Non-Chemical Seperating and Classifying Ore & E-Scrap

[rusty]

Seems we started from the top working our way down the ladder.

 

[dtectr]

i had some thoughts a while back about your cone design seperator - would it be easier, possibly, to seperate the lighter "dross"/junk from the top, leaving the heavies concentrated in the bottom, until such a time as they reached a predetermined level, such as indicated in a inspection window or something similar? then a baffle could be opened, the cone turned at a lower rpm & heavies dropped & moved to next step of seperation, & the cone fired back up again?
just an idea ...

 

[rusty]

i had some thoughts a while back about your cone design seperator - would it be easier, possibly, to seperate the lighter "dross"/junk from the top, leaving the heavies concentrated in the bottom, until such a time as they reached a predetermined level, such as indicated in a inspection window or something similar? then a baffle could be opened, the cone turned at a lower rpm & heavies dropped & moved to next step of seperation, & the cone fired back up again?
just an idea ...

Right on the money, run your pulp wet with just a dab of soap to avoid loss of values. The heavy cons pack hard as cement.

 

[rusty]

I think this test batch of silver should be run through the mill again using a smaller screen, then I think a vibrating table along the lines of a shaker table will sort the silver from the rest of the garbage.

I'll use the linear vibrating magnet to power a small table with riffles, an electric pump from a washing machine to re-circulate the water.

Do you think this would work - ideas anyone.

 

[qst42know]

I think if anyone is going to get it to work, you will. 8)

 

[rusty]

I think if anyone is going to get it to work, you will. 8)

Thanks for the encouraging words, th science of classifying metals that you need a magnifying glass to see is all very new to me.

We know the wilfley table aka shaker table is an excellent choice to recover fine gold. it's been done before, just giving a new twist to old technology.

 

[rusty]

Acquired the materials needed for my drum magnet this afternoon, should prove to be an interesting and useful project.

The intended construction, I'm going to remove the magnets from the flywheels from lawnmower engines then insert these into either a PVC or stainless steel pipe fitted onto bearings and a pulley to drive the drum then have a scraper to remove the magnetics as the drum is turning so cleaning will be constant,

To fill the void inside the pipe and hold the magnets in place I will blow in some expanding foam.

You could also salvage fridge door magnets, they are soft and pliable you can roll them up small enough to fit inside a 3 inch diameter PVC pipe to make a cheap drum magnet. Just be sure to use thin wall PVC as these magnets are not very strong.

The pictures below give an example of what you can do with a fridge magnet.

 

[Chumbawamba]

I'll give this more thought as I share your enthusiasm for separating silver contacts from relay reeds. I think you're on the right track with gravity separation.

I've heard of "gold magnets" before. Just did a little research and found this cat:

http://www.thelostdutchmangoldmine.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=2&t=1343

Seems he "broke the rules" of physics and created an "electrostatic induction" magnet that can pick up not only non-ferrous metals such as gold, silver, copper, etc., but also wood, stone, and bugs(!) He began exhibiting it earlier this year. It sounds like maybe it induces a static charge in the item it is near and then produces an opposite charge to attract the item to the magnet? I'm trying to find out more as this could revolutionize our little hobby.

In the meantime, what lead me to him was an idea that if one could induce a current in a solid (such as gold), then tune some sort of "magnet" that would only attract at that frequency, then one might be able to make a magnet that could pick out, say, silver bits from a bunch of copper bits. Perhaps casting an electromagnetic field at some frequency of oscillating current will "tune" to particular metals, each having its own "response" frequency.

The more simple solution for the present task, however, seems to be to simply cut the silver buttons from the reeds, leaving very little of the mounting material, then dissolve in acid and recover in pure form.

 

[rusty]

I'll give this more thought as I share your enthusiasm for separating silver contacts from relay reeds. I think you're on the right track with gravity separation.

I've heard of "gold magnets" before. Just did a little research and found this cat:

http://www.thelostdutchmangoldmine.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=2&t=1343

I'll be sure to check that thread latter in the evening, thanks for the link.

The more simple solution for the present task, however, seems to be to simply cut the silver buttons from the reeds, leaving very little of the mounting material, then dissolve in acid and recover in pure form.

I don;'t have the patience for this type of monotonous work sitting for hours snipping contacts. The pile below is what I acquired from the several landfill sites we visited this afternoon.

These come from the timers from washing machine, cloths dryer and dish washer timers, also the rheostats from electric ranges and hot water tanks.

 

[Chumbawamba]

I don;'t have the patience for this type of monotonous work sitting for hours snipping contacts. The pile below is what I acquired from the several landfill sites we visited this afternoon.

Point taken. That's quite a nice pile of potential silver

 

[rusty]

:twisted:

 

[Chumbawamba]

Gil,

I have you to thank for knowing where to look for the silver

You should really go after circuit breakers, if you can find them. Especially the industrial, high amperage, three phase stuff. I have some Westinghouse 3-phase breakers that have several nice big silver-tungsten contacts each. They each weigh a couple grams. I'm not sure what the alloy ratio is but I'm guessing 80/20? Anyway, you probably know this already

One note on the big breakers that tend to have lots of silver: they also can have good resale value. This place called Relectric in Sacramento, California, sells used and/or discontinued breakers and other electrical parts. I called them to see if they had any interest in my Westinghouse breakers and also a batch of Cutler-Hammer relays but they were too old to be of use to them, so they are going to be raped for their silver contacts. But I would definitely call them if you get a large lot of used breakers before tearing into them. Would probably be worth much more than the silver content.

http://www.relectric.com/Home/Purchasing

 

[Harold_V]

I'm not sure what the alloy ratio is but I'm guessing 80/20?

Trusting to memory, I recall that yield was less than, but near 50%.

Harold

 

[rusty]

acid to leach out the silver.

 

[rusty]

Chumbawamba I hand sorted the reeds then feed the whole lot through the hammer mill using a 1/8" minus screen.

If you look closely at the picture you will see the silver laying on the bottom of the pan as powder. Since the silver is much softer than the berry copper it is abraded off the reeds inside the harsh environment of the hammer mill.

 

[Chumbawamba]

Very interesting. So now we need to figure out how to separate the silver from the copper.

There still seem to be some reeds with their buttons intact. Perhaps you need to turn up the speed and let the hammer mill really shred those things into granules that can then be either gravity separated or run through eddy currents or something.

How did you end up getting rid of the plastic?

 

[rusty]

I think the shaker table would work perfect, the specif gravity between beryllium copper and silver is great enough to have good effect in separation better still if your silver has been alloyed with cadmium, palladium or gold as some miniature contacts are.

Better yet is the reeds that the contacts are attached too are beryllium copper which is far lighter than pure copper making it easier to separate from the silver by means of gravity separation.

 

[Chumbawamba]

Aha, so that's what you meant by "berry copper" I read up on it before so I know it has special applications for electrical stuff, but I forget the specifics.

And you're correct, the S.G. of beryllium copper would be far less, making table separation feasible.

But again, how did you get rid of the plastic? Did you float it off in a tank or burn it off?

On a semi-related note, I took apart one of those micro-switches last night and it had really tiny contacts, which usually means they're made of something good. I looked up the part and found it:

http://www.omron.com/ecb/products/sw/11/vx.html

Here's the data sheet:

http://www.omron.com/ecb/products/pdf/en-vx.pdf

Note on page 3, the box "Contact Specifications". The one I took apart was the VX-01 series, making the contacts a gold alloy. Don't get excited, they were tiny...puny is more like it. You'd need to collect hundreds to get any appreciable amount. I noticed they were attracted pretty readily to my NdFeB magnet. Would the alloy perhaps be gold-nickel? Gold-cobolt?

 

[rusty]

Don't wait on me.

 

[rusty]

I have abandoned all my other crazy ideas