gold cell questions

Advertise with us
shop deals on amazon
xelexo
Shop deals on ebay
Gold Refining Forum

Help Support Gold Refining Forum:

This site may earn a commission from merchant affiliate links, including eBay, Amazon, and others.
rewalston

rewalston

Well-known member
Joined
Dec 29, 2008
Messages
681
Location
Newmarket, Ontario
Hey Guys, hope everyone is doing well. Me?, I'm just trudging along. I have a couple of quick questions about the materials for the gold cell. First, I've been checking around for copper mesh and I haven't had any luck finding any locally, so I'm going to have to do the ol' internet thing. Anyway I found some mesh but I'm not sure exactly which one I should use. Here is the website that I found it on. http://www.dickblick.com/products/amaco-wireform-mesh/#description. The one I was looking at is on the very bottom of the list of pictures. What do you guys think? Yes, I know I could buy it from Steve, but I figure with the size that Dick Blick's have...it would give me plenty of screw-up room :lol: My second question (I sent Steve a PM but don't know how long it will take to get an answer from him)...For the Cathode would any other material work besides lead? I don't know if tin would work or not so I'm asking. I'm having a lot of fun trying to find lead, but I can get Tin fairly easily. I know in Steve's video it shows him using sinkers to melt into the cathode. All the sinkers I find up here are either tin or bismuth. Any ideas?

Rusty
 
did you try tire weights? tire repair shops usually have buckets full of them. if you order copper mesh try and make sure its either 60 or 80 mesh anything larger and pins will fall through. i thought of using copper sheet and punching holes in it with a nail. most gutter places carry copper sheet but its kind of pricey. i was thinking the sheet would hold up better than mesh. most wholesale building outlets carry copper sheet but you will have to buy a whole sheet as they will not cut it and at around $250 for a 4'x10' sheet, i think ill wait till i can find some scrap copper sheet to try it.
 
Thanks Geo, I was thinking about tire weights but they are lead/antimony...will the antimony cause any problems? The wiremesh at Dick Blick's is (I think) 80 mesh. I don't think $15 is too bad for almost 2 sq ft.

Rusty
 
not sure about the antimony. you would handle with care as you would lead anyway. you may check to see if antimony reacts with sulfuric acid or if its enert. wheel weights is what i use so if theres any adverse reactions please post.
 
If you can't get lead weights from a standard tyre shop then try a motorbike tyre shop..... I run a tyre garage and the standard car weights are mostly a zinc alloy due to restrictions using lead. Lead is still ok for use on bike wheels though. I've never heard of antimony so couldn't say whether the bike weights contain any
 
must be regional restrictions because there are no restrictions here in alabama. i understand there are restrictions on everything from fishing weights to pellets in shotgun shells but like i said, ive had no problems finding lead containing products here. as a matter of fact during my time scrapping ive sold wheel weights to bait shops for $0.25 per pound with the steel included. here the retailer gives you the option of going lead free as it is a matter of choice at the moment.
 
I'm in the UK, lol we get no such choices... I think practically everything containing lead has been replaced with an equivalent. I remember they started phasing lead out of everything from fishing to petrol some 15/20 years ago
 
vegaswinner said:
I'm in the UK, lol we get no such choices... I think practically everything containing lead has been replaced with an equivalent. I remember they started phasing lead out of everything from fishing to petrol some 15/20 years ago
Click to expand...


Everything except the church roof :roll:
 
I am new to gold recovery and I am getting ready to refining gold and just started a large batch of pins. I have given them a nitric bath and washed my pins.
Now I was wondering after I boil in HCLand wash them I understand that I am supposed to wash and incernerate soilids wash them angain and then to do the AR
but how long do I put them in AR solution and how do I recover gold after AR stage. Can someone please walk me through this?????? I would really appreciate the help.Thanks.
 
jsouth2011,

if it only gold (from platinum group metals) dissolved in your AR, the dilute hydrazine hydrate will precipitate your gold, BUT be very careful, hydrazine is very dangerous (it's used as rocket fuel).
 
going from nitric solution to a hcl acid solution without first incinerating the material will create a weak AR solution and you will lose some gold. i would advise you to read C.M. Hokes book "refining precious metal waste" there is a link to a free dowload copy in the signature line of a few members like Palladium and Claudie.
 
After nitric wash with water (not HCl yet), then you could incinerate and wash in HCl and water, to remove hard to filter metals like tin and other base metals,

{but I would have eliminated those metals before the nitric acid teatment to begin with}

why are you wanting to incenerate? are you having trouble filtering? if not after removing base metals from gold with nitric acid, then why not just go on to dissolving gold (base metals removed from it from nitric treatment)?

Geo gives some good advice (remember any time you mix HNO3 (nitric acid and HCl (hydrochloric acid), or even a salt of these in acid (in any perportion) you create some form of aqua regia, which dissolves the gold.
 
Hi Rewalston!
I live in Racine Wisconsin and three miles from here there is a company that casts lead products. I would asume they would have pure lead that they mix to get verious alloys. If you'd like, I could go ask the owners if they would ship you or sell me a small amount of pure lead and I could find a way to get it to you.
I've gotten old scrap computer equipment from them in the past. They seem to be cool.
 
artart47 said:
Hi Rewalston!
I live in Racine Wisconsin and three miles from here there is a company that casts lead products. I would asume they would have pure lead that they mix to get verious alloys. If you'd like, I could go ask the owners if they would ship you or sell me a small amount of pure lead and I could find a way to get it to you.
I've gotten old scrap computer equipment from them in the past. They seem to be cool.
Click to expand...

Hey Artart47, that would be cool. I checked the scrap yard I go to and it was a no go for lead. I'd be interested in probably 1/2lb or so...not sure how much lead it would take to make a few cathodes.

Rusty
 
the cathode for my cell which is similar to the one in steves video weighs almost 2 pounds. did you check with wholesale building supply houses? and plumbing supply, here you can buy lead for plumbing because people still use cast iron drain pipe.
 
A few places I've found here are Bass Pro and Cabelas both still sell lead for casting and can be ordered online.(might be restricted though.) Auto stores have battery post connectors for your car made from lead. Oreilly's auto here also carries sulpuric acid which is clear and cheaper than the liquid plumbing junk from the hardware store. Last but not least those junky garage sales where people are getting rid of old fishing equipment next to nothing . Usually having an old tackle box full of lead weights.
 
the only negative to buying new automotive battery acid is you have to evaporate so much water out of it to be useful. there is a battery supply shop here that will sell battery acid by the gallon for $18.00 per gallon but after its rendered down its only a quart and i can buy a quart of drain opener for about $11.00
 
Geo said:
the only negative to buying new automotive battery acid is you have to evaporate so much water out of it to be useful. there is a battery supply shop here that will sell battery acid by the gallon for $18.00 per gallon but after its rendered down its only a quart and i can buy a quart of drain opener for about $11.00
Click to expand...
Yeah I can understand the frustration of evaporation. I just got back earlier from a supply run and picked up 6 quart for $10.00, $18.00 seems kind of pricey. I also checked out the drain stuff looking for new products. Lowes had one similar to liquid lightning for $9. It said it had 12 different buffers added though.
 

Latest posts

Back
Top