.999?

[Woolf]

after refining 925 silver with the cementing process i finally have my .999 bar... i refined 135 grams for a test and recieved 115 grams... shouldnt i have recieved 124.88-125 grams?

also my bar has black stuff on the outside is this from my crucible? some areas are really bright silver and others have black on them if i rub this long enough on my jeans it tends to shine but takes a long time...

 

[lazersteve]

Sounds like you did not get all of the copper nitrate out of the cemented silver.

You will need to run the bar through a silver cell to get the bar to 999+.


Steve

 

[Woolf]

heres what i did...
put 1ML 70%nitric/water 50/50 per gram i had in beaker..
then i left it alone till fully dissolved...
filtered
put copper inside
filtered/rinsed until no more color in water
dry/melt
left inside of crucible until solid...

am i missing something?

 

[Harold_V]

heres what i did...
put 1ML 70%nitric/water 50/50 per gram i had in beaker..
then i left it alone till fully dissolved...
filtered
put copper inside
filtered/rinsed until no more color in water
dry/melt
left inside of crucible until solid...

am i missing something?

The only thing I see wrong is leaving the metal to solidify in the crucible. That's OK if you intend to break the crucible, and have no intentions of using it again, but if you try to melt silver than has solidified in a crucible, chances are very good that you'll break the crucible when it is heated again. Silver contracts upon solidifying, and expands when it is reheated. That ruptures the crucible.

I'm at a loss to understand why you expected to achieve a level of purity of 3 n's by cementation. You are expecting too much from the process at hand. If you bother to read about it on the forum, you'll come to understand that silver that is recovered by cementation with copper is generally contaminated with copper. if you're lucky, you'll achieve a level of purity around 99%---but anything higher is clearly not likely. If you want 3n's silver, you're going to have to either part electrolytically, or process silver chloride. It's much easier to part electrolytically, where you can also recover trace values of gold and platinum group metals.

Harold

 

[Woolf]

hmmm so all the silver im cementing is 99% at best?

 

[nickvc]

hmmm so all the silver im cementing is 99% at best?

Yep....
I'd advise you to follow Harolds advice and refine it in a cell which has been widely dicussed recently on the forum, full details are available including a DVD from Lasersteves site if you want a step by step guide.

 

[Woolf]

hmmm i dont have a cell and steve only sells some parts to it i hear...

 

[metatp]

Woolf,

A cell is pretty easy when you follow the set up in LaserSteve's DVD. It is also fun to watch the crystal grow. I just finished processing a batch of 17 ozt. You can get everything you need pretty easily. LaserSteve even sells a cathode that works well.

Regards,
Tom

 

[lazersteve]

hmmm i dont have a cell and steve only sells some parts to it i hear...

I can provide all of the parts, but I don't list them on my website pricing page. If you want all of the parts let me know and I'll price it all out for you.

Steve

 

[Woolf]

I can provide all of the parts, but I don't list them on my website pricing page. If you want all of the parts let me know and I'll price it all out for you.

Steve

do i need seperate cells for gold/silver? can i purchase the chemicals needed at publix?

 

[lazersteve]

Yes to the first question and no to the second.

Steve

 

[Woolf]

where would i purchase the chemicals needed? or better yet what are the chemicals needed?

also i have a lot of chemicals in a jar that were used in refining... how would i dispose of these chemicals?

 

[lazersteve]

The most important chemicals for the electrolytes would likely be sulfuric acid (95%+) for gold and nitric acid (70%) for silver. All of the others are talked about all over the forum and are used in the standard processing.

You can get the sulfuric acid at hardware stores sold as an acid drain opener.

You can use silver nitrate crystals instead of nitric acid if you don't want to mess with nitric. Otherwise you'll have to buy some nitric and have it shipped unless you live in a big city that sells it locally at a chemical or mining supply supply house.

Steve

 

[Woolf]

i already have nitric 70% and these cells will remove only the precious metals? will it be in powder form? will it be pure? could you also help me with a proper way to dispose of my other chemicals that were already used in refining? like whats the best way to dispose of them?

 

[lazersteve]

All of your questions have been answered many times over here.

Please use the search function : waste disposal, sulfuric cell, and silver cell and when you are done, you'll be ready to process your material.

Steve

 

[Woolf]

ok i searched some forums and watched your video on it... how would i hold an entire necklace inside of this tub? what would happen if i placed a solid item inside the acid not only plated? i did not see these answers on forums

 

[Oz]

Woolf,

Lazersteve has a full-time plus day job, has a refining business processing customers raw material, 2 other businesses I know of, also runs a website (mainly for this forum’s benefit) that provides materials and supplies at near his cost, and produces DVDs on refining for an absurdly low price given their quality and content. Oh, did I mention he teaches refining on this forum for free?

Frankly I do not know how he does it all and still manages to maintain a family life with his wife and children.

This will sound hard but someone has to say it, I am not as polite as Steve and tend to be rather direct. You need to take a greater responsibility for your own education by reading what is already on this forum instead of expecting Steve to do the work for you. You are just pounding him with question after question.

I recently commented in a thread complimenting a gentleman on his third post here after being a member here for a half year. The reason for my compliment is that he just read, never asking a question, and posted a picture showing his first gold button that I would wager is 95% pure or better.

All of the main members enjoy helping others learn refining but you have been inundating Steve with questions. Please invest more of your own time reading instead of just asking for someone else’s time.

I agree that Steve is a fabulous resource. Perhaps you should buy some of his DVDs that explain what it is you wish to learn. Then if you have a few questions, at least you have supported the man to some degree.

I know this may seem as though I am jumping you a bit. But ask yourself how many hours you personally would spend teaching others to refine with no benefit to yourself.

 

[Woolf]

Woolf,

Lazersteve has a full-time plus day job, has a refining business processing customers raw material, 2 other businesses I know of, also runs a website (mainly for this forum’s benefit) that provides materials and supplies at near his cost, and produces DVDs on refining for an absurdly low price given their quality and content. Oh, did I mention he teaches refining on this forum for free?

Frankly I do not know how he does it all and still manages to maintain a family life with his wife and children.

This will sound hard but someone has to say it, I am not as polite as Steve and tend to be rather direct. You need to take a greater responsibility for your own education by reading what is already on this forum instead of expecting Steve to do the work for you. You are just pounding him with question after question.

I recently commented in a thread complimenting a gentleman on his third post here after being a member here for a half year. The reason for my compliment is that he just read, never asking a question, and posted a picture showing his first gold button that I would wager is 95% pure or better.

All of the main members enjoy helping others learn refining but you have been inundating Steve with questions. Please invest more of your own time reading instead of just asking for someone else’s time.

I agree that Steve is a fabulous resource. Perhaps you should buy some of his DVDs that explain what it is you wish to learn. Then if you have a few questions, at least you have supported the man to some degree.

I know this may seem as though I am jumping you a bit. But ask yourself how many hours you personally would spend teaching others to refine with no benefit to yourself.

first of all i have purchased some of his DVDs.. and im asking questions about items i MAY purchase from him in the future... if you intend to sell items it is polite to answer some of your customers questions.. or am i wrong??? i also own and run a tow truck business which is 24/7 from homestead to miami dade florida... i also run a bar here in cutler bay and have to fly to PA from time to time to help out with another bar i manage... and im picking up a hobby to keep myself saine... i have searched these forums for answers... how ever a lot of posts are out dated and pictures and links are no longer working... and i dont have time to sit here for hours at a time searching posts that dont seem to be very helpful... and the posts i do read dont answer all of my questions... sorry for being a customer that wants to be perfectly clear on how the products he intends to buy will fully work to the needs i intend to use them for....

 

[lazersteve]

Woolf,

There's nothing wrong with wanting to get things right.

There is something wrong with not telling the people you want help from when you find a broken link. If you do find a broken link or picture, please let someone know so we can fix them. In the long run it benefits everyone.

As for the free time issue. You don't have the time to tell us specifically what's wrong with the information we have provided you, but you want us to make time to repeat what has already been said here numerous times over. That doesn't seem like a cooperative attitude to me. We have to work together for you to learn. To put it in the words of one of my old high school girl friends: 'I can't open your head and pour it in'.

I provided you with detailed search criteria to answer all of your questions in great detail and I'm 100% sure that all of the links are not faulty.

I'm going to go one step further and post links to the search results for the criteria I gave you above:

Silver cell

Sulfuric Cell Posts by Lazersteve

Waste Disposal

If you don't have time to read what's already been typed into the forum and I don't have time to type it all again, then you're never going to learn this. You wouldn't go to college and tell the teacher you don't want to read the material from the book, but instead you want him to write in on the chalk board.

I'm trying to help you the only way I know how, and that is through leading you to the information that has already been entered into the forum. If you find link or image errors in the information then let me know and I'll fix it if at all possible.

I'm willing to help anyone who is willing to help themselves, regardless if they buy anything from my web store or not. When I provide a member information he/she is not obligated to purchase from me. Likewise when a member purchases from me, I am not obligated to respond to their posts.

I choose to respond to your posts, because I want to help you learn. Now it is up to you to want to learn. The path to learning will require that you read a lot of posts.

Steve

PS: Reading the Guided Tour Link will answer a lot of your basic questions also. Stick with it and it will all start to soak in.

 

[metatp]

Steve,

You are a patient man. I don't know how you deal with people that just want to take and take and take without doing their part that makes this forum so great. It is so sad that we now live in this "entitlement attitude world". It is all about "me" and "my" wants.

Thank you,
Tom