New guy from GA

[zuberb]

Hey all, I've also been lurking for a bit. I am very interested in gold refining on a small scale. My interest is not to "get rich quick." I find this topic extremely fascinating. I recently purchased the pre-fab kit of Subzero and did an extremely scaled down test to figure out how it worked. The experiment was going perfectly, then flopped right at the precipitation step. I've since set that material aside safely while I read. I'm halfway through Hoke's book, and I'm working my way through Steve's guided tour.

I haven't even looked into how to get more e-scrap. I've broken down every old/broken electronic thing in my own house, and removed the green solder mask as per Steve's instructions. I probably have roughly 15 small circuit boards, and a few sets of fingers from old memory DIMMs and video cards. Probably not even enough to get a tiny nugget, but it's a start. The only thing I've done is tell my friends to give me anything old and broken they are tired of looking at. Also asked Good Will the other day, but they already send old broken computers away (presumably to someone with a large scale refining operation).

I look forward to learning more from you guys. This looks like a great bunch of people sharing information here.

 

[nickvc]

You made your first mistake buying that kit but you've redeemed yourself by finding the forum and by starting to read Hoke. This is a huge topic and will never be fully understood by anyone in my opinion, there's always something to learn however long you study. Read Hoke until it makes sense, it may take several reads, download the forum handbooks and read, it's a free download and visit lazersteves site and watch his videos, their worth buying so you can access the excellent information instantly when you start your first recovery, also go to the safety section on the forum and read and absorb the advice, To get used to using chemicals and testing follow the testing techniques in Hoke and your taking the right first steps to a successful outcome.
Welcome to the forum.

Corrected for spelling.

 

[zuberb]

Things are coming along. I've done some of the drop-sized experiments from Hoke. I don't own any test tubes, so I've been using gold vials. They work pretty good. I haven't seen anything about AP in Hoke, so I've been watching lasersteve's videos and actually tried a tiny batch of fingers from five memory modules. I followed Steve's instructions to the letter, and learned a lot as I did it. Once I precipitated, washed, and dried my gold powder, it was a tiny amount (as expected). I couldn't resist trying to melt it down in a crucible. Needless to say, it didn't amount to much. The gold is in 3-4 tiny beads embedded in borax glass in the bottom of my melting dish. When I eventually get enough gold to make a button, I'm sure it will absorb those tiny beads. This whole process is fascinating. My wife thinks I'm crazy, but I think she'll come around when I show her a decent sized button.

 

[jack_burton]

Welcome to the forums and it sounds like you are coming along nicely.

Don't worry about those gold prills left in your melting dish- once you have a larger button to melt, you can swish around the molten gold a bit and pick those up.