How Much Nitric Acid Do I Need For 40 lbs Keyboard Sheets?

[Anonymous]

Hello members,

I have 40 lbs of keyboard sheets to recover the silver in them and I have no idea of how much nitric acid I will be needing to strip the boards.

Also, can I make nitric acid from any of the chemicals I already have listed below?


2 LB OF SODIUM METABISULPHITE
1 LB. 5000 MESH FINE ZINC DUST 99.95% PURE
1-7/8 Lbs. UREA 48% GOLD RECOVERY BEST FOR AQUA REGIA almost 2 Lbs
(2) 1 Lb Potassium Nitrate Pyrotechnics Saltpeter Salt Peter Stump Removal Fireworks Make Your Own Smoke Bomb!
Peroxide
Borax
(2) 1 Gallon bottles Muriatic Acid

Thanks for your time.

Kevin

 

[butcher]

Potassium nitrate and sulfuric acid will make nitric acid, this solution will also contain potassium sulfate salts, most of these can be removed by sitting the solution in a freezer so most of the potassium salts settle, this will not remove all of the sulfate salts, and so using this solution to dissolve silver would also form some silver sulfate (which you would not want to have to deal with) so if your going to use homemade nitric on silver you need to distill the nitric acid, to leave the sulfate salts behind, for a more pure nitric solution to dissolve silver with.

As far as how much nitric you would need to dissolve the silver from the keyboards, you would have to find out how much silver was on them, if I remember right Laser Steve done some experiments where he burned the keyboard Mylar to recover the silver, and I believe he posted his yields (a search of keyboard Mylar under his name may locate that post), from memory I think 14cents of silver each, but I do not have much of a mind for remembering things, about 1.2ml of 70% nitric and 1.2ml water will dissolve a gram of silver.

 

[Anonymous]

Hello Butcher,

Thanks for the reply. What I'll do until I get the hang of the use of these chemicals, I'll just purchase the nitric acid, so that way I don't make any costly mistakes. Once I know what I'm doing with the chemicals, I may start making some.

Would 70% nitric acid be sufficient for the mylars?

Kevin

 

[philddreamer]

Hi Kevin!
Yes.
Remember you need 50% nitric/50% distilled water.

And in case you don't know, no "cartridge type" respirator will filter out nitric fumes, NONE!!! Do the process under a fume hood or outside.

Take care!

Phil

 

[goldenchild]

testerman,

I would wait until you fully know what you are doing before using ANY chemicals. The fact that you asked if the chemicals you listed could make nitric displays that you don't possess the most fundamental knowledge of what needs to be done. This will result in two things. Either you will hurt yourself or will be right back on here asking what to do next. And then what to do next. And then what to do next. And then what to do next. Please save yourself the headaches and start reading Hoke. You will be better for it.

http://tinyurl.com/mfnyhs

 

[au-artifax]

I wholeheartedly agree that you need to do more research before attempting to recover precious metals. A good thing to remember also is that you need to take into account that RECOVERY and REFINING in most cases are different procedures done in a specific order.
So recovery is your first step to reclaiming the Ag from your keyboard touch pads.

In that spirit, and in the goal of moving forward, your best bet to learn how reactions occur would be (given your list of supplies) is to RESEARCH the possibility and SAFE procedures for making HNO3. You just need your KNO3, muriatic acid (HCl), get some copper, and H2O2.

I won't give you the details as it would entice you to not study up on reactions and learn safety precautions. Warning: this may require you to further your knowledge and learn some chemistry basics, but you need that. The shopping list of supplies you posted definitely tells that you took a lot of things out of context as you "skimmed" through various articles. It is important that you read EVERYTHING an article or tutorial has to offer and not just take quick snapshots in your mind when a chemical name pops up. Best of luck, and remember that most of what you are about to learn should be about what NOT to do vs. what you can do.

 

[FrugalRefiner]

au-artifax,

Kevin is no longer a member of the forum. He started offering to process keyboard mylars for other members before he had perfected his processes, so he was experimenting with other people's material. He was also apparently working on a very tight budget, and when he ran into some personal problems, he wasn't able to deliver what he had promised. He was banned from the forum back in July of last year.

Dave

 

[Smack]

There are a few posts with results from mylars, you could look at those and do some calculations on weights and how much silver was recovered and get an average of silver per pound of mylars. There are also many posts and even some sig lines with how much nitric it takes to dissolve a given amount of silver.