that it works on the bottom plate. I usually pull the plate out after solvent frees it from the cpu housing. From there the plates go into the cell. You could leave them in the mix and they would strip the rest of the way along with the pins also. You end up with a solution that has the gold foil floating freely in it. This is the same foil you see in my clorox video. Be sure to test the solution for dissolved gold before discarding.

Steve