Welcome In!

[Theserialvapist]

OK and noted Dave, apart from the "tbh" I didn't think I did use 'text speak' but I will endeavor to make sure i dont use it as it's a personal annoyance of mine as well. Signature also deleted.

 

[FrugalRefiner]

The main problem was the veiled crude language. The "tbh" was the only text lingo I saw as well. I just didn't want to come back at a later time and chastise you on something else.

Thank you for eliminating the signature line.

We're pretty easy to get along with, but we take our work seriously. We have members from around the world, many of whom have to use translators. We don't joke much about what we do, since a mistranslation could create a dangerous situation.

But if you want to learn about refining, this is the best place on the internet to do it! Welcome to the forum.

Dave

 

[Coastalwasteus]

Hello all.

Name : David C.
Sex : Male
Age : 53
Location : Orange County, CA
Profession : Medical and Hazardous Waste Disposal
Hobbies : Surfing and Sprinter Van Build outs
Interests :

How long have you been refining gold or have interest in precious metals? : I have been refining for 2 months. I have been smelting for 10 years.

What are you looking for in our community? : Assistance and sharing information on Dental Scrap. Specifically PFM's and Bridges which most here are calling white dental scrap. I have a lot of experience in smelting and assaying all kinds of dental scrap, but very little in refining.

How did you discover our Forum? : Good ole Google

Thank you in advance to all of you that have built this forum and contributed to this forum over the years. You have accumulated a great amount of information and resources and I know how time consuming that was.

I hope to work with others and share information on refining dental scrap. The gold crowns are easy with the exception of getting the Pt out as it is normally a very low percentage. Pd on the other hand on gold crowns drops fairly easy and is usually 12 to 25%.

The Porcelain Fused Metals (PFMs) and dental bridges very extremely in their content and often contain high amounts of nickel. They are however are worth refining and do contain 10-20 % Pd and 10-30% AU. The mixed metals in the AR is complicated and I have had some but little success.

I have read Hoke many times and many dental papers and other documents that discuss the process of refining these types of mixed alloys. I have mixed feelings about removing base metals with Nitric acid as the large amounts of Pd.

I have done many small experiments including those in Hoke using single dental pieces and it is very interesting to note the outcomes. I have even done the Nitric bath and that outcome was a great lesson.

Anyways, thank you for allowing me to join and I look forward to learning and sharing.

DC

 

[nickvc]

David welcome to the forum.
You have picked one of the most complicated scrap materials to deal with and also one that carries high risks with the PGM salts, please use extreme care and caution when messing with any solutions or powders if you are refining the PGMs. If you are not properly set up to deal with PGM salts then simply cement the PGMs with copper and save the powders, you will need agitation to succeed as the powders can coat the copper and also to make sure the whole solution is exposed to the copper.
I wish you luck but as I said be very careful.

 

[Coastalwasteus]

Nickvc,

Thank you for the welcome and advice. I do intend to work with the PMGs. For smelting and past assays I average 15 - 20 % Pd and 1-5% Pt. I am interested to see if I get more when refining as XRF machines have issues when a bar contains Nickel and PMGs.

I am interested in the return values of PMGs when cementing out vs full refining. I have only successfully precipitated Pd and Pt together in a dark red powder. I have not refined it further as a sponge with heat. I know it has both metals as I did a small test dissolving it in AR 1:4 Nitric to HCL and Stannous Chloride shows both metals but primarily Pd.

I would much rather take the safer quicker route if cementing will get a high return.

Thank you! Any links to procedure in cementing PMGs out with a copper bar?

DC

 

[4metals]

Thank you! Any links to procedure in cementing PMGs out with a copper bar?

Sometimes the name given a thread makes it difficult to figure out what it is really about. We tried to fix that a bit in the library with an index thread. This is from the library.

http://goldrefiningforum.com/phpBB3/viewtopic.php?f=85&t=22203

 

[GingerHuntsman]

Hi Everyone,

This is me...

Name : Malcolm J.
Sex : Male
Age : 43
Location : Calgary, AB
Profession : Project Manager
Hobbies : Sports, Live Production, Networks, Camping, Baking
Interests : Inventing, Baking, Gardening
How long have you been refining gold or have interest in precious metals? : 12 months
What are you looking for in our community? : Knowledge, guidance, and possibly local contacts with like minded people
How did you discover our Forum? : YouTube Channel - Cody's Lab

 

[FrugalRefiner]

Welcome to the forum Malcolm! As you may or may not know, our founder, Noxx, is also Canadian.

I always like to provide a link to new members to the Tips for Navigating and Posting on the Forum thread to help get them off to a good start. Be sure to follow lazersteve's Guided Tour to the forum link.

Dave

 

[SE Silver]

Name : Guy
Sex: Male
Age: 30-something
Location: South Florida
Profession: jewelry modelmaker
Hobbies: gardening & tinkering
Interests: mad science
How long have you been refining gold or have interest in precious metals? 15 years
What are you looking for in our community? Learning & sharing knowledge, fun

Hello All! Sincere thanks to all for helping to create this awesome forum. I came here via google a few days ago and have been reading avidly. I work in the jewelry industry as a model maker using computer design / 3d printing to create custom waxes for casting. I also do lost wax casting and some basic jewelry work. I'm interested in learning how to set up a little lab to do refining safely & environmentally. Thanks again to all! I look forward to learning and hope I can contribute something useful.

 

[FrugalRefiner]

Welcome to the forum.

The forum is full of threads on this subject. You'll find some of the best in The Library. Take a look through The assay / refining lab.....second time around, how to build an acid resistant hood & scrubber, Building a chemical fume hood with a plain steel blower, and New fume scrubber design.

Also, download a copy of the book in my signature line. It specifically addresses refining jeweler's wastes.

Dave

 

[SE Silver]

Thanks Dave, awesome links, will do! I'm really interested in building a closed system and recycling as much of the nitric acid / fumes as practical, have you ever done that?

 

[FrugalRefiner]

Yes. See Question about scrubber. I think 4metals described this first somewhere, but Kurt's diagram will give you the idea. I add an empty flask right after the reactor for safety.

Dave

 

[Sleepydann]

Name : dann
Sex : m
Age : 37
Location : nor cal
Profession : handyman, odd jobs...
Hobbies : recently, collecting and sorting e-scrap, and reading this forum.
Interests : oversimplifyed: the pursuit of knowledge

How long have you been refining gold or have interest in precious metals? : "daydreamed" about prospecting as a child growing up in Michigan, so the interest has been lifelong. Have been collecting and sorting e-scrap for a little over 2 years.
What are you looking for in our community? : knowledge, advice, people with whom I share this hobby.
How did you discover our Forum? : honestly, don't remember, I signed up , and have remained silent too long.

Other: I've always had somewhat of a "gold fever " , and have taken to "urban mining " (collecting computer scrap) it is time to start recovering and refining.
I consider myself reasonably intelligent, and have been able to be become very good at the skills I set my sights on, and truly put my heart into. (There hasn't been many, but as any expert in any field, will probably agree, it takes lots of time and effort...)
PM recovery and refining is my latest interest, as a hobby, maybe somewhat as a personal challenge, and as a chance to take myself to school, and learn a little, or allot of chemistry...
I have read lots of back and forth about cost, profitability and or lack of... as for myself, of course money is an issue, I am super poor... however profits are not my driving motivation. My only goal is to recover and refine enough PM to make a ring, and ask my girlfriend to be my wife. Not only can I not afford to buy her a ring, I think (and I think she will too) something I made myself would have infinitely more value than anything purchased.
But I am also super excited about all the knowledge I am sure to obtain in my pursuit.

 

[FrugalRefiner]

Dann, welcome into the light!

Refining your gold is one discipline. Making a ring from it is quite another. I wish you well in your pursuit, as there can be no more worthy cause.

Dave

 

[butcher]

Sleepydann,
You can do anything you set your mind to, recovering gold and silver and refining them to make a ring is something you can accomplish when you set your mind to it, I look forward to seeing the ring, and following your journey.

Educating yourself in the basics principles so you can learn from your mistakes.

 

[Sleepydann]

Thanks , it's good to be here.
Accomplishing things I set my mind to is something I know I can do.
As for learning from mistakes, I am approaching this with the intention of learning from others mistakes, as much as possible anyways...Probably the most common bit of advice offered to beginners like myself, is read, study the forum, download the books, and above all, saftey first. I have taken this advice to heart, and have so far had most of my questions answered. I thank everyone for that..
My e-scrap supply is extremely limited, thus I do not have much room for error. But with the information i have received from this forum, (books, q+a and links ) I finally feel confident and ready to start recovering and refining.
For those who wish to follow my journey, I plan to document and post exactly what I do, and the results. I know I have learned much from others who did the same,
And wish to contribute to the collective knowledge here.
(Unless of course that would be viewed as redundant information because of the many people who have done exactly the same before me)

 

[butcher]

Looks like your starting off in the right direction, studying before jumping off into the unknown.

Starting a thread sounds great, documenting progress while learning, and sharing what we learn is what the forum is about.

 

[Cozza]

Name : Cory
Sex : M
Age : 35
Location : Brisbane Australia

Profession : Manager of a metal detecting / gold
prospecting shop

Hobbies : gold prospecting, rare plant collection, beetle collecting

Interests : as above

How long have you been refining gold or have interest in precious metals? : 3 days but learning for months, into gold for 10 years

What are you looking for in our community? : guidance
How did you discover our Forum? : google search

I would like to thank you all for a wonderfully informative site! I have been into gold prospecting for the last 10 years, and working in, now managing , a busy detecting / prospecting shop for 7 years. In that time I have handled hundreds of ounces of gold ( what a rush!) And have liberated my fair share from the ground too. I had never really given a second thought to how gold is refined until a few months ago one of Kadriver's videos cropped up on youtube. I have watched every one now and many many others, but his videos I think have been the most helpful and are a great demo on how to safely carry out this work. After much study and safety prep I began my first run of silver this week. I'm 3/4 done with 670grm of mostly 50% silver coins that one of my customers kindly provided ( because he had ruined them in a coin tumbler!). I cant wait till it's all done!
anyways, thank you all for a wonderful forum, I cant wait to digest it all- I might not be able to contribute much to the refining side of things, but if there is anyone needing help with Minelab metal detectors I will be only too happy to help!
Cheers,
Cory

 

[butcher]

Careful Cory this fever is addicting, Welcome to another world of gold fever.

 

[sheely213]

My name is Sheila Bowser and I buy and sell vintage and antique jewelry. I am not as sophisticated as most users because I do not do scrap Gold, nor do I process gold.