3LBS of un populated gold plated boards

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So... While I wait to run the whole batch of cards because of the Lye issue I'm working out I am running a small test.

In a 250ml beaker I cut 2 small 1 inch or so pieces off of 1 card to see how the AP works on them. The one side of the board still has the mask at this point. As this is just a test to see if the AP is the route with these boards

I used it at a 3.5:1 ratio and placed it on a warm hotplate to help speed the test up. Do you all approve so far?

Within 30 seconds of adding the Peroxide the solution was a slight but bright yellow. Now 5-10 minutes later it's a nice but lighter emerald green as I believe it should be. I'm swishing it around a bit every few minutes see the changes taking place.
Update. Now at 30-45 minutes the color is a nice darker emerald and there are some small flakes in the solution. The surface of the larger plated areas look like the plate will come off any time. Looking good as far as I can tell.

Now, I cannot find my darned micrometer to tell you guys the thickness of the boards but I will say that the boards are very very slightly over half the thickness of a penny. If I put 2 boards together it almost matches the thickness of a penny perfectly. So, I have exactly 3 lbs of these boards and they are 3 inches by 4 inches almost exactly. There are 82 of them fully plated on both sides and even plated inside all of the screw holes.

So what kind of range would you more experienced fellas expect in yield? A low and high depending on unknown factors would be neat to see from you guys. Eventually I'm hoping for 3-5gr per pound. Is that maybe way low or high? I don't have the experience for a very good figure.

Thanks again for all of the help so far guys.
 
archerytech1 said:
So... While I wait to run the whole batch of cards because of the Lye issue I'm working out I am running a small test.

In a 250ml beaker I cut 2 small 1 inch or so pieces off of 1 card to see how the AP works on them. The one side of the board still has the mask at this point. As this is just a test to see if the AP is the route with these boards

I used it at a 3.5:1 ratio and placed it on a warm hotplate to help speed the test up. Do you all approve so far?

Within 30 seconds of adding the Peroxide the solution was a slight but bright yellow. Now 5-10 minutes later it's a nice but lighter emerald green as I believe it should be. I'm swishing it around a bit every few minutes see the changes taking place.
Update. Now at 30-45 minutes the color is a nice darker emerald and there are some small flakes in the solution. The surface of the larger plated areas look like the plate will come off any time. Looking good as far as I can tell.

Now, I cannot find my darned micrometer to tell you guys the thickness of the boards but I will say that the boards are very very slightly over half the thickness of a penny. If I put 2 boards together it almost matches the thickness of a penny perfectly. So, I have exactly 3 lbs of these boards and they are 3 inches by 4 inches almost exactly. There are 82 of them fully plated on both sides and even plated inside all of the screw holes.

So what kind of range would you more experienced fellas expect in yield? A low and high depending on unknown factors would be neat to see from you guys. Eventually I'm hoping for 3-5gr per pound. Is that maybe way low or high? I don't have the experience for a very good figure.

Thanks again for all of the help so far guys.
Click to expand...


Ok. Well it seems that the AP will do just fine with these boards. The small test is done and all gold is floating in solution. Nice size foils and clean white board. Now to be sure I understand what and how to use and store the Lye water before I proceed with cleaning the mask from the other side of all of the boards..
 
spaceships said:
You mention 3.5:1 ratio. Are you talking HCl:H2O2 in that ratio?
Click to expand...


Yes, I'm sorry. I should have stated that. 3.5 parts HCl to 1 part H202. I guess it's always best to say exactly what your talking about.
 
I think that heat is not a way to go with AP. I always thought that heat will decompose H2O2, I would rather use air bubbler than heat.
 
No need to be sorry.

Maybe I have misread but are you using AP for recovery here? If so then 3.5:1 isn't the correct mix. You only need a dash of H2O2 to do the job. It starts the reaction. High levels of H2O2 can result in gold dissolved in the solution.
 
spaceships said:
No need to be sorry.

Maybe I have misread but are you using AP for recovery here? If so then 3.5:1 isn't the correct mix. You only need a dash of H2O2 to do the job. It starts the reaction. High levels of H2O2 can result in gold dissolved in the solution.
Click to expand...


Yea, I added a bit much on purpose honestly. I wanted to test just a few sq inches of the boards to be sure the A/P route would be OK on the boards. I really figured it would since there have never been any components on them but was willing to sacrifice a few sq inches. I thought it may put all of the gold into solution honestly but surprisingly I think it left most all of it behind. I will have to test it and see.

I think that when I do run the whole batch of boards I'm going to just use like a 20:1 ratio or something and add a fish bubbler.

Thanks for replying though. I did make the too much H202 mistake once in my very first attempt a few months back. Hey, wheres all the gold films lol.
Too many youtube vids teaching people to use way too much. One of the youtubers though did recommend Hokes book and that was awesome. Honestly reading Hokes book is why I'm now here on this forum. It made me realize that youtube may not be the place to start.
 
patnor1011 said:
I think that heat is not a way to go with AP. I always thought that heat will decompose H2O2, I would rather use air bubbler than heat.
Click to expand...


Yea, I'm sure your right. I just used 2 square inches of boards as a test. It worked. Probably put a little gold into solution but it did clean the boards in just a few hours and leave lots of nice looking and sized foils.

When I do run the whole batch I will be using a bubbler and 2 buckets for sure.

The test was to be sure the A/P would work OK on the boards the way they were. I had concerns from a mistake a while back....I'm a newbie.
 

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