100 Ounces of pins

[Geo]

two different metals. the first sounds like lead chloride (long, slender, needle shaped crystals) and the second sounds like copper chloride (square, blocky and white). do a little reading on the two (appearance, color, shape, how its formed) then you can study on how to avoid it and/or deal with it once its formed.

 

[texan]

Don't get in a big rush....it may take 2 months or so for the volume of material you have to reduce "most" of the base metal and the first run will not get all of the base metal.

Texan

 

[tek4g63]

From geo: the next time add the water before the reaction starts

Thank you again geo. I will do that next time for sure. After this batch of pins gets done I have roughly three pounds of close cut fingers ready to go into the reaction chamber. I'll use diluted HCL for them. Instead of adding peroxide to that batch could I just add a cup of the used AP from my pins? Really that's just concentrated copper II chloride right? So if I already have C2C formed in my leaching solution and have my bubbler there to keep the reaction going, there would be no need for peroxide to jump start the reaction right?

 

[Geo]

hey, i believe you are catching on. 8) thats exactly right. try this instead though. the AP solution you are using now, even if it is saturated, still has a lot of action left in it. if you want to be sure, check the PH with a test strip. it should be 2-3 unless you have added a strong base (im sure you haven't). when this batch is done, remove all material and filter the solution (which you should have done to reclaim your foils), add the solution back to your reaction chamber and replace the bubbler. bubble air through the solution for a few days without any material in it. you will notice a shift in color from dark to a lighter shade of green. remove the bubbler and allow solution to settle for a couple of hours. decant the solution off being careful not to pour out any sediment. tilt the bucket to concentrate, remove the liquid as close as you can get to any sediment, and then add the sediment to your stockpot, replace the solution, replace the bubbler, add your material,top off any shortage of fluid with fresh hcl and start the reaction again. you can re-use the same solution over and over until it becomes saturated with TIN and not copper. thats the reason you should remove as much tin from your material before adding to AP as you can.

 

[tek4g63]

Just thought you all might like to see these pictures. I took them tonight before work.I thought this looked pretty cool. There is so many foils floating around because the bubbler is going full blast. If I remove the bubbler most of them leave the surface. there is not many pins left in the bottom, maybe half a pound.Almost there!

 

[tek4g63]

Tonight when I checked my bucket there was a bunch of copper chloride white powder in the bottom with the undissolved pins. My volume of solution is already to the point where it was going to be too difficult to handle. So I setup my strainer with wetted coffee filters and began to reduce the volume of my solution. After I removed about 2 and a half gallons and safely put it aside I added another gallon of fresh HCL to the remaining solution. I believe that with no more pins than I have left in there that should finish it off. I took the foils that I recovered and washed them and now have them sitting in fresh HCL. Should I just add these back to the reaction chamber and worry about them when all is said and done? Or should I just do the hot HCL wash on them and set them aside untill I'm ready to refine?

I'm very impressed with just how many foils I got. Ill try and get a good picture tomorrow.

 

[Geo]

dont add them back. the bubbling action will just break them into smaller pieces. if you have them out, leave them out.

 

[Palladium]

He does have a pretty firm understanding.

 

[tek4g63]

Just Submitting these for your viewing pleasure. These are the foils I recovered while reducing the volume of my solution. This is during their first wash, room temp HCL diluted 50/50 with tap water. Next wash will be with hot HCL.

I'm excited because these were just the foils that were suspended in solution. I reduced the volume of solution very carefully and painstakingly with a turkey baster. I didn't want to stir up what was in the bottom. Also I let the solution set undisturbed without the bubbler running for 20 hours before I started reducing it so that most of the heavies could settle to the bottom.

I want to say thank you to everyone for helping me get this far. This has been fun so far and it will be even better next time thanks to your input!

I plan on running this post all the way up to making my first shinny button, so please keep the valuable information coming!

 

[tek4g63]

Sorry my not so smart phone posted my last one twice.

 

[jmdlcar]

Nice gold foil tek4g63. Looks like you have a few grams or two. What pins I have hope they turn out like your did.

 

[tek4g63]

Nice gold foil tek4g63. Looks like you have a few grams or two. What pins I have hope they turn out like your did.

Thank you Jack! Yeah I'm pretty excited because I know that there is double or even triple this amount of foils waiting for me when all is said and done. I hope to see a nice picture like this from you soon! The greater majority of the pins I'm processing here are the same ones that I sent you. I know it wasn't much but if you throw them in with any other pins you can get your hands on it will all add up.

 

[jmdlcar]

What you sent plus I have about 3oz of ide, floppy and jumper pins from motherboard. I just don't know how much HCL and Peroxide to use. I do have a air pump to make bubble.

 

[tek4g63]

What you sent plus I have about 3oz of ide, floppy and jumper pins from motherboard. I just don't know how much HCL and Peroxide to use. I do have a air pump to make bubble.

I wish I had a solid answer for you on that. Right now I'm up to 4 gallons on my 100 ounces and that doesn't count washing and refining later on. I also don't know for sure yet if I will have to add more or not.

I know that you have been throwing around the idea of a striping cell too. Don't let me persuade you one way or the other because I'm still new and my reasons for using my chosen method will probably be different from yours. If you do chose the AP method I hope this topic helps you along the way, and I will answer any questions I can.

 

[jmdlcar]

I don't know if the pins you gave me should be process with the ones I have or not. Cause they are not the same type. I don't know if I should use the AP or the Sulfuric Acid cell method. I know the AP works cause you did it.

 

[tek4g63]

Hi everyone! Just wanted to do another update.

During the next month my family life will be quite busy and we will be out of town 3 times adding up to a total of 3 weeks away. Because of that I decided to recover what foils I could and set any undissolved pins aside for later. This is not how I wanted this to go but I had no idea it would take nearly 2 months to finish.

There were more undissolved pins than I thought there would be. I will either be using a different process for this quantity of pins in the future or I will break it up into smaller batches, like maybe 10 ounces.

I washed my recovered foils first in dilute HCL at room temp, then twice in hot HCL. The pictures below are after the last hot wash had set for a while to cool. I will probably be washing them one more time before I refine them.

Even though I didn't get to let all the pins process I am still pleased with the results so far. I can't wait to make a button that I can take to work and weigh!

 

[butcher]

tek4g63,

Good job, I like seeing this as you progress through this process of recovering of gold from your pins.
I can patiently wait for that picture of the refined gold button, take your time and the results will be worth it.
I like how your studying is paying off, keep up the good work, your doing a good job.
Keep being patient; rushing things can lead to problems.
Enjoy the vacation.

 

[goldsilverpro]

Very good!

 

[trashmaster]

great job. I'll say 3+oz :roll:

 

[Geo]

gold foils in liquid is really fluffy with a lot of the volume being liquid. once they are dried it will be a lot less volume. too it will still be contaminated with base metal, though it would be impossible to say how much. if i had to guess, i would say somewhere in the twenty gram area.