Brainstorming fume hood ideas for my needs.

[notehunter494]

Hello Forum Members. I am cautiously moving forward in anticipation of recovering my values from 20 years+ accumulation of jewelers bench filings. They are clean. I sort of incinerated them, more of a pyrolysis actually since I did not leave my burnout oven door ajar so not enough oxygen. I am preparing to finish the process in a stainless steel frying pan.
This Forum is really great to work with. The Library is excellent. Everything I need is right there. I should have gone there first before I incinerated. Harold has an excellent post on incineration. Of course I was just randomly reading posts at that point. I am working from 4metals designs on putting together a scrubber. It will be overkill and work with a semi closed reactor in the fume hood which leads me to my question:

I am thinking of constructing a small fume hood from a plexiglass aquarium. I got the idea from a post on page 7 of my favorite go to place right here, Build your own Equipment. It is the last post of a short thread called Fume Hood Ideas. It is a youttube video of a plexiglass put together. I like the idea for visibility and light. I will be in the garage. Until then I was tending toward the 55 gal plastic drum as the shell, for containment reasons and simplicity. The plexiglass aquarium I am looking at is 20 gallon, 30" x 12" x 12" (small) if I can find one a little bigger in height like 18 inches it would be better. Would any of you go this direction or a plexiglass cabinet like they use for sandblasting? With a small plexiglass fume hood I will have the visibility and can probably vent the entire enclosure through the scrubber (two 5 gallon H2O2 bucket/chambers and third column 12 inch diameter 6 foot tall that will actively flow caustic over two packed chambers. I will be working with 1000ml Berzelius Beakers for one to three ounce digestions of filings. The 55 gal drum will probably be too big to vent through the scrubber so smaller is better. I am kind of answering my question while I am typing. Maybe I should just get a smaller drum and light it with the pyrex pie plate insert. I don't know. I have 38 ounces to process and then I am out of business so this equipment does not have to last more than that. Please let me know your thoughts.
Many Thanks in advance,
Tom

 

[nickvc]

If this is as you say a one off perhaps it may pay you to melt and then assay your material, if you have access to an xrf gun that would suffice, so you know what you have to sell or have refined and returned.
If you worked with decent amounts of platinum then you can remove lots of it using a magnet in a plastic bag most modern alloys are magnetic.

 

[notehunter494]

Thanks nickvc
I know what you mean but then again I read the posts in the Library about how you can get taken above and beyond fees and the xrf is a calibrated device, I do not own one, maybe I should. I was looking closely at shor products and after a good while I am on to them and see why they are considered well...not very highly thought of here. So a one off yes and no. I have to process this 38 ounces, but I have other "stuff" as well having been in in the jewelry biz since the '70's and I kind of always had the gold bug syndrome, metal detector nut, and a chemistry nut as well. I used to make lots of pyrotechnics and still have an attic full of equipment and chemistry glassware. So my feet are wet but I am "rusty". I am hell bent on making this scrubber. I have read most of the posts on fume hoods and especially scrubber designs. 4metals has got it down, I have not seen a better template then his pathway. As of now I have this Forum, my notebook, YouTube, and bag full of scrubber packing, adding to that every day. I have not spent a dollar yet. Oops, I did buy a corning with the blue pyroceram hallmark, it was cheap. Only when the scrubber is together and working will I go forward so I have throttled back on reading Hoke and binge watching screetips on YouTube. When the scrubber is working, I will test it with water and dry ice to see how it pulls, will I determine how and what I need in a fume hood. That is why I am still brainstorming. I have lots of time here and now...God willing I will not run out of time before this is done.