two rookie questions........

[rheslin2]

so ive been on the forum for a while reading and learning, downloaded and read hoke, then re-read it and took notes then re-read the good parts, then bought steves videos, and decided i was ready to try some of the "easier" processes.............
so i started with gold fingers in a/p solution, the process worked great (thanx steve) however when i checked the progress this morning there is a black powder at the botom, i assume this is gold powder droped by the copper, so, question one...... if i am going to us hcl/cl to desolve the gold foils, do i need to seperate the powder from the foils or will hcl/cl desolve both?
queston 2....... one of the forum members has a video of desolving base metals from fiber cpu pins in just hcl, i tried this but did not heat it, at first got a rapid reaction, and now the reaction has stopped and i have a black sediment in with my cpu pins, have i messed this up or is it just a slow process if not heated, or..... could i add hydrogen peroxide to speed things up?
thanx in advance guys

 

[NobleMetalWorks]

so ive been on the forum for a while reading and learning, downloaded and read hoke, then re-read it and took notes then re-read the good parts, then bought steves videos, and decided i was ready to try some of the "easier" processes.............
so i started with gold fingers in a/p solution, the process worked great (thanx steve) however when i checked the progress this morning there is a black powder at the botom, i assume this is gold powder droped by the copper, so, question one...... if i am going to us hcl/cl to desolve the gold foils, do i need to seperate the powder from the foils or will hcl/cl desolve both?

You are right, the sand or powder you are seeing should be Au, and should be able to dissolve in HCl/Cl. If you have too much oxygen in solution your AP will dissolve some gold, and it will eventually be cemented out as your solution becomes saturated with copper. Everything should dissolve in HCl/Cl.

queston 2....... one of the forum members has a video of desolving base metals from fiber cpu pins in just hcl, i tried this but did not heat it, at first got a rapid reaction, and now the reaction has stopped and i have a black sediment in with my cpu pins, have i messed this up or is it just a slow process if not heated, or..... could i add hydrogen peroxide to speed things up?
thanx in advance guys

I don't run CPU pins from fiber anymore. But your reaction is dependent upon what type of base metals are in the pins. Pins might be iron or kovar. If you have dissolved the base metals, and are left with gold foils that look like pins, then you should wash the foils, incinerate and continue to process from that point. If there was only HCl introduced, and no other acids, then the gold pins you are saying that were left behind should be gold foils, and there shouldn't be any gold dissolved in solution. The black sand you are looking at should not be gold. But there is a really easy way to test to see if it is gold. Make a tiny bit of AR, dissolve some of the black material in the AR, and test with Stannous. This will tell you if there is any gold in solution.

If you are ever unsure what something that has precipitated out of solution on it's own might be, you can always wash it, incinerate it, and dissolve in AR, test with Stannous and it should tell you if there are any values. This has saved me from introducing materials with value into my stock pot.

It's been said before, but rings true no matter how many times it is said. So long as you retain your solutions and don't throw them out, you will retain the ability to recover the values associated with the solution. Don't throw anything out, process even your waste as if it has some values, you might be surprised what you find.

Scotte

 

[rheslin2]

thanx scotte

im pretty sure what im looking at in the pins from the fiber cpu's in iron, but the reaction has stoped and they are not foils floating at the top of the solution, but still filled pins siting at the bottom of the solution, went back and read thru my note and this just seems strange to me. took out a small batch and added hcl/h202, (ap) should i take them back out of the ap and just give them a few days in the strait hcl?

bob

 

[butcher]

I would use acid peroxide (copper II chloride leach), to dissolve the base metals, HCl alone would be harder, but with heat and air bubbled it would, Do a little study on this leach and I am sure you will get a grasp of how to use it, Laser Steve's web site hosts a great document on how it works.

 

[rheslin2]

read it butcher, thanx for the reply, on my way to get an air supply and a larger container......... where is the tupperwhare lady when i need her!!!!!!?

 

[rheslin2]

so i took these pins out of solution, and set them aside while i studied more, going to try sams method (gold and scap video) and boil the pins from the one hundred fiber chips in hcl for three hours, however when i went down to set up this morning the pins are all covered in rust...... is this a problem or will it just desolve freeing the gold foils? and yeah i have to admit my first thought was put them in water and sunlight and let the base metals rust away........ lol

 

[Geo]

the pins from fiber base CPU's is Kovar. an iron based metal specially designed for use in electronics where the connecting metal expands and contracts due to heating and cooling, usually where the metal is encased in glass or ceramic. its a very durable metal and somewhat resistant to acid attack. concentrated hcl will attack the iron and heating will make the hcl become more reactive to the iron. as the legs are dissolving, the liquid will be blue in color (i believe its due to the nickel).if the solution goes to brown while heated and theres still metal un-dissolved, that means the hcl has been depleted and you need to add more.the brown color is iron oxide that is not being dissolved. add more acid and continue the dissolution until all the base metal is dissolved.

 

[g_axelsson]

... the liquid will be blue in color (i believe its due to the nickel)...

I think it is the cobalt chloride that creates that blue color. Kovar is a nickel cobalt iron alloy.
Nickel chloride should be a yellow to green solution.

Look at the pictures of water solutions of the chlorides in these wikipedia articles.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cobalt_chloride
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nickel_chloride

/Göran

 

[rheslin2]

thanks for the advice guys, what i ended up doing was heating them in hcl, and a small amount of h2o2, and stiring vigorously with a plastic stir rod, basically beating the gold flake off of the pins, took a while but i got it all off, the liqiud turned a florecent green color, when i was done, i tested for au, and was negative........... now ill just save up the foils till i get enough for the next step.