Davis K Plating solution

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Joined
Oct 3, 2020
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Hi all,

I’m new to the forum and scrap computer parts quite frequently, but came across what I thought was a good deal. I purchased two bottles (31,103 Grams each) of plating solution. I’m not sure what the heck it is, but for a few dollars, I figured it was worth a shot. Anyone have ideas on what this is, and how I can best recover from it??

I’m thinking about just putting in an anode and cathode (thin strip of copper) and just letting it roll at 5V and <1a for a few days. I can throw whatever attaches there into a pile I’ll later refine.

Would I better off somehow dropping the gold out chemically and filter it? I just can’t find anything about what this stuff is, what’s in it, and what exactly it’s used for!

Thanks in advance for any guidance anyone can provide on this. I felt like I hit the jackpot, now I’m afraid I might just screw it up...
 

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Welcome to the forum James.
From what I can read it seems the product is sent dry and then water is added to allow its use so the first point to worry about is whether this has any gold at all, if it was made up and used the PM content may be very little and it’s possible this is just water put into the companies container.
One test you need to do is find out the PH of this material to find out if it’s acid or cyanide based, if it s the acid it’s a lot safer if it’s cyanide you have potential risks involved as I hope you understand.
You could simply call the manufacturer and ask them all the questions you need the answers for before doing anything but some testing will be needed to check their answers.
 
nickvc said:
Welcome to the forum James.
From what I can read it seems the product is sent dry and then water is added to allow its use

Nick - you could be right - but if you go to their web site it appears their products are all in "solution" form

:arrow: http://davis-k.com/plating_product07.htm#&

Not the most informative web site - I don't even see a "contact us" button

Also the bottles in the pics (James provided) do say they are plating "solutions" --- the bottle does say to "add only" water but that is for replenishing the bath &/or making up for evaporation

Due to the warning to add "only water" I "think we can "assume" it's a cyanide solution as we know that adding any acid to cyanide can go VERY bad --- but you are right that the very first test should be a Ph test to confirm that

And as you say we don't know if its a used solution or not - so don't know if it has the full troy ounce gold indicated on the bottle or if &/or how much of the gold has already been plated out --- he should be able to test that (once he knows the Ph) with a strip of aluminum (cyanide) or copper wire (acidic)

Also - in the pic of the two bottles I notice one bottle is a "pre-plate" solution & the other is the "color" plate solution --- I don't know enough about plating solutions to know what the difference is ???

James - you posted ---

I’m thinking about just putting in an anode and cathode (thin strip of copper) and just letting it roll at 5V and <1a for a few days. I can throw whatever attaches there into a pile I’ll later refine.

If it's a cyanide solution - & I was going to electro win it I would not use copper for the anode/cathode as that would result in copper contamination - you would be better served to use 316 stainless steel for your anode/cathode --- or you could cement it out with zinc (or aluminum)

If the solution(s) are acidic you could simply cement it out with copper

But FIRST we need to KNOW the Ph of BOTH solutions as both could be cyanide - or both acidic - or one cyanide & the other acidic

One thing is for sure - once we know the Ph of the solutions - you wont get better advice then advice from Nick

When I went to England to visit with Nick & Jon it just so happened that they were electro winning gold from some cyanide plating solution - here are a couple pics - anode & cathode are 316 SS - the end result was one kilo gold

Kurt
 

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Nick and Kurt,

Thank you both very much. Let me get the pH tested and get back to you. As I mentioned, I’ve never really dealt with this aspect of gold recovery before - my limited research and your highlight of it very potentially being cyanide based has me concerned.

I’ll also dig further into this manufacturer. As I first discovered this stuff yesterday, I had trouble finding anything about the company (the phone number is actually now associated with a completely different company/industry!). One of the bottles is still factory sealed. Oddly though, the unsealed bottle has more of a ‘tint’ to it - so it may have been worked. Either way, the potential for up to two Troy ounces for $20 is pretty wild!

I’ll let you guys know about if I can get in touch with the company, and what I can get about the pH. But first, I need to get back over to this estate sale to see what else may be hanging around!! The frightening (but also intriguing aspect) is the owner had a bunch of UNLABELED jars and vials on the work bench (and clearly no one related to the sale knew anything about these containers)... absolutely terrifying, if you ask me.

Again, thank you both very much!!
 
Again I’m guessing but the label saying poisonous tends to indicate cyanide but please be careful and get full knowledge of what you have before any further processing.
 
Hey! I recognize that gold! :mrgreen:

I was also there in England and one thing I learned was that if you crank up the power too high then the solution starts to give off hydrogen cyanide gas. We had the cyanide monitor trig once when we increased the power too high.

If you decide to go with plating the gold out then do it in a fume hood or outside so you don't poison yourself. And a cyanide monitor is also a good thing to have.

One trick I learned from Nick on that visit was to test cyanide solutions with a strip of aluminium foil. Hang it over the edge of the beaker into the solution and if it gets a purple and later turns into a brown deposit, you have gold in solution.

Göran
 
Göran,

Greatly appreciate that tip! I rolled the dice and gave the aluminum foil test a try - looks good to me!! I’m going to wait until my pH test strips come in before moving forward, but you helped provide a huge boost of confidence in what I have in my hands.

Also, I took note of your comments about providing too high of a current. Out of curiosity, what total wattage did you use? Either way, I plan on performing it outdoors in an open space.

Thanks so much!!
 

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That looks like gold.

I don't remember the settings of the power supply. The manufacturer should have recommended settings for plating that should be fairly safe. Read the instructions.

The voltage and current depends on the concentration of the electrolyte and the size of the electrodes. If you get bubbles then you definitely push it too hard, but you can get release of hydrogen cyanide even without bubbling. A cyanide monitor is recommended.

Göran
 
If you look at the gold plating units that jewellers use you should get a good idea of what amps and volts are needed, as you are in no hurry run it low and slow to avoid gassing off.
The alternative is to zinc it, I’d suggest heating the solution and keep stirring it if you decide to go this route.
The one problem you will have is of safely disposing of the spent solution which will need the cyanide killed off,
sunlight will actually do this for you if the solution can be exposed long enough.
 
toysRus...nope it's toys4us! LOL go slow and enjoy, your in good hands with these guys! :mrgreen:
question: if electroplating do i use the volts given the chart as a reference or is this chart for something else?
Thanks!
 

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So, I’m off and running... about 24 hours in. I’m pushing about 12V/800mA through. Theresa tiny bit of ‘fizz’ coming off the positive terminal, but it dissolves before reaching the surface. It’s in my garage, away from the house (possibly too cold, but it’s still going!).

What do you guys think? This first bottle is the”Pre-plate,” so I do fear it may be an alloy. The dried flake in the photos looks dark, but it has an almost velvety appearance on its surface.

So... when do Ionia it’s done? I measured and weighed everything precisely, before beginning. Shall I just wait until I no longer see fizz, then disassemble and clean, then weigh? Also, m sure that I won’t be able to recover 100% of PM - would cementing be a method of recovering the last little bit? Or is it just a lost cause once I give up on electroplated?

Again, thank you all for all the assistance with this!!
 

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I think I answered one of my questions. Since I have the anode at the top, I think it’s drawing all the dissolved gold to the top. As long as I leave it still, I think the color should help to indicate a rough gauge of how much is left.

What I did notice is that since it’s all drawn up, it does ‘fizz’ a little bit more than it did before. I guess the gas release is correlated with the concentration of the metal.
 

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That fizz is the deadly hydrogen cyanide gas released. It will outgas and be released from the bottle. Many people doesn't smell it and even if it looks like it is absorbed in the solution it will spread.

12V seems too high to be safe, we used 3.9 V in England and used a cyanide monitor to keep it on the safe side. The voltage is a product of several factors so what was safe for us doesn't need to be safe for you.

I hope for your sake that you don't have it in a closed space, obviously you don't have a fume hood.

Working with cyanide is a case where a little knowledge can be deadly.

Göran
 
56.5 grams, so far. It just keeps cranking out more metal! As you can see in the photos, the color is off just slightly, so, I’m not quite certain it’s 24k. You can actually see three dots of copper. Although I only had the stainless touching the liquid, the fluid was drawn continuously up the cathode, and even back through the wire. It dissolved the copper and broke the circuit a few times - so some copper definitely was dissolved and deposited on the anode.

Thanks again for all your help, everyone. This was an awesome find and recovering the majority of it, *safely*, was great! Really appreciate all the info and help.
 

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Again, thanks for all the help!! Just a few quick other questions as I’m breaking down my setup (after nearly three months, it’s finally stopped depositing!)

My anode wire appears to be completely black. Is this gold that has worked its way up myanode and coated the wire? It’s gone nearly all the way to the ac/dc converter. I’m thinking about just dissolving off the copper and the refining the remnants, later on.

I know I have copper that has dissolved off my cathode (it occasionally got wet, and ate through the wire). This should have collected with my gold on the anode, I’m assuming - but I have some solid material collecting in the fluid, which is a brownish red. Could this be copper? The cathode has also turned this same color and it looks like it has just been falling off into the solution.

Again, thanks so much! This has been a really cool find and process of recovering. Couldn’t have done it (*safely*) without the guidance of this group!
 

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