Inquartation with 30% silver coins

[Lobby]

Various acid terms are tossed around here a lot. Could I ask for some clarification? When ya'll say:

- nitric acid, you mean concentrated nitric acid, about 68% weight?

- sulfuric acid, you mean concentrated sulfuric acid, about 98% weight?

- hydrochloric acid, you again mean concentrated HCl, about 37% weight?

 

[philddreamer]

That's correct Lobby.
That nitric is then dilute with 50% distilled water for digesting silver & base metals.
Now with the sulphuric, is 98% for the gold de-plating cell; (35% battery acid), for things like boiling off the borax crystal from the gold & silver after a melt.

Phil

 

[Lobby]

I'm very grateful, Phil, for all the advice. I've been doing a lot of reading, but haven't gotten started yet. I still have my cousin's spare Harley Davidson parts in my garage and I need to clear that crap out first. :mrgreen:

The scrap biz is closed tomorrow, so I may go look for pyrex and porcelain stuff at the Goodwill stores tomorrow.

 

[philddreamer]

Lobby, be aware that the vapors from these chemicals are hazardous.
You can find some respirators with cartridges that will filter some of the vapors, but for nitric there's no such cartridge.
It is recommended to use a fume hood or do the work outside, keeping in mind also the safety of children, pets & neighbors.

Take care & be safe!

Phil

 

[Lobby]

I know quite well the hazards of working with acids. I worked with all of the above during the 31 year career in the chemical industry.

I handled HCl all the time; from extremely dilute solutions, to concentrated stuff, to anhydrous HCl (yeah, the gas that's dry). We used 98% sulfuric acid to dry "anhydrous" HCl. Talk about a mess

And in my early days, I ran a pilot plant that used nitric acid as a vapor phase reactant. We had to boil it, under pressure, and feed the HNO3 gasses into a reactor - think tantalum.

Crazy days.