crockpot ate my gold

Shop deals on ebay
shop deals on amazon
xelexo
Advertise with us
Gold Refining Forum

Help Support Gold Refining Forum:

This site may earn a commission from merchant affiliate links, including eBay, Amazon, and others.
A

Anonymous

Guest
Hi everyone, I have been using hcl and a crockpot to remove gold off of these metal lids that attach to something called a dip some sort of computer part. Anyway I did a batch of around 400 and it came out pretty nice most of the gold just peeled right off and I got about 14 grams of gold foil. I ran the crockpot on low for 14 hours then on high for five until I could see the gold starting to peel off. So seeing that it worked so well I decided to run the remainder in a new batch thinking the more the better. In my second batch I had 1200 lids put in new muratic and fired up the crockpot, but I had tech difficulties my crockpot died. So I got a new one and continued on. When I thought it was ready I removed the lids and proceeded to rinse off my gold, but this time I came back with almost the same amount of my first batch about 14 grams. So if the other 28 grams have dissolved into the acid can you please tell me how to bring it back. Any help you can give would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks, Greg
 
So if the other 28 grams have dissolved into the acid can you please tell me how to bring it back.
Click to expand...

Were you using only muratic or did you add peroxide to the acid?Was it new acid or used in a different process?Did you use nitric anywhere in the process?Were the other 1200 plates the same kind as the first batch?
Johnny
 
All I used was fresh muratic no peroxide or nitric and the lids were the same as the first batch. the only difference was the amount of the lids 3 times more and the fact that it did not heat the same because the crockpot croaked.
 
If it was clean muratic with nothing else,then the heating methods,or temperatures would play no part at all.The only thing I can think of at this point is maybe the lids oxidized past the gold and what you are seeing is not what you think you are seeing.I have boiled hundreds of pounds of pins in plain clean muratic,and most of the time as the pins start to dissolve they will oxidize on the outside of the gold plating giving it the appearance that the gold is not there,but I assure you it is.That is assuming that you still have the plates in solid form.If everything has been digested then I would reccomend checking the acid with stannous to confirm the gold has been digested into solution,and if it has,then simply dilute the acid and drop with SMB.
Johnny
 
Johnny,

There are other posts as to muriatic alone dissolveing fine foils. Especially heated. I believe the reason being agreed upon was due to aeration of the Muriatic through stirring, boiling, etc,. The natural oxygen in the air we breathe can, in some circumstances oxidate the muriatic, forming a weak form of AP.


If this is the case, I wonder if when the heat went down would the gold precipitate out as a brown mud?

In any case, I would have to suggest using stannous chloride to test the solution for dissolved gold. Then if there is none indicated on a cotton swab, filter the solution thoroughly, and look for a brown-red precipitant.

Hope this helps.

Nick
 
There are other posts as to muriatic alone dissolveing fine foils. Especially heated. I believe the reason being agreed upon was due to aeration of the Muriatic through stirring, boiling, etc,. The natural oxygen in the air we breathe can, in some circumstances oxidate the muriatic, forming a weak form of AP.
Click to expand...

Good morning guys.Nick you are correct about the air around us being able to aerate the acid creating something similar to AP,however that cannot happen without assistance,whether it be mechanical or human.In the case of boiling,you are creating cavitation http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cavitation by lowering the acid's pressure below the surrounding atomspheric pressure thereby releasing gas,but this is not the same as aerating the acid.Here is a neat link http://www.byo.com/stories/techniques/article/indices/7-aeration/1671-winning-the-air-wars that explains how breweries eliminate oxygen from the wort they use.It states that as soon as the wort begins to boil,there is no more risk of oxidation.
Though boiling will speed up production in the digestion of base metals,It is the heat and agitation that speeds up the production,not the gas.I have never personally witnessed boiling muratic penetrate the density of pure gold.I worded that last statement like that because I am able to admit that I am human and very capable of making mistakes,and I am open to anyone proving me wrong.However I have boiled my gold foils and powders in clean muratic for years and as far as I know I have never lost any into the acid.

All that being said I don't believe that any of that would be a factor anyways seeing how he was using a crockpot as his heat source(they gererally will not get hot enough to make a "rolling boil").
Going back over his original post,I think I may be correct about the copper layer pertruding past the gold layer.Tryplecash if you can figure a way to get your solution heated again and dissolve the rest of the base metals I think you'll will find where your gold is,hiding right under the surface.Again,I am capable of being wrong.

Johnny
 
Johnny,

I didn't know that about the boiling part, thanks for the answer. I was just trying to post possible solutions, figuring he may have been stirring a lot, maybe trying to speed up the process.

I have been guilty of cutting corners when I first started dabbleing in this hobby. LOL

I have regretted them later. :oops:

I have the original post here to show exactly what was said in it. I'm sure I was wrong, but maybe it will help.

http://goldrefiningforum.com/phpBB3/viewtopic.php?f=49&t=4869

Good Luck,
Nick
 
No nick you are fine bud.I went through and read the whole post and I see what you are talking about.As you can see from the link I left on one of the previous posts,boiling cannot introduce aeration to the party,however as you,and everyone else,are well aware the added heat can speed up many processes.
I love your idea on the PM, I think it would help us all out if we could all meet in real life.That was an awesome Idea.
Johnny
 
nicknitro said:
I have been guilty of cutting corners when I first started dabbleing in this hobby. LOL
Click to expand...

Every time I have ever cut a corner I screw up. Don't cut corners in refining it costs time and quality.

To this day I regret not following Harold's incineration technique step by step. Hmm, I don't need to run a magnet through all this stuff, I'll just skip that...hmm...oh oh. :roll:
 
LeftyTheBandit said:
To this day I regret not following Harold's incineration technique step by step. Hmm, I don't need to run a magnet through all this stuff, I'll just skip that...hmm...oh oh. :roll:
Click to expand...
We can all thank Hoke for that bit of advice. My only contribution was having enough wisdom to see the value in incineration.

Harold
 

Latest posts

Back
Top