You are talking about Schwerter's test right?
It is Potassium DiCromate.
That will be red if it is Silver.
Maintaining my silver nitrate electrolyte solution
- Thread starter rightmirem
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It is Potassium DiCromate.
That will be red if it is Silver.
The slime looks terrible. Es sieht schrecklich aus ;-)
Something must have contaminated your cell....
Something must have contaminated your cell....
Is your stainless steel bowl magnetic? If your only precious metal is silver, could you cupel the slimes?
rightmirem
Member
Another update.
So I don't know if the contamination came from me, or the manufacturer of the original 30g/L silver nitrate solution - but I ordered some powdered silver nitrate and mixed my own. And now I'm getting beautiful silver crystals forming.
As part of the experiment I decided to use a silver cathode (2mm x 2mm silver wire coiled to increase the surface area.)
I abandoned the stainless steel bowl as part of the test, but I think I'll probably leave it abandoned.
So I don't know if the contamination came from me, or the manufacturer of the original 30g/L silver nitrate solution - but I ordered some powdered silver nitrate and mixed my own. And now I'm getting beautiful silver crystals forming.
As part of the experiment I decided to use a silver cathode (2mm x 2mm silver wire coiled to increase the surface area.)
I abandoned the stainless steel bowl as part of the test, but I think I'll probably leave it abandoned.
Darkthirty
Well-known member
- Joined
- Dec 21, 2016
- Messages
- 289
I'd guess the vibrating table is knocking the slimes out of the anode bag.
Little late on this but if you drill holes on the bottom of the Tupperware anode basket then any time you disturb the anode basket slimes will fall into the solution .
1.) Try it without holes drilled in the bottom just drill holes on the side of basket
2.) Try not to disturb the anode basket
The ions will circulate through the side and not having the bottom drilled out can catch any slime debris that fall through your mesh
1.) Try it without holes drilled in the bottom just drill holes on the side of basket
2.) Try not to disturb the anode basket
The ions will circulate through the side and not having the bottom drilled out can catch any slime debris that fall through your mesh
Hey all I'm just starting to set up a silver cell and have collected almost all my parts but have a few questions. I cut a piece of copper pipe and formed it to the side of my stainless bow. They used a copper terminal lug to attach my negative wire. I'm using a stainless hose clamp to go around the bowl and attach to it. I see others attach several clamps at different points for even distribution. My copper clamp is about 10 inches long so would I need more than that for surface contact? Also My fine silver that my positive lead is connected to does it get submerged in the basket alone or sat on top of silver shot/granules. And those are they fine as well or would the silver cemented out of solution by copper be pure enough. As always I appreciate all the wealth of knowledge supported here.
- Joined
- Apr 3, 2024
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- 105
i just make a small coil of bare copper wire and set the stainless bowl on top of it. you can attach your negative to that wire. so far, it has worked good for me. simple, and easy to disconnect (pick up bowl). just keep the copper out of the electrolyte, is really the important thing.
i would recommend that you do not submerge your anode bar into the solution. it will begin eating the bar away. try to keep it up out of the electrolyte. any metal in contact with the electrolyte will begin transferring it's silver as ions, into the solution. then you'll have to pour another anode bar. so keep it up on top of the granule pile and out of the electrolyte.
i cement all of my shot out on copper. it's just that the more copper you keep out of your shot, the longer the electrolyte will last. as soon as it becomes too contaminated by copper (turning dark blue), you will need to replace it. once it is so contaminated, your crystallized silver will begin having contaminents in it. so, feed your cell with the cleanest silver you can. if you're worried about it being contaminated, run it through with a fresh batch of electrolyte. it just takes time.
Good luck, and happy refining!
Thanks Nater I had realized from other posts that the copper=bad for the cell. I mainly get the bulk of my silver from sterling that was used for inquartation and they cementing out with copper. Now I never got the chance to XRF it or never really cared before because I would just use it again for inquartation in a cycle. But from what I read that should be almost 99% just at that point(correct me if I'm wrong). That's the material I was going to use in my solution and in the basket under the fine. So with running it like that how long before I would have to worry about copper contamination?
That is one of these how long is a rope questions.
It has to be monitored in each case.
The professionals has testing equipment, for the amateur it suffice to have test tubes with know concentrations to compare with.
