Film silver recover,a new process

[Juan Manuel Arcos Frank]

Hoardpm:

Yes,Sir...this is all what you have to do...no colloids,no gelatine,nothing of nothing except pure silver...from my experience 1 kg. of normal radiographies have 12.8 gr. of silver....1 kg. of offset negatives from newspapers has 10.2 gr. of silver....Good luck.

Manuel

 

[goldsilverpro]

from my experience 1 kg. of normal radiographies have 12.8 gr. of silver....1 kg. of offset negatives from newspapers has 10.2 gr. of silver

From my experience (50,000,000 pounds of film processed and 6,000 assays done on this film - from about 2000 to 2004 - I did these assays and the actual yields proved them), your figure for average radiographies is way too high, by about double.

In the U.S., the average figure for developed rare earth x-ray film (the standard type film used in the U.S. since 1985) is very close to 0.1 tr.oz./pound (6.8 gm/kg). This average figure is absolutely set in stone. I've seen it run from 4.1 gm/kg to 9.6 gm/kg, depending on how black it is.

Undeveloped (green) rare earth film does run about 12.4 gm/kg, but it makes up a very small percentage of the scrap film available.

Developed NMX (a trade name), the film used prior to 1985, did run about 11.6 gm/kg. Maybe they're still using that in Mexico.

Average newspaper litho film does run about 10.2 gm/kg, as you said, but it can run from 0 to about 17.7 gm/kg, depending on the percentage of black covering the film.

 

[hoardpm]

well this process has got my curiosity going. My sister-inlaw is a radioligist. She had stated that the "owner" of the clinic was looking to avoid the cost of disposing of the films and such. So I told her to I would take the stuff free of charge. Her boss wants to talk to me about how I'm going to go about destroying the films and such. But, I that brings a whole new problem because there are paitent privacy laws which require "proof of distruction" if the films are given to another party to dispose of. Not sure how to go about accomplishing that task. I am willing to bet the clinic she works at will spend the money to switch to a totally digital X-ray process. In the event of that happening. Are there any other sources of silver from film I could explore and how would I know where to start looking?

 

[Oz]

For destruction of the films just use a paper shredder, that should also leave you a material that would be easier to keep in intimate contact with your solutions.

 

[goldsilverpro]

Besides having to destroy the film, if you don't cut the film up in some way, the full sheets will stick together and it will take forever (many hours, in some cases - sometimes, the full sheets never completely strip) for the solution to penetrate between the sheets, even with tumbling. When the emulsion gets wet, it gets sticky. You can run the sheets one at a time but, of course, that's a very slow process.

Occasionally, we received film that had once gotten wet and then had dried. The sheets were permanently glued together, some in 20 pound chunks that were way too thick to run through the chopper. When you tried to pull the sheets apart, they tore. The only way to process it was incineration, which can lose as much as 30% of the silver in the smoke.

A paper shredder works but it twists the pieces badly and this gives the material a very low bulk density. In other words, very little weight of material will fit into a given container. Hammer mills do the same thing. Equipment that actual cuts (chops or shears) the film into small flat pieces works much better, but it is expensive.

We chopped the film into about 3/8" pieces and put it into 40 gal fiber drums, which held about 65 pounds of this material. Occasionally, someone would send in material that that had been run through a hammer mill or a paper shredder. The drums would only hold about 10 pounds of this material. Therefore, in a given sized container, you can run about 6 times more production with chopped film than you can with film run though a paper shredder.

 

[Juan Manuel Arcos Frank]

GSP,my good Friend:

Sorry...I was not in my town that is what I am late.

I call "common radiographies" radiographies made in an X ray gabinet or a hospital,with exposure index of 50% ( I mean,50% of the film is black).News paper negatives have a 70% exposure index.Of course,silver content varies widely.If I can manage the server I will post a pic of the silver nugget I got.

Have a nice day.

Your friend
Manuel

 

[Juan Manuel Arcos Frank]

Hoardpm:

Here is a trick.. you have to pellet your films... I do not the name in USA (here in Mexico it is called "peletizadora"= pellet machine).but people who recover PET bottles have this kind of machinery..so turn your films into pellets and you can handle many kilograms of radiographies for the oxalic process.Here,in Mexico,PET´s guys charge 1 peso (0.074 USD) to turn 1 kg of radiographies into pellets.

Complete films can be recovered with an out of date X ray processor,you just need to modify the heating system to acheive 95 C which is the process temperature.

You can also do it manually,get an used stainless steel tank( because a new one is very expensive),a direct fire device to heat the solution,put the films into the solution,heat them and you will get the silver...easy and fast.Recently I assisted a community in Honduras with this process,now they are processing 500 kg radiographies/day,I am sure you can do it too.

Regards.

Manuel

 

[qst42know]

I have a question.

Has anyone recovered silver from old home movies? Those 8mm cameras used to be quite popular. That and other films.

 

[goldsilverpro]

If they are color, there is no silver on them. With color, all the silver dissolves into the chemistry.

 

[Juan Manuel Arcos Frank]

Yes,GSP is right,color films do not have silver.B/W films contain silver,they are very old films and if you find them be careful to trasport them because they can start a fire that you can not ever stop...in fact you have to trasport them submerged in water.

Mexico´s film archive was lost in the fire of 24/March/1982.Nobody could stop the fire.

Regards

Manuel

 

[goldsilverpro]

I have never seen nitrate film. Here's a good site that tells about the dangers of it and how to detect nitrate film.
http://www.movieeditor.com/2005/nitrate.fire.html

As I understand it, nitrate film was only made in 35 mm and 17.5 mm (35 mm split in half) and they stopped making it in 1952. The motion picture industry was the biggest user of it.

It was generally replaced by "safety film", made from cellulose acetate. Acetate film smells like vinegar. When it ages, it can get very crumbly.

 

[qst42know]

From the link GSP provided they will not spontaneously ignite. So transporting them in water should not be absolutely necessary. However the film negatives that I had, once cleaned of silver were very eager to burn. One at a time would disappear in an instant. Ten at a time in the same instant. Trapping them in a film can would likely accelerate them. They burned almost identical to smokeless gun powder, no residue and big flames. It didn't require a flame to ignite just a touch from a cigarette brushed lightly on an edge. Wicked stuff. A room full would be extremely dangerous, a building full downright explosive.

 

[golddie]

Hi Gsp

I could not see anything from this link


http://www.movieeditor.com/2005/nitrate.fire.html

 

[goldsilverpro]

They must have removed the link. Just search for something like - "nitrate film" dangers - in Google

 

[Harold_V]

However the film negatives that I had, once cleaned of silver were very eager to burn. One at a time would disappear in an instant. Ten at a time in the same instant. Trapping them in a film can would likely accelerate them. They burned almost identical to smokeless gun powder, no residue and big flames.

Many of the very early wire frame eye glasses used a plastic that burned equally as fast. Sure was easy to eliminate the plastic.

Harold