What about processing IC sockets?

[frank-20011]

Hello,

is there anybody who have processed IC sockets like this one:

http://media.digikey.com/Photos/Mill-Max%20Mfg%20Photos/110-41-316-41-001000.jpg

I have a few from the 80's...are they worth a try?

Regards!

 

[g_axelsson]

I have processed some via the copper chloride process. It took a long time and was a lot of work for a small amount of gold. For me it was worth it because I enjoyed it. I don't have any yield numbers as I combined the small amount of gold with some other gold before final refining.

If it is worth it for you, only you can tell. You can find the usual gold thickness from the data sheets and the area per pin by smashing one and measure it. From that you can make an approximation of how much gold to expect.

Göran

 

[Shark]

I process them regularly. But I have no yield data on them. What I do is keep a bucket of fairly well used copper (II) chloride running and add odds and ends to it. Mainly I run small items that are usually considered to low to run by themselves. I will clean it out every three to six months depending on what I am doing otherwise. It isn't much, but it adds up over time, and helps to consume excess acids before the waste process.

 

[frank-20011]

Hello,

I thought, I could process them in the sulfuric cell...is it real, I mean, the plated area is inside a hole and the metal out there coult work like a farradeys cage.

Thanks a lot!

 

[macfixer01]

Those are known as "Augat" IC sockets, for the Augat company that came up with that pin design. I don't know, there may be other companies using the same pin design by now? Some have a bit more gold, up to the outer edge, and some are fully gold plated. These would not be a good candidate for the sulfuric cell, maybe better with Copper Chloride as Shark suggested, or in a crock pot with HCL? The term Faraday Cage doesn't necessarily apply, but due to the small diameter of the holes there physically wouldn't be much chance for the solution to get down into the holes or for the gold to migrate out of them.

 

[Barren Realms 007]

Hello,

I thought, I could process them in the sulfuric cell...is it real, I mean, the plated area is inside a hole and the metal out there coult work like a farradeys cage.

Thanks a lot!

You will not be able to process these in a sulphuric cell because you will not get any current flow from the inside of the pin's. If you put them in a crock pot of hot solution the plastic can become a mess and make you gold from the inside of the legs stick to the plastic.

Go with what Shark said by putting them in some existing copper chloride.

 

[frank-20011]

Hello,

" current flow from the inside of the pin's"

why not?

I mean, when i push one of theses sockets with the prior soldered ends of the pins into a little stack of other pins which laying an my copper mesh in the sulfuric cell, so the current can flow from the mesh, trought the pins...into the inside! plated pins of the socket.
is my theorie bul...it?

crock pot is an other name for the sulfuric cell? do you think the heat is the problem or the sulfuric acid itself should be a problem for the plastics in the socket (fríend of mine stored ~96% H2SO4 in a hard-plastic Fanta bottle [i don't know if you know them, they are hard...1,5l here in germany...not the thinner ones which you can easily crush] and after 2..3 months the acid has destroyed the bottle...)

You all mean CUCl is the only way?!


Regards!

 

[FrugalRefiner]

In an electrolytic cell, the electric current takes the path of least resistance. Imagine simply taking a piece of tubing and putting it in the cell. You connect the power to your cathode and to the tubing. The current is going to flow from the outside of the tubing nearest to the cathode, through the electrolyte, to the cathode. There would be very little current that would flow from the far side of the tubing, let alone from the inside, because it would have to flow a longer distance to get to the cathode. The same is true of the basket you might use to hold parts. It needs to be made so that the side nearest the cathode is very low, so the current flows from the parts to the cathode, not from the basket to the cathode. If you search for Faraday cage, you should find more information.

The crock pot method is not a sulfuric cell. It simply uses heated HCl to dissolve base metals. You (or your friend) should not use soft drink bottles to store acids. Here, they're often made from PETE plastic which will not hold up to most acids. They can also be mistaken for a beverage by those who may not know what is in them, leading to a disastrous result.

CuCl₂ is not the only way, but it's an inexpensive way. You could dissolve the base metals with nitric acid, but it is expensive and difficult to obtain for many.

Dave

 

[frank-20011]

Hello,

i know about the working of an faradays cage not for nothing i've asked for the risk of f.c. in these special case.

If i process my pins i will try (only a try!) it with the sockets too...a few months in past i have a 2l stainless electrolytic cell with an anode near the stainless cathode, the wall (it was protected by cathodic by corrosion protection, it means that it is loaded negativ like the cathode) of the cell was more apart to the anode then the cathode and still H2 bubbles at the whole stainless wall like at the cathode...not a farradeys cage but if you can see,there is a much longer distance between anode and wall than betw. anode and cathode for electricity.

thanks a alot...regards, frank!

 

[Barren Realms 007]

Here are a couple of ways you can look at it.

1. If you take one of the sockets with the open end up and dip it in water, the water will not get into the small opening and fill in the space because there is not enough room for the air to escape and allow the water to fill the void.

2. In the same aspect if you fill one of the sockets with water by injecting water into it with a needle from a syringe and then tip the open end down the water will not all drain out because of the small opening will not allow the air to pass around the water to drain.


When electricity flows through wire it is not actualy flowing through the wire it is flowing on the outside surface of the wire. If another piece of wire is wrapped around the original wire the electricity will try to flow through the 2nd wire more then the original wire. Now transverse that into an electrical current flowing through the pin and you can imagine the current trying to flow on the outside of the socket rather than from the inside void to the outer area.

From one Frank to another Frank, trust me stick with the copper chloride on these things and save your self some grief. 8)


good luck


Frank

 

[g_axelsson]

Hello,

i know about the working of an faradays cage not for nothing i've asked for the risk of f.c. in these special case.

If i process my pins i will try (only a try!) it with the sockets too...a few months in past i have a 2l stainless electrolytic cell with an anode near the stainless cathode, the wall (it was protected by cathodic by corrosion protection, it means that it is loaded negativ like the cathode) of the cell was more apart to the anode then the cathode and still H2 bubbles at the whole stainless wall like at the cathode...not a farradeys cage but if you can see,there is a much longer distance between anode and wall than betw. anode and cathode for electricity.

thanks a alot...regards, frank!

That's because the anode is inside the inner walls. The point closest to the anode got the highest current per area while the furthest point gets the lowest current density.

If you would put an iron pipe on it's end in your cell you would see that there would be no bubbles on the inner wall, only on the outer wall. That's a Faraday cage.
For your turned sockets it means you have to put an anode inside the contact without touching the sides. For each and every one of them!

When electricity flows through wire it is not actualy flowing through the wire it is flowing on the outside surface of the wire. If another piece of wire is wrapped around the original wire the electricity will try to flow through the 2nd wire more then the original wire. Now transverse that into an electrical current flowing through the pin and you can imagine the current trying to flow on the outside of the socket rather than from the inside void to the outer area.

That's wrong! The skin effect is only an effect when looking at alternating current. For the steady state (DC) case the current passes through the full cross section of the conductor.

In the time variable case (AC) the skin effect means that the current is HIGHER close to the surface but it still moves electrons inside the conductor. The inside still conducts some of the current.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Skin_effect

From one Frank to another Frank, trust me stick with the copper chloride on these things and save your self some grief. 8)

This on the other side is pure truth!

Göran

 

[Barren Realms 007]

Hello,

i know about the working of an faradays cage not for nothing i've asked for the risk of f.c. in these special case.

If i process my pins i will try (only a try!) it with the sockets too...a few months in past i have a 2l stainless electrolytic cell with an anode near the stainless cathode, the wall (it was protected by cathodic by corrosion protection, it means that it is loaded negativ like the cathode) of the cell was more apart to the anode then the cathode and still H2 bubbles at the whole stainless wall like at the cathode...not a farradeys cage but if you can see,there is a much longer distance between anode and wall than betw. anode and cathode for electricity.

thanks a alot...regards, frank!

That's because the anode is inside the inner walls. The point closest to the anode got the highest current per area while the furthest point gets the lowest current density.

If you would put an iron pipe on it's end in your cell you would see that there would be no bubbles on the inner wall, only on the outer wall. That's a Faraday cage.
For your turned sockets it means you have to put an anode inside the contact without touching the sides. For each and every one of them!

When electricity flows through wire it is not actualy flowing through the wire it is flowing on the outside surface of the wire. If another piece of wire is wrapped around the original wire the electricity will try to flow through the 2nd wire more then the original wire. Now transverse that into an electrical current flowing through the pin and you can imagine the current trying to flow on the outside of the socket rather than from the inside void to the outer area.

That's wrong! The skin effect is only an effect when looking at alternating current. For the steady state (DC) case the current passes through the full cross section of the conductor.

In the time variable case (AC) the skin effect means that the current is HIGHER close to the surface but it still moves electrons inside the conductor. The inside still conducts some of the current.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Skin_effect

From one Frank to another Frank, trust me stick with the copper chloride on these things and save your self some grief. 8)

This on the other side is pure truth!

Göran

ROFLMAO. I can agree with that.

 

[Shark]

I am fairly new at this myself. I have tried a few different ways to process these pieces and keep coming back to the copper chloride method. I am in no hurry, if I was I would try the crock pot method, it works quicker. The sulfuric cell attempt was a complete waste of time, it just didn't work right. I also do not have the knowledge to explain why it didn't. I finally realized I had better things to do than waste my time on low grade material that takes greater effort than the copper chloride does. While I am waiting for the low grade material to be ready to process, I spend my usable time working on the higher grade stuff. So far this year I have had 5 major surgeries and still managed to process twice the amount I did last year, just by better using my time and improving my methods.

 

[frank-20011]

Hi,

i put them in old AP and now, after a few months i take a look for one of the glases and all the AP is converted in a greyish/greenish very hard sludge.

there whre so much sockests in so less Ap that all the produces copper-salts fall out of the solution and make it hard.... :shock:

Should i dilute the sludge with tap water? i think that's the best way..and maybe a little bit HCl!

Greetings!

 

[UncleBenBen]

Copper (I) chloride is soluble in HCl. When copper(II) chloride becomes saturated, Copper(I) chloride will precipitate out. I would add HCl.

If I'm wrong, I'm sure I will be corrected promptly.

 

[frank-20011]

Hello and a happy new year!

as a reminder that i've processed gold plated sockets of cpu's, eprom-like Ic-sockets, copper-bracket contacts from the gdr in ap-solution for more than 4 months and now almost every base metall is gone.
i have to change the ap one time because i get hard from all the salts in the sollution, i have to add hcl some times...o.k. my actual question: there are a lot of very sparkling, very thin crystals in the sollution, they are between 1 and 4mm long, what a salt is that?
These crystals are no problem but the gold is mixed in a white, corned sediment and no hcl-adding dissolves it.

How should i process these gold-bearing sludge? Hot Hcl?
Hot H20 or is that maybe a tin-salt from some bronze and so i should it solve in hot KOH?

Regards, Frank!

 

[UncleBenBen]

Tin would be soluble in HCl. If solder was involved, especially if older solder it could be a bit of lead chloride, soluble in very hot H₂O. If the white salt is voluminous or curd like, see if it will darken on exposure to sunlight. If so its silver chloride, gold can then be dissolved and silver chloride filtered out and added to your silver jar.

 

[g_axelsson]

In four months any stannous chloride would probably be oxidized into metastannous acid or some other tin compound.

Lead chloride could be dissolved in hot water.

Or just take the pragmatic way, dissolve the gold and siphon / filter it off, leaving the sludge behind.

Göran

 

[frank-20011]

Hello,

yesterday i put one of the reaction vessels with the stuff inside in a microwave, only for 1 minute but the little temperature enancement from 20 to 50°C was enough to dessolve the long, thin, colourless cristalls i've describe before but the white cornish stuff on the bottom of the glass stayed in it.

I am in fear that some metal-salts stay in the gold sollution or they disturb the whole process.

I think i should wash, or better heat the sludge with HCL than with a thin NaOH sollution and than with HNO3 (after the dissolving of all, or better the most base metals in AP) to remove all metals and remaining salts...than I process the remaining gold with my other "normal" gold foils from Ap-etched boards.

Greetings, Frank!

 

[solar_plasma]

If it were my tin sludge, I would not play with it, but filter off, incinerate and leach base metals with HCl. That would be the Hoke way, which is the way, that will never fail even if you don't know much about the chemistry.

Göran's pragmatic advice would work aswell, of course, but he knows what he's doing.

I think i should wash, or better heat the sludge with HCL than with a thin NaOH sollution and than with HNO3 (after the dissolving of all, or better the most base metals in AP) to remove all metals and remaining salts...than I process the remaining gold with my other "normal" gold foils from Ap-etched boards.

This my friend makes no sense at all. I will not spent time on listing the mistakes. Just stick to proven methods. The time will come, when you can go a little off-road sometimes.