10kt plus gold plated necklaces in AP?

[yvonbug]

I'm not a newbie at gold refining with the AR method, but I am with the Muriatic acid and peroxide method. Will it dessolve 10kt. with gold plateing necklaces?

 

[Geo]

if you add an excess of peroxide to warm hcl acid it will dissolve a small amount of gold. if the plated gold has brass base metal it will eventually digest the copper and tin but if the base metal is steel then you will have to use a stripping cell. use a magnet to see if its magnetic. as far as speed goes you cant beat the cell for stripping gold. if the material is 10k solid, AP or the stripping cell will not work.

 

[yvonbug]

I was watching a show called "How it's made" and it was about gold chains. They say they'er made out of 10kt gold, then gold plated at the end to give them the shine. So, basically, my little gold chains wont dessolve in AP. Right? I should do it in nitric instead.?

 

[Geo]

why would anyone plate gold with gold? this makes no sense to me. did you test to see if what you have is really gold? did you check with a magnet? did you test with nitric acid? nitric acid will slowly dissolve the inquarted material but will not dissolve gold. it may dissolve the chain but will leave the gold intact. is the chains yellow color or white?

 

[nickvc]

Believe it or not many machine made chains are plated it's quicker and cheaper than proper finishing, the Italian makers have been doing it for years.

 

[yvonbug]

I did forget to check whether it was magnetic or not. But since I had already put the chain in a little glass with the AP solution, gold flakes are floating on top, and the rest of the chain is lying on the bottom looking dark in color, kinda grey. The solution is light green. It's going real slow. Whenever I think to, I stir it up. I've added only a little peroxide, once, to what I started with. But then I started a bigger batch with some little pins, (e-scrap) and as long as I keep stirring it , and adding a little peroxide to it, it's been working away quite nicely. I think I'll dig up one of my small air pumps and make a bubbler (?) for it so I wont have to keep stirring it. One thing I read about in this forum is to just seal off the end of the tube with a torch and then poke holes in the tube, and eliminate the bubbler stone cuz it dissolves. Have I got that right?

 

[Geo]

yes. basically that's the design. just poking holes wont work though, take a small piece of steel (needle,straightened paper clip) and heat the end and melt the holes through the tube. just pushing a needle through will cause the rubber to close back up and restrict the air from coming out.

 

[yvonbug]

All those tid-bits pay off! Thanks!