Maximizing on your scrap catylitic converters

There are many many guys on the hunt for cats, most are middle men, they send out what they have purchased to another fly in the ointment who de-cans them then mills the comb and bead into powder then has an assay done before shipping this out a refiner who handles this type of material.

As far as I'm concerned way to many people at the party, you can do all this work yourself and cut the others out of some profit that is rightfully your.

There may even be some nickel alloy scrap from the wire mesh wrapped around the biscuit and the can itself. When I have some free time I plan on doing a nitric acid test to confirm my thoughts.

I de can, and mill the comb we could then go for an assay and ship, but I have taken this one step further and that is to reclaim some of the precious metals myself.

The large flask below is Palladium which has been leached from the milled comb using nitric acid., now if your interested in learning more i will suggest a couple of books that have been digitized that are floating around on the net.

Ammens refining precious metals, may be a bit more difficult to get as it is still copyright protected, the author recently passed away the book would still belong to his estate.

Hokes refining precious metals wastes is much easier to obtain, the copyright run out a long time ago.

My personal preference is Ammens book. The books will inform you how to precipitate the platinum group metals from a leach then calcine the precipitate into sponge then into a metal button.

I;m not suggesting that you take this as far as I have you can ship your milled powder after an assay, sure the refinery will offer an assay but then who gets first count.

They could dilute your material with low grade bringing the assay down hence the value to you returned. Always get an independent assay.

I built my own ball mill to reduce the comb and bead into powder. my yard is littered with cats, under the bench are buckets of milled stuff waiting for winter when I'm able to work inside my shop.

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Regards
Gustavus

Wow. Gustavus, I have to say, you are a very industrious scrapper! You've given us a lot of info to work with. Personally, I just don't want to deal with any kind of acids/poisons in my garage, I'm afraid I'll blow something up and then where would my kids live? lol.

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Originally Posted by newattitude

Wow. Gustavus, I have to say, you are a very industrious scrapper! You've given us a lot of info to work with. Personally, I just don't want to deal with any kind of acids/poisons in my garage, I'm afraid I'll blow something up and then where would my kids live? lol.

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No need to have acids.

Take the catalytic converters to the powder stage, homogenize the powder, take a sample for an independent assay then compare your assay to the buyers, after comparing notes if your satisfied - ship.

Regards
Gustavus

What kind of money do you average per cat?How many cats do you do at once?I see them talking about them on the Gold Refining Forum but no $$$$ amount.I was planning on shipping mine out to the refiner but I need 1000 lbs. to run a batch....Joe

I feel just like I did when easy first came aboard....I didn't know a motherboard from a checkerboard so it all sounded Greek. Now we have Gus to introduce us to some new "Greek" !! Thanks Gus. Sounds interesting...as long as we can keep attitude and her kids safe !!!

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Originally Posted by Joethemillguy

What kind of money do you average per cat?How many cats do you do at once?I see them talking about them on the Gold Refining Forum but no $$$$ amount.I was planning on shipping mine out to the refiner but I need 1000 lbs. to run a batch....Joe

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Cant answer your question without having an assay done on both cats.

For example you have two identical cats from the same year cars and approximate miles the same, highway / city car had regular maintenance while the city car did not and the engine was running lean, city driver always doing rabbit starts.

Ok the mixed mileage city highway car was not maintained the engine running lean, rabbit starts the catalytic converter would deteriorate much quicker than the well maintained highway / city car, it is obvious that both cats are not of the same value due to precious metals loss. The city car's cat is near junk with no value.

This part really bothers me that some dumb schmuck will pay the same for both converters not knowing how much of the precious metals remain inside just because he stuck a stick in the can checking to see if the biscuit was intact. You know though the buyer is going to make up for this loss and the seller is going to pay through his ignorance.

I have a deal from the scrap yard where I open them up then pay by the pound, it's a deal that works for both of us, he rips the cats out using the excavator damaging the biscuits inside the canister but it saves him valuable time, and I'm satisfied paying by the pound for damaged cats, because I'm going to mill them into powder anyhow.

Also another yard sells me comb and bead that they get from muffler shops, I hear you asking how does this come to be. Well the farmers are allowed to burn marked fuel the dye in the fuel renders the catalytic inoperable. I've heard rumors that the cats are being cut open while still on the vehicle the comb is removed with the canister being re-sealed.

Then I get a fair amount of cats from the scrap cars i pick up.

Regards
Gustavus

Well all of that is to hard to do and mess with.If you want to get like the big boys then buy like them and sale directly to the mill yourself.But you have to have atleast 500 converters or so to do it.Also it is 1 month return on your money also.

The question to me is, is it worth the time and effort to process the cat's like this? Since you do it, I'm guessing it is worth it. However, if it's not significantly more profitable, I might just want to turn the inventory and spend time and money getting more to turn. I have brought this up to my business partner and he poo-poos the idea. But, I'm always thinking about processing these things and I need to settle on an answer for my own peace of mind. So, if possible, on average how much more do you make (as a percentage is fine) by processing the cat's versus selling them as-is?

Thanks!

I dont agree with smashing them to powder it only brings $10-$15 pound where as intact ceramic bricks bring $25 pound. Im still in the process of looking for a refiner that pays out fairly, the ones ive talked to and sent samples too all are charging 50% or better for there services. So ive been selling mine off directly to home buyers / refiners.

my 18+ pound brick:
Scrap Catalytic Converter Platinum Palladium Rhodium Honeycomb 18 Pounds | eBay