Just a Newbie thirsty for knowledge

[Shark]

Stir it once a day until the golden hulls are hollowed out. They tend to swirl around more as the base metals are removed. Judging by the color of your solution and the amount of materials my guess is it still needs a few more days for the larger pieces to finish up. Cutting the parts in pieces can help speed things up, or just a deep scratch. The more the base metals are exposed the faster it works, to varying degrees.

Edit: cutting the materials at this stage isn’t recommended. Just let this batch run as is.

 

[Yggdrasil]

from vintage watches, 10 or 20 microns.

I'm not sure if it is processable directly in AR or you need to inquart it first.
If it is thin enough and you have agitation you may be able to dissolve directly without inquarting.

 

[Watcher]

Stir it once a day until the golden hulls are hollowed out. They tend to swirl around more as the base metals are removed. Judging by the color of your solution and the amount of materials my guess is it still needs a few more days for the larger pieces to finish up. Cutting the parts in pieces can help speed things up, or just a deep scratch. The more the base metals are exposed the faster it works, to varying degrees.

Edit: cutting the materials at this stage isn’t recommended. Just let this batch run as is.

Thanks Shark, I'm going to add a bubbler to the process shortly, is it worth filtering and adding fresh muriatic at this point or put it on a hot plate! Cheers

 

[Yggdrasil]

Thanks Shark, I'm going to add a bubbler to the process shortly, is it worth filtering and adding fresh muriatic at this point or put it on a hot plate! Cheers

Fresh HCl and or heat will increase the speed.
No need to filter yet.

 

[Watcher]

Just let it run. If you add an aquarium pump to bubble air through it, it will save you the effort of stirring every couple of hours.

In the early days of the forum, "AP" was made using the 3 parts HCl and 1 part peroxide that you used. We've learned that this can dissolve a bit of gold as the copper chloride leach gets going. You won't lose the gold, but it will cement back out of solution as a fine, dark powder, so don't throw anything away.

Watch cases can take a while, so just be patient. Eventually, the base metals will dissolve and leave you with gold foils and dark, cemented gold powder. Then you can move on to refining the gold.

Dave

edited typo lose gold instead of lode gold

Hi Dave, day 4 and this is what it looks like, I have now connected an air bubbler and its sitting on a medium heat hot plate bubbling away merrily, what say you?
Should I add more Muriatic or peroxide? TIA.

Steve

 

[Watcher]

Hi Dave, day 4 and this is what it looks like, I have now connected an air bubbler and its sitting on a medium heat hot plate bubbling away merrily, what say you?
Should I add more Muriatic or peroxide? TIA.

Steve

 

[Yggdrasil]

Hi Dave, day 4 and this is what it looks like, I have now connected an air bubbler and its sitting on a medium heat hot plate bubbling away merrily, what say you?
Should I add more Muriatic or peroxide? TIA.

Steve

If you are bubbling air through it you don't need more Peroxide.
A little more HCl don't hurt but, the color of your solution do not indicate the need for it.
There is a yellowish tinge too it, was there many pieces with Iron in there?

 

[Watcher]

If you are bubbling air through it you don't need more Peroxide.
A little more HCl don't hurt but, the color of your solution do not indicate the need for it.
There is a yellowish tinge too it, was there many pieces with Iron in there?

I believe so, most are from 60 yr old vintage watches, should I of cleaned them more thoroughly?
Thanks

 

[Yggdrasil]

I believe so, most are from 60 yr old vintage watches, should I of cleaned them more thoroughly?
Thanks

Iron will dissolve as well.

 

[Watcher]

Hello, I'm getting anxious to move on to the next stage... based on these pics what should I do next

 

[Yggdrasil]

Hello, I'm getting anxious to move on to the next stage... based on these pics what should I do next

It is hard to say from here, but if you do not think there is more to dissolve, you need to go to the next decision.

To inquart or not to inquart.
If the foils are thin enough you can go directly to AR with stirring.

If not, you need to estimate the karat and weigh it so you can alloy it to approximately 25% Gold (Silver is preferred).
Pour it to shots and dissolve Silver and Base metals in Nitric.
And finally Refine the remains in AR.
Drop the Gold as powder and refine again before a final washing sequence.
Then you should have 99.9+ pure Gold.

 

[Watcher]

Don't laugh... what's inquart?

 

[FrugalRefiner]

Hello, I'm getting anxious to move on to the next stage... based on these pics what should I do next

Practice patience. The stuff you're dissolving is large chunks of base metal. It takes a while. Think in terms of weeks, not days.

When you see a word you don't recognize, see A Glossary of Common Terms.

Dave

 

[Watcher]

Practice patience. The stuff you're dissolving is large chunks of base metal. It takes a while. Think in terms of weeks, not days.

When you see a word you don't recognize, see A Glossary of Common Terms.

Dave

Cheers Dave, I'll put my patience hat back on...

 

[Yggdrasil]

Don't laugh... what's inquart?

Dave gave you a good link.
But here it is:
Inquart is to bring an alloy to approximately 25% Gold (Silver is preferred as additive).

 

[Shark]

Think of recovery as a hurry up and wait process. In one picture it appears to still have a fair bit of copper pieces left. These should be gone before moving on.

 

[galenrog]

Don't laugh... what's inquart?

It should be in the glossary of common terms Dave gave the link to.

The reason silver is preferred over copper for inquartation is one of frugality. While silver has a higher initial cost, it takes far more nitric acid to dissolve copper, making silver more cost effective. There may other minor issues, but my stroke addled brain can not think of any right now.

Time for more coffee.

 

[Watcher]

Think of recovery as a hurry up and wait process. In one picture it appears to still have a fair bit of copper pieces left. These should be gone before moving on.

Should I manually remove the pieces I know that are already depleted of any gold, ie the watch dials etc?

 

[Shark]

I never have. I just leave it all until it seems to move at the slightest disturbance, think stir with a plastic straw. Then process all of the foils together at the same time.

Edit: the longer it sits the less base metals you will have to deal with later.

 

[FrugalRefiner]

I'm OK with removing base metal pieces from gold filled scrap. Just be sure to rinse them thoroughly into a separate container and keep the rinses for any gold that may have cemented out on the base metals. You can add them to the gold foils you get at the end of the AP process.

If you have the time to do it, it can save a little acid. If you don't have the time, it will take care of itself while you do other things.

Dave