Non-Chemical Help! Pleasse help w/ dental appliances

[FrugalRefiner]

Can you please help a newbie when you get done laughing?

There's nothing to laugh at. You have made some mistakes, but safety is the first rule.

Ever after I completed the filtering, the yellow goo was very irritating to my fingers as I handled the filter.

Wear gloves! Everything we deal with is toxic. Safety first!

Dave

 

[twhittaker67]

Dave:
Thank you for not laughing. You are right. Saftey should aways be first. Can you please help me or do I just have 2.5 gallons of waste that will forever have elemental gold trapped in it. Please help can I still use copperas or smb to drop the gold from my solution. Please any advice at all is welcome.
Thank you for anything you can do.
Terry

 

[g_axelsson]

Not laughing, just shaking my head in disbelief. At least you realized the problem and made the most important step to seek help.

As Dave pointed out, safety first! Dissolved metals can be absorbed through the skin so no more handling the acid products without gloves. And don't breath the fumes! I hope you did your experiments outside and not in a closed room.

Read this after you have read up on safety. http://goldrefiningwiki.com/mediawiki/index.php/Making_a_mess (including the links at the bottom).
Next you should also read up on waste treatment.

And remember, if you get some scolding it's not because we are mean, we just want you and people around you to be safe.

As long as you don't pour out any liquid or throw away any solids any gold you started with is still there, it's just a matter of finding it and extracting it.

You mentioned a number of stuff you put into your aqua regia, can you put some numbers on it like kilos, number of CPU:s, liters of HCl and HNO₃ used... (or pounds, oz or the like). That way we might get a better picture of your mess.

Don't panic, there is no rush to test a lot of stuff. Do any testing with small amounts and if it works then you can start treating the bulk. And test, test and test with stannous to follow your gold.

Göran

 

[twhittaker67]

Thank you for all of your advice and tolerance. Rest assured I work outside and will always wear proper PPE from now on. I should have never ventured into this. Impatience and refinement do no mix. I see that now. I had about 20 processors,20-30 chips that had gold in them, 35MCC (which gives me a platinum problem) 6 very heavy gold filled necklaces, and one solid gold necklace that I added to try and denos before giving up, realizing my total screw up. I have added a total of 6 lbs of SMB and after filtering all I have is bright yellow powder. What is that by the way? Just a waste by product of the smb? Please any further help you are willing the share woul be a Godsend. I tried a stannis test but with homemade stannis (95/5) solder and HCL. I got no result but with my record if success so far I ordered stannis chloride from a chemical company. Please tell me what the yellow goo is (lol) and should I do anything but wait for the stannis to test? I read the link you sent and am reading more now. Please help.

 

[FrugalRefiner]

Relax. Until you throw something away, you can't lose your gold.

As a guideline, we usually use about the same weight of SMB as we're expecting in gold, so unless you were expecting 6 pounds of gold, you overdosed on SMB. That's probably a lot of your yellow goo, mixed with the gold that probably precipitated and the base metals you also precipitated by the overuse of SMB.

When your stannous arrives, you can test the solution, though I feel confident there is no gold in there. Spend your time studying until it arrives and you'll be better prepared to use it. If you haven't already done so, I recommend downloading the book in my signature line. It will answer a lot of questions you don't even know you have yet.

Dave

 

[twhittaker67]

As a newbie and a YouTube addict (don't boo) I forgot the the first rule of high school science. Study ten hours for every one hour you are going to experiment. My impatience and lack of belief if I can't "see" it work against me.
Am example was the HHO generator I built that produced no bubbles in the water blaowback valve. Yes I do practice saftey. That is until that old devil frustration whispered " listen to your teenage son" when he said he dad hold the grill lighter to the hose's end. The sound was not unlike a .45 being fired under the hood of my explorer and I spent hours sweeping up glass. The unsafe behavior did prove without a doubt that I was prove I produced hydrogen and oxygen and that the bubbles on YouTube were exaggerated for the camera. I now have one way valves and redundant anti blowback system and my 21 year old Ford averages 40 mpg. Having said all that. From the "instructive" videos smb was to be added until the solution no longer fizzed or was "denossed" apparently I had created a super nitric solution. The green color was not due to copper content. I have made many mistakes but I have learned to take every proper step (removing base metal etc) no matter how big my hurry. OBEY ALL SAFTEY LAWS (no matter my curiosity) I could not understand the extreme acidic smell of my yellow "goo" nor th "slimey" feel through the gloves. Hence I foolishly took off my glove and discovered this paste was as acidic as my solution, plus the first time I added small amounts of smb there was no measurable precipitate. My intention was to drop everything from solution and start from scratch. I have learned 3 S,,'s are basic to the refining 1. SAFTETY, 2. STEP (FOLLOW EVERY STEP), 3. STOP/ SEEK ADVICE. Marching forward without pause leave one with 2.5 of corrosive hazardous waste to dispose of. AND NO GOLD LOL.

 

[FrugalRefiner]

From the "instructive" videos smb was to be added until the solution no longer fizzed or was "denossed" apparently I had created a super nitric solution. The green color was not due to copper content.

It's not "denossed", but deNO_xed. When nitric acid breaks down, a number of compounds can result, such as NO, NO₂, etc. We group them all together with the term NO_x, where the x represents the number of oxygen atoms in the compound. We need to get rid of these compounds, so we deNO_x the solution.

A number of metals can create green solutions. Color is not a reliable way to determine what is in solution.

Dave

 

[anachronism]

I think you also forgot the first rule of paragraphs.

 

[twhittaker67]

I guess I can chalk this up to beginner's luck filtered out all solid
Stannis test was negative for gold in solution. Allowed "golden goo" and all filters to dry. Started from scratch removing metals with HCl. Dried all filtered powder. Added to clean proper AR. Dropped once more with smb. Filtered, dried and torched with borax as a flux. Dropped in water bucket resulting in a button that was 48 grams of 24k. Already tested and bought by the local "ee buy gold shop" I think I will retire from this never racking hobby. Gonna by s Sig that I have drooled over for months now. At least at the range I know what I am doing. Good luck to you all.

 

[g_axelsson]

Not laughing at you now either, just smiling for a story with a happy end.

If you ever want to continue learning refining you know where we are. You have already refined gold once, second time is easier. :wink:

Göran

 

[Topher_osAUrus]

What did the "we buy gold shop" pay you for that hefty chunk of gold, if I may ask?