I just love your shows, when I was younger say in my teens I lived in the country I was actually looking arrowheads on the dirt roads. Every time they graded the roads I would go walking there were so many different coins and very little arrowheads. So I started collecting coins and I found a few arrowheads to. Now I don’t walk the roads but my grandson does and I collected many so I gave it all to him. I enjoyed it very much. I even found rings necklaces bracelets. I would melt it down and made a bracelet I still have. I enjoyed your show today thank you. I have learned a lot from you. Thank you ❤️🙏🤗
This is intensely fascinating. I also applaud you for showing your mistakes and then doing a deep dive into the mistake to impress upon its importance. That takes a special type of person and typically, a great teacher. A person who is not concerned with humility, but with a passion for the information. Thank you for another great video. Very happy I stumbled upon your channel and subscribed.
Extremely educational and very well explained. Thank you again for your efforts. Now I know why the batch of GF I did last year had such an abysmal yield. Hopefully everything I lost is still sitting in the bottom of my stock pot. :)
I watch other scrappers because I might learn something but you are the only refiner I watch, I do not watch any others for fear of learning wrong. You are the best.
Ill tell you street i too can admit when I am wrong. I can appreciate the fact you can admit your shortcomings as my dear old mother tells me good on you. Thank you brother for the time you put into your videos.
Amazing! Thank you so much for the video. I happen to have a bunch of 1950s watch bands that are gold-filled, someone told me that if I were to torched them, together with a mixture of 18k and 14kt gold, I may get 10kt gold. I decided to Google the question and run across your video. I can't thank you enough as I was about to mix solid gold with base metal with a little layer of gold. I got a little suspicious of the guy that instructed me, and I was right.
Another Fantastic Episode!!! It is good to see the good, the bad, and the meh... :D I find this to be GOLD!! Lol... I can't wait to see your next episodes!! Cheers!!
I never get old watching you explain the process step by step. For future if you could also add in the locations of where you get your chemical supplies. Thanks.
Nitric and sulfuric acids are available from science/chemistry retailers such as sigma-aldrich. You can also purchase just about anything you'll need on ebay. Hydrogen peroxide is available in 3 and sometimes 6% concentrations at pharmacies. Hydrochloric acid is available at common hardware stores. The biggest roadblock will be regulations in whatever country you live in. Some nations don't allow just anyone to purchase high concentration acids.
Hello Sreetips, What are the chances you could include the clock in the background its good reference for us to see the amount of time that goes into this refining process. I always enjoy watching your videos great job!
@@sreetips Hello sir I have gold filled items With 25-30 microns as gold filled thickness I want to know how I can refine gold from this Please all the process step by step Thank you
About to process 40 grams of high-quality G.F.. I came to see if I could find some new and better tips (I found a couple). I so envy your lab, your buchner funnel, and your fume hood, just awesome. I can't replicate your process with just my beakers, coffee filters, gravity funnels I took from my wife 😊, "Poormans AR", or AP, coffee cup plug in warmer, coffee maker, and outside ventilation only. I usually use the AP method, than the foils in Poormans AR. But I want a faster way. I have access to good Nitric online, but at almost $50 a quart, I prefer Poornans AR. I think I have to stick with the AP method, but now I incinerate everything first (just till glowing), and than the foils again later, you taught me that. I hate having to store the AP though, as I can't neutralize it like I can AR. It's a process I wanted to avoid, but without buying Nitric, it's my only options I think. I was gonna give them a hot bath in just Hcl, but I don't see the acid getting below the gold and into the base metals, and I'm fairly sure Hcl alone would take months to have any any significant impact on the base metals (if it has an impact at all which i doubt). Long story short, I shouldn't be refining. I'd make far more money selling my G.F. and karat gold scraps. My wife is a huge jewelry collector sitting on maybe 8-10 ozt of good gold jewelry from 10k to 18k, she gives me the "junk" she gets in her online buys, thrift store finds, yard sales, or local auctions. And while I know I'm making almost nothing or taking a loss, I enjoy recovery and refining a lot. Been a long time since I did any batches (health issues), but I'm eager to do more very soon. My metals in the beaker just waiting for me and new supplies still sealed shut. But I'm an eager one. Thank you for your videos SREETIPS, you give me goals to set for myself. ***note to others*** You can end your life, the life of your family, your pets life, your interior pipes, and electronics just from the fumes! Nobody should rush into this without safety as goal #1. Masks will NOT filter out noxious gas! Gloves, eye protection, ventilation, mask just cause you don't know 100% what fumes you'll be near. Safety, safety, safety! This gas will instantly burn your lungs and turn them to mush! I have a lung issue, but has zero to do with recovery or refining. I'm still respecting the acid for the danger it can be. This is NOT a good way to make money, it's costly, takes time, and a material source. A gold ring is always worth more than a gold button you made! This hobby should be studied until you understand the nuances of each process you attempt! Only when very confident you understand the how's, the why's, and the dangers, you should than try if you're confident. All that said, I'll be selling some material or buttons on eBay within a few weeks or months! I'm still waiting for nature to help me out with some warmer days. Incinerate, incinerate, incinerate! Good luck all, STAY SAFE!!! 🙏 🙏
I mean, don't be too hard on yourself. you only do it 2 MAYBE 3 times a year.... Unless you have it written down and taped somewhere to remember every single scarce time, it's going to happen ^^ You are only human after all.
Nicely done, as always ! If incineration improves purity, as you have shown very clearly, it follows that the impurities must be organics, or organometallics. They generally fall apart at high temperatures. As it was jewelry, it would be fascinating to know what slime humans produce that survives contact with aqua regia, maybe reacts with gold, gets heated to 1000C+ and even makes it as far as the solid gold button. Interesting. Very.
The difference between the buttons is striking. Thing is, Incineration can only remove certain materials. Organics from skin were the first to come to mind. Zinc oxides will also go away with incineration.It would be great to know Why incineration works, not just that it does work.
Hey Sreetips, first off, love the videos, very informative. Thank you for doing them. Secondly, where did you get the nice acid dispensers? I can't find them on Amazon or Ebay ...
I did this today to an old pocket watch. I really didn't think I'd get a measurable amount of gold, but wanted to run through the process. And heck, I ended up with a 0.9g BB size button! Enough to pay for the acid. Lol I wish this video came out yesterday, I didnt incinerate the foils either... why is that important Sreetips?
@@JeffreyCVogt-ch9yf I've done that a few times! I was so excited and wanting to know, so I pause the video and go to the comments!! I felt kind of foolish! Thought I'd share, to let you know that you are NOT alone!! Have a GREAT Day!!
I’m curious of a good alternative for nitric acid to use on gold filled material? Just for the removal of the base metals. I can get ahold of nitric, but just not large quantities yet. I’ll only be using concentrated nitric for aqua regia.
Hey sreetips I have a question. I tried melting about an ounce of mud gold I did two water rinses and a hydrochloric and then two more water rinses but I did it in the jar not through a filter when I tried to melt it it was really hard and I thought I could smell some acid. Also the gold made a white crust before melting and I had to pour off what looked like excess borax before I could get it to melt. I got it all melted but it looks kind of ugly like there is still some borax in or on it maybe. Do I have to redefine or should I just remelt in a new melt dish,.
Would there be any advantage to just melting all karat types into one lump, cupel it with lead, THEN refine further with less/minimal acid usage by inquartation to separate and recover the silver that’s left behind in cupeling?
That sound like a great experiment. You should make a video of this and let us know your results. It may sound good and look good on paper. But I think that you'll find that for every new advantage you find in refining, a whole new group of disadvantages crop up. But you may be on to something. I don't like working with lead. Hoke says that it's been reported that lead, melted in the same room with gold, can contaminate the fine gold and make it crumble. All it takes is a tiny trace of lead in your gold to ruin it's malliability and ductility. That's why I add sulfuric acid during each refining, whether it needs it or not. To get the lead out.
Hi sreetips Here in the U.K. I get a lot of these gold filled bangles, however the main difference is they are 1/5th 9ct gold as opposed to the 1/20 14k you seem to get in USA. What could I expect the yield to be for 500 grams of 1/5th 9ct bangles (9ct is 0.375 purity) ? Thanks
Daniel 1/5 equals 0.2 and 9k equals 9/24 equals 0.375 so multiply 0.2 times 0.375 times 500g equals 37.5g of pure gold, but probably a little less due to some of the gold getting rubbed off over the years as the bangles are worn by the owner.
Hello sreetips, I saw some gold bars that had been machined to be perfectly sized. I was wondering if you might try this and how hard is it to capture the gold millings
I'm wondering something about what you said earlier not wanting to alloy the gold with the brass when you initially burned it to get off the oils and other contaminants and I'm wondering how alloying it with the gold by melting it early on would be very different from enquarting it like you typically do with silver because I've heard you can do it with copper which is 2/3 copper roughly depending on the brass? Can you please help make sense of that for me?
This just isn’t true. At the urging of viewers, I’ve tried listing them separately. And they just sat there with no buyers. At least I can generate some revenue by doing a recovery and refining video.
@@sreetips I saw where that exact one sold on etsy for $75. Sold. I'm mean it's your property to use how you like. I'm not running you down or anything. But we non youtubers should check for added value items. If the added value for you is the video then that's cool. :) keep on with the excellent content!
Hey Streetips, since you pulled out a steel spring after the nitric, does that mean this process is for non-magnetic gold filled material only? From what I remember, magnetic gold filled takes a different process to refine, right? I'm trying to refresh my memory! Thanks so much! Big fan.
Eric, magnetic GF material will go just fine. Magnetic simply means it contains iron or nickel. Nickel is soluble in nitric, iron is to, but takes longer to dissolve. Spring steel, now that’s a whole different animal. Spring steel will resist nitric and aqua regia and it’s best to remove spring steel before commuting the metal to the acids.
@@sreetips Excellent! That's what I was hoping but wasn't certain. At one point I started separating the magnetic material so glad I don't really need to do that. Thanks for the explanation!
Inquart that button with copper or silver and then put it on eBay! We amateur refiners would like to have a ready source of inquarted gold to test our skills!
Really enjoying the videos, one of my questions is, how do you dispose of the liquid waste you dont reuse? I assume thats not something you pour down the toilet lol.
In your opinion how do you think a 8 or 10-karat gold alloy using brass (2/3 copper 1/3 zinc) because that looks more similar to Gold then other metals used for jewelry but how do you think that would work making jewelry as a hobby because I'm not concerned with purity as I'm not selling it as gold but rather a lower karat alternative to 14k or 18k gold jewelry that's homogeneous throughout instead of plated on the surface to wear off and make a noticeable color change as I'm really the only one who's going to know what it's made out of and I'm only interested in how it look in comparison to gold and workability
Hello Sreetips, if I take say.. 1000 grams of assorted gold filled items ( mostly gf watch band tops) to my local smelter like I did several times before should I incinerate the material before? and if I don`t will it affect the yield?
How would you recommend going about testing melted beads of metals I guess what I'm asking is I have many melted chunks of metal I've melted and also was given by different people when acid testing some turn brownish but don't disappear is there a way to like have them xrf to help me determine if it should be dissolved
Ok probably a stupid question here. Is there a different method in recovering gold filled scrap vs gold plated scrap. Or would the process be the same for both. Thanks, love your vids you are my refining hero!
This process with not work on gold plated, it should be done in a sulfuric acid stripping cell. Gold plated material has a very thin coating of gold. It would take ten pounds of gold plated material to yield just one gram of pure gold. GOLD FILLED material has a thick coating of karat gold that is hundreds of time thicker. So, 100 grams of gold filled material will yield almost 2.5 grams of pure gold.
would you be able to experiment using ferric chloride , with gold filled scrap for gold recovery , as it seems a cheaper safer alternative to nitric acid
@@sreetips purchase it in concentrated form and dilute with distilled water. it's main current usage is to etch circuit boards, it will etch/dissolve most red and white metals including brass, copper, zinc , steel, nickle , aluminium , tin (Sn) . ect. it dose not dissolve less reactive metals such as gold/platinum group, and because of the chlorine it will not dissolve silver.. flame clean the metal and then cover in ferric chloride solution , and leave some place ventilated, once the copper/steel is dissolved, rinse . then if wish to separate the silver can use a far small volume of nitric acid.
A question if I can. I did a gold filled bracelet in poor man’s nitric acid using nitric soda and sulfuric acid then I washed it down filtered it out and burned it then I put it in a poor man’s aqua Regia. Using hydrochloric acid and bleach. I filtered that out and it was a beautiful yellow like in your video. But when I use the metabisulfite it would not drop any gold out it stayed that yellow what other metal could’ve been that would make it yellow
@@sreetips thank you. I appreciate your quick response. I'm so used to it being copper or brass underneath but I guess the gold could be layered over another metal or like you said the clasp was changed. I subbed btw! Thanks again!
3:16 love that Byzantine it seems a shame to destroy it but I understand that's what you bought it for and so I'm curious how much you had to pay for something like that roughly or how much I would expect to pay for something like that? Is there a formula that you use to determine the approximate value of gold filled scrap because it's not quite as easy as solid material to estimate a cost for unless you have a simplified technique that you can share
I use 2.5% to determine what I pay. So a hundred grams of GF material will yield about 2.5g of pure gold. Easy to calculate current value if you know the amount of pure gold the scrap contains.
Tap water ok with gold solutions. Distilled water when working with silver nitrate solution. Chlorine in tap water will instantly form silver chloride in silver nitrate solutions.
whats the most costly part of the refining you do? the nitric acid? the gases for melts? other acids? the chems for precipitating? I'm guessing the glassware but I'm not sure that counts. I guess maybe what you run out of and frequently need to replace is what I mean. I know a 5000ml pyrex beaker is expensive...
Chris, the most expensive thing that I run out of is the metal to refine. The nitric acid is probably the most expensive chemical that I use. Without it, refining is nearly impossible. It can be made, but the process is not easy. Philip Bender has the best video that I've seen on how to make it.
I have a question , and I was honestly wondering if you would do a video on it, I know that sulfur dioxide gas is what reduces the gold from aqua regia, so I was wondering if it's possible instead of using sodium meta bisulfite if you could use an actual tank of sulfur dioxide with a hose on the end and a breathing mask of course to skip the power part and just use the gas directly to precipitate the gold, and maybe get more of the Gold out of solution? I was also wondering how much you charge for 6 grams of already refined gold?
I did a video with SO2 gas generator to precipitate the gold recently but I can’t find it. I tried to get a bottle of the gas but they wanted too much information. It really raises their eye brows when I told them that I could make tons of it with stump remover and drain cleaner from Ace Hardware.
A bottle of SO2 and a hose will work. Hoke says that using the gas makes a cleaner precipitation. I don’t have any gold for sale right now other than gold jewelry on my eBay store
Ok, I'll see if I can get a bottle of it , I haven't stopped laughing at that bit where you told them you could just make it yourself with stump remover.
And what title is the eBay store under so I can see if I can get some gold jewelry o refine myself?? I really want to get a good go of it from dissolving to to smelting , even to casting my own jewelry.
Oh and one more thing , a guy on youtube called Cody's Lab does this thing where he takes a plastic bottle and super glues a hose through the lid and just outs in sodium meta bisulfite and muriatic acid to precipitate the gold , was going to try that but wanted to see if the S02 canister would be a better quality of Sulfur Dioxide.
Don't know, I've never done it. With gold filled scrap, these three things are of the greatest importance: incineration, incineration, and incineration.
I know that there’s quite a few questions I would like to ask, however I guess I’ll start with how did you happen to fine a reputable refinery (this is, if you don’t mind me asking of course)
I'm obviously not Sreetips, but your question has me curious! What do you mean with him finding a refinery?? I've seen your comments on here before too, so I thought I'd say hi and ask you a question. How long have you been watching Sreetips?? Have a GREAT Day!!
Shane York hello 😊, I believe I started watching Sreetips videos about 3 months ago. This was after I decided that I would finally take the plunge and start recovering gold out of electronic (to start). In one of the videos I watched Sreetips states that he receives 98% of what he refines from his refiner. In this particular video he was refining gold scrap jewelry and explaining how awesome his partner in crime (his wife) 😊 is.
@@ba8ygir1 I remember the videos he's mentioned that, but I don't know what he uses a refiner for because he's able to refine it to .999 himself. I've asked him about how to get karat scrap, he told me how to watch out for jewelry store sales and what to look for! I started watching Sreetips about the same time as you, 3 or 4 months ago! I'm mainly into Ewaste, computers, dvd player, anything with gold! I'm hoarding the GBI until I get a large amount. Sreetips is not a fan of ewaste. He's told me (in so many words) that he thinks it's a waste of time. I agree with him if people are paying for it, unless you're getting it super cheap and alot of it. I love to depopulate motherboards and other circuit boards to get the gold bearing items off and separated into categories! I got into it about 2 years ago! It's been a crazy ride!! It's been good talking to you, feel free to communicate with me anytime.
@@ba8ygir1 I just reread your comment, I didn't remember him saying that he got that much stuff from a refiner!! My comment is probably a little off. Because when I read that you were into electronics, that's what I was focusing on.
I like the video, nice way of teaching. Today I got from ebay some sodium nitrate they called nitric acid substitute, they ask me to mix two tablespoons for each ounce of metal. Does that means the salt will sbstitute the liquid nitric acid and disolve the base metals. I haven't tried yet. Do you think is ok to do that? I appreciate your answer. THANKS
I think this is referred to as “poor man’s aqua regia.” I don’t have any experience with it. You can make nitric acid with sodium nitrate and sulfuric acid. I’ve never done it. Philip Bender has the best video on making nitric acid that I’ve seen. We might have to make a video on nitric production and poor man’s aqua regia just so that I can get the experience. Adding two tablespoons of sodium nitrate to dissolve an ounce of gold some how doesn’t seem right. But I’ve never used it so I have no experience to share. If it was me I’d put just one gram of metal in a beaker and experiment with it to see what happens before going all in. If it works ok on 1 gram then go to five grams and scale it up based on your results. This way you gain experience and know what to expect to some degree each time you repeat the experiment with greater quantities. There is no substitute for experience. Good luck.
That is heavy. I have a gold filled pocket watch from before World War I. It has a dent in it and when I take it to dealers they tell me it’s not worth anything. I doubt that. But since it’s dented it’s probably worth more for its weight in Gold. I also have two vintage ladies watches that are 14 karat gold. When doesn’t work even after I had a new battery put in it so it’s kind of scrap.
If you don’t need the paper (money) then just hang on to the gold. Gold filled contains about 2% to 3% pure gold. So a gold filled pocket watch case that weighs 50 gram will contain between 1 gram to 1.5 grams of pure gold. And pure gold is about $56 per gram. Metals have value and will tend to rise. Paper money has no value and loses purchasing power due to money printing. But they can’t print more gold.
So far I have a gallon of 5% white vinegar reduced to a quart with 100 grams of sea salt, and 500 ml of 12% hydrogen peroxide in a crockpot and it dissolves the base metal under the gold plate on trimmed fingers, pins, and other plated items. So it is easy to filter out the gold foils. It is not 100% effective but the lack of dangerous fumes and cheap products is why I am experimenting in this.
You can see a big difference between the incinerated button and the one from this vid!! The one you DID NOT incinerate looks like gold drop from ewaste! Hope that didn't offend, I was just pointing out how right you are about incineration!! Have a GREAT Day!!!!
Another great and informative video. Currently getting my glassware. So I can process a lot of scrap I have kept for a long time. Wishing my Chemistry glass would hurry up. Going to make nitric it is a pain to acquire. Going to make 250ml and see if it is more cost effective to make or buy.
That’s a lot of gold actually from 5 pieces of gold plates crap. That would be $115 per gram made into jewellery at 23kt. So you could say you got $320 in gold.
Have you been able to work on your gold cell? You were saying at the end of this vid, that you needed 90g of Gold per Litter of electrolyte!! That would be ABSOLUTELY FASCINATING TO SEE!!! Have a GREAT Day!!!!
I just finished a new video. It's uploading right now. Jeweler's Bobbing Compound. It took 4 days to complete. Glad it's done. I'll get the gold cell done one day.
@@sreetips That's really awesome!! I can't wait to see it!! I'm in the process of watching the vid you did this summer called "gold filled scrap, My best refining ever"!!! I'll be on the look out for your new video!!! I wish I was a billionaire!! I'd finance you for the rest of your life for making vids! Unfortunately I'm not even a thousandaire! 😞
Why would it matter if it did start to alloy with the base metal? I thought that nitric acid dissolved everything that wasn't gold, would it not also dissolve out all the other metals besides gold in the alloy?
Get it too hot, the gold melts and d add Lloyd with the base metal. Then it turns to gold powder instead of gold foils. Makes separation a little more difficult. Best to heat it to redness but don’t melt it.
I just love your shows, when I was younger say in my teens I lived in the country I was actually looking arrowheads on the dirt roads. Every time they graded the roads I would go walking there were so many different coins and very little arrowheads. So I started collecting coins and I found a few arrowheads to. Now I don’t walk the roads but my grandson does and I collected many so I gave it all to him. I enjoyed it very much. I even found rings necklaces bracelets. I would melt it down and made a bracelet I still have. I enjoyed your show today thank you. I have learned a lot from you. Thank you ❤️🙏🤗
Excellent instructional video. Leaving in the mistakes and showing the consequences improves the lesson. Thanks!
INDEED!!!
This is intensely fascinating. I also applaud you for showing your mistakes and then doing a deep dive into the mistake to impress upon its importance. That takes a special type of person and typically, a great teacher. A person who is not concerned with humility, but with a passion for the information. Thank you for another great video. Very happy I stumbled upon your channel and subscribed.
Extremely educational and very well explained. Thank you again for your efforts. Now I know why the batch of GF I did last year had such an abysmal yield. Hopefully everything I lost is still sitting in the bottom of my stock pot. :)
I watch other scrappers because I might learn something but you are the only refiner I watch, I do not watch any others for fear of learning wrong. You are the best.
As always Mr. Sreetips, another great informative video. Thank you for all the fine details you put into making these videos.
I'm not a chemists but I find sreetips videos educational and relaxing...
Ill tell you street i too can admit when I am wrong. I can appreciate the fact you can admit your shortcomings as my dear old mother tells me good on you.
Thank you brother for the time you put into your videos.
Burn baby burn. Refiner's fire. I so enjoy your videos.
Amazing! Thank you so much for the video.
I happen to have a bunch of 1950s watch bands that are gold-filled, someone told me that if I were to torched them, together with a mixture of 18k and 14kt gold, I may get 10kt gold.
I decided to Google the question and run across your video. I can't thank you enough as I was about to mix solid gold with base metal with a little layer of gold.
I got a little suspicious of the guy that instructed me, and I was right.
Yeah that's a terrible idea! I'm not as experienced as ol' Street. But even I know that's terrible. U want 24k! Not 10k! Let me know if u need help
Excellent for us to see the difference in the gold without incineration. Thanks
Look'n forward to the gold cell...sounds cool
Me too!
Another Fantastic Episode!!! It is good to see the good, the bad, and the meh... :D I find this to be GOLD!! Lol... I can't wait to see your next episodes!! Cheers!!
#1 metal refining channel
احسنت العمل عملك جيد جدا او تعلمت منعندك ترسيب ذهب تسلم اخي العزيز
good work, very instructive to show the errors, looking forward to the Whewell cell for the gold
Wohlwill cell. I have a hard time saying it.
I never get old watching you explain the process step by step. For future if you could also add in the locations of where you get your chemical supplies. Thanks.
Nitric and sulfuric acids are available from science/chemistry retailers such as sigma-aldrich. You can also purchase just about anything you'll need on ebay. Hydrogen peroxide is available in 3 and sometimes 6% concentrations at pharmacies. Hydrochloric acid is available at common hardware stores. The biggest roadblock will be regulations in whatever country you live in. Some nations don't allow just anyone to purchase high concentration acids.
Thank you Perfect tips as allways
Thank you for the video!
Hello Sreetips, What are the chances you could include the clock in the background its good reference for us to see the amount of time that goes into this refining process. I always enjoy watching your videos great job!
Second request, may have to do something about showing the time.
@@sreetips Hello sir
I have gold filled items With 25-30 microns as gold filled thickness
I want to know how I can refine gold from this
Please all the process step by step
Thank you
About to process 40 grams of high-quality G.F.. I came to see if I could find some new and better tips (I found a couple). I so envy your lab, your buchner funnel, and your fume hood, just awesome. I can't replicate your process with just my beakers, coffee filters, gravity funnels I took from my wife 😊, "Poormans AR", or AP, coffee cup plug in warmer, coffee maker, and outside ventilation only. I usually use the AP method, than the foils in Poormans AR. But I want a faster way. I have access to good Nitric online, but at almost $50 a quart, I prefer Poornans AR. I think I have to stick with the AP method, but now I incinerate everything first (just till glowing), and than the foils again later, you taught me that. I hate having to store the AP though, as I can't neutralize it like I can AR. It's a process I wanted to avoid, but without buying Nitric, it's my only options I think. I was gonna give them a hot bath in just Hcl, but I don't see the acid getting below the gold and into the base metals, and I'm fairly sure Hcl alone would take months to have any any significant impact on the base metals (if it has an impact at all which i doubt).
Long story short, I shouldn't be refining. I'd make far more money selling my G.F. and karat gold scraps. My wife is a huge jewelry collector sitting on maybe 8-10 ozt of good gold jewelry from 10k to 18k, she gives me the "junk" she gets in her online buys, thrift store finds, yard sales, or local auctions. And while I know I'm making almost nothing or taking a loss, I enjoy recovery and refining a lot. Been a long time since I did any batches (health issues), but I'm eager to do more very soon. My metals in the beaker just waiting for me and new supplies still sealed shut. But I'm an eager one. Thank you for your videos SREETIPS, you give me goals to set for myself.
***note to others*** You can end your life, the life of your family, your pets life, your interior pipes, and electronics just from the fumes! Nobody should rush into this without safety as goal #1. Masks will NOT filter out noxious gas! Gloves, eye protection, ventilation, mask just cause you don't know 100% what fumes you'll be near. Safety, safety, safety! This gas will instantly burn your lungs and turn them to mush! I have a lung issue, but has zero to do with recovery or refining. I'm still respecting the acid for the danger it can be. This is NOT a good way to make money, it's costly, takes time, and a material source. A gold ring is always worth more than a gold button you made! This hobby should be studied until you understand the nuances of each process you attempt! Only when very confident you understand the how's, the why's, and the dangers, you should than try if you're confident.
All that said, I'll be selling some material or buttons on eBay within a few weeks or months! I'm still waiting for nature to help me out with some warmer days. Incinerate, incinerate, incinerate! Good luck all, STAY SAFE!!! 🙏 🙏
Very educational thanks for sharing, Michelle
Your amazing teacher I can't wait to do my gold filled stuff
Cool! Thanks!
Lesson learned incineration is very important thank you very much sir
You are the Master!
I just learned that old B/L brand G.F. eyeglasses often have solid 10k or 14k gold bridges! I gotta go nack out and look for them now 💰
Goes to show that we can learn from our mistakes. another awesome vid. keep em coming
Watched again tonight for the 4th time!
I now dream SREETIPS sharpied into everything I see..
Sreetips I love your videos! Thank you for the enlightenment. I was wondering... do you make your own HNO3?
I buy it
I mean, don't be too hard on yourself. you only do it 2 MAYBE 3 times a year.... Unless you have it written down and taped somewhere to remember every single scarce time, it's going to happen ^^ You are only human after all.
Love your work life long fan
Great video
Another quality video !!!
Thank you Shannon!
Wow really cool to learn
FINALLY...the ugly lil button I seen you refine with some other buttons. I knew I'd find it eventually.
Was interested I starting this as a hobby. Was curious if you had any tips on where to go for waste solution disposal?
talking bout alloy, id love to see a vid where you alloy the gold to the base metals and seperate it.....that would be fantastic
Nicely done, as always !
If incineration improves purity, as you have shown very clearly, it follows that the impurities must be organics, or
organometallics. They generally fall apart at high temperatures.
As it was jewelry, it would be fascinating to know what slime humans produce that survives contact with aqua regia, maybe reacts with gold, gets heated to 1000C+ and even makes it as far as the solid gold button.
Interesting. Very.
I don't think that the skin oils are soluble. They form a ring of scum around the inside of the beaker.
The difference between the buttons is striking.
Thing is, Incineration can only remove certain materials.
Organics from skin were the first to come to mind. Zinc oxides will also go away with incineration.It would be great to know Why incineration works, not just that it does work.
great vid
Great video. Thanks. As a experiment have you. Will you do a video extracting nickel or copper. I would love to see it happen.
points to karat marks with a gold Cross pen... classy, Sreetips!
Hey Sreetips, first off, love the videos, very informative. Thank you for doing them. Secondly, where did you get the nice acid dispensers? I can't find them on Amazon or Ebay ...
Wheaton drip tip bottles - I can’t remember where I bought them
I look forward to the next video!
In progress
Thanks you sir
I did this today to an old pocket watch. I really didn't think I'd get a measurable amount of gold, but wanted to run through the process. And heck, I ended up with a 0.9g BB size button! Enough to pay for the acid. Lol I wish this video came out yesterday, I didnt incinerate the foils either... why is that important Sreetips?
Guess I should have watched to the end before asking a question lol. Great video, thanks Professor!
@@JeffreyCVogt-ch9yf I've done that a few times! I was so excited and wanting to know, so I pause the video and go to the comments!! I felt kind of foolish! Thought I'd share, to let you know that you are NOT alone!!
Have a GREAT Day!!
Very nice Nick
I’m curious of a good alternative for nitric acid to use on gold filled material? Just for the removal of the base metals. I can get ahold of nitric, but just not large quantities yet. I’ll only be using concentrated nitric for aqua regia.
Hot sulfuric acid might work. But I’ve never tried it.
Is it possible to refine gold electrolytically? Like the silver cell? Nice video and greetings from Germany
Yes, it's called the Wohlwill process. I'm going to try to do it in the near future as soon as I can get enough gold to make the electrolyte.
@@sreetips Thank you for the response :)
Hey sreetips I have a question. I tried melting about an ounce of mud gold I did two water rinses and a hydrochloric and then two more water rinses but I did it in the jar not through a filter when I tried to melt it it was really hard and I thought I could smell some acid. Also the gold made a white crust before melting and I had to pour off what looked like excess borax before I could get it to melt. I got it all melted but it looks kind of ugly like there is still some borax in or on it maybe. Do I have to redefine or should I just remelt in a new melt dish,.
Would there be any advantage to just melting all karat types into one lump, cupel it with lead, THEN refine further with less/minimal acid usage by inquartation to separate and recover the silver that’s left behind in cupeling?
That sound like a great experiment. You should make a video of this and let us know your results. It may sound good and look good on paper. But I think that you'll find that for every new advantage you find in refining, a whole new group of disadvantages crop up. But you may be on to something. I don't like working with lead. Hoke says that it's been reported that lead, melted in the same room with gold, can contaminate the fine gold and make it crumble. All it takes is a tiny trace of lead in your gold to ruin it's malliability and ductility. That's why I add sulfuric acid during each refining, whether it needs it or not. To get the lead out.
When you said the time was 2:10pm. I looked at my watch and sure enough 2:10pm.
Can't wait for that electrolytic cell experiment
Hi sreetips
Here in the U.K. I get a lot of these gold filled bangles, however the main difference is they are 1/5th 9ct gold as opposed to the 1/20 14k you seem to get in USA.
What could I expect the yield to be for 500 grams of 1/5th 9ct bangles (9ct is 0.375 purity) ?
Thanks
Daniel 1/5 equals 0.2 and 9k equals 9/24 equals 0.375 so multiply 0.2 times 0.375 times 500g equals 37.5g of pure gold, but probably a little less due to some of the gold getting rubbed off over the years as the bangles are worn by the owner.
Hello sreetips, I saw some gold bars that had been machined to be perfectly sized. I was wondering if you might try this and how hard is it to capture the gold millings
I've never tried machining. I prefer the natural look with pour lines.
@@sreetips I agree with you nothing looks better than the pour lines of freshly poured 24K!
I'm wondering something about what you said earlier not wanting to alloy the gold with the brass when you initially burned it to get off the oils and other contaminants and I'm wondering how alloying it with the gold by melting it early on would be very different from enquarting it like you typically do with silver because I've heard you can do it with copper which is 2/3 copper roughly depending on the brass? Can you please help make sense of that for me?
Alloying would cause the gold to crumble to a powder under the nitric acid
That craftmere bracelet was worth more than the gold by a long shot.
This just isn’t true. At the urging of viewers, I’ve tried listing them separately. And they just sat there with no buyers. At least I can generate some revenue by doing a recovery and refining video.
@@sreetips I saw where that exact one sold on etsy for $75. Sold. I'm mean it's your property to use how you like. I'm not running you down or anything. But we non youtubers should check for added value items. If the added value for you is the video then that's cool. :) keep on with the excellent content!
I’m not disputing that it was worth more, I agree that it was. I’m just sharing my experience.
Hey Streetips, since you pulled out a steel spring after the nitric, does that mean this process is for non-magnetic gold filled material only? From what I remember, magnetic gold filled takes a different process to refine, right? I'm trying to refresh my memory! Thanks so much! Big fan.
Eric, magnetic GF material will go just fine. Magnetic simply means it contains iron or nickel. Nickel is soluble in nitric, iron is to, but takes longer to dissolve. Spring steel, now that’s a whole different animal. Spring steel will resist nitric and aqua regia and it’s best to remove spring steel before commuting the metal to the acids.
@@sreetips Excellent! That's what I was hoping but wasn't certain. At one point I started separating the magnetic material so glad I don't really need to do that. Thanks for the explanation!
How did you get the purple mud (dissolved gold) when that's not aqua regia and just nitric acid or did I miss something?
Nitric will put a small amount of gold in solution.
Inquart that button with copper or silver and then put it on eBay! We amateur refiners would like to have a ready source of inquarted gold to test our skills!
Not a bad idea, if he can get a decent price...right?
Really enjoying the videos, one of my questions is, how do you dispose of the liquid waste you dont reuse? I assume thats not something you pour down the toilet lol.
All of the waste is treated before disposal
In your opinion how do you think a 8 or 10-karat gold alloy using brass (2/3 copper 1/3 zinc) because that looks more similar to Gold then other metals used for jewelry but how do you think that would work making jewelry as a hobby because I'm not concerned with purity as I'm not selling it as gold but rather a lower karat alternative to 14k or 18k gold jewelry that's homogeneous throughout instead of plated on the surface to wear off and make a noticeable color change as I'm really the only one who's going to know what it's made out of and I'm only interested in how it look in comparison to gold and workability
I don’t know, no experience with that
Nice
Hello Sreetips, if I take say.. 1000 grams of assorted gold filled items ( mostly gf watch band tops) to my local smelter like I did several times before should I incinerate the material before? and if I don`t will it affect the yield?
How would you recommend going about testing melted beads of metals I guess what I'm asking is I have many melted chunks of metal I've melted and also was given by different people when acid testing some turn brownish but don't disappear is there a way to like have them xrf to help me determine if it should be dissolved
Hit it with hot nitric in a fume hood, see what happens.
عمل جيد جدا جدا جدا جدا جدا جدا جدا جدا جدا جدا جدا جدا جدا جدا جدا جدا جدا جدا جدا جدا
Ok probably a stupid question here. Is there a different method in recovering gold filled scrap vs gold plated scrap. Or would the process be the same for both. Thanks, love your vids you are my refining hero!
This process with not work on gold plated, it should be done in a sulfuric acid stripping cell. Gold plated material has a very thin coating of gold. It would take ten pounds of gold plated material to yield just one gram of pure gold. GOLD FILLED material has a thick coating of karat gold that is hundreds of time thicker. So, 100 grams of gold filled material will yield almost 2.5 grams of pure gold.
@@sreetips That make total sense. Thank you.
would you be able to experiment using ferric chloride , with gold filled scrap for gold recovery , as it seems a cheaper safer alternative to nitric acid
I've never used ferric chloride. I'm not familiar with that process.
@@sreetips purchase it in concentrated form and dilute with distilled water. it's main current usage is to etch circuit boards, it will etch/dissolve most red and white metals including brass, copper, zinc , steel, nickle , aluminium , tin (Sn) . ect. it dose not dissolve less reactive metals such as gold/platinum group, and because of the chlorine it will not dissolve silver.. flame clean the metal and then cover in ferric chloride solution , and leave some place ventilated, once the copper/steel is dissolved, rinse . then if wish to separate the silver can use a far small volume of nitric acid.
You should make a video and show how it's done. Thank you.
A question if I can. I did a gold filled bracelet in poor man’s nitric acid using nitric soda and sulfuric acid then I washed it down filtered it out and burned it then I put it in a poor man’s aqua Regia. Using hydrochloric acid and bleach. I filtered that out and it was a beautiful yellow like in your video. But when I use the metabisulfite it would not drop any gold out it stayed that yellow what other metal could’ve been that would make it yellow
I've never used nitric soda and sulfuric. I don't have any experience there.
sreetips thanks for the reply anyway
I have a goldfilled necklace marked 1/20 gf. It's slightly magnetic though and has a white metal underneath not brass. Is it still goldfilled? Ty.
Should be. But sometimes the clasp will be market and could have been added to a chain that’s not GF
@@sreetips thank you. I appreciate your quick response. I'm so used to it being copper or brass underneath but I guess the gold could be layered over another metal or like you said the clasp was changed. I subbed btw! Thanks again!
Thank you, welcome!
Question, I have a piece of jewelry that says 925 1/13 10k pgda Turkey. Is this gold filled or silver with gold plate?
I’d say GF
With silver as the base instead of the usual brass
thanks, would you say gold filled better than a real hollow bracelet? I hear hollow bracelets break easy and hard to repair?
It depends on the weight. GF yields about 2.5g pure gold per 100g scrap. 14k yield about 58g of pure gold per 100g scrap.
Seems like a lot of work for such a little bit of gold, but I get why it's worth it.
I wonder if this guy is a marine.
I was thinking the same thing when I saw that high and tight. Looks like a Jarhead to me.
He wasn't a marine he was navy
Sreetips you have stopped wearing your labcoat. You looked really professional with it on.
Sorry, I was in a hurry. They were holding a celebration for Father's Day for me and I was MIA!
Would it help to save nitric acid if first cut the bracelets into very small pieces?
I don’t think it would help
3:16 love that Byzantine it seems a shame to destroy it but I understand that's what you bought it for and so I'm curious how much you had to pay for something like that roughly or how much I would expect to pay for something like that?
Is there a formula that you use to determine the approximate value of gold filled scrap because it's not quite as easy as solid material to estimate a cost for unless you have a simplified technique that you can share
I use 2.5% to determine what I pay. So a hundred grams of GF material will yield about 2.5g of pure gold. Easy to calculate current value if you know the amount of pure gold the scrap contains.
Hello mr sreetips.
What happen if you use tapwater instead of destild water? Love this clip.
Have a Nice Day sir😊
Tap water ok with gold solutions. Distilled water when working with silver nitrate solution. Chlorine in tap water will instantly form silver chloride in silver nitrate solutions.
Ok. Thank you. Now i get it😚
whats the most costly part of the refining you do? the nitric acid? the gases for melts? other acids? the chems for precipitating? I'm guessing the glassware but I'm not sure that counts. I guess maybe what you run out of and frequently need to replace is what I mean. I know a 5000ml pyrex beaker is expensive...
Chris, the most expensive thing that I run out of is the metal to refine. The nitric acid is probably the most expensive chemical that I use. Without it, refining is nearly impossible. It can be made, but the process is not easy. Philip Bender has the best video that I've seen on how to make it.
Mr sreetips,what happens when you inquart brass with gold?
I have a question , and I was honestly wondering if you would do a video on it, I know that sulfur dioxide gas is what reduces the gold from aqua regia, so I was wondering if it's possible instead of using sodium meta bisulfite if you could use an actual tank of sulfur dioxide with a hose on the end and a breathing mask of course to skip the power part and just use the gas directly to precipitate the gold, and maybe get more of the Gold out of solution? I was also wondering how much you charge for 6 grams of already refined gold?
I did a video with SO2 gas generator to precipitate the gold recently but I can’t find it. I tried to get a bottle of the gas but they wanted too much information. It really raises their eye brows when I told them that I could make tons of it with stump remover and drain cleaner from Ace Hardware.
A bottle of SO2 and a hose will work. Hoke says that using the gas makes a cleaner precipitation. I don’t have any gold for sale right now other than gold jewelry on my eBay store
Ok, I'll see if I can get a bottle of it , I haven't stopped laughing at that bit where you told them you could just make it yourself with stump remover.
And what title is the eBay store under so I can see if I can get some gold jewelry o refine myself?? I really want to get a good go of it from dissolving to to smelting , even to casting my own jewelry.
Oh and one more thing , a guy on youtube called Cody's Lab does this thing where he takes a plastic bottle and super glues a hose through the lid and just outs in sodium meta bisulfite and muriatic acid to precipitate the gold , was going to try that but wanted to see if the S02 canister would be a better quality of Sulfur Dioxide.
does smb work better dilute solutions or full strength
I’d say full strength
Can I soak the gold filled scrap In sulphuric and avoid incineration? I have a bunch that’s filthy
Don't know, I've never done it. With gold filled scrap, these three things are of the greatest importance: incineration, incineration, and incineration.
I know that there’s quite a few questions I would like to ask, however I guess I’ll start with how did you happen to fine a reputable refinery (this is, if you don’t mind me asking of course)
I'm obviously not Sreetips, but your question has me curious! What do you mean with him finding a refinery?? I've seen your comments on here before too, so I thought I'd say hi and ask you a question. How long have you been watching Sreetips??
Have a GREAT Day!!
Shane York hello 😊, I believe I started watching Sreetips videos about 3 months ago. This was after I decided that I would finally take the plunge and start recovering gold out of electronic (to start). In one of the videos I watched Sreetips states that he receives 98% of what he refines from his refiner. In this particular video he was refining gold scrap jewelry and explaining how awesome his partner in crime (his wife) 😊 is.
@@ba8ygir1 I remember the videos he's mentioned that, but I don't know what he uses a refiner for because he's able to refine it to .999 himself.
I've asked him about how to get karat scrap, he told me how to watch out for jewelry store sales and what to look for! I started watching Sreetips about the same time as you, 3 or 4 months ago! I'm mainly into Ewaste, computers, dvd player, anything with gold! I'm hoarding the GBI until I get a large amount. Sreetips is not a fan of ewaste. He's told me (in so many words) that he thinks it's a waste of time. I agree with him if people are paying for it, unless you're getting it super cheap and alot of it. I love to depopulate motherboards and other circuit boards to get the gold bearing items off and separated into categories! I got into it about 2 years ago! It's been a crazy ride!! It's been good talking to you, feel free to communicate with me anytime.
@@ba8ygir1 I just reread your comment, I didn't remember him saying that he got that much stuff from a refiner!! My comment is probably a little off. Because when I read that you were into electronics, that's what I was focusing on.
I sell to Elemetal (no "n") Direct. They pay me 98% of the spot price of gold based on the purity of the metal that I send in.
All I can say is that it seems like gold recovery is harder than making meth. And that uses a lot of the same chemicals
👍👍
I like the video, nice way of teaching. Today I got from ebay some sodium nitrate they called nitric acid substitute, they ask me to mix two tablespoons for each ounce of metal. Does that means the salt will sbstitute the liquid nitric acid and disolve the base metals. I haven't tried yet. Do you think is ok to do that? I appreciate your answer. THANKS
I think this is referred to as “poor man’s aqua regia.” I don’t have any experience with it. You can make nitric acid with sodium nitrate and sulfuric acid. I’ve never done it. Philip Bender has the best video on making nitric acid that I’ve seen. We might have to make a video on nitric production and poor man’s aqua regia just so that I can get the experience. Adding two tablespoons of sodium nitrate to dissolve an ounce of gold some how doesn’t seem right. But I’ve never used it so I have no experience to share. If it was me I’d put just one gram of metal in a beaker and experiment with it to see what happens before going all in. If it works ok on 1 gram then go to five grams and scale it up based on your results. This way you gain experience and know what to expect to some degree each time you repeat the experiment with greater quantities. There is no substitute for experience. Good luck.
That is heavy. I have a gold filled pocket watch from before World War I. It has a dent in it and when I take it to dealers they tell me it’s not worth anything. I doubt that. But since it’s dented it’s probably worth more for its weight in Gold. I also have two vintage ladies watches that are 14 karat gold. When doesn’t work even after I had a new battery put in it so it’s kind of scrap.
If you don’t need the paper (money) then just hang on to the gold. Gold filled contains about 2% to 3% pure gold. So a gold filled pocket watch case that weighs 50 gram will contain between 1 gram to 1.5 grams of pure gold. And pure gold is about $56 per gram. Metals have value and will tend to rise. Paper money has no value and loses purchasing power due to money printing. But they can’t print more gold.
Would it not be more cost effective (yet less timely) to use peracetic acid to get rid of the base metals?
Bear, I've never used it so I don't know.
Vinegar and H2O2. I am using it with some computer scrap with decent effect.
I tried salt and vinegar once. It formed copper acetate blue precipitate that fouled the process. But it dissolved easily with HCl.
So far I have a gallon of 5% white vinegar reduced to a quart with 100 grams of sea salt, and 500 ml of 12% hydrogen peroxide in a crockpot and it dissolves the base metal under the gold plate on trimmed fingers, pins, and other plated items. So it is easy to filter out the gold foils.
It is not 100% effective but the lack of dangerous fumes and cheap products is why I am experimenting in this.
You can see a big difference between the incinerated button and the one from this vid!! The one you DID NOT incinerate looks like gold drop from ewaste! Hope that didn't offend, I was just pointing out how right you are about incineration!!
Have a GREAT Day!!!!
Can you use a pickle bath to clean the jewelry instead of heating
Ultrasonic and steam cleaning are the best but not a suitable substitute for incineration.
Another great and informative video. Currently getting my glassware. So I can process a lot of scrap I have kept for a long time. Wishing my Chemistry glass would hurry up. Going to make nitric it is a pain to acquire. Going to make 250ml and see if it is more cost effective to make or buy.
Check Philip Bender channel. He has an excellent video on making nitric, the best I've seen. But it don't look easy.
Haven’t checked his videos. Doug’s lab and zmapper ones I have seen. Will check that out
That’s a lot of gold actually from 5 pieces of gold plates crap. That would be $115 per gram made into jewellery at 23kt. So you could say you got $320 in gold.
Technique! Technique!
Have you been able to work on your gold cell? You were saying at the end of this vid, that you needed 90g of Gold per Litter of electrolyte!!
That would be ABSOLUTELY FASCINATING TO SEE!!!
Have a GREAT Day!!!!
I just finished a new video. It's uploading right now. Jeweler's Bobbing Compound. It took 4 days to complete. Glad it's done. I'll get the gold cell done one day.
@@sreetips That's really awesome!! I can't wait to see it!! I'm in the process of watching the vid you did this summer called "gold filled scrap, My best refining ever"!!!
I'll be on the look out for your new video!!! I wish I was a billionaire!! I'd finance you for the rest of your life for making vids! Unfortunately I'm not even a thousandaire! 😞
❤❤❤❤
Can you get this professionally done?
Why would it matter if it did start to alloy with the base metal? I thought that nitric acid dissolved everything that wasn't gold, would it not also dissolve out all the other metals besides gold in the alloy?
Get it too hot, the gold melts and d add Lloyd with the base metal. Then it turns to gold powder instead of gold foils. Makes separation a little more difficult. Best to heat it to redness but don’t melt it.
How are you able to deal with the smoke?
I don't smoke. And I burn the material at the hood so any smoke get vented away from me.