Non-Chemical My best pipe yet

[joubjonn]

I have not been able to get a good "pipe" on my buttons. Mostly because I'm impatient. However this time I took some time. I did 4 pentium pro cpu's (2 big and 2 small) and 4 other misc ceramic cpu's in AR. Washed the powder three times with hot water. Then did a hot (150F) HCl soak for 5 hours. 3 more water washes. Then dried and placed powder in a newly washed crucible (washed with 10% sulfuric, dried for 1 week). I also took some sandpaper to my torch tip before melting. When the button was cooling I could actually hear the pipe. I have never seen that before. This was exciting. I'll never be impatient again with washing. Thanks Harold and everyone here for the great tips! It's so worth it.

 

[Long Shot]

Awesome Dude.

 

[butcher]

Just a little bit of patience can really pay off, nice job.

 

[Anonymous]

It looks really nice Joub.

I've got to ask why you took that process and help to make it better if I may?

If you AR things like Pentium Pro, then any silver will be precipitated out as Silver Chloride (caught when you filter,) but an ammonia wash on the powder would probably get rid of any tiny bit of silver that's left.
If you wash your powder with water once (3 min boil,) then boil in HCl then most of of the copper will go in the first acid wash. Don't get hung up about leaving it in for hours, just careful bring it to the boil and you can actually watch the powder change colour as the copper comes out. It takes no more than a few minutes.

Then water wash, and boil in the water too. The water could discolour at this point suggesting that the wash has cleaned the residual copper chloride from the powder. Again, no more than 10 minutes here- - bring it to the boil, leave for a few minutes and it's good.

Feel free to then rinse and repeat. Acid wash and water wash as before (as required.) You've seen the pics of some the gold I've dropped in a couple of threads and the washing process for all this gold has taken no longer than 50 minutes, all told. Sometimes shorter.

Naturally be careful that you let it settle and don't pour your gold off into your stock pot too readily. Oh and as a final note don't use loads of liquid. there's no need.

 

[joubjonn]

appreciate the tips! i do usually use ammonia but did not on this wash. i did however on the re-refined button i did after this one and the pipe was even more dramatic. Water/HCl/Ammonia/Water all at heat (150F). the path to awesome gold!

i was wondering, now that i have maybe .999 or better, is this gold worth more then lets say .89-.95? obviously it is from the few percentages, what i mean, is it worth a significant amount more since it has been purified? and if so, who would one sell it too?

 

[heliman4141]

appreciate the tips! i do usually use ammonia but did not on this wash. i did however on the re-refined button i did after this one and the pipe was even more dramatic. Water/HCl/Ammonia/Water all at heat (150F). the path to awesome gold!

i was wondering, now that i have maybe .999 or better, is this gold worth more then lets say .89-.95? obviously it is from the few percentages, what i mean, is it worth a significant amount more since it has been purified? and if so, who would one sell it too?

If I was you id acid test it to see what you have then hold onto it in the hopes that Gold values soar in the future. Look at it as investment against inflation.
Unless your making ounces a week its a hobby & with all the time involved best to hope for a Gold spike.
Then, when selling you have several options, local jeweler who will also do acid test then let you know what he will pay and its usually cash as I have done in the past or also Ebay is a great place to sell it were it not for the 12% sellers fee, but if you can get that fee in the bids you did well. Buyers on Ebay like buttons with a pipe..........and will pay dearly for it.
Anyway its how I view this whole thing. Its a small suppliment to my Silver walking Libertys I have as investment.
Government is Trillions in debt, something has to give eventually. Be patient & just keep making Gold buttons as pure as possible bud & stick them in your safe.


Dave