Gettinthegold said:
Hey guys,
Ok I think I've upset some people. If so, I apologise for this. I'm just quite enthusiastic. I've heard people talking about this for ages and watched the vids and I want to do it, too!! I don't mean to be insulting. It's just, someone here had answered that many people here had dedicated hours of their time to learning refining. So I said I was willing to spend some hours, too. But now I think that statement was taken as belittling or condescending or something.
After you spend some time on this forum, you will see things very differently than the way you do currently. I don't think people believe you are belittling or condescending, I think that other forum members think you are not listening to the good advice they are giving you. At least that's how I personally see what you have posted thus far.
Gettinthegold said:
I downloaded that Hoke book. I'm getting some sort of a PowerPoint error but I'll figure it out. I used powerpoint a lot in my old job. I know the DOS stuff, and dll stuff with ethernet/Internet, etc.
I don't think it's PowerPoint, I believe it's in .pdf format would would require adobe reader.
Gettinthegold said:
Ok so in the meantime, like you guys said, I'll start collecting materials. My friend asked what chemicals I need and I said I wasn't sure. But he said he's pretty sure he knows what I'll need and he's bringing some.
That's nice of your friend to offer to bring you chemicals. However, and this might sound stern, you have no business playing around with any chemicals or acids yet, specially when you are not sure what is required and your friend is only pretty sure. You need to stop what you are doing, stop thinking about processing material, stop trying to sidestep of leap over all the other steps you need to take before you get to this point. You are not taking any of this serious, so let me put this into perspective for you. The gases given off when you dissolve metals in Aqua Regia produce NOx gases which can at the very least cause you extreme harm if the correct precautions are not taken, and at most could cause death. Not only that, but the chemicals, acids, solutions could in many different ways cause explosive solutions, solutions that give off harmful or deadly gases, materials that will combust without notice, and the list goes on and on and on. You don't seem to be taking this seriously at all. This may be the reason you think you are insulting people because you do not understand why their responses have been so strongly worded. The reality is that they are trying to prevent you from making a terrible mistake that could end in tragedy.
Gettinthegold said:
As for my room, there's a couple of windows and there's a fan in one of them so it gets some pretty good ventilation
A couple windows are going to do you NO GOOD, NOx is a heavy gas and takes awhile to dissipate. Being heavier than air will cause NOx to fall towards the floor. If there is any carpet or other materials it could soak into them, and over time could cause the organic material to become flammable. You could potentially be causing nitrocellulose, although if you had that much NOx in the room, you would probably end up dead or in the hospital before that point.
And if you think your fan is enough, you haven't learned about the gases produced during the process of dissolving metals with acids. NOx is highly corrosive. Your fan, unless specially built to operate in an acidic environment, would be attacked by the NOx gas, and any metals exposed would quickly oxidize including but not limited to the electric motor. So if you are working and gases are being produced in a room with a few windows, and the fan goes out, what do you think is going to happen?
Also, you are not considering the gases soaking into the walls or furniture. And then coming into contact with those items and what would happen to anyone who did.
Gettinthegold said:
I have some safety glasses I use in the shed and a really good pair of leather work gloves.
You need the correct type of safety glasses. If the safety glasses you have are made to not shatter when struck by flying metal or wood, they might not be the correct type, you should get a pair that huge the face and prevent any liquids from coming into contact with your eyes.
You can also leave your leather gloves in the shed, they are going to do you NO GOOD in protecting your hands from the highly corrosive acids you will be using to recover and refine precious metals. You should be using the proper gloves to protect your hands from the acids you will be using. For example, it's not a good idea to use Nitric Acid with Nitrile gloves, because they could cause the gloves to ignite. But your leather gloves? You should already possess the knowledge that leather gloves are the WRONG gloves for the types of acids you will be using.
Gettinthegold said:
I'll be careful!! I've used hydrochloric acid years ago to wash bricks, and chemicals don't get much worse than that!!
These are the type of statements that make those of us who understand, cringe. You are so very wrong, and yet you have absolutely no clue how wrong you are. HCl or Hydrochloric Acid is by far, one of the lesser worrisome acids you will be using. Try reading about Nitric Acid, and then after that read about Sulfuric Acid. Once you have done that, come back here and try to convince any of us that Hydrochloric Acid is worse. You have no clue what you are doing, and you need to stop before you start!
Gettinthegold said:
And like I said, I've got a few cell phones and a couple of old laptops so that's all good. Can anyone tell me how much I'll get from that? An ounce? Maybe more??
Where in the world did you ever get the idea that a couple laptops and a few cell phones would give you an ounce? I'm sorry to burst your bubble, but you might get enough out of those items to buy a happy meal, but that's the only happy thing you are going to experience if you attempt anything before you learn what it is you are proposing to do. There is about 0.00265 ounces of gold PER POUND of Cell Phones. Right around 5.3 ounces per TON! Where in the world are you getting your information?
Gettinthegold said:
All right that's all for now. Once again, I don't wish to upset or insult anybody. And I really appreciate you guys setting me on the path to enlightenment (pun intended!!). Really, thank you.
I wasn't going to post on this thread when I first saw it, I knew others would be posting and was surprised that Harold took the time to himself. You should be happy in this, the people who have already posted on this thread are some of the most knowledgeable on this forum. They are not going to tell you that, but they are. You are taking them far too casually, you should be grateful they took the time to answer you, and you should be heading the advice they have been giving you for free.
If you do not head the warnings and help that has been freely given to you up to this point, and you attempt to do any of this without first learning what you need in order to be successful, you will make mistakes that could end up harming you, those around you, your living space, or worse something even more terrible could happen.
I can't believe you think leather gloves are good enough, or that Hydrochloric acid is the worst thing you are going to deal with, or that a few windows and a fan are enough to ventilate your work area. And then you joke about it as if it's not as serious as it really is. You really, honestly, have no idea, no clue, you are in fact utterly clueless and it's scary. At one point while taking the time to answer you in this thread I thought there might be a possibility that you posted this as a big laugh, and not serious about anything you wrote. That's how utterly ridicules this sounds to me. If this is a joke post, you need to express that now before it goes too far.
Scott
