The stock pot or not ??????

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4metals

4metals

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I am writing this thread to discuss the stock pot. A lot has been said about stock pots and I will put them in the keyword thread along with this post because I'd like to take this opportunity to question its necessity.

Now everybody jumps up and down !!!OMG he lost his mind, the stock pot is sacred!!!!

Back when I joined this forum there was nothing addressing waste treatment. That is why I posted on this thread about one way for a smaller refiner to treat waste. In my mind, the copper cementation step in this method makes the container where all of the aqua regia waste generated goes into a stock pot.

So my position is all of your aqua regia waste is stock pot waste and an individual separate small pot to treat is not necessary. So we should now, in the tradition of gold refining forum good old fashioned debate, discuss this before I put selected stock pot topics into the keyword search thread.
 
Most people consider anything under copper and including as waste, but i find having most metals purified and separated as part of my hobby.
 
andu said:
Most people consider anything under copper and including as waste, but i find having most metals purified and separated as part of my hobby.
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For those that are looking to do this in an economical matter that may not be a good idea.
Too time consuming and fiddly.
Personally I only use one stock pot, but I rarely do Silver and all my processes so far has been acidic.
 
I used my stock pot for all waste until this year , recently I used a separate stock pot ( 1 gallon apple juice jug) for gold after it settles I pour off into the other stock pot ? So I’m interested in this one ,
Jeff
 
edited : I have trouble with mine honestly the back log seems to be from the copper bucket to iron . I need to go larger on the waste stream , or reduce the copper nitrate solutions .
 
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I have always been a fan of using the space under my refining hood for useful refining functions and one of those was stock pot / waste treatment. I always liked 55 gallon drums for this. Towards the back of my hood where I always dropped gold I welded on a piece about 4" high of heavy walled pipe either "4 or 6". The only function is to maintain the "boat floor" of the hood to maintain spill containment. I always liked my hoods to be 30" deep where possible to have room along the rear wall for buckets.

Under the hole sits a 55 gallon plastic drum (open top with a cover with bung holes) with an overflow bulkhead about 3" from the top rim. The drum sits on a drum dolly to make moving the drum for recovery easier. The drum is set so the drum bung on top can line up with the hole. I threaded a nipple into the drum bung and a short length of pipe came up from the nipple for me to pour waste into, and cap when not in use. The bottom of the nipple is extended about 2/3 of the way to the bottom to get the new incoming waste into the bottom where it displaced older "resident" waste which overflowed to drum #2. The advantage of this is all of the waste poured into this drum is done in the hood and there is no smell to deal with, it is all contained in the hood. The only down side to this is the drum on a dolly is about 40" high so the height of the work surface in the hood is 42". So you short guys are out of luck. Of course you could make up for personal lack of height by using 30 gallon drums. The only purpose of this drum is to hold spent acid for settling of solids, no agitation or cementing metals are in this tank. In a production environment you will be surprised at what comes out of the bottom sludge when you drain it once a year.

Drum # 2 can either go under the hood or behind the hood space dependent. This drum receives the overfllow from drum 1 and is set up with a bulkhead that lines up with drum #1 to pipe it in. Flexible PVC pipe here works wonders. Tank #2 is the copper cementation tank. In it there is a fixture made to support the slabs of copper hung in the tank and to direct the aeration. If you set this drum behind or alongside the hood you can connect one of the bung holes to a flexible duct that let's out into the hood for the exhaust during cementation. That takes care of the fumes from this process. When drum #2 is full, you can turn on the air pump to circulate and let it run for a day or so.

After the cementation in copper is done and settled, the liquid is transferred as described in the waste treatment thread. Essentially drum #2 is your stock pot. Ideally drum #2 will be a translucent plastic drum so you can see when it fills up.

That is how I always set up to handle waste pretreatment and stock pot all in one process that I don't have to smell.
 
We keep forgetting that ultra pure aluminium sells for thousands a kilo and that many people break their backs at work for 50 eur for a whole day IN europe. Besides, aluminium chloride which is used in spray deodorant sells for 50 a kilo.
 
andu said:
We keep forgetting that ultra pure aluminium sells for thousands a kilo and that many people break their backs at work for 50 eur for a whole day IN europe. Besides, aluminium chloride which is used in spray deodorant sells for 50 a kilo.
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I never knew that. Do you have a reference?
Which certificates are involved with the trade in this exotic metal? Can the simple working guy in europe obtain them, make them or trade them?
Is it another crypto currency bubble?
Are crypto share holders being 'compensated' for losses with ultra fine copper and aluminum powder?We do get offers for it lately.
Like with the copper, i suspect there is no actual market for it. I think it's a bubble created to prevent complete collapse of that fictional money. Or its tge latest scam for gullable investors looking tor fast profits. So now investors are suck with it trying to sell it anywhere for 'any price'(still rediculously high)? Because they got scammed and are trying to minimize losses?


I wonder what does ultra fine gold powder sell for if you can multiply the value of copper and aluminum by thousands? I have a jar full of precipitated ultra fine high purity gold powder. 10.000 euro per microgram. Anyone?

Forgive me my sceptism, but this sounds like total BS.
 
4metals said:
The only purpose of this drum is to hold spent acid for settling of solids, no agitation or cementing metals are in this tank. In a production environment you will be surprised at what comes out of the bottom sludge when you drain it once a year.
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Are you letting gold settle overnight so that you get the angels gold before, or is it the angels gold that is accumulating in drum #1?
 
snoman701 said:
Are you letting gold settle overnight so that you get the angels gold before, or is it the angels gold that is accumulating in drum #1?
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That’s what drum #1 is for. Otherwise there would be too many containers sitting around waiting to settle.

Never heard it called angels gold before. I always considered it a house lot which came in every year.
 
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4metals said:
That’s what drum #1 is for. Otherwise there would be too many containers sitting around waiting to settle.

Never heard it calked angels gold before. I always considered it a house lot which came in every year.
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Maybe it is comparable with the Angels share when you produce Cognac?
A certain amount evaporates during the ripening/maturing in the casks, it is called the Angels share.
😁 ;)
 
Not sure where I read it, or if I just made it up. It's just the micro gold that takes forever to settle out....it's a tiny tiny amount per lot, but it does add up.
 
snoman701 said:
Not sure where I read it, or if I just made it up. It's just the micro gold that takes forever to settle out....it's a tiny tiny amount per lot, but it does add up.
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I'm assuming that is what 4metals says about drum #1.
Depending on the volume throughput it may add up to some serious values over the year. ;)
 

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