New Silver cell

[BGDOCK]

1a at 3.5v will not turn any wire larger than 20gauge hot. that is only 3.5watts worth of power. and as long as your leads are, that isn't much. are you sure you have the settings correct on your power source?

your picture shows that you are flowing 10a while at 4v. why are you swet over the 3.5v threshold?

It has no wattage
Volts times amps equal watts
It’s not connected correctly

 

[Charlie Hotel]

I have a power source similar to that but I have to have the ground and negative leads attached to the cathode for. It to work I attached your picture with the correct circuit then it will work
Edited for clarity

View attachment 62533

Where did you find that blue anode basket it filts in that battery har so well .

Jeff

Thanks for the reply BGDOCK,
So, you connect earth the earth and negative leads. OK. Stupid question then. With what wire? Do I put an alligator clip on to the currently being used 20AWG and a banana onto the other end before connecting them? Stupid questions I know but I'm still leaning .

Thanks for the help

Cameron

 

[Yggdrasil]

Thanks for the reply BGDOCK,
So, you connect earth the earth and negative leads. OK. Stupid question then. With what wire? Do I put an alligator clip on to the currently being used 20AWG and a banana onto the other end before connecting them? Stupid questions I know but I'm still leaning .

Thanks for the help

Cameron

Ground and Earth are the same.
Measure if there is a voltage between the negative and ground.
It may be like BGDOCK says that there need to be contact between ground and negative for it to work.

How about the other questions?
Depth of the bowl vs area of the Anode?
How do you ensure proper contact with the Anode?

 

[Yggdrasil]

Thanks for the reply BGDOCK,
So, you connect earth the earth and negative leads. OK. Stupid question then. With what wire? Do I put an alligator clip on to the currently being used 20AWG and a banana onto the other end before connecting them? Stupid questions I know but I'm still leaning .

Thanks for the help

Cameron

Have you measured the actual Voltage and Amperage between the electrodes or just assumed the display was Ok?

 

[BGDOCK]

 

[BGDOCK]

Use a banana or a spade connection from the power source (green terminal ) Attach the alligator clip to the bowl.
Refer to the drawing

 

[Shark]

So, you connect earth the earth and negative leads.

Ground and earth are used in AC connections.

 

[kurtak]

One of the problems is that if I set the volts to 3.6 the amps are at 0.001 or 0. I've tried to set them to where they should be and have even tried to short out negative an positive (which will give me 1.amp but the leads become extremely hot and so I disconnect them

Per the bold print - you may very well have "burned out" your power supply(s) by doing that

Some power supplies are made to provide "overload" protection so that if a "direct short" (connection) happens between the negative & positive it doesn't "over amp" the power supply & burn the power supply out - AND - (generally) that overload protection is NOT automatic - there is a "procedure" you have to do - in setting up the supply so that the overload protection is actually working

In other words - if you don't go through the procedure to set the supply up with overload protection - when a direct short occurs - it will burn the supply out

Generally - power supplies that proved for setting up overload protection are more expensive --- I had to pay $1,000 for my supply that provides for setting it up with that overload protection

That was after burning out 2 cheap $100 supplies that did not provide for setting up that overload protection

Both of those cheap power supplies burned up when the silver crystals grew from the cathode (negative) to the anode (positive) thereby making a direct overload short to the power supply (which is the same thing as connecting the positive lead direct to the negative lead) & because those cheap power supplies did not provide for overload protection it burned out the power supplies

One of the problems is that if I set the volts to 3.6 the amps are at 0.001 or 0.

It's just that when I turn the voltage to 3.6 (as in the video) the current drops straight off to 00.1 or completely zero

So - one of two things is happening when you make a direct connection of the positive lead to the negative lead

1) IF (the BIG IF) your power supply does have overload protection - when you direct connect the negative/positive - it is overloading (over amping) the power supply - which is shutting down the power supply (due to the overload protection) which is why the power supply is only putting out 00.1 to zero amps

1) or - if your power supply does not provide for overload protection - when you direct connect the negative lead & positive lead it will likely overload the supply & burn it out because there is no overload protection

How to tell if you have burned out your power supply

Hook the supply back up to your cell (with the power turned off)

hook positive lead to the anode (only)

hook negative lead to the cathode (only)

before turning on the power supply turn your volt setting knob to full off - then turn your amp setting knob to about 2/3 to 3/4 of full on

turn on the power supply - then start turning the volt knob up - as the volts start increasing you should also start seeing your amps increase - if they (amps) don't increase as you turn the volts up then your power supply has likely been burned out

Kurt

 

[BGDOCK]

The green terminal and black terminal have to be grounded on the stainless steel bowl .
The red terminal will go to the anode basket .

 

[Shark]

I have never used the third terminal on mine. Just the black and red. Both of my small power supplies work this way. May be the difference in power supplies.

 

[kurtak]

What you got as yield in slimes? For 10 kilo of crystals, how many gram of other PM you got?

Well that depends on what was in the anodes to start with - I used a lot of silver (cement silver) as my collector metal when doing smelts containing gold &/or PGMs - so in that case I ran the cell to better concentrate the "other" PMs (in the slimes) when running the silver smelt dore in the cell in which case the other PMs could be quite high

I ran a lot of anodes that where sterling (sterling melted direct to anodes) which could produce some (little) to no other PMs on the slimes

Some anodes where contact points melted into anodes which could (or not) run a bit higher in gold/PGMs then sterling anodes but not as high as deliberate silver collector dore smelts

So it just depends on what was in the anodes to start with - it could run from little or no other PMs in the slimes to relatively high other PMs in the slimes

I ran the cell primarily to produce the pure silver for my clients that paid over spot for my pure silver - BUT - also as away to concentrate other PMs in high silver dore

In this picture - where the electrolyte is green rather then the more conventional blue (& it was a lot greener by the time I was done running the cell) it is because the anodes where quite high in Pd - so though most of the Pd was in the slimes "some" Pd went into the electrolyte

So - I used DMG to drop the Pd out of the electrolyte before treating the electrolyte to recover the silver in the electrolyte

Kurt

 

[kurtak]

The green terminal and black terminal have to be grounded on the stainless steel bowl .
The red terminal will go to the anode basket .

I have never heard of having to do that - I have used 3 different power supplies for running silver cells & never did I need to use the ground for running the cell - just the positive & the negative ????

Kurt

 

[kurtak]

Curious how you got the large Ag crystals to grow so large. Care to share? They are really nice (sucking up to Kurt).

I will post more about that if/when I get more time

But for the short answer - if you are able to grow larger crystals like in the pic I provided - & if you can find people that are into "crystals" they will pay 5 to 10 times silver spot price for those larger crystals

Kurt

 

[kurtak]

Explaining the pics I posted yesterday

Pic # 1) impure anodes for running in the cell - "each" anode is 1 kilo

Pic #2) with the gold bar on the scale - 3 kilo bars stacked behind the scale are pure silver bars from the silver crystals harvested from the silver cell

Pic # 3) some of the larger crystals I get when I run my cell

Pic #4) A larger crystal growing in the cell while the cell is running

Pic #5) the cones - those are silver dore from using cement silver as my collector metal when doing smelting to collect gold &/or PGMs --- each of those cones weigh "about 3 kilos

If I remember right - this silver dore cone weighed about 5 kilos

& for what it is worth - I do not post these kind of pics to brag - rather I post then to show what "can" be done with LOTS of research - study - & dedication the art of PM recovery & refining

Kurt

 

[goldshark]

I have never heard of having to do that - I have used 3 different power supplies for running silver cells & never did I need to use the ground for running the cell - just the positive & the negative ????

Kurt

According to the National Electric Code, The cathode bowl is supposed to be grounded, or "bonded" to an Earth ground. This balances a true electrical circuit, in the event of some catastrophic electrical events. These can include power surges, lightning strikes, and a few other phenomena which can cause a condenser like condition in the bowl cathode. These events are very rare, but do happen. This is why some electrical components have a disclaimer "Do not operate during an electrical storm". Since a homemade Ag cell is not been put through a UL test, there is a chance it could act as a condenser, or create an electrical hazard due to improper grounding.

 

[Shark]

& for what it is worth - I do not post these kind of pics to brag - rather I post then to show what "can" be done with LOTS of research - study - & dedication the art of PM recovery & refining

Kurt

It shows what studying and applying what is learned from that study can do. Of coarse the drive to keep moving forward helps as well.

I never get tired of seeing how others do things. I also love it when I can learn something new from it as well.

 

[BGDOCK]

I never had to bond that green terminal until I bought one very similar .

Mine didn’t work until I bonded / grounded it . It was buried in the manual and the instructions aren’t crystal clear either .
I sent the first one back I thought I blew the power supply because it didnt show any voltage.L1- N
The second one I connected L1- G -N produced wattage
By the way or for the record I just learn how to take it off CC ( I can’t find the manual )
THANKS KURT ( no shouting )

Always a pleasure

 

[BGDOCK]

Kinda looks like this

 

[kurtak]

Kinda looks like this

BGDOCK - sorry I did not reply to your PM - just very busy right now

That "looks" like the basket I used for my cell - I "think" I found mine a Walmart

I had to cut it down to make it fit my cell

It was the right width but needed to be cut down in length & the 2 halves "slipped" together

Also I cut the bottom out leaving about a half inch "lip" for a piece of plastic screen to sit on - plastic screen with half inch holes

Slip the 2 basket halves together - set plastic screen in bottom - zip tie it all together

Zip ties overtime get brittle & break so need to be replace from time to time - the acid causes zip ties to get brittle over time

Basket it self has held up for year

Kurt

 

[command2001]

My complaint of using shot is the constant adjusting of the shot causes the slimes to sift through the filter bags into the electrolyte, contaminating the sliver crystals.

Can you remove any slimes that might get into the silver crystals by rinsing them with water?

Did you use vacuum bags for the filter cloth? When I tried them it turned out to be my problem of poor connection. Changed the cloth to muslin and it fixed the connection issues I had.