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hopethisworks

Member
Joined
Dec 23, 2011
Messages
7
Location
Phoenix AZ USA
I know, read everything first, then ask questions, so I dont need that reiterated.
I'm here as a result of stupidly following a youtube video. To keep it short I pulled the pins from 70 pentium 4's which are now in 700ml of ar solution that has had some water mixed in(once again $%^&*youtube). I'd like to salvage some of this. I know it's late fri. before christmas eve so getting chemicals until Mon. is going to be hard. I don't know if time is a factor once I'm at this point, already been 3 days, stupid u tube actually said to let the ar evaporate and what would be left is the gold, I know this is wrong, now!
With the in-laws party and being best man at a wedding tommorow I don't have the time to read everything at this point. And if it is time sensitive, what is the best, fastest, cheapest way to Gold chloride to precipitate? ferreous sulfate? I would like to salvage as much of this disaster as possible. Thanks
 
My friend you have a long journey ahaed of you, chances of someone learning to recover, and refine gold from watching a youtube video is pretty slim, there is no fast quick way, you must read, educate yourself as much as you can....learn how to ask the rite questions, your not going to get spoon-fed here,

Sorry if i sound like a jerk thats not my intension


auric chloride can be presipatated with sodium metabisulfite.
this is just one of several ways

Study hard, be safe
 
Thanks. Yeah I realized I screwed up. I'm just trying to salvage as much as I can at this point. I know I've got a lot to learn, I just didn't want to lose anymore if at all possible.
 
There is no simple fix to this solution. What you need to do will take more than a few minutes to get it right.
You have pressing family matters to take care of first.
So put everything in a glass jar or container with a loose fitting lid (so pressure can vent) and put it in a safe place until you have plenty of time.We can help you, but it will be "help you learn". By rushing to get it done before time runs out will teach you little to nothing. It won't hurt the solution to wait a few days.

In the meantime write down exactly what you have done. Read Hoke's book so you can understand the processes we will be using. If you don't read, how will you understand what we are talking about. Read a few posts of others having the same problems. Then you will be able to form questions and understand questions and answers given to you.

Processing precious metals is a learned skill and also a form of art. So if You don't have time for learning skills or artistic expression ...
well you see where that was going :shock:

Tom C.
 
hopethisworks,
I want to rebuild my engine on my truck, I am in a hurry, would like to get it done before Christmas, I am not sure how to pull out the motor, but I saw a video on it it looked so easy, I do not have much time before Christmas, can you write a post and tell me all the details I need to know to get this engine back running like new. I do not have time to do any studying, and would like to drive the truck. Thanks looking forward to all of you giving me all of the minute details.

joking, my truck runs great (next week can you teach me how to repair TV’s?)

hopethisworks,
my guess is you have made mistakes that will give you trouble, if all you know so far is from you tube video, there is a lot to recovering and refining (like rebuilding engines or fixing TV’s) it is not something you will learn overnight, there are many things you will need to study (Safety, and dealing with waste), these can be more important than getting a few grams of gold, not learning these may cost you more than all of the gold you would see in a lifetime.

we help but you have much work to do, look deep into this it is not as simple as it sounds (we have people doing this their whole life who are still learning more about it), you will not learn that overnight.

I am not making fun of you by this post, but I am making fun to try and get the message across.

Lets not just hope this works, but study hard to make it work.
 
Hopethisworks, you stated that you used AR; did you take the proper safety precautions in handling the chemicals, especially nitric acid fumes?

Be safe!

Phil
 
I appreciate the answers. I wasn't trying to find a fast short-cut to it all. I just wanted to make sure it wasn't time sensitive. AND try to salvage as much of this as I could if it was. I did download the book and am reading it. I understand that learning is a neverending process. I am a custom furniture builder, and a mechanic(I can rebuild your motor in a couple of hours!!) I've spent years learning these crafts and still try to improve my knowledge and skilset daily.
I'll admit my dog probably knows more about chemistry then I do. And I'm trying to do this on the cheap, and hopefully make a little money at it. So I appreciate any help I can get, and I'm not trying to insult anyone that has spent years learning their art. With the economy the way it is here not to many people are buying $10,000 bedroom sets!!!!!

I mixed my AR outside and away from any habitated building, and made sure I stayed upwind!!!

From what I'm seeing, I'm assuming Urea is the most common way of removing the nitric acid from the AR or neutrilizing it. Is ferrous sulfate even used to precipitate gold anymore(the book is a little dated!! wish we had those prices again!)?
Once again thanks to those that are willing to impart some of their knowledge to an(old)youngster.
 
the processes in the book works as well today as they did back then. your gold is safe in whatever form it is in now and theres no rush (on its part) to try and reclaim it yet. cap everything safely and study on the process your trying to do before you attempt to reclaim your gold.
 
I have a couple of general questions, Once again thank you so much all for the help, and yes I know that I screwed up and got ahead of myself. I can't change that back.

Has anyone ran a batch of just the pins from the pentium 4's? I didn't weigh what I had so I don't have any clear idea on how much gold is on them and can't run any kind of mathmatical formulas to know how much precipitant to add(yes start small and keep adding)? I just thought maybe someone had ran them and could give me a ball park figure on the amount of weight of the pins on pentium 4 cpu, then I can times that times 70.

The only muriatic I can find around here tops at 14% HCL, is this enough for AR?

Once again thanks for the help, and hope all have a merry Christmas.
 
hopethisworks said:
I just thought maybe someone had ran them and could give me a ball park figure on the amount of weight of the pins on pentium 4 cpu, then I can times that times 70.
Click to expand...
P4's usually yield about $16-$18 per pound,in gold at $1600 spot.That yield is based on the "whole" weight of the cpus,and includes the gold from the incinerated pcb material,not just the pins.In order to ahve any kind of any idea,you would have to know the starting weights,and the ratio of gold between the pins,and the pcb material,which I do not have.Then you would have to do divisions between all 3 weights(heat spreader,pins,and pcb)then multiply that ,times the weight of the pins that you started with.Not to mention,not all P4's are the same in weight,to begin with,and not all yields are the same.So it would be an almost impossible mission,to say the least.
However you could get a rough idea,if you have the left over cpu pieces,and some that had not been taken apart yet.Weight out 1 pound of full P4's.Take that total and divide it by $17.That will give you a rough idea of the max amount of gold you can get per P4.Then simply multiply that number by how many cpus you started with.Again this will get you close to a "maximum" figure of gold you could hope to extract.Most likely you will not get that amount.P4's also have gold in the pcb material,and some have a gold plating on the underside of the heatspreader that needs to be leached off.But you said you wanted an idea,and this is the best I can do.
 
Rather than relying on a start weight. Before you try to precipitate make some stannous chloride. The test will tell you when you have added enough precipitant. It is the best way to know when the job is done.
 
It is a waste of time but calculate all you want, ultimately it's the stannous test that reveals the end point.

When you have a number and have added all that you figure, then what?

Are you going to leave some gold behind?

The test is far more important than you realize.
 
hopethisworks said:
Thanks, I have 1 unmolested cpu, and a bunch of teh one's I torched the pins out of, So I'll try to come up with some kind of figure.
Click to expand...

Heh! Come up with some kind of figure? Brings to mind the government official guy being chased by a bull--------"Show him your badge"
If you hope to live up to your name, then, sure, do as you wish.

I realize you didn't ask my opinion, but if you were to, I'd say something like "come up with stannous chloride, and forget the figure".

If you hope to be able to communicate with the readers and gain knowledge, it's important that you use accepted procedures. Figures can be wrong. Then what? How would you know?

Stannous chloride becomes the eyes of the refiner. Show me a dude that thinks it isn't necessary and I'll show you a dude that's most likely to never get off first base. My feelings on this subject are such that if I realize a reader isn't using stannous (often because they're way, way, way too clever---they don't need no stinkin' stannous), I refuse to help. One, in clear conscience, does not try to help a moron.

Get stannous, and learn to use it properly. Read Hoke.

Did I mention you should read Hoke?

Harold
 
I've been reading Hoke, and slowly cross referenceing what I read with the information here. I do find it fascinating and stayed up late into the night Fri. reading. Now that I know it isn't time sensitive I've slowed down and let it sit and tried to expand my knowledge before proceeding. Yes I will make a batch of stannous to test it I just havn't got that far in my studies yet to know if I have any questions on the matter( I know noone wants to hear: how's it made and used? when I'm sure that is explained on here several times. Harrold thank you for your response(and all others) I'm not the kind of person to go ask someone unless they show a willingness to help, some people don't like to be bothered and I respect their boundries. I don't know who on here is tired of holding a newbie's hand and walking them thru the process or who really does enjoy sharing their knowledge and has the time and patience. So therefore I wait and let those that are interested in helping out show me their boundries so that I don't step on some toes or "pester" someone that is too busy with their own lives.

I truly do appreciate all the help, and the encouragement to study, I've found myself deeply engrossed in the book and I can see that I will be studying this for some time to come. So all please excuse me if I ask the wrong question or don't ask the right one, I'm trying to find my way thru this and reading and cross referencing what I can from what is in the book to what is being used today(more cost effective). So I think you all will be seeing me here for a while to come, maybe at a distance as I'm reading what knowledge you've shared with others, before I feel that I need to ask a question(trust me I've got hundreds of them allready but I feel more study will answer more of them and don't want to bother others with repeating them. Thanks again
 
8) 8) 8)

As you are reading you will see Hoke has some experiments listed.
Finish reading the book the first time then go back and try a few of the experiments that you are able to do.
Feel free to come and ask if you don't understand the results of the testing. It is better you learn what you are doing from the beginning than to try to teach you while you are worried about loosing values.

Tom C.
 
hopethisworks said:
I have a couple of general questions, Once again thank you so much all for the help, and yes I know that I screwed up and got ahead of myself. I can't change that back.

Has anyone ran a batch of just the pins from the pentium 4's? I didn't weigh what I had so I don't have any clear idea on how much gold is on them and can't run any kind of mathmatical formulas to know how much precipitant to add(yes start small and keep adding)? I just thought maybe someone had ran them and could give me a ball park figure on the amount of weight of the pins on pentium 4 cpu, then I can times that times 70.

The only muriatic I can find around here tops at 14% HCL, is this enough for AR?

Once again thanks for the help, and hope all have a merry Christmas.
Click to expand...

hcl acid can be condensed by evaporating water. the solution does not need to boil but only steam to remove water and concentrate the acid. hcl acid can be concentrated to 35% this way, but honestly i see no reason 14% wont work, it just means theres more water in your solution so when you calculate amounts needed take the % into account. if you live in the lower 48 states, Lowes carry 32% muriatic acid.
 
I found the 32% at Lowe's, they didn't show it on their website, and the one jug on top of a case of it had more dust on it then my razor does. That would probably have come across funnier if you could see my beard!! Once again thanks to all for the sage advice.
 
It's not that any of the members don't have time to help and answer all the questions you or other newbies have but the answers will mean little to someone who has precious little understanding of the subject overall. As I have stated many times before by reading and understanding Hoke we can all speak the same language and be able to follow posts and even contribute to ongoing threads.
It seems daunting at first if like me your chemistry education was limited or again like me it just wouldn't stick in your mind but by doing the tests, as suggested, detailed in Hoke and understanding the how and why they work the light slowly starts to shine and the quest for more information begins....beware this hobby can be very addictive and the moment you have your first button in your hand is one to treasure less for it's value in dollars but in it's worth in proof of your ability to actually refine.
 

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