Gold Fingers Too Long??

I followed the advise in the previous listing about HCL & H2O2. In that it was mentioned that it was possible for the fingers to dissolve into the solution if you added more H2O2. My fingers have been in solution for about 3 or 4 days and are not completely "done". Some gold still remains. I have added nothing since the first concoction. Am I running the risk of some of the gold going into solution cuz it's been in there so long? If so, can it be precipitated out? Should I put on my rubber gloves and remove the fingers where the gold is completely gone to give the solution less surface to work on?

Thank you for your help.

Paige

Paige,

The total process at room temperature takes about 4-5 days, depending on how often you agitate the strainer (pull it out of the mix, let it drain, and slowly lower back in). The gold won't go into solution in this short time with the minimal amount of peroxide you used.

If you want to remove some of the cleaned fingers that is not a problem, just be sure to rinse the copper chloride off of them before you dispose of them ( I just use another bucket with tap water in it).

The diiferent types of fingers (pci, isa, agp, memory, slot cpus, old isa, etc.) etch at different rates. I try to do batches of similar types of fingers so the etch rate is normalized for the batch.

If most of the fingers are completely etched you can just pick out the few that are not fully etched and toss them in the next batch.

When you go to pour off the solution to get the gold flakes out let me know and I'll give you a few extra tips.

Steve

Steve,

Things made a lot of progress last night. Might be pouring them off tonight. Your helpful hints would be appreciated.

Paige

Paige,

I knew you wouldn't be dissappointed with this method. Despite the fact that it is slow (an advantage to me since I have so much going on at any given time), this method requires so little attention, it free's you up to do other tasks around the shop or house. The gold produced is also very pure for so little effort. Some other positive aspects are it's safety, available and ruseable ingredients.

When you are ready to pour off the solution here's a few tips:

1) Let everything settle for an hour or so from the last agitiation cycle.
2) Fill the second 3 gallon bucket with about a gallon of warm tap water.
3) Pull the strainer and let it drain completely.
4) Put the strianer full of stripped fingers in to second 3 gallon bucket with water in it.
5) Vigorously agitate by plunging the strainer in and out of the water. Let the strainer fully empty between agitation cycles and shake the fingers about and plunge again. This flushes the majority of the remaining gold flakes out of the fingers to settle to the bottom along with copper chloride salts.
6) Let the flakes settle after the fingers have been throughly flushed.
7) Pour off the blue water into an old 5 gallon bucket for recycling of copper before disposal. BE CAREFUL NOT TO POUR OFF ANY GOLD FLAKES!.
8) Set up the funnel with 3-4 coffee filters folded to fit the funnel. I use the empty muriatic acid bottles for this step, adding a clean finger board between the outside neck of the funnel and the mouth of the jug to keep the vessel from pressurising and stopping the flow of liquids.
9) Pour the last few cups of the blue liquid and gold flakes from the rinse bucket thru the funnel. Use the spray bottle to police the gold out of the second three gallon bucket into the filters. Rinse the gold in the filter throughly with the spray bottle of water to clean it of all traces of blue.
10) If the fingers in the strainer still have gold flakes clinging to them then repeat these steps.
11) Now pour off the solution from the reaction bucket into the now empty second 3 gallon bucket. Be sure the gold doesn't get poured out into the second bucket. This second bucket is now ready for your next batch of fingers. Prime it with a little HCl and Peroxide to lighten the color and start a new batch.
12) Use the same filter to pour off the majority of the remaining fluid, but not the gold from the reaction vessel.
13) Keep the filter clean of any color with frequent sprays from the bottle.
14) I now combine this flake with the flake in the first bucket and clean them all together as previously instructed (HCl x3 rinses, H2O x3 rinses). You can quickly transfer the flakes by pulling the filters out and spraying them with the spray bottle over the reaction vesssel of flakes. They rinse out very easily this way.

Let me know if I lost you anywhere. Maybe I'll post some snapshots for you.

Steve

Thank you very much, Steve.

Paige