xdxninjax said:
First full utmost respect to you because you know far more then I do. And thats is a great point. But I have friends with a bunch of coins that just go nowhere.
Would your friends sell the refined silver from the coins, or would they continue to hold it just as they are currently holding on to the coins?
If there is silver in there doesn't that alone give it importance? Yea if the cost of the processing is over what you are willing or able to spend you have a very valid point. I work with what I have available to me.
Yes, the silver content gives the coins value. But refining them doesn't increase their value.
It's not a matter of whether the cost of processing is more than you are willing or able to spend. It's whether the value of the refined silver can be increased enough to offset the costs. If you start with $100 worth of silver, and you spend $10 refining it, but the value of the refined silver is still $100, then you've lost $10 in the process.
So I don't just want to quit. I want to learn. I even went as far as building a exac hood in my garage/ shop. So with that being said I am going to continue to work with what I have and keep going.
I'm not saying you should quit. Using the example above, if you've gained $10 worth of knowledge while refining the coins, then you haven't lost anything. The knowledge will serve you well when you find other scrap that would benefit from being refined.
I would still like to figure out what happened and what can I do to avoid it in the future.
Those brown spots on you container are suspicious. To avoid shorts that can burn holes in your anode bag, you have to stay on top of the crystal growth. It becomes even more important on smaller cells. Knock the crystals down often.
Do I need to filter this unknown substance out and then cement the silver out? Or just leave it and start the cementing?
I can't tell from your first pictures if your electrolyte is cloudy and should be filtered and cemented, or if the contamination has simply settled on the crystal.
So from now on I will precipitate my durty silver into solution and cement the silver out before making shot to feed my cell.
I just run sterling directly in my cell. Dissolving it, cementing out on copper, and melting into shot or anodes will consume more nitric, copper, and fuel for the melting, increasing your refining costs. Running the silver directly in the cell will cause you to have to replace the electrolyte more frequently, but you save all the costs of dissolving, cementing, and melting.
Both approaches are valid. I always lean toward the frugal approach.
Dave