I'd never ask but I like to think Sreetips has a guest bedroom in his house full of tupperware containers filled with silver crystal stacked to the ceiling. Hahaha...
True. Even though I have absolutely no intention of actually doing this stuff myself, it remains fascinating for reasons that are...well, I don't know what they are.
When you finish a nice, high purity gold bar pour I'm always dazzled by the result. But man - when those silver crystals are fully formed at the end of a refining they are nothing short of spectacular. 👍👍👍
Sir you and I have spoken a few times. And I really need some help and or advice I took a mess load of silver items and melted and refined it down. But I made too many mistakes in my process. Now I am stuck with about 800 grams of silver of unknown quality. If I was to send it all to you can you refine it down for me. I also have quite a few other silver items I want to have added into the deal too.
I never tire from watching Sreetips videos . You inspire me to one day try my hand at precious metals refining . Thanks much , from one veteran to another . Peace my Brother .
You’re welcome! Again, it was my pleasure to watch. Very concise and informative. A couple few years ago, my friend in Guerrero introduced me to his silversmithing method and as I watched him liquify about two oz in a melt dish then remove the flame I noticed a shape in the mobile surface slag that looked like a map of russia. At that same moment he said “continents form” and I watched intently as the sub-continent of India plowed into the larger mass…simply fascinating.
The silver "popcorn" has a certain visual appeal at least through video. Of course pure silver crystal is very appealing, visually and financially. Great video and great explanation!
Ive been watching your videos for years now and I gotta say: I really love your videos. They are educational, interesting and you always maintain a very calm and captivating voice while explaining everything. Your videos always give me some enlightening peace during those difficult times. Thank you sreetips!
Thanks for the video. I thought it might have been an old one but when I saw the new rig you use to refine the sliver .I hope to see more new videos and always enjoy reviewing older ones. I do believe I could do this sort of work if ever the opportunity presented itself.
Nice job, not sure when you changed the connection to the bowl, I must have missed that one. Looks like a nice solid connection now. Thanks for sharing, love watching the silver cell series.
Amazing Mr Reetips! Besides the video anyone who wants to learn how AA perfect Silver refine process should be, you also answered all questions I had in my mind over all these years In follow you.
Even thou ive seen you do this a few times now I still Love to see it and the End Result is so cool as the Silver Crystals look so Good thank you Great Vlog
I also refined gold using this technique more than 15 years ago ,a suggestion you could try like I did for metal preparation: I poured the metal into the bar then I rolled the bar as thin as I could (0.9 mm) then I used a rolling mill for corrugation, after which I cut the sheet to the desired size, then put into acid, or other method try drilling the crucible like a sieve near the end of the stream, but i think you need another type of deeper crucible. The thinner the metal, the better the final quality and timing.Good luck!
Yay thanks for all the content lately! The silver is my favorite. I'm not much of a gold guy anyways I prefer silver esthetically. But the crystalline structure of the silver in the silver cell is so amazing too!
I’ve noticed that most people prefer the look of the silver over the gold, even though gold is worth 80 times more than gold. Eighty times? That total rubbish. Silver should be at $200 for a 20 to 1 ratio. But I’d rather hold an asset that’s being artificially suppressed than one that is being artificially inflated.
Awesome video. I am really into the journey, from start to waste treatment. Hiccups, experiments and lessons learned. And oddly, the whine of the fume hood.
Yay more silver cell! I was just about to go to bed, saw the notification and hit the 'fridge for another beer. Can't wait to watch. Thank you for doing what you do. Edit: What happened to that little furnace you had which enabled you to melt larger quantities of cement silver at once?
Cement silver seems like a very safe way to store it. Who's going to look twice at a big bag of "cement" in your workshop? Just need to be absolutely sure you use the right bag next time you're doing construction :)
You often refer to some books that you’ve read that have the procedures and measurements, etc that you follow. Can you do a video of those books and which ones you use for which processes?
It’s even got a rubberized coating on the outer bottom to keep it from slipping. Nine dollars I think it was about ten years ago. But with the value of dollars melting away faster than a snowball in July due to money printing by our friends in high places, it is probably about twenty dollars these days. It hadn’t gone up in value, the currency used to buy it has lost that much value. I had surgery on my hand today and still a little loopy. Good luck!
@@malclaire you can't grow a copper sulfate crystal in a metal container because the metal will contaminate the crystal, especially with stainless steel, the copper will cement out onto the steel instead of on the crystal
Any idea why the silver shot turns that gold/bronze color ? I've been dealing with the same thing when I pour shot, even if it's quite pure silver. Something to do with tap water maybe ?
Great as always. Amazing to see how copper contaminates your silver even after you rinsing it numerous times. The green flame from melting as well as the copper color on the shot. It is curious to see that even though it is a very low concentration of copper in the shot, the copper color is more predominant than the silver color.
@@sreetips wow I learned something today! Of course I see why you wouldn't do that considering it's going right into the silver cell basket. Still a really neat thing.
I guess I’m curious why you cannot put the cement silver directly into your silver cell for refining? It has more surface area, and will dissolve into electrolyte that much faster. Am I missing something? Is the shot needed?
I've never seen anything like this; it's amazing. There is this stretch of highway the million dollar or route 66 or something like that at Silverton Colorado. My God man the gash there is horrific, they went gonzo on silver ore. I always had to stop and just look at that gash in utter amazement. Cheers
We're do you source your concentrated nitric acid? Do you extract the copper from the solution after the cementing? If so can the nitric acid be reused again? It seems you are forever cycling what you have and gaining beautiful silver crystals every harvest. So intriguing. I'm glad I ran onto your channel!
Nitric from dudadiesel.com I extract the copper in my waste treatment buck on angle iron. I do not recover nitric because it’s time consuming and the yield is low.
Just curious, have you thought about a cement cupel in furnace to drive off copper to extend electrolyte life before making shot. Would be an interesting cost/benefit analysis.
it will be nice to get some confirmation of your pure silver with XRF gun... maybe some youtuber can help? there are few youtubers that have such device... great video as always, keep them comming
I had a sample analyzed last year. Came back greater than four nines. That’s 99.99% or better. They document actually listed hundreds of possible contaminants. Said they were not detectable during their analysis. Guardian Laboratories in the U.K. Did it for me.
I just keep learning which leads to questions, like; until I get an acetylene torch will a MAP Gas torch do the job for melting silver and gold? I know they're not as hot, but until I can get the latter, I wonder if it will do the job.
Be carefull boiling distilled water, I've had it flash boil and its not pleasant. Add a little silica sand, inert boiling beads or use your most scratched up pot/beaker/pan, that will create nucleation points so it won't flash boil.
I just watch a guy, who got some ideas from you, and one of the things he did to make his anode bar was to use a small block of hard carbon instead of a silver bar. I'm wondering if the carbon works, as well as the silver bar, does.
I searched for those dacron bags since they looked like they would make a washable cover for the regular vacuum filter. Amazon says customers who bought it also bought crucible and beakers... Looks like sreetips shops on Amazon 🤣
I noticed green flame when you were melting cement silver in the melt tray, was wondering when you'd explain the discolouration of shot.. That came 10 minutes later 👍
@@sreetips OK fair enough. I honestly would like to see you process the copper out of the waste bucket. Even if you just melted it up into a bar or do an experiment to find out what if any precious metals are making it into the waste bucket. I know you really don't have the time on top of filming it but I think that also would make for good content. Like running that stock pot copper through a copper cell similar to your silver cell. I think that would also make for interesting RUclips content. Regardless of what you video next for RUclips. I'll be watching it. Best wishes Sreetips...
I love these videos! Thank you for sharing your knowledge. Where does the impurities go? The silver deposits on the bowl but where does the copper or other metals deposit?
Glass rods nucleate crystals I assume that’s why you have one submerged in your cell. However this only happens when you scratch the glass rod against the sides
The glass rod is for stirring the electrolyte when I check the cell periodically. I need to come up with a slow moving constant stir mechanism to keep the crystals knocked down and to keep the electrolyte moving. As the cell operates the silver gets consumed out of the electrolyte - it plates out of the solution on to the cathode. The electrolyte will be mostly depleted right at the cathode. So it could get so depleted that there is more copper than silver right there at the cathode. This could lead to copper being deposited on to the silver if this condition is allowed to exist for long. To avoid it I add more silver nitrate as the cell operates after about 5 days. And I stir often to move the electrolyte around. A constant stirring device would help.
The stir bar would be in contact with the bowl. Could promote stainless getting in my silver. I’d rather have a slow moving propeller suspended in the electrolyte and under the anode basket. Might make a cool new video.
Great video. To be honest, I don’t know what you are doing. I subscribed to you a while back and not sure why I quit watching, but I saw this notification and watched. I need to watch the start of the process and follow through to the end so I can figure it out. I travel a lot for work, so I do not have the time to do this but some day I will retire and have time to do this. I can save materials in the time being to begin the cycle. What video starts from the beginning?
Watch my video titled waste treatment. In it I draw a block diagram of the processes that I use. It’s basic and just an overview but it’s a good place to start to see the big picture of what I’m trying to do.
I ask could you speed up the process by replacing the electrolyte in the steel cathode bowl every so often? If not is there any way to speed it up? Maybe increase the voltage or amps?
Voltage set is critical at 3.3 to 3.7 VDC. Increase the voltage and the crystals will grow much faster. You can actually watch them grow. But the problem is: the crystals are long and needle-like and their rapid growth rate will cause them to make contact with the anode filter bag, burn a hole in it and ruin the pure silver batch
@@sreetips Thanks for the fast response. I've been looking into picking up a more productive hobby than failed 3D printing and binge reading, and precious metal refining and recovery has always fascinated me.
Yes, but there’s a critical distance that must be maintained between the anode and cathode: 4 to 4.5 inches. Anything greater and it slows way down. Anything closer and the crystals will reach out and short to the anode.
Nice! Love the vid. Question,, would an induction melter with a black cruseble not be more efficient to melt lager amounts of silver. Or the gas furnace
So are you for hire...lol.. have sulfide, platinum, chromium....yes Gold...Need help... Got $$$ I want to learn how to do this safety. I'm so tired of paying for assays...😬
Just curious why you didn't use your furnace to melt the cemented silver? Why is the silver nitrate for the silver cell clear and blueish green in the stock pot?
Yes, I didn’t have time to set it up. Watch for it in a video coming out soon. I’ll melt as much of the thirty pounds or so of cement silver that I have stored up. Try to do it all in one video. Thank you for your interest.
Excellent video! A question I couldn't find anywhere in this video - is the electrode bar you insert on top of the silver shot itself made of silver? If so do you just cast a section of copper wire into a small ingot mold of molten silver?
I suspend a 10 gauge copper wire into the mold cavity and heat, then I melt some pure silver crystal (about 2.5 Troy ounces) and pour it in. The molten silver instantly welds to the hot copper wire. I’ll make another and do a video on it.
To create a two-layer filter barrier between the high purity silver and the slimes that get left behind inside the filter. If some of the junk in the anode makes it past the first filter, then I’m hope the second filter will catch it and preserve the purity of my silver crystal in the silver cell.
I burn them, push the ash through a screen, then hit it with hot dilute nitric. After that reaction is complete I filter off the liquid and keep the solids. Then I hit the solids with aqua regia. Filter, then drop any gold. Then I go after the platinum group metals, if present.
Silver in solution is a nitrate. Gold in solution is a chloride. The silver would immediately precipitate out as silver chloride. The HCl in aqua regia will dissolve a little silver chloride but not much. We add water or ice to make it come out so we can filter it out.
So, why do you melt the cement silver and then turn it into shot instead of just throwing it straight into your silver cell exactly as it is? It seems to me the whole point of making the shot is because shot has a greater surface area than big chunks of silver, but the cement silver literally has hundreds (possibly even thousands) of times more surface area than the shot, so wouldn't using the cement silver just as it is be way more efficient?
I’ve tried it, it don’t work. Filter gets clogged up, current flow drops off. Like many things in refining that seem logical and straight forward, it’s counter intuitive. Shot is the right move.
Great content thanks very much. keep them coming please 👍🏻. I have a question what is the electrode bar made from and did you make it???... thanks again, Cheers. 👏🏻
Unfortunately I live in Australia or I would come visit you just to chat chemistry and techniques. I used to do a lot of filtration using Buchner funnels , and spent many hours digesting samples with boiling concentrated sulphuric acid as well as a bunch of other fun chemicals. I wonder what your wife thinks of you using her casserole dishes!
Coming friends..! Amazing. Best video.. great.. I like this content.. success always.. greetings from us traditional Indonesian gold seekers🇲🇨⚒️⛏️❤️🌸✋👍👍
Man. If someone placed me in a facility with equipment to do things like this, I would work for free. Why do I enjoy this so much? Is this chemistry or alchemy?
I never get tired of watching your electrolytic silver cell process but my favorite part is when you melt down all that cement into shot.
I'd never ask but I like to think Sreetips has a guest bedroom in his house full of tupperware containers filled with silver crystal stacked to the ceiling. Hahaha...
Hey Joe, weird question but have you ever met anyone with horns? BTW I imagine Mr. SREETIPS has a few tubs😎 he's the guy.
This stuff NEVER gets old! I enjoy this! Great video!
True. Even though I have absolutely no intention of actually doing this stuff myself, it remains fascinating for reasons that are...well, I don't know what they are.
When you finish a nice, high purity gold bar pour I'm always dazzled by the result.
But man - when those silver crystals are fully formed at the end of a refining they are nothing short of spectacular. 👍👍👍
Are you also one of the persons, who like the glitter of pure silver crystals more than that of gold ?
Sir you and I have spoken a few times. And I really need some help and or advice
I took a mess load of silver items and melted and refined it down. But I made too many mistakes in my process. Now I am stuck with about 800 grams of silver of unknown quality. If I was to send it all to you can you refine it down for me. I also have quite a few other silver items I want to have added into the deal too.
I never tire from watching Sreetips videos . You inspire me to one day try my hand at precious metals refining . Thanks much , from one veteran to another . Peace my Brother .
Its amazing how you jump from Imperial to Metric. Inch to Kilo, Grams to Celsius, Fathoms to Kilometers. It always keeps me on my toes.
I love these videos! I can watch this all day. It makes me want to learn more about precious metal recovery.
The new setup is working great thank you for sharing your knowledge five stars my friend
You’re welcome! Again, it was my pleasure to watch. Very concise and informative.
A couple few years ago, my friend in Guerrero introduced me to his silversmithing method and as I watched him liquify about two oz in a melt dish then remove the flame I noticed a shape in the mobile surface slag that looked like a map of russia. At that same moment he said “continents form” and I watched intently as the sub-continent of India plowed into the larger mass…simply fascinating.
That’s awesome, I’ve seen stuff like that in my melts.
Honestly I can watch you do this stuff all day long. Your videos are great, so interesting! 👍🇬🇧
I love to watch and learn the process of your refining videos! You must have the most patience ever to do this!!
The silver "popcorn" has a certain visual appeal at least through video. Of course pure silver crystal is very appealing, visually and financially. Great video and great explanation!
Streetips continues to reward us with some of or if not the best informative analytical metallurgy on the web. The best things in life are free..
Ive been watching your videos for years now and I gotta say: I really love your videos. They are educational, interesting and you always maintain a very calm and captivating voice while explaining everything. Your videos always give me some enlightening peace during those difficult times. Thank you sreetips!
Thanks for the video. I thought it might have been an old one but when I saw the new rig you use to refine the sliver .I hope to see more new videos and always enjoy reviewing older ones. I do believe I could do this sort of work if ever the opportunity presented itself.
I’m very thankful for what I have been given. It’s like a dream
The distilled water rinse added into the nitrate acid is a very efficient idea.
Nice job, not sure when you changed the connection to the bowl, I must have missed that one. Looks like a nice solid connection now. Thanks for sharing, love watching the silver cell series.
Great video as always. One of the few channels I will keep the notification on for
Amazing Mr Reetips! Besides the video anyone who wants to learn how AA perfect Silver refine process should be, you also answered all questions I had in my mind over all these years In follow you.
Even thou ive seen you do this a few times now I still Love to see it and the End Result is so cool as the Silver Crystals look so Good thank you Great Vlog
I also refined gold using this technique more than 15 years ago ,a suggestion you could try like I did for metal preparation: I poured the metal into the bar then I rolled the bar as thin as I could (0.9 mm) then I used a rolling mill for corrugation, after which I cut the sheet to the desired size, then put into acid, or other method try drilling the crucible like a sieve near the end of the stream, but i think you need another type of deeper crucible. The thinner the metal, the better the final quality and timing.Good luck!
I’ve heard of that method but never tried it
It's really amazing how quickly the copper starts sucking the silver out of solution!
Love your channel! Just started my silver cell last night, can't wait to harvest some pure elemental silver crystal!
Your vids make me wish I hadn't skipped chemistry in high school. Fascinating stuff.
Good to see you long time back happy to see you
Metal crystals of any type are always so cool.
Yay thanks for all the content lately! The silver is my favorite. I'm not much of a gold guy anyways I prefer silver esthetically. But the crystalline structure of the silver in the silver cell is so amazing too!
I’ve noticed that most people prefer the look of the silver over the gold, even though gold is worth 80 times more than gold. Eighty times? That total rubbish. Silver should be at $200 for a 20 to 1 ratio. But I’d rather hold an asset that’s being artificially suppressed than one that is being artificially inflated.
The hum of your fume hood is soothing. You should record it on a soundtrack and sell it as white noise for sleep and relaxation.
Daaaaaaaamn....
Chemistry is bloody amazingly awesome.
Awesome video.
I am really into the journey, from start to waste treatment.
Hiccups, experiments and lessons learned.
And oddly, the whine of the fume hood.
Yay more silver cell! I was just about to go to bed, saw the notification and hit the 'fridge for another beer. Can't wait to watch. Thank you for doing what you do.
Edit: What happened to that little furnace you had which enabled you to melt larger quantities of cement silver at once?
It’s coming soon in a future video
Cement silver seems like a very safe way to store it. Who's going to look twice at a big bag of "cement" in your workshop?
Just need to be absolutely sure you use the right bag next time you're doing construction :)
Good idea
Is there any reason you can't cast them into ingots from the cement stage?
None, except that it takes more time and effort
You often refer to some books that you’ve read that have the procedures and measurements, etc that you follow. Can you do a video of those books and which ones you use for which processes?
“Refining Precious Metal Wastes” by C.M. Hoke - available all over the internet as a free pdf download.
that is soo cool !!
thanks for sharing your journey
Good video Mr. Tips. These are keeping me sane !!!
Always a joy to watch
Any updates on the galvanic corrosion concern between the copper and stainless bowl?
None so far
Thanks again for doing these great videos.
Fine work ☺️👍🏻 To big a job for me but I like watching and learning. I melt silver myself for rings that I make, but on a very small scale.
Yay another silver cell video, I love these.
are gold and silver dust so heavy they dont get blown away by the torch?
No, the torch will blow that silver powder out of the dish faster than a Florida hurricane in September if your not careful.
How come your cemented Silver shot has discoloring after you melt it ?
My cemented Silver when melted into a bar looks like silver.
Due to 1% copper in the cement silver.
Thanks! I'm halfway through your achievements.
Wow. I don’t see you for a while and you’re back and getting crazy views!!
It’s all a gift from above. I’m thankful for what has been granted to me!
@@sreetips I’m glad you’re back! Looking forward to more refining.
A stainless steel bowl. That, I bought at K Mart about ten years ago.
It’s even got a rubberized coating on the outer bottom to keep it from slipping. Nine dollars I think it was about ten years ago. But with the value of dollars melting away faster than a snowball in July due to money printing by our friends in high places, it is probably about twenty dollars these days. It hadn’t gone up in value, the currency used to buy it has lost that much value. I had surgery on my hand today and still a little loopy. Good luck!
@@sreetips I love your videos. Keep up the good work!
the silver cell is my favorite part of the channel, I'm currently trying to grow the largest copper sulfate crystal :)
How big is it now. My favorite part of his content as well.
@@malclaire it's currently 1.4 inches and .4 inches thick
@@rickydona919 woah!! Ever think of trying to do this in a Stainless steel straw? Is that even possible to get out?
@@malclaire you can't grow a copper sulfate crystal in a metal container because the metal will contaminate the crystal, especially with stainless steel, the copper will cement out onto the steel instead of on the crystal
@@rickydona919 oh I meant the crystals sorry I was still watching the end of the video.
Do u have a video on how to start up, like the materials list and perhaps a link or two , we can use to purchase
Any idea why the silver shot turns that gold/bronze color ? I've been dealing with the same thing when I pour shot, even if it's quite pure silver. Something to do with tap water maybe ?
It’s oxidation from the heat. There’s a little copper in there too.
@@sreetips thanks !
Holy Smokes mr Sreetips this is awesome man 🔥🔥💥💨and nice silver granulate thats great man!👍keep it UP man!👍👍💨super dupe great 🎉
Carrying on from your recent discussion of Borax... why no borax in a silver melt? Isn't oxidation a problem?
He's probably skipping the borax because it's going to be further refined in the electrolytic cell.
B nailed it. It’s going through the cell
Great as always. Amazing to see how copper contaminates your silver even after you rinsing it numerous times. The green flame from melting as well as the copper color on the shot. It is curious to see that even though it is a very low concentration of copper in the shot, the copper color is more predominant than the silver color.
It’s an anomalous propagation. It could be buffed off to a brilliant mirror silver finish.
@@sreetips wow I learned something today! Of course I see why you wouldn't do that considering it's going right into the silver cell basket. Still a really neat thing.
I guess I’m curious why you cannot put the cement silver directly into your silver cell for refining? It has more surface area, and will dissolve into electrolyte that much faster. Am I missing something? Is the shot needed?
It tried it. The filter clogged up. The current flow dropped off. It didn’t work well.
@@sreetips that makes sense. I appreciate your reply.
I've never seen anything like this; it's amazing.
There is this stretch of highway the million dollar or route 66 or something like that at Silverton Colorado. My God man the gash there is horrific, they went gonzo on silver ore. I always had to stop and just look at that gash in utter amazement.
Cheers
Silverton Colorado. I’ll have to remember that. I want to see out west before I leave the earth.
Looked at a map, is that gash just north east of silverton?
Red Mountain Pass and Engineer Pass are amazing. Definitely drive them .... except in ice conditions.
❣️♥️
Very cool. Seems simple, but you must have a little fortune invested in equipment/beakers and stuff. Keep the videos coming!
I have a tendency to over-kill. Anything worth doing is worth over doing - Steven Tyler
I think it is amazing how the entire worlds Silver reserves can fit into Sreetips house. :)
Have you ever tried the Wohlwill process for refining your gold? Seems like that would be right up your alley.
Yes, I have a video of it on my channel
We're do you source your concentrated nitric acid? Do you extract the copper from the solution after the cementing? If so can the nitric acid be reused again? It seems you are forever cycling what you have and gaining beautiful silver crystals every harvest. So intriguing. I'm glad I ran onto your channel!
Nitric from dudadiesel.com I extract the copper in my waste treatment buck on angle iron. I do not recover nitric because it’s time consuming and the yield is low.
you should look into a Devil-Forge or something similar.
Just curious, have you thought about a cement cupel in furnace to drive off copper to extend electrolyte life before making shot. Would be an interesting cost/benefit analysis.
That would be a lot of work. I’d rather let the silver cell do all that work for me.
Mr. Sreetips, keeps some clock in frame to get the idea of duration plz
it will be nice to get some confirmation of your pure silver with XRF gun... maybe some youtuber can help? there are few youtubers that have such device... great video as always, keep them comming
I had a sample analyzed last year. Came back greater than four nines. That’s 99.99% or better. They document actually listed hundreds of possible contaminants. Said they were not detectable during their analysis. Guardian Laboratories in the U.K. Did it for me.
I just keep learning which leads to questions, like; until I get an acetylene torch will a MAP Gas torch do the job for melting silver and gold? I know they're not as hot, but until I can get the latter, I wonder if it will do the job.
Map takes a little longer
Be carefull boiling distilled water, I've had it flash boil and its not pleasant.
Add a little silica sand, inert boiling beads or use your most scratched up pot/beaker/pan, that will create nucleation points so it won't flash boil.
I’ve boiled many gallons of distilled water and never had that happen.
I just watch a guy, who got some ideas from you, and one of the things he did to make his anode bar was to use a small block of hard carbon instead of a silver bar. I'm wondering if the carbon works, as well as the silver bar, does.
If it conducts electric current then it should work fine.
thanks for sharing your experience with us 🙂
I searched for those dacron bags since they looked like they would make a washable cover for the regular vacuum filter. Amazon says customers who bought it also bought crucible and beakers... Looks like sreetips shops on Amazon 🤣
I noticed green flame when you were melting cement silver in the melt tray, was wondering when you'd explain the discolouration of shot.. That came 10 minutes later 👍
Copper
Silver is my favorite thank you
I'm curious in watching you process those anode basket filters.
I’ve got some saved up. But it’s a giant paid, let alone the idea of shooting video.
@@sreetips Procesding them will make new content.
I’ve done them before with video on my channel. But interest was low.
@@sreetips OK fair enough. I honestly would like to see you process the copper out of the waste bucket. Even if you just melted it up into a bar or do an experiment to find out what if any precious metals are making it into the waste bucket. I know you really don't have the time on top of filming it but I think that also would make for good content. Like running that stock pot copper through a copper cell similar to your silver cell. I think that would also make for interesting RUclips content. Regardless of what you video next for RUclips. I'll be watching it. Best wishes Sreetips...
how many grams of silver are used to prepare one liter of this electrolyte?
About 150g per liter
So if you get let's say 50 troy ounces after 10 days does this mean you also feed it 50 ounces of unpure silver?
Yes
I love these videos! Thank you for sharing your knowledge. Where does the impurities go? The silver deposits on the bowl but where does the copper or other metals deposit?
The blue liquid is the copper...impurities will be low....this makes .999 silver
Copper goes into solution and turns the liquid blue. Other noble metal contaminants will be left as slimes in the anode basket.
Did you use Zinc for the anode bar?
No, pure silver
Thank you for uploading such a nice and informative video 👍
Glass rods nucleate crystals I assume that’s why you have one submerged in your cell. However this only happens when you scratch the glass rod against the sides
The glass rod is for stirring the electrolyte when I check the cell periodically. I need to come up with a slow moving constant stir mechanism to keep the crystals knocked down and to keep the electrolyte moving. As the cell operates the silver gets consumed out of the electrolyte - it plates out of the solution on to the cathode. The electrolyte will be mostly depleted right at the cathode. So it could get so depleted that there is more copper than silver right there at the cathode. This could lead to copper being deposited on to the silver if this condition is allowed to exist for long. To avoid it I add more silver nitrate as the cell operates after about 5 days. And I stir often to move the electrolyte around. A constant stirring device would help.
@@sreetips like a stir bar? You could mount your bowl on a hot plate
The stir bar would be in contact with the bowl. Could promote stainless getting in my silver. I’d rather have a slow moving propeller suspended in the electrolyte and under the anode basket. Might make a cool new video.
Great video. To be honest, I don’t know what you are doing. I subscribed to you a while back and not sure why I quit watching, but I saw this notification and watched. I need to watch the start of the process and follow through to the end so I can figure it out. I travel a lot for work, so I do not have the time to do this but some day I will retire and have time to do this. I can save materials in the time being to begin the cycle. What video starts from the beginning?
Watch my video titled waste treatment. In it I draw a block diagram of the processes that I use. It’s basic and just an overview but it’s a good place to start to see the big picture of what I’m trying to do.
@@sreetips Thank you. I appreciate your reply. I will watch it and many more. Thank you.
I love watching you do stuff like this, I wish I could do it I'm just to scared of acid hehe
That’s a healthy fear to have.
What is your anode bar made of?
It’s pure silver with a copper wire cast into it.
Answered all my questions. Thenks
I ask could you speed up the process by replacing the electrolyte in the steel cathode bowl every so often? If not is there any way to speed it up? Maybe increase the voltage or amps?
Voltage set is critical at 3.3 to 3.7 VDC. Increase the voltage and the crystals will grow much faster. You can actually watch them grow. But the problem is: the crystals are long and needle-like and their rapid growth rate will cause them to make contact with the anode filter bag, burn a hole in it and ruin the pure silver batch
For reactive metals like silver, is there a concern of waste gases from the MAP/Oxyacetaline torches contaminating the metals?
I’ve never had a problem
@@sreetips Thanks for the fast response. I've been looking into picking up a more productive hobby than failed 3D printing and binge reading, and precious metal refining and recovery has always fascinated me.
Dumb question. If you increased the unrefined container to bowl size would it work faster due to surface area?
Yes, but there’s a critical distance that must be maintained between the anode and cathode: 4 to 4.5 inches. Anything greater and it slows way down. Anything closer and the crystals will reach out and short to the anode.
Nice! Love the vid. Question,, would an induction melter with a black cruseble not be more efficient to melt lager amounts of silver. Or the gas furnace
Possibly
ruclips.net/video/J6SUpwSzk6w/видео.html one like this
Where do you buy all your beakers funnels and equipment? Really interesting stuff 👌
I bought it all on eBay.
Nicely done brother 👍 yumm
So are you for hire...lol.. have sulfide, platinum, chromium....yes Gold...Need help... Got $$$ I want to learn how to do this safety. I'm so tired of paying for assays...😬
Just curious why you didn't use your furnace to melt the cemented silver?
Why is the silver nitrate for the silver cell clear and blueish green in the stock pot?
Didn’t have time to set up the big furnace, but I will in the near future. I just needed a couple pounds to keep my silver cell running.
Pure silver in solution is clear like water. The blue color comes from copper that’s alloyed with the silver.
Are you planning on using your homemade furnace for large melts?
Yes, I didn’t have time to set it up. Watch for it in a video coming out soon. I’ll melt as much of the thirty pounds or so of cement silver that I have stored up. Try to do it all in one video. Thank you for your interest.
Excellent video! A question I couldn't find anywhere in this video - is the electrode bar you insert on top of the silver shot itself made of silver? If so do you just cast a section of copper wire into a small ingot mold of molten silver?
I suspend a 10 gauge copper wire into the mold cavity and heat, then I melt some pure silver crystal (about 2.5 Troy ounces) and pour it in. The molten silver instantly welds to the hot copper wire. I’ll make another and do a video on it.
@@sreetips Thanks! Looking forward to the video!
As always Sir, great video! They never get old.
One question, I can't remember why you use 2 layers of the dacron filter instead of one??
To create a two-layer filter barrier between the high purity silver and the slimes that get left behind inside the filter. If some of the junk in the anode makes it past the first filter, then I’m hope the second filter will catch it and preserve the purity of my silver crystal in the silver cell.
@@sreetips thank you Sir.
With all this effort you would think that silver is more expensive than gold
Absolutely Awesome!!!
What refining techniques do you use with the leftover filter papers?
I burn them, push the ash through a screen, then hit it with hot dilute nitric. After that reaction is complete I filter off the liquid and keep the solids. Then I hit the solids with aqua regia. Filter, then drop any gold. Then I go after the platinum group metals, if present.
how does the electrical current travel past the rubbermaid you have the silver shot in?
It’s got holes drilled in the bottom
@@sreetips thanks kind sir
I have a question, how would you separate gold from silver if both are in solution?
Silver in solution is a nitrate. Gold in solution is a chloride. The silver would immediately precipitate out as silver chloride. The HCl in aqua regia will dissolve a little silver chloride but not much. We add water or ice to make it come out so we can filter it out.
So, why do you melt the cement silver and then turn it into shot instead of just throwing it straight into your silver cell exactly as it is? It seems to me the whole point of making the shot is because shot has a greater surface area than big chunks of silver, but the cement silver literally has hundreds (possibly even thousands) of times more surface area than the shot, so wouldn't using the cement silver just as it is be way more efficient?
I’ve tried it, it don’t work. Filter gets clogged up, current flow drops off. Like many things in refining that seem logical and straight forward, it’s counter intuitive. Shot is the right move.
@@sreetips I knew there had to be a good reason, lol, thanks for the reply! 🙏🏼🤘
Great content thanks very much. keep them coming please 👍🏻. I have a question what is the electrode bar made from and did you make it???... thanks again, Cheers. 👏🏻
Electrode bar is made of pure silver. Yes, I made it
Unfortunately I live in Australia or I would come visit you just to chat chemistry and techniques. I used to do a lot of filtration using Buchner funnels , and spent many hours digesting samples with boiling concentrated sulphuric acid as well as a bunch of other fun chemicals.
I wonder what your wife thinks of you using her casserole dishes!
I bought those at yard sales for a few bucks each. Sounds like we have common ground.
Coming friends..! Amazing. Best video.. great.. I like this content.. success always.. greetings from us traditional Indonesian gold seekers🇲🇨⚒️⛏️❤️🌸✋👍👍
Man. If someone placed me in a facility with equipment to do things like this, I would work for free. Why do I enjoy this so much? Is this chemistry or alchemy?
I love it