Chemist here looking to do things right

[XeR0]

G'day everyone! New guy here. Found your site while I was researching for just the thing you guys are helping other scrappers do.

A bit about myself:
I'm an undergraduate chemist. However, I've done a lot of my own chemistry-related projects and such. I won't go into much, but lets say I've done a lot of do-it-yourself projects that involve some chemistry knowledge. Thankfully, those days are behind me. :wink:

It all started just a couple of days ago. I was going through some ideas that would allow me to make a profit and I began to remember my stock pile of electronics. I realized: "Wait a second! Those things have precious metals in 'em! Why not extract them and make a profit?!" I don't know why I haven't thought of that in the first place...but I'm glad I thought of it anyway.

There are a couple of things I would like to learn about before diving into this. I've downloaded and have begun reading Hoke's PDF. Lots of interesting info. I'm hoping - with my expenses being quite merciful at the moment - I could make a profit and turn this into my main source of income. I don't plan on doing this forever. After all, I do have ideas/inventions/experiments that I want to work on and this PM refining is the perfect stepping stone to build upon.

I plan on refining all the metals I can get from e-waste. I'll only refine the PMs but as for the other metals such as aluminum, copper, iron, etc. I do plan on turning them in for a profit. It may not be much, but the cents do add up. I plan to be as resourceful as possible; collecting and reusing whatever waste materials I have. From a chemical perspective, nothing is wasted. Everything can be used for something else. Hopefully, if all goes well, I'll post whatever advice/experience I have to support the forum and the scrap refining community at large.

I thank the forum creator(s), admins, moderators, and the members for producing the best site I've found for such an endeavor.

 

[etack]

welcome to the forum.

The best thing to do is read, read, and read.

I personally cherry-pick my boards and sell the rest. sense you are in the USA this might make you the most profit. Its hard work to do boards on a small scale.

Eric

 

[element47.5]

Just realize that starting from electronics scrap (ewaste) and having the idea "I could make a profit and turn this into my main source of income" that unless you can live on third-world income/expense levels, you need quite literally tons of this stuff to make out. And that of course starts to require such irritations as forklifts, rented warehouses, employees (yuk) and insurance and permits and ....on and on. Let's just say that as an "undergraduate chemist" I might assume that you have little or no real-world business experience. Nuff said. "Do the math". Please research (on this forum) expected PM yields from scrap before you envision the feasibility of supporting yourself at a Western standard of living from ewaste.

And yes, congratulations on finding the best spot to inform yourself. So far, you are 100% smashingly successful! LOL.

 

[butcher]

Several new members have gotten mad at me when I crush there high hopes and dreams telling them they would be better off getting a job at McDonald's hamburger joint, a full time job with a weekly pay check, saving your money and buying gold, than trying to learn to recover and refine precious metals from electronic scrap for a living, I will try to keep you from getting you mad at me and you can figure it out for yourself.

Your chemistry background will help some but, but you will still have to learn the chemistry of recovery and refining precious metals, and for that actually no chemistry background is necessarily needed (although very helpful), to understanding the chemistry involved to work with the metals and its chemistry.

You may be surprised the pennies maybe worth more than the dollars you are after...
100 penny's = one dollar
But
100 pennies in copper are worth more than a dollar.

The base metal (pennies) copper, brass, aluminum, stainless, and other scrap metals may add up to more than the dollar (gold and silver) in your scrap business.

Electronic scrap can make you a few pennies (in gold or silver) after you spend an awful lot of time learning its chemistry.

As I said your chemical background may help some, but you will still need an education in the chemistry involved here with recovery and refining, which many learn without understanding how the chemical formulas react, but they can understand how and why, and how to mix one metal with an acid or chemical will get them gold while another would just get them into one very dangerous mess, on a situation that could poison, burn, explode or harm them or others.

The base metals from the scrap business may just pay for and even provide the real gravy, and the recovered gold just give you a tiny shiny button of gold to put in your pocket, enough to buy a loaf of bread in your old age.

If you are serious about making this a business to at least break even, play with electronics, but spend your time learning to test, buy, sell, find at a fair price, and how to process higher grade scrap like sterling and karat gold bought at a fair price, or how to sell it without getting taken to the bank.

I may be talking somewhat in riddles but then maybe I am not.

If you need a job get that job to feed you, spend your spare time learning to recover and refine precious metals, sell those scrap metals you collect to pay for your truck, use your job after you learn how to buy karat gold, refine it, bury it, keeping your day job (at McDonald's or wherever you work) until you get skilled enough have enough business to quite the day job and refine and recover full time and learned to operate the business.

Keep the dreams but also wake up and open your eyes to reality, so you make the dream come true, and not just wake up to some nightmare...

Welcome to the forum the best place to learn to recover and refine precious metals, with or without understanding the chemistry.

P.S. Learning this skill and art can be very hard for those who think they can invent another process (or reinvent the wheel), before they really understand how the wheel works.