Thin gold plated?

[Dave.zap]

Hi. New here

I pulled apart an old power supply and found one component that looked like gold to me.

Applied stanous cloride that I made ftom 30ml HCL and 95% tin solder.

Within a minute the gold had vanished where I dropped it and am unsure what to make of this result.

Any ideas would be welcome.


Dave.

 

[FrugalRefiner]

Stannous chloride solution is not a test for metallic gold. It is used to test whether gold is in a solution.

Dave

 

[Dave.zap]

Stannous chloride solution is not a test for metallic gold. It is used to test whether gold is in a solution.

Dave

So I just lost a lot of gold then?

 

[FrugalRefiner]

Only if you've thrown something away. Otherwise, it's still there. Set it aside and start studying and you'll learn how to get it back.

Dave

 

[alexxx]

Carefull , this is a mercury relay. It contains a very toxic element.
What looks like gold is anodized aluminum.

Lucky you... you did not soak it in a beaker full of AP or HCL.

 

[alexxx]

I went maybe a bit easy on you because I'm trying to stay polite...

Just stop what you are doing before you injure yourself, others around you or pollute the environment...

Normaly my post would contain a whole lot of cursing but I'm trying to work out my issues.

I cant urge you enough to stop this attempt. Read this forum, the waste disposal and safety sections...
And make a quick search on part numbers before attempting blind experiments...

Someday something bad will happen and nobody wants to read it on this forum...

 

[Geo]

It is anodized aluminum. It has no precious metal content.

 

[Findm-Keepm]

Carefull , this is a mercury relay. It contains a very toxic element.
What looks like gold is anodized aluminum.

Lucky you... you did not soak it in a beaker full of AP or HCL.

...it's not a mercury relay, but an aluminum cased power resistor, looks to be an RH-series from Vishay. Yes, only anodized aluminum.

RH Series: http://www.vishay.com/ppg?30201

Mercury wetted relays are labeled (by law in the the US, unsure of other locales): https://www.google.com/search?q=mercury+wetted+relay&num=40&tbm=isch&tbo=u&source=univ&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwiGjeiFwKjLAhVM42MKHaWjDSUQsAQILw&biw=1280&bih=651

Cheers

 

[g_axelsson]

Findm-Keepm is right, it's a bottom view of a power resistor. I use them at work as heating elements in equipments that needs to be frost free in harsh environments.

The body is aluminum, connectors probably copper and the resistive element a thread of an iron-nickel alloy. No precious metals in it.

Göran

 

[Dave.zap]

Thanks all for the safety warnings. I'm a little (lot) green.

Should have posted the top side picture as well. 5 ohm I might keep this as a little heater then.


Thanks

 

[nickvc]

Dave there is tons of information on here about what to look for and where, and the values they contain, also any possible nasties hiding inside e scrap.
Take your time and read and learn, don't stop grabbing scrap just go slow on processing, tearing things down is fine, scrap the base metals and harvest anything that could be good, it takes time to learn and understand the recovery and refining steps but hopefully when you are ready you will have a good stash of material to work with, selling the base metals may also help to pay for the equipment you are going to require.

 

[upcyclist]

Stannous chloride solution is not a test for metallic gold. It is used to test whether gold is in a solution.

Dave is right (duh), but what your test does tell you is that your yellow metal layer dissolves in HCl, and is possibly more reactive than tin (if your solution was fully saturated). A layer of gold plating would not generally dissolve with HCl alone.