A Cautinary Tale

Just before joining this site I came across this article:
https://www.cdc.gov/mmwr/preview/mmwrhtml/mm6449a4.htm

After joining I was told to be very cautious and given much info on smelting/careful scrap recovery.
Which I am greatly thankful for.

As you can read for yourself in the link above, that man was very cautious (using breathing masks, even changing the filters regularly) and he still got messed up.
I've been told by someone that recovers gold with mercury that their chemistry set exploded on them one day.

Be very cautious, do a world of research, ask people that are more experienced with you about your set up and safety routine/equipment before you have your first use. Proceed with baby steps, work your way up from small quntities and minature setups.

Some of the precious metals you recover may be sneakily alloyed with dangerous elements.
I just learned that some large Silver switch contacts I recovered have Cadmium - not a nice thing to be licking off your fingers.
Stay safe out there guys.

Cheers

someone once said that you need to understand college level chemistry before you even start researching refining ewaste.

I know this is going to sound really bad but it's real hard for me to feel sorry for someone who was smelting gold using mercury on his f*****g kitchen stove.

I have no interest in refining or even depopulating circuit boards. Remove the boards, put them in a box and sell them as is.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by MattInTheHat

someone once said that you need to understand college level chemistry before you even start researching refining ewaste.

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That's probably true but there's a lot of people attempting to do this after watching a few youtube videos.

I have college level chemistry background, and several years industry experience working with all those chemicals, and I would NEVER consider refining any of this stuff myself! Load the boards in Gaylord boxes and ship them off. Faster and MUCH more profitable and not dangerous.