Need some advice

shop deals on amazon
xelexo
Advertise with us
Shop deals on ebay
Gold Refining Forum

Help Support Gold Refining Forum:

This site may earn a commission from merchant affiliate links, including eBay, Amazon, and others.
Z

ZHillyard

Member
Joined
Apr 7, 2012
Messages
19
I have been browsing the forums, but my only net access is currently a phone. Having trouble finding the answers I need.

I am halfway through Hoke's book, and I have thus far put together my laundry list for basic supplies using his Simplest method in chapter one. I am interested in buying acids in cadoys, the rental/lease deposit fee isn't an issue for me either.. I am near Austin tex.

Gold is my main concern right now. I have 9 lbs of fingers and pins, all mainly from boards dating back to the eighties. Over one hundred hard drives dating from 84 to 2007, psus, 40-50 cpus of mainly old 486s and 386s, a box of aluminum boards from Cisco systems that have more gold plated wings then i bloody know what to do with and 300 sticks of ram untouched as of yet.

If this is going to be worth my time, all i need is acid. Any suggestions, comments or tips would be helpful. I am a noob.

Edit; i have 26 of these Cisco boards. They pair with the Aa2110 power supply units. I have ten of those. Random scanners, 100 plus floppy drives. A lot of my boards are Texas instruments now that i look at them.
 
Finish reading Hokes, keep studying, searching the forum and gathering your materials. Do the get acquainted tests that Hoke suggests. Make some stannous testing solution. When you think you're ready to proceed, ask specific questions BEFORE attempting a process if you are unsure.
This is just for starters!!!! I'm sure other members will give you further advice!
 
Texas is one of the least tolerant states to try and be a home refiner.i understand its a crime to possess some of the glassware and lab equipment needed for refining.you may have to find alternative means to refine your material or consider selling it as is or maybe sending it to a refiner and have them do the work for you.

good luck.
 
I don't know if it's illegal to own certain labware in Texas. I do know it's illegal to sell certain items commercially if the buyer doesn't have a state lab ID number.
 
Hello
You asked is it worth my time
That all depends on how much your time is worth
I can tell you one thing if all the time I put into
Learning this hobby added to all the time In cleaning
my boards,pins,fingers, processors, flatbacks,etc..
Added to my actual process
and this is if I didn't make a mistake :mrgreen:
Way way way less then minimum wage : :shock: shock:
So , how much is your time worth?
Steyr223
 
If this is going to be worth my time, all i need is acid. Any suggestions, comments or tips would be helpful. I am a noob.
Click to expand...

Not true. You need acid for *some* processes, but concurrent with that you need safety gear and for some processes, dedicated glassware or containers of some sort. Plus you need some other chemicals.

"If this is going to be worth my time, all i need is acid." <<<<<----I really don't understand the construction of this sentence.

I think what the forum would like to hear is something like

"If this is going to be worth my time, all i need is....

an idea of what my potential yield is.
a tight list of all the safety gear and chemicals required.
a thorough understanding of what the processes are, how they differ, which specific processes are used an what type of input materials
a place to carry out the processes
a method of heating/melting the yield
the ability to leave some process in place allowing them to settle for sometimes a few days, without fear of children or pets wandering by
a method or plan to dispose of the wastes generated

Every "interested party" sees the gold at the end but in 99% of cases does not appreciate the work, patience, care, and study that goes into making the process work. Because we have all observed this so many times, this must be human nature. To want the end result without wanting to or believing that the work and study and prep required is somehow necessary. That all these old fools who successfully refine gold are doing all this unnecessary work and taking all these superfluous steps when anyone can see that you just....

melt it all together
dump it in acid
and get a Johnson Matthey ingot at the end.

I'm not picking on you. Any time someone wishes a "summary" of the steps required "to refine gold" they have clearly not spent enough time studying the essential materials (Hoke) or really, really pondered whether this effort is worth it given ALLLLLL the stuff that's necessary, not just that glitter at the end. My, myself, I have concluded that it is not, but that's just my own conclusion based upon my present circumstances. I'm nevertheless fascinated by it all and admire the folks who can make it work for them. My own personal conclusion is that biggest amount of profit is generated by folks who buy scrap jewelry and resell it to refiners and never touch a single chemical. Of course, to do that, they must buy well under market and know darn well what they are doing so they do not make a bad mistake and overpay for junk. Ahhhh. There's that skill element again.

The takeaway I am trying to leave you with is that refining is lots more tedious than it appears on first, second, and third glance, and that all the rigamarole that the successful refiners go through (that you can't see, anyway, because you are on a forum and not in their shop) isn't being done because these guys have too much time on their hands.
 
Geo said:
Texas is one of the least tolerant states to try and be a home refiner.i understand its a crime to possess some of the glassware and lab equipment needed for refining.you may have to find alternative means to refine your material or consider selling it as is or maybe sending it to a refiner and have them do the work for you.

good luck.
Click to expand...

that being the case, perhaps it is appropriate to mention

http://www.boardsort.com/

will pay $4 a pound for old motherboards, $125 a pound for 486 CPU's, etc.

maybe keep some gold fingers so you can start learning the methods.

all you need is a few plastic buckets and some oversize coffee filters ... AND GOOD VENTILATION ... and some dilute HCL (muriatic) and some Hydrogen Peroxide and some Clorox - can't imagine those are illegal in Texas.
 
Thank you all for the responses. I will continue to research; going to finish the book tonight. I have access to hydrochloric and caustic in small amounts free of charge from work, and i am Hazmat certified as a trucker and medical it courier; so I am familiar with acid safety. I had planned on subbing the nitric for Ishores SubZero, and originally asked about their Singularity, which led me here when i realized it was a bunk idea to go with thair dumb machine. I do not want to jump the gun here, but i have an entire 2br apartment now filled with computers. Time is of no concern to me, and i am not going to sell at scrap prices when i feel like i am sitting on a gold mine. For the money, for the science and for the fun.

A man died and we aquired all of this. I have an entire electronics workshop in here now basically. I have learned to solder and gotten pretty efficient at stripping boards completely down. This fella was an old electronics hoarder and engineer. The money i am making from selling items on ebay justifies me sitting on the gold as long as rent is paid. It is an investment, but i have a good 2 months of buffer here currently.
 
For me a two bedroom apartment full of computers does not sound like much gold, or a gold mine, there can be some gold in them, but would it be enough to pay electric bill?
 
Ill have to take pictures. I have no cases. It is all boxes of mobos, lan cards, sound cards, etc. Like i said before, i have 9lbs of lean fingers and pins already. I saw a man do a similar project with photos on this forum, and he got 23 grams out of 7 lbs of roughly the same material i have an abundance of. I figured that was a pretty good basis for comparison, and he used the AR method. Call me naive but i like the numbers and have estimated my total finger and pin weight to be between 30 and 40 lbs. when it is all cleaned.

The apt is an unfinished unit rented as storage. I pay 200 a month and whatever it costs me to run a lightbulb and some small electronics. Lol. We use it for storing goods for sale. I buy and sell craigslist and ebay a lot. This stuff is now taking up storage space for other goods and will lose me money in the long term if it just sits here. The main thing is it was all FREE.

Also just aquired a military chem suit. I imagine that might help, too?
 
After more reading, I stand by my original statement: All I need is nitric acid. Everything else mentioned in the book is easily obtainable and financially feasible locally.

I do not need advice on the processes when i have common sense, a book (reccomended by this forum, no less) and the ability to read....

The lab license seems to be the problem i will run into. Thanks for that bit. That is all i needed here.
 
ZHillyard said:
After more reading, I stand by my original statement: All I need is nitric acid. Everything else mentioned in the book is easily obtainable and financially feasible locally.

I do not need advice on the processes when i have common sense, a book (reccomended by this forum, no less) and the ability to read....

The lab license seems to be the problem i will run into. Thanks for that bit. That is all i needed here.
Click to expand...

ROFLMAO!!! :twisted: You think so huh..
 
I know so. All I originally asked and wanted to know asked was where to locate nitric acid near Austin Texas, but this is the internet, of course. I don't mind making a fool of myself, i just need help doing it. ;)

All this chemistry and people gotta get their ego on when a man wants to experiment...? When i get all my supplies in, mess something up, then ill come ask for help instead of advice.
 
uh-oh. the trick is to do the process right the first time.if you continue the way you are, you will definitely need some help. learn the processes first before you ask because if you think you got flamed on the question just wait till you come back asking how to get your gold back. :roll:

the afore mentioned chem-suit you spoke of,yea well it will not filter out nitrogen dioxide. while your coughing up blood you may find that your alarm clock quit working because you were working in your apartment.
 
ZHillyard,
Do not take it personally.
We all had to learn, I made the same assumptions, and many of the mistakes you will make.
I am not making fun of you, but we are trying to get you to see some of the things we learned the hard way, so maybe you will not have to make the same mistakes to learn.

I hope you do have a gold mine, and study to learn to recover it all safely.
 
Thanks. I guess this just seems counterproductive when Hokes book says to follow his steps in the book; this is the easiest method, get good at this, continue on. I can read this thing 5 times and sit here digging through forum posts and YouTube videos to fill the gaps. Following steps requires having the necessary materials.

And if someone thinks i am dumb enough to actually refine in my apt... Lololol... Lol..... The dumb man might have a workshop in the country on a farm where he can do such kinds of work without dying or going to jail...

I understand the money blunders, and maybe i am wrong. I won't argue there. I still wanna do it just so i can say i did. If i pay for materials and expenses, i lose no money.

I already put a good 80 hours into stripping pins and fingers. I want to run the 9lbs i have, see what it gives me and go from there. Excuse me for being butt hurt. I am putting all my free time into this. It is sentimental at this point. Average Joe thinks tharr be no gold in nothin, i am craaazy, and Gold Joe has heard it all before and is jaded. Lol..... I get it.
Im going to go talk to some local jewelers tomorrow when everything is open.
 
yields vary of coarse. it takes on average 15 pounds of close cut fingers to make a ounce of gold. if you have header pins it may average 0.28g per pound unless you took the time to cut off the excess base metal.slot connector pins yield even less because the gold plating is on the very tips.
 
I will post pics of the apt. tomorrow. My Cisco boards are yielding almost 3 ounces of pins per board.

To rephrase myself: i am lacking nitric acid. I have ebayed or found locally everything on Hokes basic list. I do understand the legality with Texas, and what i choose to do there is on me. All of the glassware and porcelain pieces i already have (hobby lobby chemistry sets), as well as about 15 coffee pots. I have a 10lb bag of urea from work, and i can store my acids in 5 gallon hazmat drums from work also, used acids in one gallon mason jars.

All hand stripping is done in the apt on a bench. All refining will be done in my ventilated workshop out of city limits.

At this point, i figure i will order subzero from shore, and a precipitant, use the available muriatic and caustic i have access to and run only my plated gold pieces.

Sound like a plan to anyone? Maybe my head was up my butt. I type all of this on a phone, and i think i miss a lot anyway.
 
I will post pics of the apt. tomorrow. My Cisco boards are yielding almost 3 ounces of pins per board.

To rephrase myself: i am lacking nitric acid. I have ebayed or found locally everything on Hokes basic list. I do understand the legality with Texas, and what i choose to do there is on me. All of the glassware and porcelain pieces i already have (hobby lobby chemistry sets), as well as about 15 coffee pots. I have a 10lb bag of urea from work, and i can store my acids in 5 gallon hazmat drums from work also, used acids in one gallon mason jars.

All hand stripping is done in the apt on a bench. All refining will be done in my ventilated workshop out of city limits.

At this point, i figure i will order subzero from shore, and a precipitant, use the available muriatic and caustic i have access to and run only my plated gold pieces.

Sound like a plan to anyone? Maybe my head was up my butt. I type all of this on a phone, and i think i miss a lot anyway.
 

Latest posts

Back
Top