What I did do later, and its seems a lot safer & simpler. But it takes months to happen.....
It takes the Copper & Brass pins away from the Gold, rather than trying to get the Gold off the pins. So the golds still in its plated state & form & shape & carat. Only its broken up a lot & will also be a brown powder as well as a gold flake looking Gold.
It is NOT refining gold. It will not be a higer carat than it started at & if melted, will probably be lower is its not going to get all the contaminents or plastic or carbon out.
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Though I'm going to make a disclaimer just because I have found out from lots of experience..... That just because I can & have done it, doesn't make it safe for anyone else to do it, or even attempt to do it.
In fact I have seen lots of people fail spectacularly at what I have done, which probably means I hang out with ****heads... '
'Cous they can't even do what you guys here can do daily. Thats a complement for all you SMF members.
This is also what I have done, I'm NOT telling you to do this. I wear all the safety gear.
Again. Do NOT Do this. Or even attempt doing it.
---- example of failure
I went tramping when I was 13, on a two week trek & I carried all of my own food & gear etc. Big deal, atlas shrugs, so do I.
(just a word about 'tramping', tramping is when you go into the bush & tramp it, ie stand on the bush a tramp it down & make your Own track. In remote places where no ones ever walked before.
'Trecking', or 'bush walking' is when you have had a whole bunch of people go out & tame the area & make a flat track that someone in a bloody 4WD wheelchair could travel on.
Then you walk on that. Sorta like a walk in the park... Which it is)
So years later I'm talking with someone who is 35+ & a experienced tramper & he asks me about tramping & I mention my tramp & he thinks him & a bunch of others may do it.
Well if a 13 yr old kid can.....
I find out a lot later. They did try it, 3 days later they use their emergency ph to call up a private helecopter & pay good $$$$ to get them out.
Because, as soon as the absolutley flat track stopped, they relised they were not cut out to do what I could, as a 13 yr old....After their little 3 day wussy nature walk............boo hoo.
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Ok, back again.
My bench is rib height, that way I can't spill stuff onto chest area or above. Its in bright sunlight so I can see & theres plenty of fresh air & no breezes.
I put the cleaned pins, about a cups worth (washed in warm/hot HCL to remove the solder & washed again in water) in a glass jar. The jars a litre jar. Like a mason jar (yes yes a mason jar, sorry ^)
Added some HCL, about 5mm deep in the jar. I used the green stuff left over from the first, ah, learning curve.
New HCL would work.
Mixed it a bit to get the pins wet & I let it sit somewhere safe from disturbances (I live alone) & it will slowly corrode the pins. It took a while to start off.
Once its started it gives the HCL acid something to Bite or soak into. That will help keep the HCL up in the air & on the exposed pins.
The corrosion is like the rust on iron, except its light blue/light green/white, crumbles easyer & it happens only above the HCL acid level, like in the air only.
The wet HCL under the corrosion turns green/black if it wasn't allready like that (mine was green/black after the first, ah, chance)
It will dissolve the corrosion into the liquid if you stirr it in.
Once its started corroding I understood whats happening.
So, once its started, I gave it a little stir each day or two to get the pins wet again.
Some of the corrosion will be dissolved & once the pins were wet, I poured off the left over dark HCL acid into a taller glass jar.
That soon seperated out & the corrosion dropped to the bottom. I poured off the top green/black HCL acid layer back into the jar & got the pins wetter again..
I did that each day or two & added more HCL acid to the pins as it was needed to dissolve the corrosion.
For some reason, no matter how much HCL I poured off the tall corrosion jar, there would be more on top the next day. Reaction of some sort I guess.
So, weeks later the volume of the pins has dropped by a lot. Theres a lot more of the corrosion in the tall glass jar. I can see the loose flecks of gold in it & also on the pins.
Weeks later after doing all this, there was almost no pins in the first jar & a lot of the corrosion in the tall jar.
I poured all the corrosion into a bigger jar & added some more of the green/black HCL acid & stirred it a little at the same time.
It didn't take much acid to dissolve all of the corrosion.
Once the corrosion was dissolved, the Gold & the plastic & the other rubbish, like carbon etc, dropped quickly to the bottom of the jar.
I used a tapered measuring jar, but any tall jars good.
A day later I could see the thick layer of Gold flake at the bottom & another new layer of brown Gold dust & lighter rubbish on top of it.
I poured off the acid & added water & let it seperate out & then poured it off. Did that a few times. Dried it.
Now I have a mush of Gold flake, plastic, oxides, carbon & other unnamed stuff in the bottom of a jar.
This is not refined Gold. I didn't weight it before or after & I have no more acid left or a way to melt the Gold.
I live alone, so theres no one to move things when I'm not there or not. Theres no one to interupt me as I work & theres no one to ask annoying questions either.
In fact, I never have told anyone of what I do here or there. Its none of their business.
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