old thick circut boards

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thanks mike, thats good advice. but im a block head at times and even though i believe that what your saying is true, i have to give some sort of small test trial maybe a different method. nothing large just enough so i can pass the the same advice some day having attempted it myself.
so i have a buddy who has this heavy duty mulching machine. im gonna desolder 10 boards, peel them apart down the middle once, soak them in lye to get rid of the solder mask and in the mulcher they go.from there its in a well aggitated AP bath for a week........ and if i end up with enough gold to recrown my front tooth not only will i feel ridiculess i'l look it too
 
Jimmy, it could work, but you would use a lot of acid on base metals, have much waste to deal with, and recovered values will be mixed with some troublesome base metals making separation a task or challenge.

incineration, may become an important step in your process, after your De-soldering process, you will still have solder (caustic soda will help some).
lead chloride thank goodness is slightly soluble in very hot water.

mulched circuit boards then to HCl / peroxide, sounds troublesome to me, yes you would dissolve most of copper into solution that could be decanted, leaving some values in the mass of powdered ground up fiberglass and resin, after that what? incineration could help, oxidize further the troublesome base metal (maybe to help filtering later), before going after the gold or values.

but I would think it more beneficial in earlier steps of the process, now you will need an furnace with an after burner, with out it you risk harming yourself and others, if you had an furnace with an afterburner then I again would rethink the whole process (smelting and sell to copper refiner who pays for values)
my thoughts go towards how much gold would I need to recover to pay for my hospital bills and environmental fine's or how much gold would I need to refine to pay for the proper equipment, to safely recover this material, or would it be better to sell this material to the big scrap refiner, and buy me some karat gold, that I can refine and that will have some return for invested time money and chemicals and I will walk away with Au in my pocket in a clean environment with healthy neighbors.

Just some things to think about.
 
your right, much more problem then its worth.i think il save myself a headache and stick to the task at hand. and thats trying to find out what metal keeps cementing copper on to my gold plated jewelry i have in an AP bath. twice now ive come back to find several pounds of it cemented with copper. im suspecting magnesium
 
jimmyreece said:
your right, much more problem then its worth.i think il save myself a headache and stick to the task at hand. and thats trying to find out what metal keeps cementing copper on to my gold plated jewelry i have in an AP bath. twice now ive come back to find several pounds of it cemented with copper. im suspecting magnesium
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jimmyreece,
I've followed this thread as patiently as I could, but, even Job had a limit.

You've switched from boards, since you didn't seem to hear what you wanted, to plated jewelry, & you still haven't heard what you've wanted, it seems.

There are many teachable, hard-working, studious individuals who follow these threads hoping to find an answer to their less-than-favorable situations, or at the very least, to learn something new. You've been given great advice from some very respected members of this community, yet you decide to to be "block-headed", which, considering the chemicals we're discussing could also mean "hospitalized" or "dead".

Are your "suspicions" based on any kind of fact or research? Where in the hell would magnesium come from in plated jewelry? Everyone has tried to be very nice & tactful, but clearly, it hasn't helped.

So, here's the deal -

Gold-plated jewelry is usually copper plated then flash-plated with nickel to make the VERY thin layer of gold stick; or else, sometimes, even nickel, flash-plated with copper (don't ask me why), followed with the very same VERY THIN layer of gold. No magnesium. You have been given good advice on how to proceed - if you don't want advice, don't ask for it. If you do, then listen to the voices of experience.

Here it is, VERY plain & simple :

Unless you have a exceptionally sophisticated refinery at your disposal, don't try to process whole boards! Is that hard to understand?

Some of our members are from other corners of the globe, and therefore, English isn't their first langauge. We are patient, as they are with us, (sometimes we speak "Amer-English", instead of English); and, because they usually have experience to share from THEIR mother language, it all evens out.

I don't know how anyone could be more clear - so, I'm DONE with this thread!

EDIT: Clearly, I'm not done - every time gold spikes we have a new crop of gold gurus who don't want to hear anything contrary to what they've already "figured out". Its up to you to decide where you land.

NOW I'm done. (Really)
 
i apologize for offending you or anyone eles with this thread. that clearly isnt my intentions here. i appreciate all the advice that is given me and everyone eles on this forum and i respect each and every member and nothing is taken for granted. i put a suggestion out there in hopes of getting a reply from someone who is well versed in this field.
i dont know why you had such a problem with my reply. maybe i read it wrong but from what i understood he felt that if i was to attempt any recovery with these boards the better approach would be through incinteration including the use of an after burner which im not doubting at all is the better way to do this if i was to attemp it. but i live in rocklin california, i can spit in my neighbors backyard from my kitchen window,i dont have the proper means to process these boards in the more efficiant way which i was advised. so to deal with these boards at this present time isnt practical for me. maybe i used the wrong words by saying "it wasnt worth the headache" but in no way what so ever was any disrespect was meant nor was i in any way at all ungratful for his advice.
you given me much helpful advice too in which im gratful for also. and this is the second time in this thread you came at me side ways. and il be a son a ----- if im scrutinized or portrayed as the person your making me out to be.i may be ignorant to much of this new hobby ive taken on. but im not stupid.
i never said that WAS magnesium that was causing the cementation on the metals in solution. i put that out there as a suggestion in hopes it can be explained to me by someone who might just have the answer. and the only reason i suggested that is because magnesium is a metal that im familair with. many tools i use in my trade (concrete) are magnesium. in one of my two active AP baths i found a chain that had all the similairities as magnesium that was that was fizzing in the bottom of my solution and causing the cementation im speaking of. but i havnt tested it yet. i plan on scrapping some small pieces off one of my tools and dropping it in a little AP and see what happens.
but what ever your issue was or is can be better resolved with better communication .....with me.since your problem seems to be with me.
i run 25 guys in a trade that seperates the men from the boys. and i have the best concrete crew in northern california.....i taught each and every one of them everything i know and thought i knew about this trade, and you know what ? every now and then they teach me a few things ....in the trade that i taught them. my point is learning anything is a never ending learning experience and i do recognize that.
i appreciate and respect knowledge.even more if its shared, i never take it for granted. so please do me one thing. next time you want to speak on me like you did, speak to me first
 
hey butcher. i apologize for giving you such a quick and simplified answer to your post. i just didnt have much time to elaberate on it more than i did at the time.
you are totaly right in every thing said. and being as health and safety are the most important task of all task to achieve with the utmost priority, there just wasnt anyway i could have attempted these boards in the safe and intelligent manner you had suggested. not at this time anyway. but i will save them for when i do.
thanks butcher
 
Who told you to use AP on karat or plated jewelry? It is as suitable as cutting cardboard boxes with nail clippers. Only if you want to spend buckets of solution and wait for months you are ok with AP. This particular process is good if you want to get gold plating from copper based items where copper is in very thin layer. Say (this is only guess) that fingers have one part of gold to 50 parts of copper in thickness and plated jewelry might be one part of gold to thousands of copper and who knows what else.
 
well its not that anyone told me. and true i havent found anywhere on the search function thats shows anyone is doing it. its just that when i was looking at this old gold plated jewelry i have i noticed the difference between todays jewelery and what they had then. so i put a couple pieces in AP just to experiment. the next day it was all strpped with foils seperated from the copper items.....so i continued. thats when i ran into this other problem
 
i know all of it isnt copper based metals. to much time on my hands with all this rain.and its not that i turned into a incompetant gold guru over night.i live at the base of the sierra mountains where the gold rush of 1849 began. so gold has always been my past time hobby. but this is a whole different approach to it, its caught my interest and im learning plus i have much to work with....a couple hundred pounds
its clear AP wasnt the practical way to go , not with all of it anyway, im considering trying a cell. that just might be the best way to go about it and safest since my kids and pets are my biggest concern i wanted to stay away from using any nitric based solutions i felt AP or even the iodine was the lesser of evils, but im not having any luck with either of them
 
jimmy,
Hang in there there is a learning curve and keep your head up its just around the bend, start with fingers, cpu's or pins, learn one process at time, do not rush, electronic scrap has a little gold but not much, and is alot of trouble,can create alot of waste to deal with, set your sights on higher quality scrap like karat jewelery or placer gold, you are in a good area for that. The electronic stuff can have value if you can get it in quatity for about free, but small amounts of it or plated junk, is hard to break even, more so when you are starting out.
 
hey butcher, thanks for the encouragment. truth is we can read and read even have the step by step methods printed in our memory banks, but one never realy knows if they can suceed untill the attemp is made.
with all the varables in this field and all those little things that can happen (and they do) in between the steps that are instructed, makes for a long learning curve for somone learning on there own like myself
im glad to have found this forum and being able to communicate with guys like your self has been much appreciated and very helpful. thanks again
 
When learning to walk we first must learn to stand, and forget about running for now.

Hokes book do the getting acquainted experiments, is a great place to start, forget about getting gold, that fever will only blind you for now, learn to stand, follow Laser Steve’s processes, something simple like fingers, he has done fantastic work to help someone learn the technique, try dissolving some silver in nitric acid cement on copper then melt washed powders, forget about trying to run and before you know it you will be walking.
 
sound advice. i think im going to do just what you said and go back and study,read and watch more video. this learn as you go is pretty foolish considering what were working with.
but what i did learn is there is no short cuts. and that is set in stone with me.
i just have a lot of questions.and i like to know why something works or why somthings wont.
seems like the more questions i ask the more people i upset.
think im going to stay quiet and study some more for a while
 
jimmyreece said:
sound advice. i think im going to do just what you said and go back and study,read and watch more video. this learn as you go is pretty foolish considering what were working with.
but what i did learn is there is no short cuts. and that is set in stone with me.
i just have a lot of questions.and i like to know why something works or why somthings wont.
seems like the more questions i ask the more people i upset.
think im going to stay quiet and study some more for a while
Click to expand...

As you process more material in small batches your questions will get answered and it should get a lot easier for you. Then it should all come together for you and you will recognize your problems you are having to ask questions on.
 

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