growing own silver crystals

[Toni Ward]

hi i wonder if anyone could help or give me some advice. i am a beginner to growing my own silver crystals however i do have my silver cell built and ready to go. would i be able to use fine silver casting grain instead of making my own silver cemet which i have made previously, or would it be ok to use fine silver casting grain instead of the cemet?
if someone would be able to help me with this i would greatly appreciate it. also can anyone give me the best advice or lead to what the best way of growing your own silver crystals would be? thank you so much and i really appreciate any help you would be able to offer me.

 

[Martijn]

Welcome to the forum.
Casted grains are fine as long as they are not too small.
Cemented silver is too fine and will not work. You need to pour anodes or shot.
Getting nice thick crystals is partially chance and you need a certain level of copper in the electrolyte and a certain concentration of sliver nitrate.
The ratio of anode/cathode surface is also a factor.
You can play with all these variables to get the result you want.
I also think it's a well kept secret that gives one an advantage to create something unique and beatiful to sell.
Knowledge gained by experimenting and research has a price.
Not that i know the secret recipe
I wish i did.

 

[Toni Ward]

Thank you so much for responding to me i greatly appreciate it.
i just wanted to make sure with the grains thats all as i am a beginner to all this. i agree with you completely about the experimenting.
if you dont mind me asking, i have a 20 litre stainless steel bowl that i am using for my silver cell with is my cathode. in simple terms lol how many grams of silver nitrate powder do i need to put in my silver cell as people keep saying different things to me. i no i need to dissolve the silver nitrate powder but how much and in how many litres of distilled water i am not sure about as like i said i keep getting different answers so i thought i would ask on here. thank you again.

 

[kurtak]

would i be able to use fine silver casting grain instead of making my own silver cemet which i have made previously, or would it be ok to use fine silver casting grain instead of the cemet?

We need better clarification on what you are asking here

1) are you asking about the silver you want to put in your anode basket - or -----

2) are you asking about the silver you want to use to make your electrolyte with

Kurt

 

[kurtak]

would i be able to use fine silver casting grain instead

One more question --- when you say - "fine silver casting grain" --- do you mean fine silver as in fine purity silver (999 or 9999 pure silver) or do you mean fine silver as in the size of the silver grains/particles

Kurt

 

[kurtak]

i no i need to dissolve the silver nitrate powder but how much and in how many litres of distilled water i am not sure about as like i said i keep getting different answers so i thought i would ask on here

The reason you get different answers is because there is no real set number for the ratio/concentration of silver needed in your electrolyte for the cell to work

How many grams silver per liter D-water (your electrolyte) depends "somewhat" on what the purpose/goals of running your cell is

Are you ----------

1) simply trying to refine impure silver - like silver cement with some copper contamination (about 98% silver 2% copper) or sterling silver that is 92.5% silver 7.5% copper --- in which case you don't really care about crystal size/density - you just want pure silver

2) or actually trying to influence the size/density of the crystal growth

And to clarify - the concentration of the silver in the electrolyte only plays "a part" in the out coming results of running your cell

Kurt

 

[Toni Ward]

The reason you get different answers is because there is no real set number for the ratio/concentration of silver needed in your electrolyte for the cell to work

How many grams silver per liter D-water (your electrolyte) depends "somewhat" on what the purpose/goals of running your cell is

Are you ----------

1) simply trying to refine impure silver - like silver cement with some copper contamination (about 98% silver 2% copper) or sterling silver that is 92.5% silver 7.5% copper --- in which case you don't really care about crystal size/density - you just want pure silver

2) or actually trying to influence the size/density of the crystal growth

And to clarify - the concentration of the silver in the electrolyte only plays "a part" in the out coming results of running your cell

Kurt

To influ3nce the size /density of the crystal growth. I mainly need to know what quantity of silver nitrate do i need to put to distilled water to get the most out of the cell (the most crystal) thank you

 

[Yggdrasil]

To influ3nce the size /density of the crystal growth. I mainly need to know what quantity of silver nitrate do i need to put to distilled water to get the most out of the cell (the most crystal) thank you

Drop these numbers in the words, it does not make you seem cool.
It don’t translate well and we have members which needs to use translators, se we consider these things against the forum rules.

 

[Yggdrasil]

To influ3nce the size /density of the crystal growth. I mainly need to know what quantity of silver nitrate do i need to put to distilled water to get the most out of the cell (the most crystal) thank you

Do you not use Nitric in your electrolyte?

 

[Toni Ward]

Me and my parter already have Silver nitrate powder so we just have to dissolve it. And I didn't mean to put numbers I'm doing this on my phone and sometimes my phone replaces e with 3 and I end up sending before realising. I'm not trying to look or seem cool.

 

[Toni Ward]

All I need to know is how much silver nitrate do I need to dissolve and in how many litres of distilled water to get the right amount in my 20 litre stainless steel bowl I am using for my silver cell.

 

[BGDOCK]

Maybe starting a cell a little smaller would be a little easier. Once you get your ratios right you can then move one to a bigger cell with the data you have complied from the smaller cell trial runs.

 

[Toni Ward]

What ratio would you recommend as we have been watching sreetips on YouTube that's how we built our silver cell but obviously he makes his own silver nitrate. Thank you for replying

 

[BGDOCK]

Low end 100 grams of silver
High end 200 grams of silver
Cover with distilled water, heat ,
pipette nitric to dissolve silver a little bit of Sterling would add some copper for ion transfer helps
Leave a piece silver in solution to use up excess nitric
Filter and add one liter of distilled water
Have plenty of feed stock to fed cell
1.5 to 3 VDC

 

[BGDOCK]

Might need an edit ;
If you only have silver nitrate in powered form
1.) make your electrolyte w/ half the amount
2.) cement out the other half , rinse , melt pour into shot/ cornflakes run through as feed stock

 

[Martijn]

About the 20 liter cell, why so big? How much kilo's of material do you want to process?
Imagine tipping over a 20 liter bowl. Make sure it's supported somehow.

A (glass) container with exchangeable cathodes so you can change the cathode and scrape off the crystals is another option.

How much Amps can you supply to the cell?
You need about 25A per square foot of effective anode / cathode surface if i'm right.

edited for spelling.

 

[Martijn]

Drop these numbers in the words, it does not make you seem cool.
It don’t translate well and we have members which needs to use translators, se we consider these things against the forum rules.

I think its a thick fingers small phone buttons problem...
I'm using the backspace about as much as the letters.

 

[Yggdrasil]

I think its a thick fingers small phone buttons problem...
I'm using the backspace about as much as the letters.

Doesn't fit on my phone, but autocorrect might be a stubborn actor in these case.

 

[kurtak]

To influ3nce the size /density of the crystal growth. I mainly need to know what quantity of silver nitrate do i need to put to distilled water to get the most out of the cell (the most crystal) thank you

I am sorry but I don't have a lot of time to post today - but - silver nitrate concentration of the electrolyte is NOT the only thing that influences crystal growth

You can have a high concentration of silver nitrate in the electrolyte but if other parameters of the cell are not right you still will not get good crystal growth

Kurt

 

[billgold]

Sreetips uses a much smaller bowl himself and, if I recall correctly, he harvests at least 1 kilogram of fine silver crystals with each cleaning. It may be far more - it has been a long time since I watched one of his silver refining videos.

I don't think he is as concerned about the silver nitrate concentration in his electrolyte as he is about too much copper going into solution over time and interfering with the silver transfer to the cathode bowl.

Kevin is pretty good about answering questions on his utube channels, so that would probably be the best place to ask detail questions.