i am working on getting the stuff i need. i am now looking for good glass container to precipitate the gold in i already got some new buckets and i ordered a set of 4 beakers up to 1000ml for measuring. the 4000-5000ml beakers are very expensive. what would be a good item to use to do the that in.
Questons on using the AP method
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Unless you are processing several ounces of gold at one time, there is no need for large beakers. You should be able to precipitate three ounces from one liter of gold chloride solution, so use that as a guide in judging how large a vessel must be for any given lot of gold. Larger vessels do no harm, but they are not necessary.
It's possible to run with a much greater level of concentration, but precipitation is an exothermic reaction, which will lead to problems if you use SO2 (or SMB). In that case, you can get by with a heavily concentrated solution (250 ml that contains as much as 4½ ounces) with the balance of the container filled with ice. When the gold is down, the (now barren) solution will be hot.
Harold
It's possible to run with a much greater level of concentration, but precipitation is an exothermic reaction, which will lead to problems if you use SO2 (or SMB). In that case, you can get by with a heavily concentrated solution (250 ml that contains as much as 4½ ounces) with the balance of the container filled with ice. When the gold is down, the (now barren) solution will be hot.
Harold
That covers my use of containers neatly most of the work I refined was on assayed bars and I could on some days have as much as 5 kilos to drop so plastic buckets were a godsend but on the individual toll refining it was rare to have large amounts of gold to recover so 4 litre glass beakers were more than adequate, having said that I remember doing 11 kilos of carborundum dust for one customer 8) Happy days....Oz said:
patnor1011
Well-known member
azgard said:
If you do not have access to Nitric acid or do not want to use it yes you can process them with HCl. Try search Crock pot method. It is basically dissolving base metals on pins with HCl using little heat. What will remain are mostly gold plating. If pins are bigger you can consider constructing cell for reverse electroplating in H2SO4.
most of the are are a square shape about 1 inch long and less then 1/8th inch in thickness. right now i dont have a place to setup a crockpot indoors i dont got a well ventilated area. would it work if i put the pins in the AP solution for many days.
i also got some military compoents that are gold plated on Steel. how do you remove it from the steel.
i also got some military compoents that are gold plated on Steel. how do you remove it from the steel.
i made up a small batch of the AP in a jar to do some testing i thew in a few pins i cut one up some to let the acid get to the copper and i thew in a piece of a cpu with gold pins. i also put in a 1 inch piece of finger and some gold foil peeled off a board. the foil has dissapeared. if the gold goes into the AP solution does that mean i put in a little too much peroxide.
my first batch about a 1.5lbs of fingers and some gold covered unpopulated boards. gold is falling off nicely with a lot of flakes floating around after 48 hours. i used 2 qt HCL and 1qt peroxide after 24 hours i thew in one more cup of peroxide. about 50 percent of the gold has fallen off but i see that some boards are virtually untouched. these have a pretty thick coating on before i put them i i could peel off the finger material they are old fingers cut of boards from a medical device.
my solution went from a dark green to a more brownish. is this normal. the only thing in my solution are the fingers and gold traced boards. a few boards have solder 2 small solder points on them i shaved them off with a blade.
IM just not sure when i know if my solution is used up and not going to be effective anymore.
my solution went from a dark green to a more brownish. is this normal. the only thing in my solution are the fingers and gold traced boards. a few boards have solder 2 small solder points on them i shaved them off with a blade.
IM just not sure when i know if my solution is used up and not going to be effective anymore.
When the solution turns brown you can add an aquarium bubbler to rejuvenate it. H2O2 works but will put some of your gold into solution.
i tried a air bubble a aquarium stone. it seems to have worked when i checked today all my pieces were just about stripped bare. but the bubble store was all soft and squishy. the acid attacked that too. and its all full of black and brown muck. i have scraped it down and risned it in water and saved all the particles. how can i check to see if that is gold that stuck to it.. most of its the sand stuff the stone is made of but theres a good amout of black stuff in there.
You can catch the remnants of the stone when you dissolve your foils in HCl/Chlorine and filter it. I had one of those black stones that did the same thing. I have since bought some green ones that have lasted through 3 batches and a "bubble wall" tube that puts out very small bubbles.
i have filtered out my first batch of gold fakes and left with a brown solution. i have more fingers tommrrow. is the solution still good to use again should i add any more acid or peroxide. i have let the bubbler run in it for about 30 hours till this morning.
i finished cleaning and filtering my first batch of gold of a bunch of boards and fingers. i got more then i thought i would. i got 4.1g of shiny gold flakes. im going to wait and do the final refining once i get a better work area setup.
Don't count on the weight of the flakes as the final weight. You will find they contain small bits of debris and other contamination that reports in the filter after the foils are digested during refining. The AP process is a recovery process, not a refining process and it's important to follow through with the refining of the flakes for the highest gold purity.
Steve
Steve
i just finished another batch i reused my old solution. just added a little more hcl and peroxide to it. this time i got some black stuff in with my flakes mixed in with the water after i washed a few times in HCL then in water. it made the water a dark color almost black. i assume that is gold but is there a way to check it to make sure. my filters were all black too i sprayed them down good then i dipped them back into solution to wash it all off.
Also when im done with this solution and when i make a fresh batch should i toss in a clean copper buss bar to make sure all gold has been pushed out if any has dissolved.
Also when im done with this solution and when i make a fresh batch should i toss in a clean copper buss bar to make sure all gold has been pushed out if any has dissolved.
azgard said:
Collect some in a test tube, add HCl-Cl and heat a little to dissolve the black powder. Test with stannous to confirm the presence of gold. I have a video of this process on my website you can watch.
azgard said:
I would simply use the batch to dissolve more copper plated scrap, no need to waste your buss bar on the AP if you are going to keep using it for scrap.
Steve
i have done a bunch of fingers and working on a stick of unpopulated boards with a bunch of gold squares and circuitry on them. i collected 10grams of cleaned gold flakes so far. i made up a fresh batch of AP and thew in some more today. I still got my old solution its about 3 gallons now very dark brown. over the past couple weeks thew some boards in till they were took them out washed them with spray bottle. i occasionally thew in a cup of acid and peroxide here and there too.
What im wondering is can this 3 gallons be rejuvinated enough to keep using effectivly or should i get rid of it and start fresh. last time i used it i put in a little more peroxide after 24 hours it did very little to my boards so i made up the fresh batch. i have completly filtered it out so theres no debris in it. i have a airbubbler stone but the acid ate it. what brand stone should i be using in acid like this.
What im wondering is can this 3 gallons be rejuvinated enough to keep using effectivly or should i get rid of it and start fresh. last time i used it i put in a little more peroxide after 24 hours it did very little to my boards so i made up the fresh batch. i have completly filtered it out so theres no debris in it. i have a airbubbler stone but the acid ate it. what brand stone should i be using in acid like this.
Here is something I use, heat end of air hose and sqeeze to seal it closed (or use wood plug) , with sharp razor cut small slits in side of hose, I use a piece of a glass broken bottle top for a weight on end of hose. I too got tired of buying fish tank stones. works for me.
patnor1011
Well-known member
AP is very slow method. You will not see much progress in 24 hrs but check back after days. I usually process fingers or green fiber cpus in AP in weeks like. I do not bother much to check after day or two. I simply leave them sit there 2-3 weeks and never had problem to think that my solution is spent or adding cup of this and that inside. When your AP turn very dark just rejuvenate that with air bubler and solution turn green again.
Patience.
Patience.
