My Gold and Silver Refining workshop.

[jonrms]

My Workshop is nearly finished!!!! yes that's right, I have more than enough safety gear and new kit that makes me very happy.

I am about to be ordering a NEW furnace thanks to the help of BYB who pointed me in a direction I would not have looked.

I am still in need of a few more things to make my new venture different. I am looking at custom molds, but so far the ones I were pointed to were VERY expensive for what I wanted. Although I guess I know they are there.

I have a new Chemical storage facility, which is vented for safety. And I can continue with my wood working and restoration of my motorcycle and of course my other hobbies. IE RC aircrafts and cars etc.

But now despite having all the chemicals I need. I find myself looking and realising that Nitric Acid is off the list. I am yet to determine a solution or chemical method to dissolve Silver without. I don't know what to do with my left over Silver containers which have been in another storage awaiting the treatment. And all the Silver scrap I have.

So if anyone has any ideas. BESIDES selling it. I would be interested to know. Thank you all again. Jon.

[JunkBond]

We need pictures! ?

[jonrms]

17 minutes ago, JunkBond said:

We need pictures! ?

Not yet!!! I still have my sparky coming back to do some more wiring for my fumehood. Also I have my friend who is a mechanic running airlines around the workshop.  And I still need to sort the tempature control out. It might be a full insulation job. 

[jonrms]

I am preying it will be very soon because I have only made 2 quick things in the mist of chasos.... but I am sure you will see these soon

[Pete]

What is the issue with nitric acid ?
When I was a kid I had bottles of the stuff ( perhaps 500mL ) in my home chemistry set including the concentrated fuming acid in a ground-glass stoppered brown bottle. At school we had litres of concentrated nitric acid and discovered the reaction when we emptied a large quantity down the classroom sinks which had just been fitted with new copper pipes - who would think copper drain pipes in a chemistry lab was a good idea ?

Hydrochloric acid will dissolve silver but only nitric acid will provide a water soluble salt which is what I assume you want.

Oops - sorry for this error - must be the heat of summer !!

[augur]

 

5 minutes ago, Pete said:

What is the issue with nitric acid ?

Nitric acid has (amongst many other useful uses) its purposes in synthesising explosives, which is presumably the reason it got banned. 

[sixgun]

1 hour ago, jonrms said:

I am preying it will be very soon because I have only made 2 quick things in the mist of chasos.... but I am sure you will see these soon

Those who pray and preyed upon -

[xthomasx]

38 minutes ago, Pete said:

[...] At school we had litres of concentrated nitric acid and discovered the reaction when we emptied a large quantity down the classroom sinks which had just been fitted with new copper pipes - who would think copper drain pipes in a chemistry lab was a good idea ?

 

40 minutes ago, Pete said:

Hydrochloric acid will dissolve silver [...]

No, it doesn't. To the contrary, you can remove patina using hydrochloric acid. But who would want this, unless it is not homogenous.

[jonrms]

Yes Nitric acid is now under licence for buisness.  I am not a buisness and do this as a hobby. 

I know Sulfuric acid will disolve silver as well. 

I want to get it to a state of Silver Chloride and then put it under a UV light. 

Gold is not a issue as it's easier to work with. But I have at least 2 10L buckets to refine of silver from last year. 

The Government's have zero clue, they class things as dangerous when In fact if you know how to use chemicals as a weapon than you will know it's VERY EASY to still make simple things, but moving to firearms which I find funny they banned hand guns, but then allowed long barrel pistols. Under section 1 you can own like me a semi automatic shotgun that can chamber more than 3 shots, below that is a section 2.   But that means I could buy a semi automatic AK47 with a 50/ 100 round drum and under my licence restrictions I could have slugs. Really??? Why??? I didn't buy one, I owned a i pump action with 8 shots. 

Sorry rant over, it just cracks me up.

I am using Potassium Nitrate and HCL ( Poor man's aqua Regia) for gold and silver. Tes ting with a pinch of salt before dropping the gold. 

[Goldhooked]

What are you processing for the precious metals?  I regularly get hold of lots of old PCs and laptops.  Some working components I sell on but hold on to things like old motherboards, memory sticks, CPUs etc.  Not sure whether to keep stacking them for a project later on or sell them to someone who can process them.

[jonrms]

10 minutes ago, Goldhooked said:

What are you processing for the precious metals?  I regularly get hold of lots of old PCs and laptops.  Some working components I sell on but hold on to things like old motherboards, memory sticks, CPUs etc.  Not sure whether to keep stacking them for a project later on or sell them to someone who can process them.

I have many, It's quite complex and I feel OCD in my methods. 

I disassemble say a pc. I strip the parts into categories such as hard drives cables pcbs etc. I then break them down further, removing all cpu  chips any ML chips etc wires are stripped put in a box ie Cooper,  alloy from heat sinks etc are separated and then I deal with the pins and boards. I take the ram fingers and bag them. I later disassemble the Hard drives. 

Very Labour intensive but it's a hobby for me. I have 2 sheds full of computers all separated. Just waiting to start refining again. 

[Goldhooked]

22 hours ago, jonrms said:

I have many, It's quite complex and I feel OCD in my methods. 

I disassemble say a pc. I strip the parts into categories such as hard drives cables pcbs etc. I then break them down further, removing all cpu  chips any ML chips etc wires are stripped put in a box ie Cooper,  alloy from heat sinks etc are separated and then I deal with the pins and boards. I take the ram fingers and bag them. I later disassemble the Hard drives. 

Very Labour intensive but it's a hobby for me. I have 2 sheds full of computers all separated. Just waiting to start refining again. 

I’ve done a bit of that.  I have a fair bit of copper and almost a large wheely bin full of aluminium (mostly heat sinks).  I started pulling gold pins, MLCCs and the little crystal diode things but found it too time consuming alongside running a full time business.  For the time being I sell on what I can and make more money that way than the value in metals I could get out of them.  I only tend to hang on to things that nobody wants to buy.

I can certainly see it becoming a hobby later on in life when I have more time.  I do find it very satisfying breaking everything down.

I take it you have seen eWaste Ben from Australia on YouTube?

[Goldhooked]

How are you getting on @jonrms?  Have you started refining?

[jonrms]

I havnt quite yet but am soo close. I had a major refurbishing going on. But I have everything ready to go. 

All set up for it now. 

[Goldhooked]

Sounds good.  Would be great to hear more when you get started.

[jonrms]

I will keep you posted. When I do my pours before they head up to Edinburgh Assay Office.  I will be doing a video of that.

[mrbearuk]

Nitric acid is what I'm after too,  I got sulfuric acid here which I could make into nitric but it not very cost effective.

Going back to baning nitric acid, if anyone wanted to make it for explosives you could just get old car batteries, boil the electrolyte to get rid of the water and you left with sulfuric acid which can be made into nitric. 

[TheBeast]

Here in The Netherlands you can buy it in some online stores. I could buy it for you and send it to you. 

https://www.deoplosmiddelspecialist.nl/kopen/Salpeterzuur-1L-53

If this is What you’re looking for?

 

/// sorry only for the industry ///

[mrbearuk]

Thanks but I better not, If customs found it I'd be in the nick. lol

Thanks anyway.

[jonrms]

Agreed, thanks but I prefer to stay on the lawful side of things. 

 

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[jonrms]

Interesting.  Thanks for sharing.  But I don't buy from companies with adverts every click.