Welcome In!

[AgNo3]

Hello all,
Newbie here. Very nice to find a forum dealing with the recovery of PM's-I have a whole lot of reading to do before I post any questions.It would be nice to find a ton of material first also!
I call myself AgNo3,because I found a pound of AgNo3 at an estate sale for $1.00-I'm still trying to decide if I want to precipitate the silver out(copper reaction),or just keep it and sell it-maybe if silver goes back up to $50.an ounce

Talking about garage sale finds;I found a 14K ladies Hamilton watch for $5.00, 2 weeks ago,it still works and keeps perfect time. My wife wanted to know why I spent a whole $5.00 for it(I probably could have had it for 1.00 !!)-but I was so excited I offered a whopping $5.00-lol Who would have thought that one could find a 14k gold watch at a garage sale with gold hovering around $1300. an ounce?? What makes the find even more exciting is the inscription on it."From the Cleveland Trust Bank for 25 years of service 1933-1958"

I have an interest in Chemistry,and also recovery of PM's from throw away materials.So,I am happy to have found this forum.Although I may not post much,if at all,I will be soaking up as much as I can here.
Many Thanks to all!
Don, aka AgNo3

 

[FrugalRefiner]

Welcome to the forum Don.

I suspect you bought a pound of AgNO₃, not AgNo₃. No is the symbol for nobelium. Its most stable isotope is ²⁵⁹No, which has a half life of only 58 minutes. :lol:

I hope you don't mind me having a little fun with your user name. Proper chemical formulas are very important here, as a tiny mistake could have serious consequences.

Nice finds on the silver nitrate and the watch. If the AgNO₃ jar is still sealed, you can probably sell it on eBay for higher than the value of the silver it contains. If you send a PM to Noxx (the forum Administrator), he can change your user name if you'd like.

Dave

 

[maynman1751]

Nice catch Dave! You have the eyes of a hawk!

 

[dexter_78]

Name : Jozef
Sex : male
Age : 36
Location : Veurne, Belgium
Profession : assistent manager at a diy store
Hobbies : my wife and kids, hopefully soon gold refining from e scrap, reading all I can here and starting C.M Hoke tonight, ...
Interests :all of the above
How long have you been refining gold or have interest in precious metals? : long time intrest but new to it all
What are you looking for in our community? : all the info i can handle
How did you discover our Forum? : google search

others: i am hoping i can find all the chemicals i need over here, like Sulferic acid 98%.

 

[butcher]

Jozef,
Welcome to the forum. the fun part here, is having all of the information you can handle, and still finding more to learn from every day.

 

[Claudie]

Be careful, it's addictive!

 

[dexter_78]

thank you Butcher and Claudie,

I am reading all i can for the moment, and i'll try not to ask to many dumb questions.
i am addicted to the search bar for the moment, later on it will be a refining adiction :lol: .
First more reading and getting e scrap.

Have fun, be safe.
Jozef

 

[annab]

Hello,
My name is Anna and I live in a small town in colorado. I'm a gal, and I literally just stumbled across a link to all of you when I was trying to find more information on SAFE(R) refining as it is something I have wanted to learn about for a while but have not been comfortable with what I have found else where on the internet or even in the local library. I must say I am just blown away. This place and all of those on this forum are just a wealth of information and above all seem to care more about the person interested in the art of refining than the refining in itself which is what I have been looking for. I am just overjoyed to find this forum and its participants. I am also thrilled to find and sit down with a hard copy of C.M. Hoke's book which all of you so clearly recommend and seems to be what is expected reading around here. Abe books is my next stop tonight! :lol: I think its going to be a long winter here in Colorado so I will have plenty of time to read and reread I think. My experience with Precious metals has been mostly during my jewelry making days in high school and or private jewelry making classes here and there, the occasional fun find at a yard sale and buying jewelry items from a friend in a neighboring town who happens to be a coin dealer and small metal scrapper. Gee, you can't tell I am a jewelry person huh? ( I now understand why he has always treated me so well, because we are both honest, and reading some of the posts on here I guess in this hobby/occupation these days that is not always the case.) That being said, I am extremely happy to be here and am looking forward to learning. This is also the first forum I have ever actually joined and become a member on, simply because of the fact most here seem to be very knowledgeable and are willing to share some pearls of wisdom with those willing to do the homework. Thank you so much for making all this accessible to those of us who are decent human beings and who just want to know more. I promise I will only ask questions AFTER I read Hoke's book a few times, read more on here, get the right equipment and try some of her nifty experiments for newbies you guys mentioned were in the book! Thanks as well for the guided tour, it makes getting some basic information for the site and the craft much easier.

 

[Harold_V]

Welcome to the board, Anna.
It is doubtful you'll find an original copy of Hoke's book for a reasonable price, but it has been reprinted and is available from Gesswein for $54.75
http://www.gesswein.com/p-3263-refining-precious-metal-wastes.aspx?cpagenum=&sortfield=&sortdirection=&perpage=

I commend you for your display of common sense in understanding the need to get self educated in order to learn and master the art of refining. I fully expect you're going to receive considerable cooperation from those who are capable of helping you when you are stymied by unusual circumstances. Some come here and demand to be told, never lifting a finger to help themselves.

Harold

 

[FrugalRefiner]

annab,

Welcome to the forum. If you haven't ordered a copy of Hoke's book yet, I have a frugal alternative to offer. In my signature line, you'll find free downloads for a screen readable and a printable version of her book.

Dave

 

[Sen]

For reference I paid $175 for my first edition Hoke's. That was the cheapest price I had seen while mulling over buying it for months, except for an international listing with no photo and bad English. I think that was $125 but they did not respond when I asked for a photo.

 

[redrat]

Hello from California. My first post on this forum. Been doing a lot of reading... Downloaded the Hoke book. I've been collecting e-scrap for a few years but always sent it off to someone else for refining and got a check. I'm still collecting but now I'm interested in refining myself because I would rather have the gold than fiat dollars. Back to reading, Red.

 

[butcher]

Red,
It looks like you are on the best road to learning this.
Welcome to the forum

 

[mcrook]

Hello everyone, just another noob here. I won't be asking for answers until I know more about the subject.
Contrary to popular belief, there IS such a thing as a stupid question!

Name :Mike Crook
Sex :Male
Age :56
Location :San Angelo, Texas
Profession :Electronics Technician
Hobbies :Hot rods, cooking, winemaking, etc.
Interests :Many and varied as you can see from my hobbies
How long have you been refining gold or have interest in precious metals? :I have been interested for many years
What are you looking for in our community? :I am looking for information I can research and the ability to ask questions AFTER I exhaust all routes
How did you discover our Forum? :Researching online

 

[Magwitch80]

Welcome In guys
Present your self to the rest of the community, feel free to add things :wink:

Name :Magwitch
Sex :Male
Age :37
Location :South Houston
Profession :CNC Machinist
Hobbies: Fishing Winemaking,Campimg
Interests :Metallurgy,CNC,
How long have you been refining gold or have interest in precious metals? : A few years of study, just started becoming active in the lab for a few months.
What are you looking for in our community? :To learn and when appropriate reflect on my experiences to show what and hopefully not so much what not to do,
How did you discover our Forum? :

I first found gold n scrap and followed the link.

 

[dj_tp]

hey guys. i'm david, just considering starting recovery as a bit of a hobby, i'm from the great white north of Canada, my usual hobby is destroying things, normally through some sort of explosives. I sell things for a living as well as repair appliances. as a result I end up with a bunch of old cpus from appliances, thought it might be interesting to see if there's any gold in them there maytags. any advice for a new guy? just 25 years of age, preferred combustible, thermite

 

[butcher]

dj_tp,

My advice is to be careful, and to study.

Read up on the safety section, and dealing with waste, in the safety section, further your study in these subjects, to include everything you can find on the subjects from other sources.
A little bit of gold cannot replace ones health or life.

Read Hoke's book this will help you with understanding the basic principles of recovery, refining, testing, and will help you get acquainted with the reactions, to give you an understanding needed in most any recovery or refining process, even those processes that are not described in the book.
You can find links to the book in the book section, or under members signature lines.

Follow the guide to the forum and the welcome to new members, see general chat section, you will find many of the processes for electronic scrap in this tour.

Basically enjoy studying and learning about recovery and refining of precious metals, the information is here, the forum is just a gold mine, it will take some time and trouble to learn, nothing about gold comes easy, but with work that metal will shine in your melting dish, making the work well worth it.


Be careful, and spend time studying well, anything you plan to try, take time to understand the dangers, and how to avoid them, get a good grasp of the principles and what to expect, understanding what can go wrong and why, understanding the basics will also help when you do run into problems, giving you the understanding to troubleshoot, and the skills needed to get past those problems, or keep you from experiencing those problems in the first place.

Take time to study and collecting scrap, so when your ready to begin to recover and refine the metals you will be able to do it safely, and efficiently without loosing your values.

When you run into a brick wall with your study, asking for help, and you will find you will have many fine members here willing to help you along the journey, and you can enjoy many intelligent discussions of your interest in this field of study.

Work on getting the key to success.
Education is that key to success.
Then you can practice that education to gain experience, and build on your skills.

Enjoy the forum. The treasure is here, and you will find many friends with the same interest, but like mining for gold, it does not come easy, and you will have to dig a little to get it.

This is a subject you can spend a lifetime studying and learning and always find something new to learn about it.

Welcome to the forum.
Be careful, and keep safety as a priority, so you can live long enough to enjoy the fruits of your labor.

 

[Minimum]

Name :Kyle
Sex :male
Age : 33
Location : Kitchener, Ontario
Profession : Millwright, tier 1 automotive
Hobbies : Cars, home reno, gold
Interests : same as above...
How long have you been refining gold or have interest in precious metals? : 1 year
What are you looking for in our community? : looking to learn everything I can about refining and hopefully make a few friends along the way!!
How did you discover our Forum? : Google.

 

[Geo]

Welcome aboard Kyle. You are very lucky in that you have found the best resource on the internet for refining precious metals and more. Please take the time to read the forums guided tour here http://goldrefiningforum.com/phpBB3/viewtopic.php?f=33&t=796. Good luck and above all else, be safe.

 

[Wiyaka Nupa]

Name: Gerald
Sex: male
Age 54
Location: West Kansas
Profession: Farm and Ranch
Hobbies: Mineralogy, Archaeology, Paleontology, Flint Knapping
Interests: Stewarding my lands, most anything ending in -ology
How long.....Most of my life. Have been panning and prospecting for many years.
Looking for............Knowledge, wisdom, comradeship of like minds.
How found........Google search for calaverite processing