Difference between magnetic gold filled and nonmagnetic

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croakersoaker

Active member
Joined
Aug 22, 2009
Messages
40
Hey guys I have about a thousand grams of gold filled pretty evenly divided between magnetic and nonmagnetic gild filled scrap. The magnetic scrap is mostly caps and watchbands. Can somebody tell me the difference, do you process them the same. Can you run them together. I have steves video and have been reading alot but have not seen thus covered. I know there are some refiners that accept gold filled but not magnetic is it harder to process thanks
 
The good news is gold filled is one of the best sources of gold and reasonably easy to process, the bad news is your going to have to strip down your magnetic material and your 500 grams will shrink to around 200 at a guess. This stuff can be filthy if it's worn so make sure you clean it well then it's just a case of taking the caps off the steel springs, pliers or side cutters work but mind the springs they tend to get you very easily, hence the cleaning first ! The stripping is a pain but just do a few at a time or in future when you get them, the processes to recover and refine GF is well documented so it should be easy once you have it all stripped and ready to start.
Good luck and watch those damn springs.
 
Thanks and your not kidding about the funk inside the watchbands. Pretty disgusting and I got pricked by one of the tiny springs already. So there's no difference in processing the magnetic stuff. Just digest the base metals in nitric then Go to aqua Regia or hcl/cl?
 
The chances are that the springs are stainless so you need to strip them down as nitric won't touch the stainless but it will cause problems in AR, I don't think Chlorox will work as the foils may be too thick and are karat alloys but I might be wrong on that, check to see if anyone else has used it.
 
hcl/Cl is not a good option. if you start with 400ml hcl (for example) by the time you dissolve twenty grams of GF you may have a gallon of solution.its very inefficient on solids bigger than powder or foils.
 
Oh sorry I was planning to first digest the base metals in nitric then do the muriatic and chlorox for the foils . Should I use nitric and muriatic instead, I think Steve uses muratic and chlorox in the video . I plan to watch it a few more times before I attempt it
 
hcl/Cl is ok to use for foils. after the nitric process its always a good idea to heat the material to red hot and keep it there a few minutes to rid it of any acid residue. when you go from a nitric solution to a hcl solution or from a hcl solution to a nitric solution you should first incinerate the material or you will make an AR solution and could lose some of your values.
 
nickvc said:
The chances are that the springs are stainless so you need to strip them down as nitric won't touch the stainless but it will cause problems in AR, I don't think Chlorox will work as the foils may be too thick and are karat alloys but I might be wrong on that, check to see if anyone else has used it.
Click to expand...
I agree fully. I used to strip the gold filled from watch bands, but soon realized it was not worth the time it took. In the end, I used a cyanide stripping cell, which would pull the gold, silver and copper, leaving behind the unwanted stainless.

I do not recommend watch bands be processed in nitric unless the stainless has been eliminated. To do so is to risk losing a respectable percentage of the gold, which will be trapped in springs and other crevices, where it may not be removed without considerable difficulty. Digesting the stainless with AR is an option, but that's not a great way to go, either.

Harold
 
All of the gold filled tops and pieces have already been removed from the bands but they are still attracted to a magnet is that ok?
 
Sounds like not all the springs have been removed, try a soak in hydrochloric it should loosen if not totally remove the springs. If you do this make sure you incinerate the heads to remove the acid before going onto the nitric to avoid creating AR and losing values.
 
I got all the springs off still magnetic, I might add that I am using a rare earth magnet and the little gold filled caps are definitely attracted
 
Either a magnetic grade of stainless (some flatware is magnetic) or the caps have been heavily cold worked. Cold worked stainless can be mildly magnetic.
 
some .925 silver is magnetic according to one of our members. what ever the base metal used in it could be the same as in your gold filled.
 
croakersoaker said:
All of the gold filled tops and pieces have already been removed from the bands but they are still attracted to a magnet is that ok?
Click to expand...
Most likely, yes. Try running a single piece in dilute nitric to see if it dissolves. I expect there's some nickel that's attracted to the magnet. If they dissolve in nitric, go for it!

Oh, yeah! Do the smart thing. Incinerate everything before you introduce acid.

Harold
 
I've got a similar situation: new watch parts, gold filled, but with stainless steel parts.

I'd conceptualized using nitric to dissolve the base metals, then sulfuric to dissolve the stainless. Followed by traditional AR, etc.


Thoughts?
 
I'd try to strip as much as possible manually and if that becomes a pain try hydrochloric which should dissolve the stainless, a complete dissolution may not be necessary as when the springs lose their tensile strength they may well just fall out.
Warning if you use this method incineration before either acid treatment is a must especially so after the hydrochloric and before the nitric, values may well be lost if you don't.
 
These pieces are new. I don't think touched by human hands yet. Well, much, anyway. :mrgreen: And I'm not talking springs, but larger parts imbedded into the GF material. Mechanical removal, while I'll certainly attempt it, doesn't seem practical.

I hear you about making sure no HCl and Nitric come together before their time, else I lose gold and other AR soluble values. Thanks for the incineration tip.

Is HCl more reactive to stainless steel than sulfuric? I've read elsewhere on this site (Hoke perhaps?), that sulfuric readily dissolves stainless.
 
are you saying the magnetic material is plated? ive never heard of gold filled with a magnetic center. gold filled is normally gold over copper or some other softer base metal. gold fill starts out as a biscuit or a gold tube with a base metal center thats then rolled or stretched into shape. its hard to do that with a steel base metal.
 
OK, I'll spill.

i-GgmbdGH-L.jpg


GF watch crowns. The "stems" that connect the crown to the watch mechanism are either brass (no problemo), or stainless steel. As the pieces are small, I don't feel like snapping the SS off with a pair of nippers. None of the crowns, that I can tell, are magnetic.

I just want to nitric off copper, etc (is "nitric" a verb?), and then sulfuric off the stainless. Seems workable, but I thought I'd ask here first.

:lol:

Oh, note the grease in the one on the lower right. Looks like I'll be incinerating after all. :mrgreen:
 

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