Well here it is. Finally got to melt last night. Not quite what I was hoping for, but I learned so much from it as it fought me every step of the way that I'll take it. 2.7g.
After the initial recovery/refine from cleaned ash, put gold back in solution with third HCl wash. Dropped with three .25g additions of SMB.
The next refine gave another beautiful metallic snow globe drop with 3g SMB. It took two more .5g additions to get a negative stannous.
The second HCl wash dissolved gold again. Only this time it wasn't heated or even stirred. It was getting late after decanting first wash and just poured in fresh acid and put it away for the night. The next evening close to a gram back in solution. Dropped again with SMB.
After all washes, the metallic powder refused to aglomerate. It would a bit until the last of the water evaporated. Then it would just fall apart. Just a tap on the side of the beaker would stir up a fine cloud of the dried powder. Tried to rehydrate and evaporate three times. Same result. On to another refine.
The last refine finally gave normal results. Even in the washes. Now to work on my little stock pot, treat a little waste, then store the rest of my usable solutions until I get my lab put together.
Until then its 'wax on, wax off' and a small mountain of mechanical processing piled up in the basement.
P.S. My new phone does not like taking pictures of reflective surfaces so you may have to use your imagination a little!
After the initial recovery/refine from cleaned ash, put gold back in solution with third HCl wash. Dropped with three .25g additions of SMB.
The next refine gave another beautiful metallic snow globe drop with 3g SMB. It took two more .5g additions to get a negative stannous.
The second HCl wash dissolved gold again. Only this time it wasn't heated or even stirred. It was getting late after decanting first wash and just poured in fresh acid and put it away for the night. The next evening close to a gram back in solution. Dropped again with SMB.
After all washes, the metallic powder refused to aglomerate. It would a bit until the last of the water evaporated. Then it would just fall apart. Just a tap on the side of the beaker would stir up a fine cloud of the dried powder. Tried to rehydrate and evaporate three times. Same result. On to another refine.
The last refine finally gave normal results. Even in the washes. Now to work on my little stock pot, treat a little waste, then store the rest of my usable solutions until I get my lab put together.
Until then its 'wax on, wax off' and a small mountain of mechanical processing piled up in the basement.
P.S. My new phone does not like taking pictures of reflective surfaces so you may have to use your imagination a little!
