Best way to process with least amount of fumes?

[Macwildstar]

Ok, I live in an apartment complex that no longer allows people to have simple things like GRILLS on their decks, or in the garage area.
Was looking for a way to refine some gold plated stuff from electronics. Been collecting it for years, and have a fairly large pile of it. I am in no hurry to do this. Is there a safe way to do this? One that does not create a lot of fumes?
Or should I just take a picture of what I have and sell the stuff to a processor?
Thanks.

 

[Martijn]

In short, No. Get some 20 or 30% HCl.

Vinegar is organic and with the salt (NaCl) you will create weak HCl with other organic stuff you don't need or want in there.

The effective base metal leaching component is Cupric Chloride. Aka AP.

AP does not fume much, but will corrode most metal items near it in time. The balcony will be well enough ventilated.

But is your setup storm proof? Will it fall on your neighbours below? Or when you spill something you will walk it indoors with your shoes.
It's toxic chemicals and toxic metal salts were talking here.
Can wife and kids go near it?
Will neighbours call the cops when they see strange chemistry going on on the balcony next door?

All exposed gold plating on thin base metal can be put in AP.
Melting the foils will result in an almost pure, but still unrefined button. You will need to further refine the foils chemically unless your friend can cupel.

Read the Acid Peroxide thread in this post:
(You do not need H2O2 to make CuCl by the way)

https://goldrefiningforum.com/posts/314378/
Martijn.

 

[nickvc]

Simple response to your question is no there is absolutely no way to do this inside your apartment safely , if you can’t find a safe place to do this sell what you have and buy some physical gold with the money .

 

[orvi]

You can reduce the fumes by means of working with cold solutions, or use leaching solutions that does not produce fumes (Eco-Goldex, I2/KI etc.). Eventualy, some obstacles will pop up with every method.

Doing any kind of chemistry on balcony is bad. Many things could go wrong, even if you done everything right.

With plated material, you have more possibilities how to process it. Cyanide doesn´t emit fumes (if you do it right) and work wonders... But that does not belong to the balcony floor. Period.

I would suggest to find some place, maybe ask a friend who has comfy and big backyard etc... Safety is very important, and you do not want to put you and your neighbors in danger.

 

[Daze0007]

In short, No. Get some 20 or 30% HCl.

Vinegar is organic and with the salt (NaCl) you will create weak HCl with other organic stuff you don't need or want in there.

The effective base metal leaching component is Cupric Chloride. Aka AP.

AP does not fume much, but will corrode most metal items near it in time. The balcony will be well enough ventilated.

But is your setup storm proof? Will it fall on your neighbours below? Or when you spill something you will walk it indoors with your shoes.
It's toxic chemicals and toxic metal salts were talking here.
Can wife and kids go near it?
Will neighbours call the cops when they see strange chemistry going on on the balcony next door?

All exposed gold plating on thin base metal can be put in AP.
Melting the foils will result in an almost pure, but still unrefined button. You will need to further refine the foils chemically unless your friend can cupel.

Read the Acid Peroxide thread in this post:
(You do not need H2O2 to make CuCl by the way)

https://goldrefiningforum.com/posts/314378/
Martijn.

Ebay has stronger chemicals 50 to 80 percent,,

 

[VK3NHL]

Ebay has stronger chemicals 50 to 80 percent,,

Why would you need stronger Chems?

 

[richoc]

Find some one processing near you.
Rent a shed some where.

You can run a stripping cell on sea salt and pure water.
You can strip the gold off using iodine and alcohol, soak.

When bring the gold from solution it will be a mixed karat of the gold you stripped from the parts.
So the big issue is at the end you still need to refine to get the most pay, this you hard part.

You did all collection, time to harvest the gold.
PM me if you would like to discuss your options.

 

[Justincase]

Ok, I live in an apartment complex that no longer allows people to have simple things like GRILLS on their decks, or in the garage area.
Was looking for a way to refine some gold plated stuff from electronics. Been collecting it for years, and have a fairly large pile of it. I am in no hurry to do this. Is there a safe way to do this? One that does not create a lot of fumes?
Or should I just take a picture of what I have and sell the stuff to a processor?
Thanks.

This Is a very good reason for people to follow Ms Hoke's series of lessons
They gradually introduce you to reactions in a controlled manner that aquatints you with the control of reactions.
You want a fairly vigorous reaction or digestions would take days, some do unless stimulated appropriately.
On the other side you do not want a run away reaction that wastes acids and value.
Learning to manage your reactions in a controlled manner is not a skill you can demonstrate without a lot of mistakes.
That is why to start you are advised to run small acquaintance reactions with known metals before graduating to larger lots of unknown alloys.