need help with AP of cable ends

[rpg]

Hi,

this is my first post, but been a long time reader. First of all thank you for all that have shared their knowledge.

After many month of reading, I started a coupe of weeks ago doing tests with AP. As far as fingers go, so far so good (still have not refined them, waiting for a few grams to do so).

As part of my test, I decided to run this weekend a AP test on pins and cable ends. The pins are so so, may need to run a test on warm HCL.

But with cable ends things have gone crazy. First the color is a deep dark green, second, every time I added peroxide white flakes surfaced. Now that I'm trying to filter there's a solid green stuff at the bottom and the liquid itself is full of small green particles.

First I should have not done AP with cable ends, perhaps hot HCL? Second, was this caused by aluminum pins that caused the cimentation of the copper? Third, should I run this condensate thru another AP to remover the copper (if this really is copper). Thank you in advance for your replies.

-rpg

 

[acpeacemaker]

When you say cable ends. Do you mean cable ends like the whole plug or connector or just the pins in the end?

 

[rpg]

spacemaker, the whole cable end with ABS plastic. thank you

 

[acpeacemaker]

Depending on what type of plugs you could have intoduced tin,lead,plastic that's doesn't do well under AP conditions as well as your copper,nickel, and possibly aluminum. Sometimes there is aluminum and copper sheathing on the inside as well. You created a slurry of contaminants.

 

[chrishawn]

Hi,
I have ran many ap batches. From pins to fingers and more. One thing i know for sure is you need to remove as much metal as you can, that is not gold plated.
Whole end conectors could complicate things. I spend the time pulling each pin out one by one or you can sell them whole to boardsort. Goodluck

 

[rpg]

i've figure that out, but that's what tests are for, i only run 70 grams. now with this cimented material, should i just ignore it and byte the dust of learning or should I run it in a fresh AP again? thank you all

 

[chrishawn]

I will leave that up to the experts to anwser. Being that its just a test save it till you get the right anwser. For the future just prosses gold plated stuff. Sorry i am not more help i just dont want to give you the wrong info.

 

[rpg]

well, i went ahead and started another AP, it sure won't hurt. The condensed mesh dissolved. But if possible would love to know what went wrong, if my guess of copper cimentation via aluminum pins is correct. thank you

 

[butcher]

rpg,
First before helping we need to be clear on what you are trying to do with what materials.

It sounds to me like you are trying to put whole cable ends (like sub D monitor type) in an acid,with plastic, iron, copper, aluminum and all, if this is the case I do not think you will have any success.

Put the cable end in a vise, with the pin end between vice jaws (about as deep as the pins are into the the plastic, sqeeze down on the vise as flat as you can get it, crushing the plastic as much as you can, now take a hammdr and knock off the majority of the plastic, remove smashed plastic and pins, if needed set this on an anvil and give it anoter hammer blow, set it aside and do another.

Once you have a pile of these it is easy to remove the pins from them, with hand tools like diagonal wire cutters, and needle nose plyers.

 

[rpg]

i tried to do it this way because most pins are lightly plated and do not justify the time and effort of pulling one by one. These were connectors, both male and female from the grey computer cables. I still have a pound or so of them and will try to find a quick and easy way of removing them without taking most of my time. Is perhaps the reverse electroplating the best approach for pins and anything metallic that is plated? I'm waiting on a couple of pounds plated jewelry I bought on ebay and from what i can see AP is very dangerous when used on anything that is not fingers. Am I correct?

thank you

 

[butcher]

It does not matter what process you use, if it is easy or hard to do, if you do not get gold for the work you are doing, then any process would be a waste of time.

As far as using acid peroxide on other materials and being more dangerous, I guess it would depend on what material you are talking about, aluminum could make hydrogen gas that could be more of a danger.

 

[maynman1751]

Is perhaps the reverse electroplating the best approach for pins and anything metallic that is plated?

thank you

Yes, a sulfuric cell would be best for these materials, but you still need to remove the pins from whatever they are encased in. The connectors you are working with, I would say, aren't worth the expense to process.

 

[rpg]

thank you everyone for your kind advise