infinatesorrow
Member
- Joined
- Apr 27, 2011
- Messages
- 15
Okay'
Ill be the first to admit I did just about everything wrong in this situation. I will be taking pictures shortly as Im gathering everything up to take to a friends house with some excerpts from this forum. He has a little better attention span than me so Im going to use his brilliance to bolster my chaotic intelligence.
Let me first describe the process. I had started with the idea of inquartation with gold filled scrap; this consisted about 50/50 gold filled watch bands and gold filled necklaces and misc jewelery.
I had started the process, but for the apartment i live in the nitric fumes just werent going to work. So i tossed the pyrex cake pan in the fridge to contain and slow the reaction.
After that all h*** let loose in my life and for about 6 months this pan just sat in the bottom of a refrigerator and continued its reaction; albiet much slowed down. I pulled it out the other day and it was this jello of green nitric, with these growths of gold crystals in it. I heated it up and ended up with a picture perfect mixture. Had I waited till my computer was back up again (o.s. crashed) and done my research; chances are I would be now selling some good gold. But; no instead i got overzealous and threw the rest of my scrap (military surplus laser parts very heavy gold plate. Some mystery metals though and; of course solder ), and not nearly enough hcl.
Long story short I ended up with this concoction that formed 3 layers the liquid on top; this liquid when evaporated leaves a gold colored salt. The silver sludge in the middle; which when evaporated leaves all kinds of different types of salts (when i post the pictures youll see.), and last but not least the solids at the bottom containing alot of gold foils along with a brown sludge of Im assuming base metals.
After reading the forum for the past couple days off and on I decided to pour and filter the liquid; see if I could precipitate any gold from it, and see what came out of evaporating the liquid.(after using urea to neutralize the acids) I used sodium bisulfate as its easily acquired. The greyish-silver sludge pretty much dominated the procedure; that coupled with the amount of solids left over convinced me that my best next move would be to evaporate all the liquid (after a relatively pre-cursory filtering), and start over from step one. That is; of course after taking the salt that was left after evaporation and washing it thoroughly so Im starting with clean chlorides and not mixing the old witches brew back into the new process.
I am limited on resources; but have sodium nitrate, i believe enough to do a poor mans ar with the solids i have left over. Chances are that there will be a mostly copper-gold mix; but there will be silver and some small amount of tin. Though Im going to wait on the feedback here before taking any steps other than getting the basic preparations done. I could just as easily make a cold recipe nitric acid and start from there.
I will have questions; but Im guessing at this point some pics would be helpful for reference.
That being said Ill start with say 3 simple questions that will be for clarification and viewpoints on what I have already read. Sorry if I am asking for repeats; its how I learn; its how I train also i.e.: theres no such thing as a stupid question; except the one you didnt ask.
First: If I use a 50/50 nitric solution along with heat it will reduce the solids fairly well yes? Can i use the left over liquid after filtering for making ar?
Second: I havent found a real solid answer for this though theres been some mention of the process. Theres alot of technical jargon involved that completely demolishes my ability to fully absorb the information (adhd when I go to look up the chemical terms reactions and formulas I sooner or later get lost and distracted) so Ill ask outright:
In laymens terms what is the reaction of nitric with base metals?
What Im getting from what ive read is the copper and silver breaks down and suspends in the acids' but very little gold.
That being said my guess is that I would have to clean the nitric of the base metals in order to use it again yes? What would be the most economical way to do it, involving the least hazardous process?
Third:After evaporation I ended up with all these different mixtures of metal salts; Each different batch I have kept separate (pics soon). Im thinking of using a peroxide-bleach or peroxide hcl method of pulling whatever gold is in this stuff.
Question is: Does anybody have a better idea?
Mostly just looking for a bit of feedback on the situation before i start; yes I totally blew it the first time; but I learned what not to do which is after all part of the learning process.
Now Im thinking that learning what to do would be a good place to start
Oh and last but not least: melting :
1: is borax the best flux to use?
2: does it turn the copper into glass?
3: I have a little tiny torch that uses either map or propane; but the oxygen bottles are 8$ a pop and last 15 minutes if im lucky. Any ideas that are more economical?
4: Ive been looking at the microwave refining idea anyone have experience with this? Anyone happen to know a way to make one for less than the 200 of buying the kit? Or would the prudent action be to shell out the 2 hun and roll from there. At 8$ for 15 minutes itd pay for itself fairly quick.
Thanks to all who read this and specially those that leave feedback sorry if it seems a waste of time; trust me its not even if it seems I already know the answer.
Ill be the first to admit I did just about everything wrong in this situation. I will be taking pictures shortly as Im gathering everything up to take to a friends house with some excerpts from this forum. He has a little better attention span than me so Im going to use his brilliance to bolster my chaotic intelligence.
Let me first describe the process. I had started with the idea of inquartation with gold filled scrap; this consisted about 50/50 gold filled watch bands and gold filled necklaces and misc jewelery.
I had started the process, but for the apartment i live in the nitric fumes just werent going to work. So i tossed the pyrex cake pan in the fridge to contain and slow the reaction.
After that all h*** let loose in my life and for about 6 months this pan just sat in the bottom of a refrigerator and continued its reaction; albiet much slowed down. I pulled it out the other day and it was this jello of green nitric, with these growths of gold crystals in it. I heated it up and ended up with a picture perfect mixture. Had I waited till my computer was back up again (o.s. crashed) and done my research; chances are I would be now selling some good gold. But; no instead i got overzealous and threw the rest of my scrap (military surplus laser parts very heavy gold plate. Some mystery metals though and; of course solder ), and not nearly enough hcl.
Long story short I ended up with this concoction that formed 3 layers the liquid on top; this liquid when evaporated leaves a gold colored salt. The silver sludge in the middle; which when evaporated leaves all kinds of different types of salts (when i post the pictures youll see.), and last but not least the solids at the bottom containing alot of gold foils along with a brown sludge of Im assuming base metals.
After reading the forum for the past couple days off and on I decided to pour and filter the liquid; see if I could precipitate any gold from it, and see what came out of evaporating the liquid.(after using urea to neutralize the acids) I used sodium bisulfate as its easily acquired. The greyish-silver sludge pretty much dominated the procedure; that coupled with the amount of solids left over convinced me that my best next move would be to evaporate all the liquid (after a relatively pre-cursory filtering), and start over from step one. That is; of course after taking the salt that was left after evaporation and washing it thoroughly so Im starting with clean chlorides and not mixing the old witches brew back into the new process.
I am limited on resources; but have sodium nitrate, i believe enough to do a poor mans ar with the solids i have left over. Chances are that there will be a mostly copper-gold mix; but there will be silver and some small amount of tin. Though Im going to wait on the feedback here before taking any steps other than getting the basic preparations done. I could just as easily make a cold recipe nitric acid and start from there.
I will have questions; but Im guessing at this point some pics would be helpful for reference.
That being said Ill start with say 3 simple questions that will be for clarification and viewpoints on what I have already read. Sorry if I am asking for repeats; its how I learn; its how I train also i.e.: theres no such thing as a stupid question; except the one you didnt ask.
First: If I use a 50/50 nitric solution along with heat it will reduce the solids fairly well yes? Can i use the left over liquid after filtering for making ar?
Second: I havent found a real solid answer for this though theres been some mention of the process. Theres alot of technical jargon involved that completely demolishes my ability to fully absorb the information (adhd when I go to look up the chemical terms reactions and formulas I sooner or later get lost and distracted) so Ill ask outright:
In laymens terms what is the reaction of nitric with base metals?
What Im getting from what ive read is the copper and silver breaks down and suspends in the acids' but very little gold.
That being said my guess is that I would have to clean the nitric of the base metals in order to use it again yes? What would be the most economical way to do it, involving the least hazardous process?
Third:After evaporation I ended up with all these different mixtures of metal salts; Each different batch I have kept separate (pics soon). Im thinking of using a peroxide-bleach or peroxide hcl method of pulling whatever gold is in this stuff.
Question is: Does anybody have a better idea?
Mostly just looking for a bit of feedback on the situation before i start; yes I totally blew it the first time; but I learned what not to do which is after all part of the learning process.
Now Im thinking that learning what to do would be a good place to start
Oh and last but not least: melting :
1: is borax the best flux to use?
2: does it turn the copper into glass?
3: I have a little tiny torch that uses either map or propane; but the oxygen bottles are 8$ a pop and last 15 minutes if im lucky. Any ideas that are more economical?
4: Ive been looking at the microwave refining idea anyone have experience with this? Anyone happen to know a way to make one for less than the 200 of buying the kit? Or would the prudent action be to shell out the 2 hun and roll from there. At 8$ for 15 minutes itd pay for itself fairly quick.
Thanks to all who read this and specially those that leave feedback sorry if it seems a waste of time; trust me its not even if it seems I already know the answer.