Hey I was taking some hd receivers apart and stumbled upon this. I do not have a way to test for gold as of right now but will be ordering a kit in the near future. Just wondering if any of the pros here have seen this yet and can identify it as either gold or just plan old yellow brass? Thanks in advance for your help!
Ewaste /HD recievers
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MMFJ
Well-known member
Funny, I had a question on one of my videos about "How can you tell by just looking if it is GOLD or just BRASS?"
It is a great question and one that is fairly simple to answer - at least for the bulk of stuff...
One of the key ways to tell if it is gold you are looking at is to ask yourself the question - "Does it make sense to put gold here?"
In the case of the total cover (which from the picture looks like brass), I'd have to say it doesn't (which I have never seen one that was...)
On the small internal parts, where connections are critical to not oxidize, etc., then it is POSSIBLY gold (and quite often, is).
Another thing to ask yourself is "would it make sense to use THAT MUCH gold to do whatever it is?" - that is the one that disappoints because you always want everything you see to be solid, massive layers of gold - but, it NEVER is - at least, not in electronics anyway!
It is a great question and one that is fairly simple to answer - at least for the bulk of stuff...
One of the key ways to tell if it is gold you are looking at is to ask yourself the question - "Does it make sense to put gold here?"
In the case of the total cover (which from the picture looks like brass), I'd have to say it doesn't (which I have never seen one that was...)
On the small internal parts, where connections are critical to not oxidize, etc., then it is POSSIBLY gold (and quite often, is).
Another thing to ask yourself is "would it make sense to use THAT MUCH gold to do whatever it is?" - that is the one that disappoints because you always want everything you see to be solid, massive layers of gold - but, it NEVER is - at least, not in electronics anyway!
qst42know
Well-known member
Nitric acid or 10k test acid will let you know. High frequency signal shielding is an application for gold or silver plate.
MMFJ
Well-known member
Help me understand the confusion part - I'll try to clarify. I do want to come up with a simple yet easy to understand answer for this one!OT2BNLA said:
Lou once told me a way to distinguish gold plating from brass - lick it. If there is no taste, it's gold. If it tastes metallic, it's brass.
MMFJ said:
Well there is no easy to understand answer, to me as a noob in the field the gold content in electronics is misleading. While I have taken apart 30k servers there is minimum evidence of gold but in a single small $100.00 cell phone I have been able to identify. So the part where you say should there be in this is misleading. That's all.
MMFJ
Well-known member
MMFJ
Well-known member
Now, there's a tip!goldsilverpro said:
FYI, it LOOKS, SMELLS and TASTES just like the others (kinda metallic, but not as strong as I'd hoped..) - except the 'doberman' which is the real thing (certainly 'no taste' is correct)......
MMFJ said:Now, there's a tip!goldsilverpro said:
FYI, it LOOKS, SMELLS and TASTES just like the others (kinda metallic, but not as strong as I'd hoped..) - except the 'doberman' which is the real thing (certainly 'no taste' is correct)......
Call me stubborn but my example is gold on both sides is yours because based on your photo's it looks like metal?
Geo
Well-known member
it certainly looks good but without testing its anyones guess.test it with a drop of nitric acid, if it turns green immediately, its brass.
I'm new to all of this too, so please take this as a question and not a suggestion.
If it were brass, couldn't you just stick it in a jar and put enough HCL in the jar to cover the bottom 10mm or so and let it sit over night? Brass has tin in it correct? If so it should react quickly to HCL. This of course would not tell you if it was gold it would just maybe rule out brass. I could be very wrong, please feel free to correct me because that's how I learn.
Thad.
If it were brass, couldn't you just stick it in a jar and put enough HCL in the jar to cover the bottom 10mm or so and let it sit over night? Brass has tin in it correct? If so it should react quickly to HCL. This of course would not tell you if it was gold it would just maybe rule out brass. I could be very wrong, please feel free to correct me because that's how I learn.
Thad.
That piece is brass, only way it might be gold plate is if it were military hardware and from the looks of the inside of it, it is not military grade. Time spent looking at brass and gold plate will train the eye and cut the need to test considerably. Just recently I had a decorative piece and would have sworn that it was gold plated, I mean it had the nice rich color of gold but Nitric said different. I still don't understand how the color was so close. Oh well, that's why we test things.
MMFJ
Well-known member
I agree with Smack that training the eye is key, though also just using some common sense pays off a lot as well.
The HARDEST thing is to train the BRAIN to get past the LIES the eye wants to tell you! One way I've tried to do is to look at something and say "You think that's gold? HA! PROVE IT!" Well, sometimes that works....... :roll:
In this case (and in MANY), though, one of the things to consider is the military application of a similar thing MIGHT be gold, but OT2BINLA said it was an HD receiver (an off the shelf consumer product...) - and fairly new (look at that shine!). I took an older one (more likely to be gold, or more gold) and it was more obvious from the pictures that it was metal.
Learn to DIStrust your eyes, and believe in the facts. Very few consumer products nowadays have much gold in them at all (other than cell phones). It is best to collect and sell the boards and not waste time on searching for what is not there.
Of course, a drop of solution from a $20 test kit also does a world of good in convincing the brain that the eyes are crazy :shock: Collect the "oh, I think this is gold" stuff in a box until you get the kit, then you will have a lot of things you can look at to see the reaction on various items and substances and quickly learn the difference (boy, does that sound like Hoke or what?????? 8)
The HARDEST thing is to train the BRAIN to get past the LIES the eye wants to tell you! One way I've tried to do is to look at something and say "You think that's gold? HA! PROVE IT!" Well, sometimes that works....... :roll:
In this case (and in MANY), though, one of the things to consider is the military application of a similar thing MIGHT be gold, but OT2BINLA said it was an HD receiver (an off the shelf consumer product...) - and fairly new (look at that shine!). I took an older one (more likely to be gold, or more gold) and it was more obvious from the pictures that it was metal.
Learn to DIStrust your eyes, and believe in the facts. Very few consumer products nowadays have much gold in them at all (other than cell phones). It is best to collect and sell the boards and not waste time on searching for what is not there.
Of course, a drop of solution from a $20 test kit also does a world of good in convincing the brain that the eyes are crazy :shock: Collect the "oh, I think this is gold" stuff in a box until you get the kit, then you will have a lot of things you can look at to see the reaction on various items and substances and quickly learn the difference (boy, does that sound like Hoke or what?????? 8)
Geo
Well-known member
tek4g63 said:
Thad, this kind thing will come in handy to know when processing. brass is an alloy of copper and zinc. bronze on the other hand is an alloy of copper and tin. to the layman on the street, theres hardly no difference but when you are processing metals with acids it helps to know whats in the metals your processing.
as a side note. if the caps had spring loaded tabs to hold it on, it could have very well been bronze because brass does not spring back when bent. all this is assuming its non magnetic.
publius
Well-known member
Springs that look brassy may be Beryllium/Copper. See: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Beryllium_poisoningGeo said:
My favorite way would be to cut off a small piece (say, 1/4" - 1/2'" square), cover with about 10 - 20ml of 50/50 nitric, and heat until the copper is dissolved. Use distilled water to dilute the nitric. If it stops dissolving, add a little more nitric. If it is gold plated, there will definitely be some gold flakes left over, usually floating on top. If there are no gold flakes, it was definitely not gold plated. Works every time on copper base.
