Steve,
That article makes it sound so simple. But aside from the fact that cyanide is a deadly poison, the article is just plain inaccurate. The refining process just will
not work as it is written.
The first rule here is to be safe in everything you do. Before you jump into any of the processes you see discussed here, be sure you understand the potential hazards and do everything you can to minimize the risks. Read EVERYTHING in the
Safety section of the forum, especially the Dealing with Waste topic. No amount of precious metal is worth jeopardizing your health or the health of those around you.
Follow the
Guided Tour created by LazerSteve. It will provide an introduction to the forum and numerous valuable links including the General Reactions List. Be sure to follow the link to his web site as he has many outstanding videos, a collection of great reference documents, and he sells a lot of the supplies needed to get started including detailed instructional DVDs. Samuel-a also has a lot of videos, guides and tutorials at his web site
Gold-N-Scrap.
Download C.M. Hoke's book
Refining Precious Metal Wastes. You'll see her book mentioned repeatedly here on the forum for good reason. It is probably the best book ever written for the beginner who wants to learn refining. It is written in layman's terms and will provide a solid foundation that will help you understand everything you read here on the forum. You'll also find a tremendous amount of information in the two Forum Handbooks compiled by aflacglobal,
Forum Handbook Vol 1 and
Forum Handbook Vol 2.
There is one last post that I think every member should read. ms32462 shared this experience with us : http://goldrefiningforum.com/phpBB3/viewtopic.php?f=47&t=11957
Once you understand the basics you can start to try some small scale experiments. If there's something you don't understand or you get stuck, there will be someone here to help you.
Best of luck,
Dave
I will continue reading the very interesting but baffling articles listed here. I have all safety equipment on hand and a fume hood in the shop. I think i'll start this project outside. I'll start from scratch and study hoake while i depopulate my boards. Thanks again.
