Anyone using this little vacuum pump on their filtering flask? Is there a better budget-minded option out there?

https://preview.redd.it/ahgkaqq9izfe1.png?width=780&format=png&auto=webp&s=1e7c93949a4f0d375ae79b1ea2f31af141a14b97

Silver/Gold refining

1:1:1 borax, soda ash, silica sand + 50g lead

I’m still getting metal spheres in my slag. And I’m not experienced enough to know how to fix this issue.

Which do YOU use and why? Links are appreciated :)

For PGM ore concentrates in specific

EDIT: Thanks everyone I had never even thought of looking at wally world website. reddit people kick arse!!

Old retired Veteran here on a budget. Where do you get your Nitric Acid from may I ask? I was looking at GoldandsilvertestingDOTcom but their prices/shipping seems to good to be true.

Preface: I'm a lurker of this sub. I know very little about chemistry but I have been reading through Hoke's book. I like the idea of learning how to refine with acids but I have no way to do it safely so I won't be doing any testing with that any time soon.

I'm an electronics guy, I have a growing stash of gold plated pins from milspec connectors and various other ewaste. Just before Christmas I put one of the pins in a mixture of vinegar and salt. Nothing happened for about a month, but now I see that the pin has started to rust away and the flakes of plating are just floating around in the solution.

Given a lack of time requirements, couldn't I process a whole batch of pins this way? It would take a lot of time, but that's much easier to deal with than acid fumes.

Also what would be the best way to recover the flakes? I'm guessing pouring the solution through a filter would be the most straightforward?

What should I be aware of safety-wise when breaking down a Subwoofer for whatever elements may be inside? Besides wearing a mask and safety glasses, are there any electronics that are just too dangerous for an amateur to get into? I want to play the long game as a hobbyist and see how much gold, copper, and other metals I can get out of my old electronics.

I have a couple liters of 69% Nitric that I need someone to take off my hands. I'm moving across country and I don't want to transport it.

Free! But you gotta come get it!

You can also take my ghetto DIY fume hood and beakers if you'd like.

Only restriction is it has to be gone before Thursday.

So I went to the store to purchase some Muriatic for some gold pins I've been collecting... The OLD brand I used to get 3 years ago from my local hardware store would be fuming (I can't remember the brand from back then), But TODAY I picked up a brand called "Klean Green," Brought it home, opened it up, and realized it wasn't fuming....So I stuck a piece of aluminum foil in it to test it out, and there was absolutely zero reaction whatsoever... When the old stuff I use to get, would violently and rapidly dissolve a piece of aluminum foil in a matter of minutes.

SO my question is, What is the BEST brand of muriatic I can get maybe online that's clear (free of impurities), and fuming? I've been to all the hardware stores and NONE of them sell the old fuming stuff I used to get anymore. Anyways, any suggestions are very much appreciated!

Fist off I did not research this before attempting I have sincebit cant find anything reallyon my situation. I know stupid move but onto the situation. I had some 14k gold jewlery and got the idea to try and disolve it so it could be refined, well i didnt have any avid but i did know that when nickle plating that the metal is disolved in the solution so i tried that with the 14k as both anode and cathodeand and it worked great even if there were some chunks. Now am i able to still recover this gold by using AR? What steps if not. I am very sure it can stoll be recovered

I’ve got several kilos of Silver Nitrate, and I’ve been using the copper bar method with a “silver plated copper bar” to precipitate it out. At this point, I’ve already precipitated 1.2kg of silver and melted it into round ingots.

I’ve been running a second batch only to now realize what I thought was silver plating was actually Zinc. In the first batch, when the silver in the nitrate finished precipitating, a little copper would then precipitate out due to the dissolving zinc. I’d remedy this by removing the bar and adding a little more silver nitrate. I’ve been washing my current precipitate with peroxyacetic acid and it keeps turning deep blue between DI water washes as it removes copper dust from my sludge. I’m going to continue this until it remains clear.

So now I’m left wondering how pure my batch one ingots are. Google has gone to absolute crap with useless AI suggestions and shopping results, (No Google, I’m NOT buying a $17,000 XRF gun), so let me ask for:

1. Reasonable way to get 1kg of silver tested for purity, without have to redissolve it into the Nitrate. Can anyone recommend me a company?

2. If the ingots are impure, I’d like to avoid producing a bunch of NO2 to redissolve them to remove the copper. Will a silver cell do that?

3. Instructions for a reliable DIY Silver Cell. I’m working with lab grade Silver Nitrate, so other impurities aren’t an issue, I just need to reduce it to a metallic form.

Hello metal refining community,

this might sound a bit strange but I hope I can find someone here:

I’m looking to buy residual metal nuggets from a silver cell operation, that have interesting colorations like in the screenshot I took from a Sreetips video.

Explanation: I‘m an artist based in Berlin and currently working on sculptures that have elements from 999 silver. Now I basically want to work with materials that once contained silver - as the counter part so to speak.

Maybe someone here 'only' operates a silver cell and has no use for the left over metal pallets in their filter. (Unfortunately I don’t have the time/ capacity to start my own silver cell operation and therefore try to source this from somewhere.)

If this makes sense to you, please get in touch with me to discuss details like compensation and shipping.

Thanks!

I am trying to find someone that is semi local I can have refine a bit of scrap gold I have. I don't want to sell it for melt value, I ideally want to have it all refined but cannot find any local refiners online who work with individuals from the public. Again i dont want the cash value buyout that most online refiners seem to offer and Im not really wanting to invest in the equipment to refine it myself just yet as the total weight of the refined gold would be just shy of a half ozt which is just enough to be nervous to ruin 😬 looking in the Sacramento area. Please delete if this is not allowed thanks for any help!

Right, I know that it’s not exactly precious metals, but I’m looking for advice, and this is about the most suitable place I can find to ask. I have about 40kg of hard lead, it has a good amount of antimony in the mix, I want soft (pure) lead which is easier to pour into a mould. Is there an easy solution to remove the antimony from the alloy or is there another metal I can add to improve the pourability of the metal. Thanks for any advice you can give.