I need a little clarification

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You did nothing wrong. But from what I see, the boards from the pictures only have gold on the fingers, a few test points and some thru holes.

If memory is right it was the "Sound Blaster GOLD" that had plated traces. Most of the others only have plated fingers, test points and some thru holes.

Tom C.
 
ok now I am even more confused. I made some stannous chloride and did a swab test. It would seem the sand has virtually no gold whatsoever, but my Ap solution is saturated with it. Any suggestions? Can I drop gold from Ap?
 
Hi!
I kind of think I read someplace here that if you heat the lye solution it will disolve gold that is thin. Seem to remember they were warning someone not to heat it. The next batch I'm going to start very weak and keep uping the consentration till it begins attacking the mask. I'd like to hear from anyone who has dropped gold from lye .
My cell phone boards came out with about a third of the very thin gold gone. I only processed about a hundred boards and a couple dozen telecom boards that have the little gold spots under where the push buttons are. That's just a very small amount of gold and you probably wouldn't be able to see it if you dropped it. I'm going to just keep using the solution and eventually it will have enogh gold to work with.
 
artart47 said:
Hi!
I kind of think I read someplace here that if you heat the lye solution it will disolve gold that is thin. Seem to remember they were warning someone not to heat it. The next batch I'm going to start very weak and keep uping the consentration till it begins attacking the mask. I'd like to hear from anyone who has dropped gold from lye .
My cell phone boards came out with about a third of the very thin gold gone. I only processed about a hundred boards and a couple dozen telecom boards that have the little gold spots under where the push buttons are. That's just a very small amount of gold and you probably wouldn't be able to see it if you dropped it. I'm going to just keep using the solution and eventually it will have enogh gold to work with.
Click to expand...

Do a search on the forum reguarding the types of boards you are talking about. You will find out that these are low yield boards to begin with. Looks like more than their really is.

i don't know about the lye solution you are using, but I THINK that it takes acid to take gold into solution like you are talking about.

I have processed a lot of cell phone boards and have never placed them into a lye solution to remove the mask, exposing the COPPER to be digested into solution. The gold has always been exposed and easy to set free with HCL/H202 for a full recovery.
Just depopulate the boards and place them into the acid to remove the foils. No need to remove the solder mask unless you know for sure there is gold plating under it.

Tom C.
 
ive never heard of lye dissolving gold.im not saying it hasnt happened but ive done the same process many times and never lost gold to lye.
 
I was always good in chemistry. Got straight A's, and typically I can usually follow directions to a Tee . With this being my first run and things not going according to how the directions are spelled out, I was a little flustered. I felt somewhat duped into trying a method that everyone here swears by. I felt I should have stuck to my guns and done a nitric bath followed by AR, that way when my gold dissolved, it would have been because I had expected it to.

Ok as much as I would rather read and hate being spoon fed, As I am way off the book here, I need to know what to do next. I have what I would assume to be a bright green Ap solution, with a white powder at the bottom. I know I need to siphon off the liquid,and dry the powder, but that's where it ends.

Next, what happened to my gold? After precipitating my Ap with SMB as directed and testing both precipitate and solution, my gold is now gone. WTH? Should I simply treat the entire batch as waste without bothering to siphon?

It is true I don't fully understand the process, which is why I started small so I could learn. Hands on works really well for me.However when it takes an unexpected turn and no amount of searching provides any intel, I must say my faith in the AP process has been rocked.

I really wanted this to work. I convinced the little woman that this would work in order to get us some gold. There is no way she is going to let me keep spending money on this new hobby without some results. I fear without that I will have to abandon this before it even got a chance to get started.

As always any and all help appreciated, and thanks for looking.
-SH
 
Don't ever thow it out.
If you had gold, it's there somewhere.

Sometimes it can be a little frustrating to find. For instance, once I dissolved some gold in HCl + Cl, but my testing showed no gold. I knew it was there. What happened? My Cl concentration was WAY high and I had a false negative. If I'd thrown out the batch I would have lost three grams of gold (not a lot, but a lot to throw away in frustration).
Be patient, reach out to Harold, he was a HUGE help to me when I was kicking around the idea of using a sulfiric cell to deplate.

Save everything.
Mastery takes practice.

Also, there is a good piece in the forum about how to clean up you fluids prior to disposal. The most important thing to get out before disposal is Copper Chloride.
 
Silver Handle,
Next, what happened to my gold? After precipitating my Ap with SMB as directed and testing both precipitate and solution, my gold is now gone. WTH? Should I simply treat the entire batch as waste without bothering to siphon?

Testing the solution (please explain your method)
Testing the precipitate. (Can you tell me how you are doing this?)
Give us some details of what you did to get to where you are now. Then maybe we can give better advice.
How much materials and what type, what acids or reagents, how they used, heat, and even details you think are not important may be.

Look these are very easy processes and if you are having trouble with these, then you would really have problems with nitric and aqua regia (a whole nother ball game).

Do not toss anything.

Looks like you are fairly new to this, do not get frustrated, cement your solution onto copper, and test your solution for values, treat the solution by reading dealing with wastes.

Tell your wife you have the gold and will get it into a form she will like but it takes time she needs to learn patience, as you do, (patience is one lesson will learn from refining).

Now get back to reading Hokes book, doing the chemical experiments she suggested, reading the forum, and studying, until you know where you went wrong and how to correct it, you understand how to run the process you choose know how and why it works, and how to fix things if it does not.

If you do not follow this advice I am afraid you will always be wondering where you lost all of that gold, until you do wise up and study.

Patience you will be melting beautiful buttons soon enough, but you must learn to walk before running.

Also spend time gathering materials you need (do not spend much money, until you are positive you need it (there is no free method, second hand store alternative, or you cannot build or make your own), do not use high grade materials to learn to do the process, or else you should expect high grade losses.

Welcome to the forum, I could hold your hand through some process, but you would not learn to do it without me holding your hand, you need the education and understanding to stand on yer own two feet and know what to do next in any circumstance you run into.

I hope you understand and this helps.
 
this is something that a person should enjoy doing,i know i do.even my failures is a chance for me to learn,i know its not the preferred way to learn but learning non the less.if you are in a financial bind then this is not something you should start doing as a hobby and most assuredly not something to try and make a living with just starting out.the pressure for success takes the fun out of the experience.the first time i tried poor mans AR was on IC's and phone boards.i did everything exactly the way i was told to do it yet when it was done i tested the solution and it was negative.all the gold was removed and it wasnt in the solution.i evaporated the solution and let it cool and still nothing.i checked the stuff left over and the gold was gone.on a whim i added hcl to the stuff left over and then added a small amount of Cl.after the reaction stopped i tested and got an instant black test.the solution was loaded with gold.the AR was barren of gold.i can only assume the gold cemented out on the left over metals in my pot and i couldnt see it for the trash.all this happened over several days time with me racking my brain trying to figure out what i did wrong.your gold is there,somewhere,hiding from you.test,retest,precipitate,redissolve it will turn up as long as you dont throw it away.
 
hello all master... i am newbie in this forum...
happy when i see pic and read your success story... i want to do like you all..
who master in this forum can teaching me...
why my gold (low yield boards) disolve in the solder mask solution (steve video)...? :?: :cry: :?:
my board have gold but low yield content. this problem same as silver handle.. i do with 2 board. one full process and second with half process like number one.. (a few minutes ago)
now i have 2 board with number one looked nickel plate because gold was disolve and second board looked some gold not fully disolve..
i see silver handle picture with finger of soundblaster true disolve same as my problem.. :roll:
how with true of step by step for stripping a solder mask? with heat or not? :?:
if can't manage low gold content how with gold plate with high yield content in the solder mask solution your gold gone without you know... :|

..sorry for my bad english language..
 
alext_iwan,

Welcome to the forum.
Your English is hard for me to understand, but I cannot speak but one language (that one not well) , so I admire you learning two languages.

We would like to help you, but we also need to be able to understand the questions you ask.
I see you have Steve’s video, if I understand, Steve’s methods work very well, and if you follow them you should have very little trouble.
Laser Steve’s web site also has a very good search for what you want to learn from the forum.
You must understand why we do things and what happens when we do something, understanding the principles you will know what to do when you do have troubles.
Have you read C.M. Hoke's book, there is free download in book section.
This book will teach you the all of the basic principles of refining.

You should not try and recover gold from whole circuit boards.
Separate by hand the gold parts.
Treat each type of parts separate.
Remove base metals from gold, before trying to dissolve gold.

Read C.M. Hoke's book this is best way to learn.
 
butcher,

thanks for your answer, but you not understand..
i just want to remove soldermask... but the gold dissolve.. :cry:
why the gold dissolve..? just it i need to know.. how with the true process stripping soldermask without dissolving the gold..?
how to recover the gold from sodium hydroxide?
 
alext_iwan,

I have never used sodium hydroxide to remove solder mask.

I really do not believe the NaOH would dissolve the gold under the conditions you are using.
But I do believe the gold plating can be so thin, and so little involved that the metals under gold can oxidize and (some of them go into solution) and the very small amount of gold could be in very fine powder mixed in this mess, making retrieving you gold somewhat difficult, I would try diluting and adding some HCl to get pH more neutral, let it settle well, decant the salt water and then treat residue.

Heat would be my choice for removing solder mask (or just breaking it down), not getting them so hot that the resin in boards melts, but just heating the surface enough to lift the adhesion of the solder mask and so the acids can attack metals under it.
 
alext_iwan said:
butcher,

thanks for your answer, but you not understand..
i just want to remove soldermask... but the gold dissolve.. :cry:
why the gold dissolve..? just it i need to know.. how with the true process stripping soldermask without dissolving the gold..?
how to recover the gold from sodium hydroxide?
Click to expand...

are you boiling the solution? you should not boil but heat just enough to be very warm to the touch.let the piece stay in solution for five minutes and test to see if the solder mask will come off,if not place back in solution for another five minutes and test again.
 
butcher,

I really do not believe the NaOH would dissolve the gold
Click to expand...

how with sodium aurate (NaAuO2)?

geo,

are you boiling the solution?
Click to expand...

just warm because my heater set to low. i dont know if much time enough to boil the solution.

thanks geo, i will try again. and sutoff my heater if enough warming the solution.
 
Alext.
I wrote the same thing, same thing happened to my gold. Some of the boards,the gold plate is so thin that it comes of in the sodium hydroxide. The boards come out with copper at the places where gold used to be. I scraped to see if may-be some copper was on top of the gold, gold is gone. I didn't heat the solution. Idid searches to try to find the simple answer... how to drop gold out of lye solution and can't find anything!
Everyone say's that lye doesn't disolve gold, because there is very little gold on those boards it will take hundreds of them to make alittle gold,so i will probably keep using the solution untill the is more gold and I eventually find the post that tells how to get it out or I find some way. Or may-be, somethingelse is going on, where the gold is in the solder mask sludge? I don'k know yet.
 
I expect your gold to be as an unrecognizable fine dust sitting on the bottom, being too thin to hold the form of visible foils.

I would rinse the solids, incinerate, and dissolve as usual.
 
im of the same opinion.if you didnt toss the loose solder mask put it in a container and add hcl/cl then test with stannous and see if you get color.
 

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