Hello everyone. I love this forum- the wealth of knowledge is incredible and the community is super helpful with an attitude I love.
To get to it then...
I'm new but fairly well read but have a couple questions. I've read about AP eating gold and using a bus bar or other copper to push the gold out and I understand too much oxidizer (peroxide) is what causes the problem. But I've only ever used a bubbler (aquarium pump - end of tube tied and holes punched in tube with tack). Since you must be careful not to start with too much peroxide and then don't really use any more should I only use the bubbler to start the reaction and then turn it off? I haven't seen that done in any of the videos or instructions - the bubbler seems to be used throughout the AP process duration.
Here is what I have. These pictures are the result of my second batch of fingers which were started with the remaining AP from the first batch and more hcl added, as this was a larger batch. Partway through it became very dark and a drop of water turned white so I figured it was saturated and I poured half of it off into a separate container to process later and before I added the replenishment hcl I noticed something odd and figured it was just the copper plating back onto the gold(?) but parts of the gold foils actually looked corroded/eaten not just plated. Out of curiosity I dropped a bit of stannous on a paper towel i used to wipe the lip of the container after pouring and it looked positive for gold. Not like and AR batch but still enough color to get me thinking.
Thoughts?
-Quasi
To get to it then...
I'm new but fairly well read but have a couple questions. I've read about AP eating gold and using a bus bar or other copper to push the gold out and I understand too much oxidizer (peroxide) is what causes the problem. But I've only ever used a bubbler (aquarium pump - end of tube tied and holes punched in tube with tack). Since you must be careful not to start with too much peroxide and then don't really use any more should I only use the bubbler to start the reaction and then turn it off? I haven't seen that done in any of the videos or instructions - the bubbler seems to be used throughout the AP process duration.
Here is what I have. These pictures are the result of my second batch of fingers which were started with the remaining AP from the first batch and more hcl added, as this was a larger batch. Partway through it became very dark and a drop of water turned white so I figured it was saturated and I poured half of it off into a separate container to process later and before I added the replenishment hcl I noticed something odd and figured it was just the copper plating back onto the gold(?) but parts of the gold foils actually looked corroded/eaten not just plated. Out of curiosity I dropped a bit of stannous on a paper towel i used to wipe the lip of the container after pouring and it looked positive for gold. Not like and AR batch but still enough color to get me thinking.
Thoughts?
-Quasi
