Silver Recovery - Keyboard Mylar Processing

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GuyGuyGuythe1st

GuyGuyGuythe1st

Active member
Supporting Member
Joined
Jan 14, 2020
Messages
40
Location
Greater Philadelphia Region
Hi Forum,
I just wanted to share a video I made a couple years back about processing keyboard mylar sheets. When I first started processing this type of material, I followed the process in the video below.




NOTE:

Since I have had time to revise my process over the years. I no longer shred or leach directly off the Mylar. I incinerate the mylar in a crucible first, then transfer the ashes into a a beaker and leach the ashes with nitric acid.

This method produces fumes and gases through burning, but drastically reduces waste acids and water that has to be treated later down the line. If you have any questions feel free to ask.
 
GuyGuyGuythe1st said:
Hi Forum,
I just wanted to share a video I made a couple years back about processing keyboard mylar sheets. When I first started processing this type of material, I followed the process in the video below.




NOTE:

Since I have had time to revise my process over the years. I no longer shred or leach directly off the Mylar. I incinerate the mylar in a crucible first, then transfer the ashes into a a beaker and leach the ashes with nitric acid.

This method produces fumes and gases through burning, but drastically reduces waste acids and water that has to be treated later down the line. If you have any questions feel free to ask.
Click to expand...

This is almost like double posting.
I'll let it slide this time, but in the future keep it in one post and in this case one thread.
 
BGDOCK - Yes there is difference due to the material itself. When you leach with nitric/sulfuric acid to loosen the silver plating/overlay you don't always get all of it for many different reasons or variables. One variable being when you shred or reduce the material size. It floats on-top of the liquids. If you're not constantly agitating the solution you tend to lose a little and in the filtering of the solutions.

Mylar is very low yields in general like most E-waste. To give you an understanding of time vs labor = yield its pretty low compared to other types of precious metal bearing material.

Labor/Time: Old Process
1.) One whole calendar year to collect 50+ keyboards.
2.) 1-2 days of disassembly of the keyboards.
3.) 5-7 days leaching the material.
4.) 1 day filtering the solutions.
5.) 1 day to drop and convert the silver nitrate to whatever you need it to be.

All for 7 grams of 99% silver. Worth a whooping 7$ in todays market. But none the less it is still precious metal.
 
Yggdrasil said:
This is almost like double posting.
I'll let it slide this time, but in the future keep it in one post and in this case one thread.
Click to expand...
No problem! I wasn't aware of all the rules. I saw another post on processing mylar and said to myself. I have a video, I made. That might help other community members. Feel free to delete the other posting.
 
your yield is .14 grams per keyboard .
I thought the average was .around 2 / keyboard .
I’m aware of the cost Benefit analysis I had taken about about 30 keyboards and gave away the mylars . I’m close to about 20 keyboards from my last pickup. It has been mentioned several times that the better method was incarnating. I was wondering if you had any data about. Incinerating vs. leeching

Thanks Jeff
 
I don't have any empirical data, just observations of processing and recovering silver using both methods.

In my humble opinion; incineration is way better because you drastically reduce steps 3 thru 5 and waste that has to be washed, treated or disposed of later.

The most Mylar's I've processed at one time using the incineration method is about 150. Because that's all the charge my crucible can hold at one time. I still didn't get 1 troy oz if I remember correctly. Like the bad engineer I am. I never truly recorded a dataset on the process.

When I process them again next time, I'll minitab's the data in a graph and update this post.
 
BGDOCK said:
I take horrible notes as well .
Usually scrap paper , card board post it notes then 1/2 of it make it in a couple of notes book floating around .
Click to expand...
Its the unwritten rule in engineering. Along with my horrible penmen ship. It also mimics doctors prescription signatures. *

"We all know that's not a signature, you literally scribbled on the piece of paper!"
 
BGDOCK said:
I take horrible notes as well .
Usually scrap paper , card board post it notes then 1/2 of it make it in a couple of notes book floating around .
Click to expand...
I use the spiral bound, multicolored index cards, tied off with mason twine so it can't migrate too far. Important notes are logged in a separate notebook away from the work so they don't get damaged. Different color for different type of notes.
 
I use a hot solution of 10% lye. It breaks the bond of the silver ink from the mylar dropping the silver to the bottom of the vessel. Filter and wash well, then melt it directly. Will yield 97% to 99% pure silver. I got about one ozt per 10 lbs. of mylars. Loss is much lower, (almost none), than incinerating. Even a good pyrolizer setup will lose silver up in smoke.

No acid fumes or waste, just the lye solution to neutralize and dispose of.

Bear in mind it's not a silver plating, it's a fine silver powder mixed with a wax-based silk screen ink. Melting the dropped silver ink burns off the waxy residue. No need to dissolve in nitric and drop back out, it's almost pure silver as is.

And honestly, it's not worth the trouble on modern mylars, they've cut back on the silver content drastically and certainly not worth it unless you have poundage. doing 20 or even 100 mylars is just a learning experience.

edit to correct grammer.
 
With a decent way to shred the mylars and keep them agitated caustic stripping works well. The trick is overcoming the tendency for the mylar to stick together when wetted and prevent the necessary reaction. An identical process is used for X Ray films and it is effective.
 
4metals said:
With a decent way to shred the mylars and keep them agitated caustic stripping works well. The trick is overcoming the tendency for the mylar to stick together when wetted and prevent the necessary reaction. An identical process is used for X Ray films and it is effective.
Click to expand...
I find that running them through a paper shredder does a good job of wrinkling up the strips to prevent that. As well as making smaller pieces to work with is easier.

Edit, fix grammar
 

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