Cheap electrolysis idea?

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dpgold said:
Because I saw you said not to try water and salt electrolysis I want to ask what do you think about this video , I know videos can be misleading but this one looks like it would work, the voltage is 12v 15A
Indeed this is on tiny metal pieces not PCB but I wonder what do you think about it
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At this point it works decent on large, thinly plated items. Pins so far have been all but a failure.
 
Shark said:
At this point it works decent on large, thinly plated items. Pins so far have been all but a failure.
Click to expand...
Could you give us more details? I.e if the pins are high or low grade , How many grams for batch, Voltage and Amperage ecc ecc
 
I will try to get more information tomorrow but the pins are mainly low grade. I am still playing with various volt and amps as well but setting the amps at 4-5 and letting the voltage float as needed seems to work well. I have tried higher and lower with some success. The material comes out very bulky and a 1.5 liter container will become problematic fairly quick due to the recovered material. This is what brought me to a stop this evening. I have several pounds of plated jewelry that still needs to be run. And a few more pounds of low grade pins and a few higher grade. I had not planned to run the high grade stuff just yet and unless something changes my mind I will be saving those for a sulfuric cell.

I will see what more I can come up with tomorrow as I do have a few more ideas to try yet.
 
Shark said:
I will try to get more information tomorrow but the pins are mainly low grade. I am still playing with various volt and amps as well but setting the amps at 4-5 and letting the voltage float as needed seems to work well. I have tried higher and lower with some success. The material comes out very bulky and a 1.5 liter container will become problematic fairly quick due to the recovered material. This is what brought me to a stop this evening. I have several pounds of plated jewelry that still needs to be run. And a few more pounds of low grade pins and a few higher grade. I had not planned to run the high grade stuff just yet and unless something changes my mind I will be saving those for a sulfuric cell.

I will see what more I can come up with tomorrow as I do have a few more ideas to try yet.
Click to expand...
Trinity Gold Recovery said that he used 12V and 15 Amps, but in the comments I saw another answer of his where he said 12V 5-8 Amps. So as the solution is going the Amperage needs to be adjusted based on the material in the bath and the other elements of the bath, size etc. Of course the reaction has to be dependent on the content of the material.
What kind of container do you use?
 
Marcel said:
Saltwater consists of sodium chloride dissolved in water. So you will create a bunch of compounds like Copper Chloride, Silver Chloride and so on. Not a good starting point for a beginner. Not easy to convert it all back to pure elements. In addition, those Chlorides are quite corrosive.
Since you are planning to use e-Waste, you may create some unwanted side products. E-Waste consists of many metals, some of them are toxic (Lead, Mercury, Selen, Arsen and others). Small traces, but if you want to make money you will need large amounts of E-scrap, which leads to considerable amounts of those problematic elements and their compounds. Not a good concept.
You mentioned vinegear. There is usually a lot of lead in old electronics. It was used to alloy the solder. Vinegear and lead can form Lead(II) acetate. A nasty poison (It tastes like sugar), to which many children have fallen victim in the past. It was an ingredient of wall paints, and children licked it from the painted materials, suffering severe brain damage or death. Not a good idea.
If you are not experienced, better start by separating the components mechanically and try to sell them as they are. F. e. you usually get more money for RAM modules on eBay, than you would ever be able to recover as precious metals with those limited means and experience, by yourself. Not to speak of the waste problem, the time, the energy, the investment in equipment.
Some old EOL electronic components sell for far much more than their value in PMs, because they are sought after for repairs.
That way your cash flow is also much faster.
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The problem with selling them like that is that scrappers usually have large quantities of RAM, CPU, BOARDS, etc and selling individual pieces requires selecting, testing the condition of the item to sell it as good or bad (if it is bad nobody would buy it for repairs, damaged pins etc) photographing and putting an ad for each individual item and then dealing with shipment, (wrapping delivering the package to the courier, post office then payment etc. When you have many items this becomes a full time job. Then
 

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