Nickel/copper in gold?

[Barren Realms 007]

i'm melting straight on the fire brick. i cannot afford a crucible or a new torch. my income is litterally ZERO. every penny i have comes from scrapping. Why was this setup working before, and is not working now? up until this batch, i have never had a problem melting the gold down. is it the BM in my gold making it essentially unable to melt? I dont care what karat the gold is, as long as i can sell it. I dont know if it can be sold like it is to the shop.

Also, I've had my torch for a couple months now, it was the only one i can afford. if i could just get this gold to a salable point, i could buy all the new junk everyone seems to want me to buy, but until i can sell the gold i already have, telling me to buy new stuff is completely moot and pointless. I'm not 100% ignorant or i could not have produced the half ounce of 20k gold i sold last month to pay my bills, but each new batch presents new problems that had not occured before.

the gist of what im being told is that there is no way at all to recover ANY gold to sell from what i have here, that i have just a lump of garbage unless i buy lots more crap. I don't accept that. i'm looking for some form of answer WITHIN the parameters that I issued. Sure i can beat a video game with cheat codes or an upgraded controller any day, but how do i do it with what i HAVE.

Take you a piece of 1" x 4" or other type of untreated wood and drill you a shallow hole in it and put your powder in it and melt it. Even a lump of charcoal with a hollowed out depression will work.

 

[futurama140]

Take you a piece of 1" x 4" or other type of untreated wood and drill you a shallow hole in it and put your powder in it and melt it. Even a lump of charcoal with a hollowed out depression will work.

that sounds like a great idea! thank you for suggesting something reasonable for my situation!

 

[anachronism]

Go without lunch for one one day and you're sorted. If you're not that committed then this isn't for you.

that implies i have money for food. I havent eaten today. or yesterday. you rich people with your 20 dollars in your pocket...

so why did my product made last month work? the money i made last month for the rent calls you a liar for saying i have to buy more crap to do this.

I'm not trying to be harsh I'm trying to be honest here. Excuse me if you read it as harsh. Here take a look at this.

http://www.ebay.com/itm/Crucibles-Melting-Dishes-Ceramic-5-Size-Casting-Torch-Melt-Jewelry-Gold-Silver-/301836869739?var=&hash=item4646e1206b:m:m2S6BTAcHJjszXiZraLpr9w

$1.99

ps. I'm many things that I could improve but a liar isn't one of them. To do this properly you do have to buy stuff. Anyone on here would agree. You're probably losing more more money than it would cost you to do it right I promise you.

 

[glorycloud]

this is what i'm working with. the chunk of cinderblock on top gets moved. the rest are firebricks.

I had problems melting because I didn't understand what I was doing. In and effort to not burn
the top of my table I was using aluminum heat sinks from computers to rest the melting dish
on which was drawing a lot of heat away and never allowing the gold powder to get hot enough
for a good melt. (Silence Frank! :lol: )

I am sorry for your troubles in life. I hope that you eat soon. It's easy to forget hard times
and the people who are going through hard times when you have so much - like me. Forgive
us for not being compassionate about your struggles. We intend no harm. We just may not
have understood the gravity of your situation.

I truly hope that things will turn around for you and quickly!

 

[futurama140]

i understand it doesnt take a huge amount of money to buy little things like this. i cannot use any form of plastic money, however, everything i use must be sourced locally. unfortunately, there is nowhere to buy said items locally. this still doesnt tell me why this batch wont melt, yet all the other batches i did last month melted just fine.

i wish to make this my income, but im in a spot where i CANNOT spend any more money until i make some money. is 8k gold worth selling?

just as some background: i inherited the electronic infrastructure of a 150 man call-center, and have scrapped all the copper and aluminum already, and now i have seemingly limitless numbers of IC chips, gold plated pins i removed from cables like IDE and SCSI cables, and some small amounts of fingerboard left over from last month.

I have a couple gallons of used cucl2, some fire bricks, and a torch. can i not do anything with this?

 

[anachronism]

Ok, also could you please stop editing your posts multiple times after people have replied because it changes the context of our replies totally.

 

[futurama140]

it's just very oddd that it worked WITHOUT A HITCH last month, and now I have problems. I will continue reading, but i'm still just not seeing what happened to screw up the process. what about just heating the gold until the BMs surface, cool it down, toss it in the cucl2 until the crust dissolves, and then keep repeating the process?

 

[futurama140]

Ok, also could you please stop editing your posts multiple times after people have replied because it changes the context of our replies totally.

sorry, i'm not used to talking to real people.

 

[futurama140]

it seems to be of an apparent nature to me that i'm just fighting against the stream, either my communication is poor or the comprehension of this community is poor, so as it seems I am not welcome here, I will leave.

 

[Topher_osAUrus]

Last month you probably let the CuCl2 run to completion, or much closer to it anyways. This month, impatience got the better of you. It happens. When I started doing this, if my wife had not been working, I surely would have starved to death...but, this stuff takes a long time to learn, and can be costly to start up or get to a point of efficiency to provide steady income.

I wouldn't put all my faith in/on one horse in the race, especially if my livelihood depended upon its success. Because it's success, is determined by how prepared it is.

And no, you cannot easily separate base metals from gold like that.

Do you have a picture or two?

Nobody here is trying to pull the rug from under you. We are trying to help. Sentiments are sometimes lost in text, which are easily communicated by body language and tone. So, try to keep that in mind too. That everyone here wants you to succeed. But, I believe all of the questions asked, have had the best possible answers given.

This community, has a refining collective knowledge that you couldnt possibly find anywhere else in the world.

 

[FrugalRefiner]

Wow! I leave for a while to watch the local homecoming parade, and this thread explodes.

Even as I tried to type a meaningful reply, there are 3 more posts. Let's stop throwing stones, and everybody stop editing their posts, and that includes you anachronism!

Everybody take a breath. Walk away for a few minutes. Then come back and try to help our new member. For those who have provided good suggestions, thank you.

Dave

 

[futurama140]

one is leftover gold that i tried to melt the new stuff into to see if that worked, and the chunkier piece is the stuff that won't melt.

 

[Topher_osAUrus]

That would be quite the task for CuCl2. Definitely not something that would be a quick fix. It could probably be done, but would take forever and a day. Ap is more of a slow working etchant than a powerful oxidizer...

Besides running it in nitric...
Poorman Nitric (cold nitric post by lazersteve)
Poorman Ar

Im not sure what else you could do. I hope someone can work something up for you, but I'm really not too confident there are any other remedies that are closer to your grasp than those.

 

[FrugalRefiner]

futurama, there are many different kinds of pins, made of many different kinds of materials. Some are copper based. Some are iron based. You didn't mention where these particular pins came from.

Melting directly on the firebricks is difficult because they conduct much of the heat you're applying away from your pins. Barren gave you a couple of good suggestions for melting on a budget. I'll add another. Drywall manufacturers use scrap pieces between pallet loads of sheets. They're a few inches wide. Hardware stores will give you some for free if you ask. You can hollow out a spot in a piece and use that to melt in.

No one has said you have a lump of garbage. They're trying to provide suggestions that might help, but we didn't fully understand your circumstances till you explained them.

Do note that it is against forum rules to edit your posts to change the content or tone.

Dave

 

[Barren Realms 007]

it's just very oddd that it worked WITHOUT A HITCH last month, and now I have problems. I will continue reading, but i'm still just not seeing what happened to screw up the process. what about just heating the gold until the BMs surface, cool it down, toss it in the cucl2 until the crust dissolves, and then keep repeating the process?

It could be a combination of things such as your copper chloride being loaded with base metals and not working as effectivly as it was working.

Do you have air bubbling into your copper chloride?

You butane torch is probably getting low on fuel and not burning as hot.

It could any number of things adding to your problem.

The biggest thing I can see right this moment is your impatience to let things run their corse as they need to because you are in bad need of funds.

Impatience is your worst enemy.

 

[FrugalRefiner]

I just saw your pictures. You need some insulation. Try one of barren's suggestions or mine.

Dave

 

[Barren Realms 007]

Wow! I leave for a while to watch the local homecoming parade, and this thread explodes.

Even as I tried to type a meaningful reply, there are 3 more posts. Let's stop throwing stones, and everybody stop editing their posts, and that includes you anachronism!

Everybody take a breath. Walk away for a few minutes. Then come back and try to help our new member. For those who have provided good suggestions, thank you.

Dave

I did that, I went and ate dinner. :lol:

 

[futurama140]

OK well thanks for the lucid reply. I guess it's back to picking up pop cans for now. My appologies to all of you as it seems the miscomprehension is at least on my part. Sorry dave!


here is what i know:
the pins were non-ferrous.
i may have pulled the pins a day early.
the propane is new
i have an aquarium pump pushing air into the stock pot and the batch in a coffee pot i am trying to reduce.

can gold in the condition mine is in still be sold?

im sorry if my tone sounds antagonistic. truly i am. i'm just frustrated trying not to let my family down in a situation where i am not able to work a job.

 

[FrugalRefiner]

can gold in the condition mine is in still be sold?

I'm afraid I can't answer that. Only your buyer will be able to tell you. But if you try one of the suggestions and remelt it, you may have better luck. At least your buyer will be able to test it better/

im sorry if my tone sounds antagonistic. truly i am. i'm just frustrated trying not to let my family down in a situation where i am not able to work a job.

Don't let it add to your woes. We'll all get over it. Desperation is a terrible enemy. I've faced it myself. Start a new batch of pins. Let them run their course. Take what you can get on this one.

Better yet, what other scrap do you have available? "Fingers" are one of the fastest and easiest types of ewaste to process. If you have any of those available, get them into your AP. They'll finish up a lot faster than pins. Let us know what you have and we'll try to steer you in the best direction. If you have anything interesting, other forum members may be interested in buying them without you having to process them.

Dave

 

[Topher_osAUrus]

Heck, from that avenue. (more scrap) that's your best bet to get some money in hand.

Sell it. Quick flip, make some money then take the time to reclaim your hard earned gold.

Fingers and pretty pins sell quite well...