Chip incineration - Leftover carbon

[VanMarco]

the things i build were made with 55gal drum side. they resist a lot better than tin cans, even though it's still from a "can". Just bigger.
Also, the boiler is great at pyrolizing, but to fully ash, it takes a long time. the black you see in the last picture, is actually oxidized copper. there is zero carbon left.
I was wondering this. assuming i do the pyrolizing in the boiler as it's quite quick (aka, turning into carbon), how can i then ash them? I could use propane and a furnace?

 

[Yggdrasil]

the things i build were made with 55gal drum side. they resist a lot better than tin cans, even though it's still from a "can". Just bigger.
Also, the boiler is great at pyrolizing, but to fully ash, it takes a long time. the black you see in the last picture, is actually oxidized copper. there is zero carbon left.
I was wondering this. assuming i do the pyrolizing in the boiler as it's quite quick (aka, turning into carbon), how can i then ash them? I could use propane and a furnace?

Pyrolizing is not for ashing, that is for getting rid of the volatile compounds in a way that they can be burnt off/decomposed in a way that will not/minimize releasing toxic elements to the air.
The actual ashing is done afterwards with plenty heat and access to air.
There are a load of threads in here on this very subject.

 

[stella polaris]

If you crush them, after pyrolysing (no oxygen added), it speed up things when ashing (oxygen added). The tinner the carbon layer is the faster ashing you get.

 

[VanMarco]

this is 2 micro pictures of pyrolized, milled material. this will be ashed soon. I am not an expert in ball milling, I am using roundish gravel to mill these. it takes, hours.

 

[VanMarco]

this is what is left after a few hours of ball mill. the small parts are tiny enough that i believe i can incinerate them fully. also, i picked out some copper heatsinks and parts, do these hold any precious metals or it's just plain copper.

 

[Yggdrasil]

this is what is left after a few hours of ball mill. the small parts are tiny enough that i believe i can incinerate them fully. also, i picked out some copper heatsinks and parts, do these hold any precious metals or it's just plain copper.

There is not reason to have PMs in heatsinks.

 

[VanMarco]

I found I was being stingy with propane use and shorting the overall time required - once they are past flames and turned to red glow coals thats when lower heat and a lot more time can finish it at one go.

Also - Antimony can be 2 or more percent of the epoxy and is used as a flame suppressant in many many electronic components - leaves the ash 'gummy' and I found a water boil with a tiny bit of HCl turned the silicon frit dust a bright white and let gold gather together easier...

Photo is example of a hurried burn, water washed to get black inky dregs out but not mild HCl washed - note the wires melted to balls from extreme temperature flame-out to reduce smoke & soot discharge...

View attachment 55890

EDIT: Wow, that was 7 years ago - sheesh, time flies by : (

Hello there
Can you kindly explain a little bit about this antimony thing?

Here is my concentrate, result of multiple water washes, leaving only the heaviest stuff.
I also kept ALL the wash water and what washed. As it seems from the pics, and also under the microscope, most gold bond wires have.. "disappeared" in their original form, an are now grains of gold.
As I fear i may have washed a bit too much, what do i do with what was washed at the bottom of the buckets, give the a boil with some dilute hcl, then gravity separate again?

thanks!

 

[Yggdrasil]

Hello there
Can you kindly explain a little bit about this antimony thing?

Here is my concentrate, result of multiple water washes, leaving only the heaviest stuff.
I also kept ALL the wash water and what washed. As it seems from the pics, and also under the microscope, most gold bond wires have.. "disappeared" in their original form, an are now grains of gold.
As I fear i may have washed a bit too much, what do i do with what was washed at the bottom of the buckets, give the a boil with some dilute hcl, then gravity separate again?

thanks!

Did you read Kurt's post on this?

 

[Yggdrasil]

Hello there
Can you kindly explain a little bit about this antimony thing?

Here is my concentrate, result of multiple water washes, leaving only the heaviest stuff.
I also kept ALL the wash water and what washed. As it seems from the pics, and also under the microscope, most gold bond wires have.. "disappeared" in their original form, an are now grains of gold.
As I fear i may have washed a bit too much, what do i do with what was washed at the bottom of the buckets, give the a boil with some dilute hcl, then gravity separate again?

thanks!

Antimony or Lead is used as a Collector metal before Cupelling.

 

[dannlee]

That last picture shows chip legs & traces - kovar alloy can be magnetically filtered from ash, folks depend on mechanical abrasion to break laser welded gold spiderwire from chip legs and often just normal finger grinding the ashed chip or mortar/pestle action on condensed wire clumps gets most of it free... beware razor sharp needle effects, fingertips will be pincushions once getting near where there are thousands of chip legs clumped together...

- yet if your wire has gone to beads there is a good chance some portion has melted back brazed over the kovar and there will be losses, save the chip legs for later - get the easy gold recovered and safe before continuing...

Antimony

My first time chip burn...