Newbie

[eternalquest2000]

I will make a statement here that hopefully you will take in the way it’s meant.
Recovery and refining ( 2 separate subjects) are not small fields of science , we produce highly toxic fumes , solutions and waste.
To become adept takes patience and time and an awful lot of study, you have encountered one problem that thankfully wasn’t a disaster, now had that solution been value bearing and other metal loaded it can be a real headache to recover that loss and clean up the mess.
Study and ask questions if things do not make sense help will be freely given, once you feel ready to start do very very small reactions to become aware of what to expect.
You can do this but this isn’t an easy short term project .

Also, in preparation for safely trying to experiment, I took scrap lumber from pallets and junk piles to build a shed. I made myself a rookie Fume hood. I was lucky enough to find everything I needed from scrapping. Kinda proud of accomplishing it this summer. The only actual expense was the screws. Almost all the nails were salvaged and straightened. It took a while. Especially the sash. I had to straighten out and cut plexiglass from a broken tanning bed, but I got it to work. Anxious to start experimenting but know I am not quite ready to do it safely.

 

[nickvc]

Again take this as help and not criticism.
Anything metallic within your hood will rust and rot rapidly and having controls or plugs inside the hood is a really bad idea as the metallic parts will again be attacked.
If your fan is a standard fan then again you are tempting fate as it will fail at some point , hopefully not while you have hot reactions occurring..

 

[eternalquest2000]

Again take this as help and not criticism.
Anything metallic within your hood will rust and rot rapidly and having controls or plugs inside the hood is a really bad idea as the metallic parts will again be attacked.
If your fan is a standard fan then again you are tempting fate as it will fail at some point , hopefully not while you have hot reactions occurring..

Appreciated and welcomed. I know the fan isn't suitable for long term. It is what was available on hand from a trailer house we scrapped out. At this time I am trying hard not to invest actual money beyond necessary safety. However, I am actually stumped as to what I am looking to replace it with. Everything we are scrapping since I stared looking for a fam is metal. I will find one eventually that will be well suited.

The HCl destroys the rubber dropper tops of those bottles. I used one the first time I made stannous too. It lasted less than a week. HCl is a gas. It is dissolved in water when we buy it, but it doesn't like to stay in solution, so it is always gassing off. It eats rubber. I use the same type of dropper bottles as Shark mentioned. Very cheap on eBay.

Dave

That is what I was wondering. I honestly was confused about the build up with pressure. I had let it sit well after the reaction was done and everything was dissolved. At least 12 hrs after. The top wasn't just blown through, it had disintegrated all around it. So this is very helpful to me. If I planned to be able to store solutions for any length of time, I need to have containers that won't dissolve. I had planned to use glass jars with plastic caps when I start experimenting. Now I am wondering if the acid is going to eat all the rubber and plastics. Another reason to take everything slow and do it right. Lol. I haven't started dissolving anything yet, but understand that it will take a while for me to get very much gold in solution. I need to make sure my containers won't fail and make spills.

 

[eternalquest2000]

Again take this as help and not criticism.
Anything metallic within your hood will rust and rot rapidly and having controls or plugs inside the hood is a really bad idea as the metallic parts will again be attacked.
If your fan is a standard fan then again you are tempting fate as it will fail at some point , hopefully not while you have hot reactions occurring..

Thanks again for your input. I really appreciate it.

 

[Shark]

Most food grade plastics will hold up to acids we use. The bottom of most containers will be marked as well. HDPE lasts a long time. I have used it to run AR with very low heat to no heat. There are others as well, but they actually slip my mind right now.

 

[eternalquest2000]

The HCl destroys the rubber dropper tops of those bottles. I used one the first time I made stannous too. It lasted less than a week. HCl is a gas. It is dissolved in water when we buy it, but it doesn't like to stay in solution, so it is always gassing off. It eats rubber. I use the same type of dropper bottles as Shark mentioned. Very cheap on eBay.

Dave

Hello Dave, if I may, I would like to talk more about the HCL gassing off. My Sunnyside Muriatic gallon jug that I opened for that first stannous test. I seen this morning that there was liquid that had condensed around the cap and ran down the side of my jug. Luckily I had it inside a bucket. The cap is tight. Was surprised that it was condensing on the factory bottle. Yet another example of learning what to expect when you are new to these things. I didn't expect to have liquid leaking from my factory bottle. Assuming that it is the gasses and the cap must be vented. How do you deal long term with this if I don't plan to use this acid right away?

 

[Yggdrasil]

Hello Dave, if I may, I would like to talk more about the HCL gassing off. My Sunnyside Muriatic gallon jug that I opened for that first stannous test. I seen this morning that there was liquid that had condensed around the cap and ran down the side of my jug. Luckily I had it inside a bucket. The cap is tight. Was surprised that it was condensing on the factory bottle. Yet another example of learning what to expect when you are new to these things. I didn't expect to have liquid leaking from my factory bottle. Assuming that it is the gasses and the cap must be vented. How do you deal long term with this if I don't plan to use this acid right away?

It might be that the evaporation inside the bottle cools it enough to have the moisture condense on the outside.
Try to measure the pH of the moisture.

 

[eternalquest2000]

Hello Dave, if I may, I would like to talk more about the HCL gassing off. My Sunnyside Muriatic gallon jug that I opened for that first stannous test. I seen this morning that there was liquid that had condensed around the cap and ran down the side of my jug. Luckily I had it inside a bucket. The cap is tight. Was surprised that it was condensing on the factory bottle. Yet another example of learning what to expect when you are new to these things. I didn't expect to have liquid leaking from my factory bottle. Assuming that it is the gasses and the cap must be vented. How do you deal long term with this if I don't plan to use this acid right away. I have used muriatic for cleaning rust over the years, but not this kind with concentrated HCL and the fuming. I also have realized I never had a bottle sit for this long without using it up with my projects. So this is new to me.

 

[eternalquest2000]

It might be that the evaporation inside the bottle cools it enough to have the moisture condense on the outside.
Try to measure the pH of the moisture.

It is acidic, I sprinkled baking soda on it after wiping down the jug to see if it was just water. It reacted.

 

[Yggdrasil]

It is acidic, I sprinkled baking soda on it after wiping down the jug to see if it was just water. It reacted.

Ok, then the cap is not tight.

 

[eternalquest2000]

Tight and correctly threaded. Thought at first I may have cross threaded it and not put it on right by accident. Checked that before I checked the liquid to see if it was acidic.

 

[Yggdrasil]

Tight and correctly threaded. Thought at first I may have cross threaded it and not put it on right by accident. Checked that before I checked the liquid to see if it was acidic.

Well the threads might not be tight enough, how do the gasket look?
Or maybe it is some contamination from when the bottle was open?

 

[FrugalRefiner]

I've had gassing from gallon bottles of HCl. You can "see" it because metal near by starts to rust. It is best to store bulk acids (a gallon is bulk to me) outside in a locked, ventilated area.

Dave

 

[Shark]

Most hydrochloric seals are made of a thin plastic sheet over a paper board pad. After opening they tend to not reseal very well. Follow Dave’s advice and it will work out.

 

[eternalquest2000]

I have a few questions about the hcl and bleach process. How do I start a new thread for these, that isn't attached to my Newbie thread? Or do I just ask my questions here?

 

[Yggdrasil]

I have a few questions about the hcl and bleach process. How do I start a new thread for these, that isn't attached to my Newbie thread? Or do I just ask my questions here?

I believe every question for the HCl bleach leaching has been asked and replied to many times in the forum, so please search the forum first.

 

[eternalquest2000]

I have a few questions about the hcl and bleach process. How do I start a new thread for these, that isn't attached to my Newbie thread? Or do I just ask my

I believe every question for the HCl bleach leaching has been asked and replied to many times in the forum, so please search the forum first.

I have been for the last few days. Now I am a bit turned around and a bit more confused.

 

[eternalquest2000]

If I may, I just need to verify I am working my experiment correctly before I move forward please.

 

[Yggdrasil]

If I may, I just need to verify I am working my experiment correctly before I move forward please.

You have not said anything about your experiment yet?

 

[eternalquest2000]

You have not said anything about your experiment yet?

I'm sorry, I wasn't sure I was following the forum rules asking here. I have done a hcl and bleach wash of a 10 place dish set, 10 plates, 10 bowls, cups, salad plates, saucers. 2 vases with gold etching, 4 gold rimmed ornamental plates labeled 24k. I have filtered my solutions and boiled down to combine in 1 beaker. I have only washed gold rimmed and gold plated glassware. So my understanding is I should only have copper and possibly zinc in my solution. I'm questioning now if there is more base metals possibly to deal with. I was going to put a copper tube hammered flat in my solution to cement out copper and zinc then test my ph. Ph is supposed to be around 2? I'm not sure that is my next steps. I have both excess hcl and chlorine after boiling and rinses according to my test strips. My stannous test still looks good. My filter had a lot of black sediment though.