Non-Chemical Removing glass from silver with Anhydrous Borax??

[rybak97]

Let me start by saying this is a true story and if I weren’t such a tough guy I’d probably be crying right now.

I removed the silver crystals from my thum cell (see picture), washed them with boiling distilled water and dried them in my Pyrex dish. On the way to the table where my melting furnace is my dog ran in tripped me and I dropped the Pyrex dish and all the crystals on the ground, shattering the dish and scattering glass and silver all over the floor!!! I was able to pick up the large crystals of silver and put them aside, but the fine "sand" is mixed with many tiny pieces of glass. Probably at the worst we’re talking about an 80/20 mix of silver to glass (silica).

My question: If I put the glass/silver mixture in my Hardin melting furnace, bring the mix to liquid at over 1000C and sprinkle borax in will it bind to the glass and give me the pure silver I’ve been working for over the last three days?

What I've read so far on other sites is borax and silica bind very well in furnaces and sometimes they are even added together for gold purifying, but I want to check with the forum first.

I really don’t want to have to re-dissolve in Nitric and start all over.

Thanks everyone.

 

[etack]

just redissolve in nitric and go on as normal. The glass will report in the filter.

And keep your dog away next time it could be sulfuric in your hands and you chemically skin it then. Chemicals are like machinery they don't know humans(or living things) from not.

Eric

 

[rybak97]

just redissolve in nitric and go on as normal. The glass will report in the filter.

And keep your dog away next time it could be sulfuric in your hands and you chemically skin it then. Chemicals are like machinery they don't know humans(or living things) from not.

Eric

So the anhydrous borax wont bind with the silica in the melting furnace and be easily removed as slag?

This is the first time Ive refined anything so I dont have a set workspace yet. The dog will be outside for all further transfers thats for sure.

 

[FrugalRefiner]

Brian,

I wouldn't be as worried about the glass bits in your silver as I would be about any other "stuff" that may have been gathered up with your silver and glass. The glass should join the slag in the melt, but unless your floor was clean-room clean (you do have a dog running through the room as I recall), you have likely contaminated your silver.

You don't have to redissolve in nitric. Just load your contaminated crystals back into your cell just the way they are. Harold routinely reprocessed crystal if he suspected it wasn't pure. Kadriver has been loading his anode basket with silver cornflake. I believe Lou is doing the same.

On the up side, it will give you an opportunity to eliminate whatever contaminant it was that made your first electrolyte cloudy.

Dave

By the way, I hope you're not doing this in your house.