I Can Toll Refine Keyboard Mylars For You!

[Anonymous]

It's fun trying to figure out what pays and doesn't pay when you first start processing for others. That learning curve is something else. :mrgreen:

Oh yeah. And that's what it's been for me, a learning curve, but exciting too. I have some photos of some mylars that have been sent to me that came from out of phones (I believe house/business phones) and they contain silver. The problem is that they're sticky and the only way to make sure all the silver gets dissolved is to soak them in the alcohol, which will wipe off any glues or stickiness. Let them dry, then they're ready to be processed. I'm anxious to see the yields on these mylars.

Once again, I'll post pictures because these mylars I've never seen before.

I, again want to thank all of you that have helped me to learn and understand and for me to get this far. I'm loving it! :mrgreen:

Kevin

 

[Palladium]

Have you tried a soft boil in diluted sodium hydroxide to take care of that glue? It does wonders on simm cards were glue is involved.

 

[Anonymous]

I haven't tried that yet. I'll give that a shot. I know it works though, because it worked for some cell phone boards I had that had solder masking on them.

Kevin

 

[Ocean]

Kevin,

To be clear, you don't want any of the mylars pictured in photos placed in this thread on the 17th?

Not to be a pain, but I want to clarify that before I ship.

Thanks, Jack

 

[Anonymous]

Kevin,

To be clear, you don't want any of the mylars pictured in photos placed in this thread on the 17th?

Not to be a pain, but I want to clarify that before I ship.

Thanks, Jack

Basically, if the mylars are completely black, or has black dots and lines on them, I don't want to work with them as of yet. Don't throw them away because I'm working on a way to rid the carbon first, so I can expose the silver.

The other photos that shows 3 different mylars, just the top one (green) or similar one are the types I'm not accepting at this time. The other keyboards, I wasn't going to accept, but I am accepting them because I know how to break them apart and expose the silver on them.

The other mylars, under the green mylar are multi-part-glued mylars. I figured out how to take them apart, but I never cut them out of the photo, because it wasn't discovered until after I uploaded the photos.

Like I said, for the most part, no mylars that are completely black, or have black dots and lines on them. Other than that, it's all good.

I am still going to do a thread on keyboard mylars, which will explain what people need to know about mylars and how to strip certain ones down, and what you can expect out of some mylars. I can't explain everything in this thread because this thread is to refine them for people, but I do plan on explaining everything to others, so that way, many people may do much of the stripping of them before they send them to me.

Did you know that the keyboard that's under the green keyboard weighs 4.0 grams?.... BUT, once you remove the rubber buttons, take the mylar apart, there are 3 pieces, and the middle piece is blank. Once it's stripped down, it only weighs 1.4 grams. 2/3rd of the weight of that mylar is waste. So, consider that if you send them in whole. If not, you can strip them down yourself. Remember, you must pay for the shipping, and there is no need in paying for waste to be shipped.

[Just Now Coming In] As I was typing the last paragraph above, the FedEx truck arrived... and guess what?... it's my pan (300 series) I ordered. Darn, that was fast. I think it was Saturday when I ordered it. One problem though... it's cold as heck outside today.

Now, I can place whole mylars in the solution.

I will get working on the three members that sent me mylars and will post the yields from what they sent me as soon as I get a good day to process outside.

Kevin

 

[Anonymous]

I just wanted to give an update on the processing of the mylars for 3 members I have. But before I do, let me add something:

Right now I'm not processing any silver plated or flatware items at this time. I do have my own and I will be processing them soon, but for now, I'm not interested. ( received a PM asking me about them)

If you have .925 silver scrap you want processed, I can do that for you because I did my own (29+ grams) and I still came out with around 26+ - 27 grams of silver.

For the members I'm doing work for, the weather has been either cold or rainy or both. During the few warm days we had, the wind was too windy and I can't be having fumes blowing in my direction. Starting Monday the weather is going to be in the 50's and it'll be that way on Tuesday too. Hopefully the whole week will be in the 50's. If so, then I can complete everyone's mylars that I received so far, and then hopefully work on my own.

I also want to say that I should have told everyone about the temps I can work in because I found out by being outside, anywhere in the 40's isn't something I can work in. It must be in the 50's or above. The last time I did work in the 40's (the weather report said it was), it was actually in the low 50's, so it felt warm and I was able to do some processing.

I do have some silver cemented from one of the members', but it's not completed because I still have the rest of his mylars to do.

Once again, just bare with me as the weather is starting to look up starting next week, but as of now, all the way until Monday coming up, it's going to be in the 30's-40's here. When Monday hits, I'll be out there early in the morning completing my jobs.

Kevin

 

[Palladium]

I feel you pain brother! I'm a little N.E. of Birmingham and have some of the same weather patterns here. I'm just glad i'm not further north like some of our members are. The reason i say that is i do my refining inside my lab where's it lighted and nice and dry, butttttt only one thing. My exhaust system i use to power my two fume hoods draws over 3500 cubic feet of air a minute. Now in a big area this might not seem like much but considering my lab is only about 10X12X7 = That's like exchanging the air in this room 4 times a minute. Now add 30 degree temperatures into this and It makes for quiet a breeze to say the least. You can't heat the space to work in all you can do is bear it. My next lab design and build will take that into consideration. I will build a divider separating the work area from the processing area in essence making the whole room a fume hood for chemical processing and storage. Come on Spring !!!!!!!! :mrgreen:

 

[Anonymous]

I hear you Palladium. If I had a fume hood, most, if not all of my processing would have been done by now. The mylars are so easy and fast to do, but the weather just wouldn't bare with me. Al I asked "Let it be 50F+ for at least a week, without rain and I'll be done". That hasn't happened yet.

[Off Topic]
Guess what Palladium?.. Yesterday I took my wife and my step son to the dr's and when I was on my way home, getting on the Parkway, I saw a round stainless steel bowl, but I was getting on the interstate ramp. Tonight, when I went out to get some kerosene, I was getting back on that Parkway, and my wife was with me, and I thought about the bowl I saw just yesterday. I told my wife "There was a stainless steel bowl on your side yesterday. If it's there, get it". Sure enough, the bowl was there and I pulled up and my wife opened her door and scooped it up. I got it home, and washed it with some some Dawn and hot water and it came out sparkling clean. I then took a magnet and placed it on it, and the magnet wouldn't stick at all. It only showed some slight magnetism on the rim. Every other spot I tried with a big hard drive magnet, it would not stick. I also learned that because of how they bend the rim, it's possible to have slight magnetism there.

I think it's a 3 qt or so capacity bowl. I haven't measured it yet, but I'll do it today. But I'm glad I found it because I read about silver cells (I haven't build one yet) and I'm sure I can definitely use this bowl.

Kevin

 

[Ocean]

I shipped a box of mylars off yesterday. 8)

 

[Anonymous]

I shipped a box of mylars off yesterday. 8)

Ok... PM me the tracking info.

Kevin

 

[Ocean]

I shipped a box of mylars off yesterday. 8)

Ok... PM me the tracking info.

Kevin

Check your email. I emailed you yesterday to let you know and I also included you on Fed Ex shipping updates.

I check this once or 2 times a day, but am on email all day long. 8)

 

[Anonymous]

I shipped a box of mylars off yesterday. 8)

Ok... PM me the tracking info.

Kevin

Check your email. I emailed you yesterday to let you know and I also included you on Fed Ex shipping updates.

I check this once or 2 times a day, but am on email all day long. 8)

The package arrived a few days ago. I would have replied earlier, but I'm trying to buy another hard drive because my other one crashed, and I have alot of data on it that I need to get off, so i'm going to have to swap out my platter and put it in the other exact hard drive. I'm still waiting on it to arrive.

The box says 28 lbs, and on the inside it says "1.90 lbs TARE". I'll get to working on them as soon as I finish the 3 other members mylars. So far, you've sent in the most weight. Two other members sent in small amounts because they said they had mylars that came from business phones or similar, so I decided to take a crack at it, and one other member sent in 5 lbs of mylars. We're supposed to get rain later tonight, but the day is nice enough right now, and the rest of the week is supposed to be in the mid 50's, and then starting next week, we;re supposed to be in the 60's, without any rain (I hope we don't get any).

Kevin

 

[Ocean]

Thanks Kevin.

Please confirm weights yourself.

And as to the weather, I am not in a rush and understand that you need Mother Nature's help a little to get this job completed.

I shipped a box of mylars off yesterday. 8)

Ok... PM me the tracking info.

Kevin

Check your email. I emailed you yesterday to let you know and I also included you on Fed Ex shipping updates.

I check this once or 2 times a day, but am on email all day long. 8)

The package arrived a few days ago. I would have replied earlier, but I'm trying to buy another hard drive because my other one crashed, and I have alot of data on it that I need to get off, so i'm going to have to swap out my platter and put it in the other exact hard drive. I'm still waiting on it to arrive.

The box says 28 lbs, and on the inside it says "1.90 lbs TARE". I'll get to working on them as soon as I finish the 3 other members mylars. So far, you've sent in the most weight. Two other members sent in small amounts because they said they had mylars that came from business phones or similar, so I decided to take a crack at it, and one other member sent in 5 lbs of mylars. We're supposed to get rain later tonight, but the day is nice enough right now, and the rest of the week is supposed to be in the mid 50's, and then starting next week, we;re supposed to be in the 60's, without any rain (I hope we don't get any).

Kevin

 

[Anonymous]

Today have been the best weathered day since I've started refining keyboard mylars.

To all of you that have sent me mylars to process for you, they're on it's way.

Because I said I would do mylars first in, first out, I had some mylars that aren't from keyboards, but from PBX or other telephones. They were gluey and they were first. Well, I'm almost completed them. All I need to do is drop the silver with cement, sometime tonight.

I've learned a few things about processing mylars, but I'll save that for later. But for now, I have more Nitric Acid on order and I should get it any day now.

Two members should be be getting their silver very soon (if I have enough Nitric), but one member sent me 28 lbs worth of mylars and from what I learned, and now the weather is warming up, I should be able to get them done in a few days at most.

Sorry for the delay everyone, but the weather has not been good enough to do outside work day for day, since December 2012. I hope you understand. But look at it this way too, now that it's getting warmer, I'm able to do more and in a quicker time frame.

One more thing to consider, even though I'm doing this as a service for others, I just learned how to do it in December 2012, and it's great. But, I'm still learning.

On an ending note, I will do my experiments and tests, but I believe I found out how to make sure I can get 100% of the silver off the mylars. The whole process takes about 20 minutes, but it seems to work better than what I've done with my own mylars. I'm glad I didn't through the used ones away.

Oh Yeah... there is more silver on them. I may have found a way to get more silver than I though or learned about. It's not a secret, but a simple method I'll explain in another thread.

In case many of you haven't heard, my other hard drive crashed and it has most of my gold refining data on it. It may very well cost me big time to get all my data back. That's one reason I haven't been so happy lately. I backup my data, but for some reason, my computer notes and data from this site, since I joined, I haven't backed up. So, until I retrieve that data, I have to start over from scratch with my notes online.... and this time I'm backing up my data.

Enough said!!

Kevin

 

[Anonymous]

I Have Great News!

Before I tell you the great news, I just want to say that I'm still waiting for my Nitric Acid to arrive.

The Great News!
A few days ago when I made my post, I was experimenting on processing keyboard mylars. I did what was talked about here on the forum and it worked for me. I read that you can incinerate keyboard mylars and recover silver. I did just that, and it works great. There is however a catch to it that I'll explain in another thread. But for now, incinerating mylars DO work.

Once my Nitric arrive, I'll be able to complete everyone's mylars, including one members mylars in which I already recovered over 20 grams of silver so far (I'm waiting on Nitric).

I ran out of nitric by experimenting, yet, it is paying off, but, the nitric isn't cheap. I got results and I'm going to let you all know how I did it, but not here because this is not the thread for me to explain.

I had a total of 4 members since I started refining mylars in December of 2012, now I have 3 members still waiting for their silver. 2 of the members have sent their mylars in to me around Dec 2012 - Jan 2013, and the weather has not been good and I've delayed the process. For that alone, once I complete these two members' mylars, I'm go to send them 100% of the silver recovered. I'm not going to keep any of it. The last member sent me approximately 28 lbs about a week ago and told me there is no rush. Because I've learned more of what I'm doing, once my nitric arrive, I'll have 100% of the mylars ready to be liquified within 2 days at most.

The reason I'm not going to charge the first two members is that it took me quite some time (due to the bad weather here), and one sent me 4 lbs and the other sent me 5 lbs. Because of the time it took me to do this service for them, I don't feel like I should charge them.

If you're considering my services to do this for you, understand these members have waited for quite some time, and I know it's past time for them to receive their products. If they want, they can make a donation to the forum and for Noxx. Also, a member did a gold refining job for me and he wasn't satisfied of what he recovered, so, he told me he's not going to take a cut out of the job. I appreciate that, and that's the least I can do for the members here.

I have pictures I'm going to post probably tomorrow showing the first members' mylars in, and how they came out. This has been a very informative learning experience for me, and I love it, because I'm getting better.

Oh... in the meantime, before the nitric arrive, I've already prepped the mylars. So once it arrives, I will be able to do the 5 lb in a few hours, and complete the 28 lb by the next day...., (all weather permitting).

ctgresale - You're up first. Stay tuned and check here tomorrow.


Again, let me reiterate this to anyone considering to send mylars to me.:

a. If you are sending me mylars to process INCLUDE your forum username inside the package so it's easier for me to document.
b. Provide tracking info once you send the package out.

I am going through a tough time right now because of my other hard drive crashing on me, but I am not at a complete loss. Please, provide your username inside of your packages because I do NOT throw away the packages when they come in. I keep them until I've completed the job, and yet, at the same time, I am recording my notes and info more securely (frequent backups).

Let me leave you with these thoughts......

Learning makes doing it easier, and doing makes learning it more interesting and exciting.
---------Testerman-----------

Kevin

 

[ctgresale]

Kevin, did you ever get a new hard drive ? If not what kind and size do you need to get your computer back up and running ? If the whole thing is dead I've got plenty of parts that I can put together and donate to the cause. Our biggest problem will be finding a keyboard that is complete :roll: It's all good just let me know. But if you need Apple computer I can't help, Win2000, WinXP Pro, Win Server2003, couple with WinServer2008, As for hard drives I've got 3.5" IDE, SCSI, SAS from 2g up to 250g, and 2.5" I think all I've got is 40gb IDE

 

[Anonymous]

Kevin, did you ever get a new hard drive ? If not what kind and size do you need to get your computer back up and running ? If the whole thing is dead I've got plenty of parts that I can put together and donate to the cause. Our biggest problem will be finding a keyboard that is complete :roll: It's all good just let me know. But if you need Apple computer I can't help, Win2000, WinXP Pro, Win Server2003, couple with WinServer2008, As for hard drives I've got 3.5" IDE, SCSI, SAS from 2g up to 250g, and 2.5" I think all I've got is 40gb IDE

I did get another hard rive, but things didn't turn out as I wanted them to. I bought the same EXACT hd, and I tested it, my B.I.O.S. confirmed the hard drive. But the problem was when I swapped the logic board of the new hd and tested it and my computer (B.I.O.S.) didn't detect it. Then I took it back out and put it back in, and tested it, then the drive I bought was working again. But when I took my platter out of my hard drive and swapped it with the one I bought, it still doesn't work. The worst part abut this is that when I replaced the platter back into the new hd, the B.I.O.S. doesn't read it anymore. :evil: I'm not too upset, being as though I only paid $25 for it with shipping.

I know it's a specialized method, but I've worked/repaired many hard drives before, but I never had to replace the platters. Mine only has one. Because of me taking apart the hd and still can't get the computer to recognize it, it may cost me big time.

The hd is:
Capacity: 160 GB
Interface: SATA
Manufacturer: Seagate
Model: ST3160812AS (Barracuda 7200.9)
P/N: 9BD132 - 188
Firmware: 3.AAE
Date Code: 06394
Site Code: WU



For what it's worth, I'd rather not run away from what this thread is about, but I sure would like to get my data back. I literally worked hard for it.

PM's about this hard drive that anyone can give to help me out is appreciated.

Kevin

 

[g_axelsson]

Some modern drives have a small flash memory with information about how the data is stored on the disk and where bad sectors are located. You can't just swap the logic boards between two discs in that case, you need to swap the flash memory too.

I feel your pain about a crashed disk, I have a couple laying around at home that still have valuable data but I can't get it out.

Good luck!

Göran

Göran

 

[Woodworker1997]

I feel you pain brother! I'm a little N.E. of Birmingham and have some of the same weather patterns here. I'm just glad i'm not further north like some of our members are. The reason i say that is i do my refining inside my lab where's it lighted and nice and dry, butttttt only one thing. My exhaust system i use to power my two fume hoods draws over 3500 cubic feet of air a minute. Now in a big area this might not seem like much but considering my lab is only about 10X12X7 = That's like exchanging the air in this room 4 times a minute. Now add 30 degree temperatures into this and It makes for quiet a breeze to say the least. You can't heat the space to work in all you can do is bear it. My next lab design and build will take that into consideration. I will build a divider separating the work area from the processing area in essence making the whole room a fume hood for chemical processing and storage. Come on Spring !!!!!!!! :mrgreen:

http://www.corayvac.com/

I use to install these and other types of radiant gas fired heaters. The way they heat is by IR radiation. They do not heat the air they heat objects so, the air exchange from your exaust fan will not suck the heat out.

Just some info from a past career

Derek

 

[ctgresale]

Kevin, I'll check in the warehouse today, probably best to write the old drive off. I personally haven't seen and anybody that has luck swapping platters, just opens the door for continued problems and allot of wasted time and aggravation. Do you have your restore disk for your computer ?, what model of computer do you have ?