What do you make of this?

[Akragon]

 

[Akragon]

View attachment 54565View attachment 54566View attachment 54567View attachment 54568

 

[canedane]

Gold platet stainless stell. Keep collect that sort of platet scrap.
Henrik

 

[Akragon]

so, i found this piece... tried to break it, twist it... cut it... and as you can see it broke my clippers
Drown it in HCL... and it came out like the second pic... and left a yellow HCL, which is the last pic.

Im thinking 6k gold maybe?

 

[stella polaris]

Wrong tool for the job. Seems you put on too much power on a little tool. Have a large, old one laying around for testing. Cheapest in the long run.

 

[Akragon]

Gold platet stainless stell. Keep collect that sort of platet scrap.
Henrik

Gp steel eh...

Never even thought of that... wouldn't it chip or even break?

what is the yellow in my HCL?

 

[Akragon]

the material is barely magnetic
Wouldn't steel be very?

 

[stella polaris]

There are both magnetic and non magnetic steel. Same for stainless.

 

[Billy b]

Sacrifice a small amount to the Dremel Gods and test past any potential plating.

 

[silversaddle1]

The very first step should always grind and test for base metals, and try to discover type.

 

[Billy b]

Most stainless steel is non magnetic.

 

[Billy b]

If it's a nickel or zinc alloy it could be semi magnetic. I think the broken side cutters were not up to the task.

 

[Billy b]

The greenish/yellow in the HCL is a puzzler. Some sort of surface contaminant would be my first guess. HCL normally wont dissolve precious metals. If the gold alloy has some copper in it it may be CuCl2, copper chloride.

 

[Martijn]

Iron chloride is yellow just like gold chloride.
Stainless disdolves in hot HCl

 

[Yggdrasil]

View attachment 54568

As Martijn said, Iron Chloride is yellow but with a greenish tint just like you see here

 

[Akragon]

Iron chloride is yellow just like gold chloride.
Stainless disdolves in hot

Iron chloride is yellow just like gold chloride.
Stainless disdolves in hot HCl

I used room temp HCL.... but it has a hole in it where perhaps whatever plating couldn't reach?

 

[Martijn]

Yes, bracelets could have a part like a bushing, spring or pin in it, or a layer of in between plating that dissolved partially in the HCl, like nickel.
Nickel Underplate for Gold Plating Stainless Steel

Do you have a lot of these to process? Is the underlaying material giving you problems getting the gold off?

Gp steel eh...

Never even thought of that... wouldn't it chip or even break?

No, stainless steels are generally a lot softer than steel. It stays pretty for longer, but is a pain to work with.
One burr in between a bolt and nut, and you'll never get them apart again.
Like canadane said; stock those type of parts until you have enough to process or sell on e-bay.

 

[Akragon]

Yes, bracelets could have a part like a bushing, spring or pin in it, or a layer of in between plating that dissolved partially in the HCl, like nickel.
Nickel Underplate for Gold Plating Stainless Steel

Do you have a lot of these to process? Is the underlaying material giving you problems getting the gold off?

No, stainless steels are generally a lot softer than steel. It stays pretty for longer, but is a pain to work with.
One burr in between a bolt and nut, and you'll never get them apart again.
Like canadane said; stock those type of parts until you have enough to process or sell on e-bay.

all of the material is in the OP... this is one piece of it... no pins

And im not actually trying to disolve or capture gold.. just removing the material around or In it

 

[Akragon]

Sacrifice a small amount to the Dremel Gods and test past any potential plating.

i got a Dremel for Xmas

 

[Martijn]

all of the material is in the OP... this is one piece of it... no pins

And im not actually trying to disolve or capture gold.. just removing the material around or In it

So there were no hinge pins used in that watch band? And there is/was no ferrous metal bushing in the hole to protect against wear? Strange.

What is your goal then? Recovery of gold or cleaning to re-plate it?