Need a hand please

[Devildog]

Hello all...
So I tried this salt water silver plate removal thing and I got a good bit of material, but put in the melt dish it almost liquefied then smokes. Once put in water it explodes really into the second picture. Where's the silver and if anyone knows what this is and what is happening here?

 

[Martijn]

I think you had a lot of silver chloride in it, possibly mixed with other metal salts. I always treat the silver plating mud with the sulfuric / iron process.. then you can rinse the converted silver free of any salts and melt to go in the silver cell.

The crumbling (what you call explodes" and is very violent with lots of damage, was it like that or more 'expands'?) could be from molten AgCl "cake" to break up when hitting the water, because it's a molten salt, not a molten metal.

What did you do to the material prior to melting?

 

[Devildog]

I think you had a lot of silver chloride in it, possibly mixed with other metal salts. I always treat the silver plating mud with the sulfuric / iron process.. then you can rinse the converted silver free of any salts and melt to go in the silver cell.

The crumbling (what you call explodes" and is very violent with lots of damage, was it like that or more 'expands'?) could be from molten AgCl "cake" to break up when hitting the water, because it's a molten salt, not a molten metal.

What did you do to the material prior to melting?

My friend how are you doing?
So I used the 12v 6a, distilled water with non-iodized salt. Noticed a ton of orange/rust colored substance in the vessel. Put a few drops of hcl in it to clean that up and then washed it a ton of times. I did also notice when I would scrape the plating off, a lot of the time it was accompanied by a white cloud or the piece of flatware being white before I scraped it.
To me the process is pretty straight forward. But as with all good things, you have to iron out things and learn it all. Trial and error for me.
After washing it, I then dries it and placed it in the crucible. As soon as the flame hit it, it started to turn into what looked like a liquid then got extremely solid. Bright blue flame and almost white flame mix in the crucible. All different colors of smoke that came off it as well and a lot of it. When I scooped up the mass and placed it in water to cool it, boom! A very loud pop and it shattered into what that second photo is of.
Out of 8 lbs of plated flatware, I was able to fetch 11.5 grams of silver. All the other shatter in the water, I didn't fool with. I just left it alone due to not knowing what exactly it is.

 

[Yggdrasil]

My friend how are you doing?
So I used the 12v 6a, distilled water with non-iodized salt. Noticed a ton of orange/rust colored substance in the vessel. Put a few drops of hcl in it to clean that up and then washed it a ton of times. I did also notice when I would scrape the plating off, a lot of the time it was accompanied by a white cloud or the piece of flatware being white before I scraped it.
To me the process is pretty straight forward. But as with all good things, you have to iron out things and learn it all. Trial and error for me.
After washing it, I then dries it and placed it in the crucible. As soon as the flame hit it, it started to turn into what looked like a liquid then got extremely solid. Bright blue flame and almost white flame mix in the crucible. All different colors of smoke that came off it as well and a lot of it. When I scooped up the mass and placed it in water to cool it, boom! A very loud pop and it shattered into what that second photo is of.
Out of 8 lbs of plated flatware, I was able to fetch 11.5 grams of silver. All the other shatter in the water, I didn't fool with. I just left it alone due to not knowing what exactly it is.

The water cell need to run without Salt.
If you add Salt you create Silver Chloride which need to be treated differently.

 

[Devildog]

The water cell need to run without Salt.
If you add Salt you create Silver Chloride which need to be treated differently.

I was sure of it with that white cloud coming off the items when I dipped it in the water that's what it was.
Thank you so much my friend. I really am most appreciative of everyone here.

 

[Martijn]

I Add salt to increase conductivity and it creates AgCl, but the pH rizes after a while by electrolysis of salt water into NaOH. This converts the AgCl in silver oxide and releases the chloride back to form more AgCl.
I think this is what happens.
Beside the white clouds, there are also flakes of silver coming off, and I convert the remaining silver chloride with H2SO4 and iron, and then rinse the metal sulfate salts out.

A final lye and sugar process converts the silver oxides, but you could reduce them in a smelt i guess.

 

[Shark]

One of the main assets of the H2O cell is the use of “city” water. The residual chemicals is what allows the electrolysis to work. By adding salt to distilled water you alter the original cell into basically a saltwater cell. It will work but bringing the silver back to metallic silver will most likely require a different process. I use regular tap water, and run it till the sediment causes problems, usually due to volume, then use the iron sulfuric method. At least this is how I have done in the past.

 

[Devildog]

One of the main assets of the H2O cell is the use of “city” water. The residual chemicals is what allows the electrolysis to work. By adding salt to distilled water you alter the original cell into basically a saltwater cell. It will work but bringing the silver back to metallic silver will most likely require a different process. I use regular tap water, and run it till the sediment causes problems, usually due to volume, then use the iron sulfuric method. At least this is how I have done in the past.

It all makes sense now. With the salt I'm getting way too much base metal and a disgusting solution.
Should have stuck to using the distilled and Sodium Sulfite solution. Was a much cleaner process but, I ran slam out of the Sodium Sulfite so I tried the salt water and it was a disaster. So back to the basics for me. With the Sodium sulfite solution, I use my DC power supply variable, and low amps low volts. Much less of a headache then this was. But, it was and has been a good learning curve.

 

[Devildog]

I Add salt to increase conductivity and it creates AgCl, but the pH rizes after a while by electrolysis of salt water into NaOH. This converts the AgCl in silver oxide and releases the chloride back to form more AgCl.
I think this is what happens.
Beside the white clouds, there are also flakes of silver coming off, and I convert the remaining silver chloride with H2SO4 and iron, and then rinse the metal sulfate salts out.

A final lye and sugar process converts the silver oxides, but you could reduce them in a smelt i guess.

This all makes sense now. I think I'll stick to my Sodium Sulfite solution and not the table salt. Just seems to go a lot smoother with the Sulfite vs table salt.

 

[BGDOCK]

This all makes sense now. I think I'll stick to my Sodium Sulfite solution and not the table salt. Just seems to go a lot smoother with the Sulfite vs table salt.

Lessons learned through experiments .
Keep at it .

Is it ok to say “ time for more cofffee “