Scrap plastic as Blasting Media worth more than copper

Originally Posted by alloy2

I have been doing some research on water soluble abrasives, my thoughts on this are once the precious metals for example gold or silver has been worn away from the substrate the used abrasive along with the precious metals could be dissolved in water the metals could be filtered out in a filter.

Print
50 lb Sodium Bicarbonate Blasting Media from Princess Auto our Canadian equivalent to Harbour Freight is only $59.99

I read this and put it together with your comments on the keyboard Mylar with silver discussion on another thread. Without doing any testing my imagination brings me to what I believe are similar conclusions.



Using mechanical means to separate the silver from the mylar can end up with the silver being transferred to other unwanted surfaces. Using a water soluble material delivered by water pressure seems to be a possible great answer. Of course I am certain other parts of the process have to be adjusted.

Rather than chopping the mylar into small bits it could be left whole and each sheet blasted quickly(perhaps).

I am interested in how you might envision a process to remove perhaps solder traces so components could be easily removed and processed separately.

One of the main benefits I imagine in using water/media blasting is the control of fumes into the air.

Thanks for a great subject. Mike