enragedcow
Active member
So, we have ~130 of the boards pictured below. They are 8"x9.5", approximately 25% covered in gold, as an estimate. Assuming they are Class 00 plated, we're looking at 20 microinches thick. Doing the math, that equates to an estimated yield of about .21 grams / board.
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However, that's not happening - not even close. The two batches we've done thus far, 10 boards each, we came out with <1g of "gold", but it's not quite the right color, so I'm sure it's not even pure.
Here's our process:
1 - We depopulate the boards using the toaster oven method. Heat for 5 minutes, bang on a cookie sheet and scrape into a bin. This removes all the SMDs and a fair amount of the solder - however, there is definitely a fair amount left (note: This is pre-RoHS so it's lead/tin).
2 - We break the boards into quarters, to fit nicer in the bucket. Because the gold is so dispersed across both sides, we have to treat the whole board. I realize this is *not* ideal, as it means a lot more copper/solder and other garbage (garbage in = garbage out)
3 - We treat the boards in AP. When they are mostly clean, we scrub them, and filter the liquid. We end up with lots of gold flakes, little bits of green PCB, and a good amount of black powder, which I presume is a bit of precipitated gold, but mostly solder remnants.
4 - We filter, keep AP for re-use, the particulate matter gets HCL and water washed.
5 - After the HCL/Water rinses, we go for the HCL+CL dissolving. That goes fine - most of the black powder remains undissolved, but the HCL+CL takes on more of a reddish hue.
6 - We precipitate the gold with SMB. It pulls down a fair amount of lead (I think it's lead chloride anyway, was it vanishes with a water rinse).
7 - Ultimately, we end up with <.8g of impure gold in the end.
Now, obviously it's not ideal to process the entire board like this. But, assuming we have to do this, I'm curious if anyone has ideas on what we're doing wrong - and maybe address these questions:
1 - The black powder we have after filtering the AP, most of it doesn't dissolve in HCL (hot or otherwise) or HCL-CL... wonder what it could be. My assumption is that we only have lead, tin, gold, and copper present.
2 - I further assume we still have some gold locked up in our AP. However, when I test it, nothing happens - guessing it's because the dissolved tin already in there means I already have stannous chloride in the solution, so adding more won't cause a reaction (our AP is dark green, BTW)
3 - Any other ideas where our Gold could be hiding?
Thanks in advance!!
..
..
However, that's not happening - not even close. The two batches we've done thus far, 10 boards each, we came out with <1g of "gold", but it's not quite the right color, so I'm sure it's not even pure.
Here's our process:
1 - We depopulate the boards using the toaster oven method. Heat for 5 minutes, bang on a cookie sheet and scrape into a bin. This removes all the SMDs and a fair amount of the solder - however, there is definitely a fair amount left (note: This is pre-RoHS so it's lead/tin).
2 - We break the boards into quarters, to fit nicer in the bucket. Because the gold is so dispersed across both sides, we have to treat the whole board. I realize this is *not* ideal, as it means a lot more copper/solder and other garbage (garbage in = garbage out)
3 - We treat the boards in AP. When they are mostly clean, we scrub them, and filter the liquid. We end up with lots of gold flakes, little bits of green PCB, and a good amount of black powder, which I presume is a bit of precipitated gold, but mostly solder remnants.
4 - We filter, keep AP for re-use, the particulate matter gets HCL and water washed.
5 - After the HCL/Water rinses, we go for the HCL+CL dissolving. That goes fine - most of the black powder remains undissolved, but the HCL+CL takes on more of a reddish hue.
6 - We precipitate the gold with SMB. It pulls down a fair amount of lead (I think it's lead chloride anyway, was it vanishes with a water rinse).
7 - Ultimately, we end up with <.8g of impure gold in the end.
Now, obviously it's not ideal to process the entire board like this. But, assuming we have to do this, I'm curious if anyone has ideas on what we're doing wrong - and maybe address these questions:
1 - The black powder we have after filtering the AP, most of it doesn't dissolve in HCL (hot or otherwise) or HCL-CL... wonder what it could be. My assumption is that we only have lead, tin, gold, and copper present.
2 - I further assume we still have some gold locked up in our AP. However, when I test it, nothing happens - guessing it's because the dissolved tin already in there means I already have stannous chloride in the solution, so adding more won't cause a reaction (our AP is dark green, BTW)
3 - Any other ideas where our Gold could be hiding?
Thanks in advance!!