Hello all,
i found old boards from the 60's that had been laying outside rotting. After scraping some dirt off the contact pins I noticed they had gold plating. I've been saving these up as I thought I would clean them and than run them thru a cell. However I ran into problems getting them clean enough for the cell. I've tried every type of cleaner on small batches with no luck. Which brought to mind maybe incineration. I tried a very small batch with a propane torch, had kind of a greenish flame to them until i barely had it glowing and removed them to cool. After letting them cool in water I noticed I no longer have a gold plate and pins are still not clean enough. Can anybody offer any advice on very dirty pins? Maybe the plate is to thin even thou they are very dated. I have tried a few in hcl but it appeared the copper or plated metal was getting attacked before the dirt.
I can not tell which pic is which now that I've uploaded them but 1 is in the casing with a couple pounds scratched and the other is 2 after incineration.
Thank you,
Raz
i found old boards from the 60's that had been laying outside rotting. After scraping some dirt off the contact pins I noticed they had gold plating. I've been saving these up as I thought I would clean them and than run them thru a cell. However I ran into problems getting them clean enough for the cell. I've tried every type of cleaner on small batches with no luck. Which brought to mind maybe incineration. I tried a very small batch with a propane torch, had kind of a greenish flame to them until i barely had it glowing and removed them to cool. After letting them cool in water I noticed I no longer have a gold plate and pins are still not clean enough. Can anybody offer any advice on very dirty pins? Maybe the plate is to thin even thou they are very dated. I have tried a few in hcl but it appeared the copper or plated metal was getting attacked before the dirt.
I can not tell which pic is which now that I've uploaded them but 1 is in the casing with a couple pounds scratched and the other is 2 after incineration.
Thank you,
Raz