Magnetic watchband question

[Alabama938]

So while ago I had a post about doing recovery from gold filled jewelry that was magnetic and the iron really gave me a lot of problems… several suggestions included adding some sulfuric acid to the nitric boils to help hold iron and ? Tin in solution.

One comment mentioned that I should look for an article posted by Lou called the iron elephant. I absolutely cannot find this anywhere. I’m looking for a little guidance or more specific information about concentration of sulfuric to add to do my remaining watch bands. My carpal tunnel won’t let me pull the caps off anymore.

My plan is to roast to redness, boils with dilute nitric, filter and roast the foils. Then AR, filter and drop with SMB. The first roast is to try to remove as many skin cells/oil as possible, I think that’s what produced a slime around the beaker at the meniscus my first go. I’m also concerned with trying to calculate the amount of acid needed, as the primary metal doesn’t seem to be copper in these watch bands.

 

[Palladium]

It's stainless and your going to have to pull the caps whether you want to or not.
You do the whole bands and you will have a mess.

 

[NitrogenERbiumDYsprosium]

So while ago I had a post about doing recovery from gold filled jewelry that was magnetic and the iron really gave me a lot of problems… several suggestions included adding some sulfuric acid to the nitric boils to help hold iron and ? Tin in solution.

One comment mentioned that I should look for an article posted by Lou called the iron elephant. I absolutely cannot find this anywhere. I’m looking for a little guidance or more specific information about concentration of sulfuric to add to do my remaining watch bands. My carpal tunnel won’t let me pull the caps off anymore.

My plan is to roast to redness, boils with dilute nitric, filter and roast the foils. Then AR, filter and drop with SMB. The first roast is to try to remove as many skin cells/oil as possible, I think that’s what produced a slime around the beaker at the meniscus my first go. I’m also concerned with trying to calculate the amount of acid needed, as the primary metal doesn’t seem to be copper in these watch bands.

I have tendonitis so I know what you mean but you should remove them. I put the bands turned on their side in a vise and they pry off easily with a chisel. you don't really have to worry about going after the prongs, that top piece is soft enough you can usually pull them off the rest of the way without having to chisel the other side. i've even put the chisel inside my wrist brace so i didnt have to use my fingers too much.
i'm in the same boat with some iron getting into my solution by accident, i'm going to drop the metals with zinc powder/granules and smelt them with some silver and re-refine it. when there's too much silver from the beginning though, it can prevent the gold from dissolving, so be careful of that with the gold filled stuff. if there's more than 10% silver you should add something else like gold plated copper pins to balance that out.

 

[Geo]

Watch bands are stainless steel. Only the springs are magnetic. Leach in dilute nitric acid with 10-20 ml's of sulfuric acid added to help digest the springs. After the reaction stops, the caps will be loose and can be washed off the stainless steel with a spray bottle. Use distilled water as the caps are silver and gold. The silver will be in solution and gold will be heavy foils. Rinse the gold from the bands and throw the bands in the scrap stainless steel. Cement the silver from solution on copper metal.

Sorry if I'm stepping on anyone's toes. There are people that refines watch bands for their bread and butter. They are everywhere because no one wants to do them. They are so hard to deal with. I found this neat little trick on my own. No stuck fingers from tiny springs or cuts from sharp metal. Just roast and rinse in distilled water and in the nitric acid they go.