Micro stripping cell

[FrugalRefiner]

I did do something I haven't been able to find anything on the forum about, so here goes. While waiting for the powders to dissolve, I stirred it using broken pieces of plates with gold leaf, some were fairly thick and took some time to come off. I now have some extra room for my storage area, but still have quite a few more plates and glasses. The rinse from the plates is part of the extra rinse water I added in when the filter was clean.

You've probably lost a tiny bit of your gold. The broken pieces of plates will absorb some liquid, along with whatever might have been dissolved in it. Probably only a tiny amount, but be aware that when the plates are broken, they expose unglazed areas of the plate, and these areas will be a little porous. If you take a piece of the plate and put a drop of water on it, you'll probably see it darken in color due to the wate soaking into the plate. Like I said, it won't be much, but you'll probably want to avoid doing that in the future.

Dave

 

[sharkhook]

Thanks, FrugalRefiner, I didn't think about that. I knew it, just didn't think of it. The whole process of recovery and refining has been a real treat for me so far. I know there is still a lot to learn, but I do enjoy it and will keep after it. I hope I can only get better at with time and understanding.

 

[FrugalRefiner]

If I ever thought I had learned everything there was to know about recovery and refining, I would probably get bored very quickly and lose interest. Learning something new every day keeps it fresh and exciting.

Dave

 

[g_axelsson]

The broken pieces of plates will absorb some liquid, along with whatever might have been dissolved in it.

To minimize the losses to absorption, put the broken plates in water for a while before washing off the gold. This was one of my first advices I wrote on the forum.

Göran

 

[sharkhook]

The broken pieces of plates will absorb some liquid, along with whatever might have been dissolved in it.

To minimize the losses to absorption, put the broken plates in water for a while before washing off the gold. This was one of my first advices I wrote on the forum.

Göran

I may try that before to long. I have 80 plus pounds of dish's left. All marked 18 to 23 Karat and heavily plated, as in large covered surface area. I only kept the ones with 10 or more square inches of plating. Most were free, but a few I paid 10 cents for. Might be enough to make it worth doing them by there self.

 

[joubjonn]

i have tried doing plates in HCl/Cl before, it just turned into a huge pain in the butt for me. you either have to have a nice big bath for them or break them into a million pieces and after searching the forum i found that plates usually have very little gold plated, to the point that unless you have a big operation going with hundred or thousands of pounds and two-three rinse tanks i don't think it's worth messing with. just my two cents, give it a go, maybe you will have better luck then i did.

 

[sharkhook]

i have tried doing plates in HCl/Cl before, it just turned into a huge pain in the butt for me. you either have to have a nice big bath for them or break them into a million pieces and after searching the forum i found that plates usually have very little gold plated, to the point that unless you have a big operation going with hundred or thousands of pounds and two-three rinse tanks i don't think it's worth messing with. just my two cents, give it a go, maybe you will have better luck then i did.

I can already see it being a real pain just from what I have done already. But I do have another few weeks off to play around. Luckily today I am watching a slow drop from my current adventure. That should keep me busy another day or two. I do think working up more boards would be better from a profit stand point, but I am trying to learn as much as I can right now, while putting bits of the pieces into small scale practice. I have sold several of the plates to collectors over the years, and have some that others are interested in, so those will be sold off. Most of them I gathered up in the early 90's when the "fever" hit me bad, luckily I put very, very little into any of them. And what I did spend has been recovered from the sales of only a very few and with a nice profit to boot.

 

[bmgold2]

I just tried my micro stripping cell again using a computer power supply since I broke my good one. It seems to work but without having a meter, it was harder to tell for sure when it was done stripping. It also slowed the fan down each time when I first dipped the basket of parts in the acid. That only lasted for a second or so before it speeded back up. I'm not sure how much current this power supply can put out.

I think the thing to do is put a 12 volt light bulb (like a turn signal bulb) in series with one of the wires going to the cell as a visual indicator and also a protection in case of a short circuit. I didn't try that yet so I'm not sure it will work. It might cut the voltage down? If all else fails, I could hook up a meter to measure the current. I think my cheap meter can be set for 10 amp maximum which should be plenty for this cell. I'd hate to blow out my meter too, I think it might bypass the fuse to get the higher current level but I could be wrong.

Anyway, it does still work with the computer power supply so I can keep running my parts through it again. I still don't have a lot of pins and connectors so I probably won't be in any hurry to clean it up this time now that I know I can do it.

 

[sharkhook]

If the fan slows down when you use the power, you have a good power supply. The fan is inline, it replaces the need for the added resistor to keep it working. My meter is one that is one of those that clamps around one wire, and reads the amp or voltage depending on how it is set. Is there a label on the side of the power supply? It will tell you the amps per wire. The wire color can vary from different manufactures. I am doing my first wash now getting it ready to do the second refine later. Here is a video of the wiring a PSU into a lab type power supply. It is the best I have found and what I used with mine.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z2oSFpKh_Uw

 

[bmgold2]

Is there a label on the side of the power supply? It will tell you the amps per wire.

Why didn't I think of that? There's a sticker right on the side showing all the wires, their voltage, and their current. Looks like I got 11 Amps at 12 volts and about the same or a little more at 3.3 volts so I'll bet this would work for a silver cell also.

 

[niteliteone]

Is there a label on the side of the power supply? It will tell you the amps per wire.

Why didn't I think of that? There's a sticker right on the side showing all the wires, their voltage, and their current. Looks like I got 11 Amps at 12 volts and about the same or a little more at 3.3 volts so I'll bet this would work for a silver cell also.

Kadriver has a whole thread dedicated to using the computer power supply with his silver cell.
About 2 years ago

 

[sharkhook]

Kadivers post was a help. But I got confused with the variations from different manufacturers of the units. That is when I looked around for more help with mine.

bmgold2, be sure that amperage is for each wire, or all of them combined. 11 amps sounds pretty high for each wire. But, it could be right.

 

[sharkhook]

I need to thank kadriver anyway, again. I just watched one of his videos and spotted a mistake I made from watching it. That one will cost me a tiny bit of gold from my tiny bit. But I think I know how to recover it later. That won't happen again. Ready to start the second refine, I just need to think on it a bit and do some math.

 

[bmgold2]

Kadivers post was a help. But I got confused with the variations from different manufacturers of the units. That is when I looked around for more help with mine.

bmgold2, be sure that amperage is for each wire, or all of them combined. 11 amps sounds pretty high for each wire. But, it could be right.

I'm not real sure. I used the yellow (+12 Volt) wire and the black (common) wire to run my cell. Here's the sticker on the power supply.



Since I was only running one thing at a time, I only used one of the yellow wires. Maybe I should have combined all of the yellows together? Either way, it worked. My old power supply was only 3 amp maximum and, with the tiny basket I use on this micro stripping cell, I never maxed it out.

 

[sharkhook]

I think 11 amp is more than enough for the small cells. Mine has never went over 1.45 amp. I am going to try the 3.3 volt on mine and combine 2 to 3 wires just to be sure the amps are there is they are needed. I have a dimmer switch I am going to put on it so I can adjust the amps and see how that works as well. It should keep the amps from going to high. I don't know how well it work, but I can always start over, I have several PSU's to play with.

 

[sharkhook]

And the second refine. I used Poormans AR and thinking of using copperas to drop it. This is not filtered.

 

[bmgold2]

And the second refine. I used Poormans AR and thinking of using copperas to drop it. This is not filtered.

I really look forward to seeing what you get out of this. Is your copperas homemade? I'd like to try that just to see if I could drop the gold with something I made myself. The only problem I can see would be a little iron contamination but that should be easy enough to get back out of the gold powder in your washings.

If you read this in time, could you try to take a picture of the powder before and after washing it? I'd like to see the difference in color. If not, just a picture of the resulting gold will do.

I just burnt the filter that I had originally used on my first try of my cell along with some I.C. chips that had visible gold wires. It won't be a very good test to see the yields of separate items but I hope it results in a little larger bead when I'm done. I'm not rushing this process so I hope to get fairly good quality on my next attempt. At least it has warmed up above freezing here so I can hopefully get a little more done. Still doing small scale testing so I don't have any idea how much gold I might get but I'm hoping for 1/2 a gram or more. We'll see. I'm sure the gold wires look like more than they really are but I'm hoping the filter from the gold stripping cell will add a little to my final result. I also have a little gold powder from a previous attempt that I didn't clean up yet since it wasn't enough to bother with.

 

[sharkhook]

I will try to get pictures as I go. My camera is acting up, and I haven't used it enough to be to familiar with it. I won't be using home made copperas, but I have some nice clean ones I bought. Still trying to decide on that as I have the SMB as well. My thinking is a drop with a different precipitant as well as a different solvent may remove something missed in the first refine and washing. The first drop didn't look very dark over all, but there were dark specks mixed in the powders. I lost a good bit in washing, but have found how to reduce that so maybe the loss this time won't be as bad,(I hope). I could see several tiny yellow specks in the first drop as well, that was a good feeling. Hope to see more this time, but if not, oh well, the gold is still there.

 

[pgms4me]

HI every one. Some things to be aware of. If you use the computer power supply for the microcell it should be ok using one black and one yellow (12v), or instead of yellow the red(5v), But if your ammeter goes over 3 amps you should double up on the wires. Those individual wires are only meant to cary about 2 amps each. That is why on some of those connectors you see several of the same colors.They are needed to supply the max current for its intended use. If you use these on a larger cell under more or less continuos use, I would reccomend 4 blacks and 4 yellows,this would supply 10 amps without heating the wires. FYI, I have never needed to use the yellow(12v) wires on my cells, The red(5v) wires work fine for me

 

[sharkhook]

HI every one. Some things to be aware of. If you use the computer power supply for the microcell it should be ok using one black and one yellow (12v), or instead of yellow the red(5v), But if your ammeter goes over 3 amps you should double up on the wires. Those individual wires are only meant to cary about 2 amps each. That is why on some of those connectors you see several of the same colors.They are needed to supply the max current for its intended use. If you use these on a larger cell under more or less continuos use, I would reccomend 4 blacks and 4 yellows,this would supply 10 amps without heating the wires. FYI, I have never needed to use the yellow(12v) wires on my cells, The red(5v) wires work fine for me

Thanks, that is good info. It will help with a later project I want to try. Right now I plan to use the power supply from the electric cooler a bit longer for my cell.

I have a super fine brown powder dropping very quick now. Will try to do the washing tomorrow, if the rain holds off. This process went very quick compared to the other and hit no snags so far. I did use SMB, not sure why I decided to do it though. I added half the amount of SMB I calculated, based on guessing the weight of the powders, and the solution went clear, added the rest boom, instant brown. Quick settling now.