UPS connectors

[glorycloud]

I get UPS's about every time I pick up donated computer equipment.
I tear them down for the metals, the big electrical motor, SLA batteries,
wire, etc. I do occasionally see them with these yellow connectors and
the internal connections seem to look like silver to me. Anyone else
have experience with them? Just wondering if I should keep those
connectors seperately?

 

[Smack]

Should be tin over copper, you may also encounter zinc plated items but not generally used in an electrical contact environment. One way that is easy to check these items is to test how easy the surface is marred or scratched, tin is very soft and does not take hardly anything to move it.

 

[glorycloud]

I will give them the scratch test. 8)

 

[trashmasters]

Those are silver (Icall them lugs) the only problem you will have with them is you will use more nitric than normal... This ois due to the copper left in the lug when you cut the wire.

 

[ilikesilver]

Ive come across some big ones also that are silver coated pretty heavily, but I was told on the forum also it takes way to much chemicals to get the silver out. I was wondering is there any refiners out there that would buy this in quantities or refine it for a fee?
tim

 

[pimpneightez]

I believe silver plating. Ive seen them before.

 

[Geo]

ive used a process to strip silver plate from copper and brass by preparing a solution of concentrated sulfuric acid/nitric acid, 95/5 respectively by volume. heat the solution to around 200 degrees F and dip the parts to be deplated.the reaction may take a full minute on heavily plated items but normally, a couple of seconds will do the job. be sure the part is clean and dry and free of chlorides. any parts exposed to any other refining process will have residual hcl fumes.copper and brass should come out bright and clean. this process was developed to strip silver from musical instruments so they could be replated without any damage to the underlying metals.

 

[Auful]

ive used a process to strip silver plate from copper and brass by preparing a solution of concentrated sulfuric acid/nitric acid, 95/5 respectively by volume. heat the solution to around 200 degrees F and dip the parts to be deplated.the reaction may take a full minute on heavily plated items but normally, a couple of seconds will do the job. be sure the part is clean and dry and free of chlorides. any parts exposed to any other refining process will have residual hcl fumes.copper and brass should come out bright and clean. this process was developed to strip silver from musical instruments so they could be replated without any damage to the underlying metals.

Interesting! Is the deplated silver elemental silver, silver sulfate or silver nitrate or...? Thanks.

 

[FrugalRefiner]

Geo,

How did you recover the silver from your solution after stripping the plating?

Thanks,
Dave

 

[Geo]

normally. i dropped the silver with salt. once all the nitric is consumed, the action will stop. it can be rejuvenated with adding more nitric. as the solution is used, it will absorb moisture from the air and start to attack base metal. after the action stops, i would heat the solution to drive out excess water, allow it to cool and add more nitric. be careful when you heat the solution, besides the obvious dangers of warm - hot sulfuric acid, it also evolves NO2 fumes. the ratio is always the same whether you make a quart or a five gallon bucket full.

ive never tried to cement the silver but i suppose after the nitric acid is depleted it would cement out, but if you want to keep the solution as clean as possible, use salt. the silver chloride will settle in minutes.

i believe the silver exist in solution as silver nitrate.since 1 gallon of concentrated nitric acid will hold 8 pounds of silver, a little nitric acid goes a long way when stripping silver plate.

 

[skippy]

The silver sulfate can be crystallized out by slowly diluting the cooled acid to less than 30%. The crystals can be collected and washed. I have cemented them with transformer iron and that worked well. There will be silver sulfate still in the acid and the wash solution which can be recovered on copper.

This is a dangerous procedure, as has been noted before. The hot acid will spatter and spray, even explode, if any amount of water gets in it. This acid spray could very easily disfigure, blind or cause death. If the container were to to spill on you it would be truly horrific. If the reaction vessel broke, the acid could react strongly, even violently with your heating setup, the counter, the damp or wet ground or concrete, metals, organic matter and who knows what else. The fumes didn't seem to be very heavy when I did it, but that might depend on exact temperature and concentrations, a fume cabinet or outdoors is mandatory in any case.

If you died or became incapacitated from a something either related or unrelated while doing this process, would your setup become more or less dangerous from lack of tending? Would the next person be able to recognize and deal with the dangers? I hope this is good food for thought for those who may be considering doing this. The worst part is it is really easy to do. The dangers are numerous, it would be easy for anyone to overlook something potentially disasterous.