I got no real interest n doing this but watching the process over these set of videos was just great. So well made. All of the processes explained and a good sense of timeframes. Better than TV!
Ive been sitting here for the last 4+ hours watching the 3 videos. Absolutely fascinating. Silver recovery is more about chemistry than about fire. I used to collect silver from large film negatives when silver was used and the fixer was put through a recovery unit. I wondered what happened to it afterwards. Thanks very much.
agreed, I have never had the slightest interest in precious metal refining, but his videos are awesome...Informative...keeps me watching. Great job Sreetips!
I have been watching this series just for entertainment. I find the chemistry amazing. Thanks for producing high quality content, and I look forward to what's next!
That is truly amaysing to now you start refining 11 years ago... I have learn in this 3 episode, that refining of Silver is hard, messy... and very dangeres. But so lovley to see the silver finish 😊. Thank you Sir, and take Care. God bless you. Thank you Mr sreetips to produces and spread your refining secret to us Who follow you. 😊
I set here and watched all three of these videos back to back to back. 🤣😂😂😂 Really appreciate your time and effort making them brother. Can’t wait to start my journey refining silver. Those crystals are super dope. Lol
Thank you for teaching. I may never do any of this in my lifetime, but I sure enjoy what you do. It is true art. I also like how you refine your techniques as you go.
Seeing those flasks with the blue and green fluids reminds me of what chemists used to have in shop windows back in the day, now i know it originates from these processes! Ye olde alchemy! I wish you were my science teacher back in highschool, I would have learned so much more! Thank you for your most excellent content!
Well I have bin watching vides on this for about a good year or so and I have to say yours was by far the better thank so much I watch all all three of the silver ,and look forward to seeing the gold recovery soon when the time comes ,need to start up a patreon..thanks again
I use electrolysis for rust removal in car restoration. I'm even learning new idea's for this process from you. You are such an interesting intelligent intuitive guy, I'm hooked. thanks Streetips.
Thank you! This was the perfect series for me! The reason I was having trouble finding this video series was because I had previously watched it some time ago and didn't put together that this one was the one that you were using the beaker instead of the bowl. Getting old I guess!🤣I'm going to do everything the same as your method here just downsized, I'll be using a stainless bowl, and I purchased a power supply like the one you use now. Thanks again!
How cool is that to see how the silver is refined and then you see how it becomes a silver bar. On top of that you can buy it!!! Never saw this before. Wish I was the one buying the silver bar. Wonder how much you got for it. Thank you so so much for showing the process to me. It was super interesting. Love your content! Keep up the good work! Greetings from South Africa...
I have followed your instructions successfully. Thank you very much for sharing your knowledge with us. By the way, in order to make granules I have put a very round bottomed cooking vessel upside down in the water tank and the molten metal hitting it smashed into little beads and they did not stick to each other.
Great work, please explain sometime in the future about refining and purifying of metals, and about your self how you came to be working in this field. I watch your videos for increasing my knowledge. Thanks
By the way wonderful videos as always. I think I've seen many of them multiple times. There's something about this that is addictive and I wish I had the time and means to do it myself.
Been watching you videos for a while now, love them, I am so interested in recovering and refining precious metals. I live in California and possibly will be able to pan some cold from local sand to refine and possibly do a little prospecting.
I've done several videos refining placer gold. The type you mentioned would be a good one also. I need to do one more using inquart and aqua regia. It's the preferred way in my book. Gets 100% of the gold from your fines.
Thank you for this video series taking from start to finished bars. I have been wanting start this as a hobby on the weekend, and now I can. Very much appreciated. If you have any suggestions on acquisition of silver for conversion, I'd love to hear them. Will be looking to see if you have a video on that as well.
We buy sterling silver at estate sales. I just bought a flatware set for $1400. But Mrs sreetips just bought 7.5 pounds (108 Troy ounces) at an estate sale for sixty five bucks. It was all from India early 20th century, unmarked.
@@sreetips Thank you for the reply, I have seen some of the tools that you use while shopping, and the tools that you use. I really like the tester that Mrs. Streetips was using to check for gold and diamonds. You have been doing this for a long time, and I think the advice form the other comment really is the one that is most important. "It won't just fall in your lap. You've got to learn what to look for, get up early and be first" Really appreciate the videos and response. I admire the ethic and hope that I can follow the examples set.
Thank you for the video. I realize that electroplating is a good method for purification, but I am not clear on where the impurities are going. I thought that they fell off the source and into the bottom of the container?
The silver is relatively pure to begin with. The copper goes into solution with the silver. Only the silver plates out. Any insoluble impurities get trapped in the Dacron filter bag.
I'd like to suggest making a waterside for the molten silver. Stainless steel would be a good candidate metal to use. It wouldn't contaminate the silver. Just have a high water flow. I've seen a Canadian RUclips use iron waterslide for copper shot. It would be easiest to curve the stainless into a u shape rather than cut a pipe in half. PLUS it's really fun to watch in the dark! ((hint hint if you give it a try) 😊 Love the videos! 💖💖💖💖
The silver in the basket dissolves from the current passing thru it. The electrolyte gets depleted because some of the silver from it gets plated out as the cell operates.
I got a few tips for your idea to create (precius) metal prills better: 1. As you realized as well the amount of water was not enough. You should use a much higher vessel so the balls have more time to cool down on their way to the bottom and thus do not melt together again on the ground. 2. Keep that cooling water moving! Your pump was a good idea! 3. Your melting vessel should be placed closer to the water surface so the droplets do not splash in with such a high velocity. This has caused that pop-corn flake like shape. Forget about the ice... just more water is sufficient! 4. For further improvement you could add quite a bit of detergent to the cooling water to reduce the surface tension.This will help the drops of metal to keep their shape when hitting the water surface. This will suppress splashing even further! As a result you should get nice shiny balls of silver or any (precius) metal.... just like mercury! And not like that pop-corn flake shape... ;-) de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Granalien#/media/Datei:Granulated_fine_silver.JPG
What happens if you directly put a sterling silver necklace into the basket? Will all the non-silver remain in the basket, or will it not be affected as well by the electric current? And wouldn’t you be able to use the cement silver directly into the basket?
870.6g of silver, maybe 2 grams of silver lost in spatter (bouncing off ice), but still good result! i like your cell construction :D im looking at 3 power supply on my back shelf lol
WOW,~~~Who would ever know just what all is involved in this process!!! It's no wonder that the coin/metal shops offer so much less than spot/ask when dealing!! AND~~~~practicing this sort of endeavor requires (as most science projects do) a certain level of OCD involvement to be successful ~~~not to mention the cost/product ratio, eh!! Me thinks I'll just turn in my coin, walk with a small gain, and keep on a'goin~~~I honor Your Journey through metals and such~~~~Blessings abound, ehyaHO
Jeff, silver is a pain to refine. It's not difficult, like platinum, it's just messy and there are a ton of steps. But the silver crystal is so beautiful at the end.
That was a great and through demonstration of how to build and operate a silver cell. Just an idea for your stainless steal bowel silver cell. I was just wondering what would happen if a neodymium magnet was in the cell? For instance, would the silver follow the magnetic lines.
Would you hypothesis that based on the multiple required “high temp” water washes to eliminate the silver chloride from the wash water, that a small amount of silver chloride was water soluble?
*Just an FYI MOST(Every computer power supply I repurposed into a lab power supply) power supplies aren't that easy to hook up* , if the green wire to ground doesn't work you need to take a 5 watt power resistor at around 100 ohms and put it across the 3 volt lead to ground, so that it detects a load to turn it on. Also you may need to connect a momentary switch to the green wire to turn it on. The resistor should be one of those big white ceramic ones and will get quite warm too warm to touch so stick it to the metal in the power supply.
Is this the same cell you're using nowadays? I thought the one made out of the steel bowl worked a bit better, IE you didn't have to constantly push down the crystals.
I use the 3.5 liter stainless cell. It runs constantly. But I figured that most folks don't have 600 grams (almost 20 Troy ounces) of pure silver needed for the electrolyte. The small cell is a good one for new comers to learn with.
Sreetips is there a specific reason why the cement silver cannot be put straight into the basket? The only thing I can think of is particle size. Too small for the filter causing contamination. 🤷
999 parts per thousand is industry standard. The only way to be sure is to run it through the silver cell. The only way to know if it’s been through the form that it’s in.
Good work, what is purpose for converting silver powder into granules? Granules takes time to dissolve and form Silver crystal in the electrolyte for recovery! can you give information on this
Hello. First of all i wanted to thank you for this channel, which is awesome, and wish you all the best in the comming new year. Please answer for my four questions: 1. What is the difference between two methods "graphite cathode" and "stainless bowl as cathode". 2. Which of these two methods, has a higher purity ratio? Or does it no matter? 3. Does the graphite cathode wear out/spend out/break? Or can be used a million times? 4. Why didn't you use silver cement directly in a anode basket instead of silver shot? Wasn't the melting down a waste of time and energy? @edit- I found an answer for fourth question. In your video named "Silver Cell Basics Making Silver Shot" you say that you have tried this and "it had tended to clog the anode basket". Please tell me, are you sure? This clog was too serious problem to stop the production? Im asking for this step, because i think that the melting down cement->shot is about 20-30% of whole/entire venture/project. If its somehow possible to save this 20-30% it would be really nice, don't you think? Waiting for your reply. Thank you very much.
1. In the glass cell I use graphite because it will conduct electricity to flow through the cell electrolyte. The stainless cell is much easier to operate. The silver is much less likely to hit the anode basket and cause a shot circuit. And the stainless cell is much faster but it ties up more silver in the electrolyte. 2. Both cells produce high purity silver. Because it's soluble in nitric, palladium, in higher concentrations, will tend to plate out with the silver and contaminate the silver. As long as palladium is kept out then both cells produce high purity silver up in the five nines range. 3. The graphite can be used over and over as long as the seal around the wire doesn't fail and allow electrolyte to enter. 4. I tried using silver powder in the anode basket once and it didn't do well. I don't know why. The filter seemed to get clogged up right away and the current flow dropped off. Plus, incinerating (melting into shot) burns off junk you don't want in the cell. It kind of purifies the silver. Here's what your looking for; Ralph on the goldrefiningforum.com said, "you'll throw rocks at your glass and graphite cell once you change to stainless." He was right.
@@sreetips Great video and easy to understand but when you code( you will throw rocks at your glass and graphite cell once you change to stainless steel.) I don't understand because in no. 2, you said both produce high purity silver. How about changing the graphite cell to a silver bar, will that produce higher purity silver.
I had the question about your copper nitrate solution that you dumped in the bucket with the angle iron. Is there a way to easily harvest the copper to have pure copper that could be melted down?
when you're torching the silver _powder,_ (such as 29:37 or 34:33), do you not need to worry about any of the powder getting lost from the pressure? Is it dense enough that you don't need to worry about it getting blown away? (I know that's the case with gold).
@@sreetips Ahh, good to know. Do you worry about powder falling out the bottom of the dish through the hole you drilled (before it gets melted)? Or is that pretty minuscule?
Sreetips if you don't have a wirestripper, instead of fiddling around with a razor blade you can just hold a lighter to the wire until the rubber casing starts to deform then pull it right off with your fingers. Works every time super easy and I may even prefer it to using strippers.
I've collected about 300 + lbs. of silver plate material with the plan of reverse electroplating it to collect the silver. Can I put it in a silver cell when it is in the silver flake form or do I have to remelt it to turn it into "shot" before using it in a silver cell to increase the purity of the metal?
Could the cell apparatus be fitted with something that adds a clonk to it every minute or so? This crystal doesn't seem to grow that strong so maybe a little blow to the side or bottom (depending on where it grows from) could maybe break it up so that it doesn't need to be manually broken, at least as often.
This was for demo purposes only. I’ve used 1 liter glass silver cells to produce and sell silver before. Then, Ralph at Aquilla Refining told me, “switch to a stainless steel silver cell, you’ll throw rocks at your glass cell when you do”. He was right.
Okay, thanks a lot for the information, I appreciate the reply. I knew there must be a good reason because it just seemed like too much extra work if there were not a good reason, Thanks again, I appreciate it.
Try to read the brand of kiln you use but cannot see it. Could you please recommend a good kiln for repeatable use? I see the going models on amazon run about $300.00 and i've seen some videos already where the coils burn out and maintenance needs to be performed. Id rather purchase something "old" that was manufactured with higher quality and stands the trails of time then to buy a "new" setup that will burn out after 5 uses. Also I cannot thank you enough for the education you're giving out. I would love to be a volunteer assistant for any projects you need help with.
@@sreetips TY for such quick reply. I would appreciate your opinion on a situation i've found myself in. I inherited some karat gold & silver that my dad & grandfather accumulated during the recession about 15 yrs ago. They purchased the very things you sell on Ebay. Scrap jewelry, e-scrap, you name it.. They started to refine the gold in small amounts using the nitric/hcl solution just as you do however life events took place and now i'm stuck with what I consider a mess. I'm finding myself sinking hours and hours trying to figure out how to "cash out" of this situation. What I personally would like to do is just have the gold and silver refined to purity, assayed and then keep until ready to sell. However its the journey that's costing me time and money. I've recently purchased the Ishor AGR2 kit because it looked like the easy 1.2.3 step to getting what I want. However I believe I might've just bough snake oil instead. I processed 3oz weight worth of some escrap gold pins that yielded litterally nothing worth my time and I wont continue the escrap at all. I have no interest in so much work for such little yield (TY so much for you video of that BTW) So now im left with the karat gold, scraps and what not. IDKW to do right now.. I feel in over my head. I dont have anyone nearby that is into this sort of hobby and the local jewelers only offer pennies on the dollar for what these PMs are supposedly worth (i,e: Spot Price). All in all it seems like PMs are a scam to the public unless you're truly into it as a hobby or plan to make it your living. What do you recommend for someone in my situation?
FYI: That ARG2 kit has some "mystery chemicals" like MX3 (non-toxic nitric alternative), Urea (nitric neutralizer?), Quadradic precipitant (precips the dissolved gold). Im ok with this process but would like to know from your knowledge just how likely I am to recover the advertised 99.5% pure gold. Also what happens to all of those other dissolved metals? They are wasted I suppose unless I am interested in doing what you do by trying to recover. It seems quite a chore..
Gold plated pins should be done in a sulfuric acid stripping cell. Karat gold is inquart with silver or copper, part with nitric then refine with aqua regia. Gold filled material - I just did a series on it. I don’t refine computer scrap anymore because the yields are too low.
I got no real interest n doing this but watching the process over these set of videos was just great.
So well made. All of the processes explained and a good sense of timeframes.
Better than TV!
Big props to you for illustrating every step & taking appropriate safety measures. This is great content
Thanks for giving so many details of your operation. Very helpful!
Im with you . he has my credit .
Yes . 2 👍 up .
Ive been sitting here for the last 4+ hours watching the 3 videos. Absolutely fascinating. Silver recovery is more about chemistry than about fire. I used to collect silver from large film negatives when silver was used and the fixer was put through a recovery unit. I wondered what happened to it afterwards. Thanks very much.
agreed, I have never had the slightest interest in precious metal refining, but his videos are awesome...Informative...keeps me watching. Great job Sreetips!
I watch on 2x to save time
Where do you find the speed adjustment. I couldn’t find it.
@@sreetips Gearbox icon. =)
Absolutely fantastic video. The lesson on how to build the equipment was outstanding. The finish on making and finishing the silver superb. Thank you.
I have been watching this series just for entertainment. I find the chemistry amazing. Thanks for producing high quality content, and I look forward to what's next!
instablaster
Magic
You are skillful, talent and patient. I like your video.
You are fantastic. Absolutely enjoy watching you work. You Sir are an inspiration!
I NEVER get tired of watching your videos. In fact, I watch them repeatedly. They are THAT fascinating.
Thank you. I watch them while I’m at the gym - makes the time fly by.
I built one exactly the same as yours and it works great! Thanks for the inspiration! Love all your videos!
That is truly amaysing to now you start refining 11 years ago... I have learn in this 3 episode, that refining of Silver is hard, messy... and very dangeres. But so lovley to see the silver finish 😊. Thank you Sir, and take
Care. God bless you.
Thank you Mr sreetips to produces and spread your refining secret to us Who follow you. 😊
I set here and watched all three of these videos back to back to back. 🤣😂😂😂 Really appreciate your time and effort making them brother. Can’t wait to start my journey refining silver. Those crystals are super dope. Lol
You've got the entire process down to a fine art - Great work :)
This is one of the greatest videos I have ever seen. Thank you!
Sreetips, you're one smart man👍.
It’s interesting to watch these old videos and see how you have changed/improved your processes
Thank you for your wonderful detailed instructions. I have followed you exclusively through most of your videos.
Thank you for teaching. I may never do any of this in my lifetime, but I sure enjoy what you do. It is true art. I also like how you refine your techniques as you go.
Wow awesome series. I love the detail that you talk thru. Great series. Look forward to many more as I search thru your videos. Great information.
Best series of videos on refining I’ve seen, great job, thanks for sharing your knowledge, 3 hrs well invested
Just watched all 3. Unbelievable. Thank you for the education. Truly impressed
Seeing those flasks with the blue and green fluids reminds me of what chemists used to have in shop windows back in the day, now i know it originates from these processes! Ye olde alchemy!
I wish you were my science teacher back in highschool, I would have learned so much more! Thank you for your most excellent content!
Well I have bin watching vides on this for about a good year or so and I have to say yours was by far the better thank so much I watch all all three of the silver ,and look forward to seeing the gold recovery soon when the time comes ,need to start up a patreon..thanks again
This episode got by me but i always watch more than once and I manage to catch it so it was new for me so many thanks for the video brother.
I’m glad there’s not a part 4.....if I watch another hour of RUclips my wife will kill me!
Great video! Loved every minute of it!
Brilliant Kevin!!
Thank you, I have a whole new respect for you after watching this.
Great work! Really enjoyed the full 3 videos!
I use electrolysis for rust removal in car restoration. I'm even learning new idea's for this process from you. You are such an interesting intelligent intuitive guy, I'm hooked. thanks Streetips.
Excellent, thank you
Wow incredibly beautiful and amazing! Great work!
I'm new to all of this. Absolutely amazing. Who would have thought of this
Man I love the ingenuity
and your shop floor is awesome! Looks just like mine
Wow most interesting video that I've watched in a long time. You should have more subscribers.✌👌
Thank you! This was the perfect series for me! The reason I was having trouble finding this video series was because I had previously watched it some time ago and didn't put together that this one was the one that you were using the beaker instead of the bowl. Getting old I guess!🤣I'm going to do everything the same as your method here just downsized, I'll be using a stainless bowl, and I purchased a power supply like the one you use now. Thanks again!
Excellent presentation! I thoroughly enjoyed the three parts. I imagine that bar could be labelled 999+.
Your very good worker ,that what do you make is so beautiful.
Streetips is the best
How cool is that to see how the silver is refined and then you see how it becomes a silver bar.
On top of that you can buy it!!!
Never saw this before.
Wish I was the one buying the silver bar.
Wonder how much you got for it.
Thank you so so much for showing the process to me.
It was super interesting.
Love your content!
Keep up the good work!
Greetings from South Africa...
Congratulations for the fine work!
I have followed your instructions successfully. Thank you very much for sharing your knowledge with us. By the way, in order to make granules I have put a very round bottomed cooking vessel upside down in the water tank and the molten metal hitting it smashed into little beads and they did not stick to each other.
Thanks, I’ll check it out
Brilliant tutorial thanks Sreetips! Im buying scrap sterling silver so i can refine it. It’s a stunning metal in its pure form ❤
I love your show I'm very happy I stumbled across your channel. The knowledge I've gained is priceless. Thank you
your videos makes the process of this very very easy ty i just did my first silver refine from 925 jewelry to a 1kg block of 999 silver
Bravo!
@sreetips how do you think a stainless steel anode basket would go, instead of the Rubbermaid container? Would that cause any issues/ contamination?
I’m not sure. But I’ve achieved excellent results with the poly plastic food containers that I use. So I don’t see any reason to change.
I found your ebay listings and added you to saved sellers. Thanks for the great videos you always make.
I have many more items to list. I'll get them listed soon - no time!
Great video. Thank you for producing high quality content.
Great work, please explain sometime in the future about refining and purifying of metals, and about your self how you came to be working in this field. I watch your videos for increasing my knowledge. Thanks
By the way wonderful videos as always. I think I've seen many of them multiple times. There's something about this that is addictive and I wish I had the time and means to do it myself.
I had a great time watching and learning. Thank you for sharing Sir
I bought 5- 1 ounce coins to start the process of the 1L cell will the coins work
I have used pure silver coins to make electrolyte. But be sure and do it in a fume hood. No way to safely do these reactions without one.
This video is absolutely sick I love it definitely learned something
Whats a good alternative for your filters because those filters cost about 10 a piece now?? The dacron filters is what I mean.
Been watching you videos for a while now, love them, I am so interested in recovering and refining precious metals. I live in California and possibly will be able to pan some cold from local sand to refine and possibly do a little prospecting.
I've done several videos refining placer gold. The type you mentioned would be a good one also. I need to do one more using inquart and aqua regia. It's the preferred way in my book. Gets 100% of the gold from your fines.
thanks for that, now I'll have to convince the wife to part with some if the sterling silver flatware, lol
My hats off to Mr. Genius, stay blessed
wow you did a great job pouring that bar . it looks like the perfect shape
Thank you for this video series taking from start to finished bars. I have been wanting start this as a hobby on the weekend, and now I can. Very much appreciated. If you have any suggestions on acquisition of silver for conversion, I'd love to hear them. Will be looking to see if you have a video on that as well.
We buy sterling silver at estate sales. I just bought a flatware set for $1400. But Mrs sreetips just bought 7.5 pounds (108 Troy ounces) at an estate sale for sixty five bucks. It was all from India early 20th century, unmarked.
It’s out there but it won’t just fall in your lap. You’ve got to learn what to look for. You’ve got to get up early and be there first.
@@sreetips Thank you for the reply, I have seen some of the tools that you use while shopping, and the tools that you use. I really like the tester that Mrs. Streetips was using to check for gold and diamonds. You have been doing this for a long time, and I think the advice form the other comment really is the one that is most important. "It won't just fall in your lap. You've got to learn what to look for, get up early and be first"
Really appreciate the videos and response. I admire the ethic and hope that I can follow the examples set.
Thank you for the video. I realize that electroplating is a good method for purification, but I am not clear on where the impurities are going. I thought that they fell off the source and into the bottom of the container?
The silver is relatively pure to begin with. The copper goes into solution with the silver. Only the silver plates out. Any insoluble impurities get trapped in the Dacron filter bag.
I find your videos extremely fascinating
Thank you
A lovely series of videos 👍 very informative
I'd like to suggest making a waterside for the molten silver. Stainless steel would be a good candidate metal to use. It wouldn't contaminate the silver. Just have a high water flow. I've seen a Canadian RUclips use iron waterslide for copper shot. It would be easiest to curve the stainless into a u shape rather than cut a pipe in half. PLUS it's really fun to watch in the dark! ((hint hint if you give it a try) 😊 Love the videos! 💖💖💖💖
I like the size of the shot that it produces.
At 1:01:05, why would the electrolyte get depleted of silver? Doesn't the silver you're adding in the basket keep the concentration up?
The silver in the basket dissolves from the current passing thru it. The electrolyte gets depleted because some of the silver from it gets plated out as the cell operates.
Some ultra clear resin castings of those crystals could be a novel gemstone.. ❤
I got a few tips for your idea to create (precius) metal prills better:
1. As you realized as well the amount of water was not enough. You should use a much higher vessel so the balls have more time to cool down on their way to the bottom and thus do not melt together again on the ground.
2. Keep that cooling water moving! Your pump was a good idea!
3. Your melting vessel should be placed closer to the water surface so the droplets do not splash in with such a high velocity. This has caused that pop-corn flake like shape. Forget about the ice... just more water is sufficient!
4. For further improvement you could add quite a bit of detergent to the cooling water to reduce the surface tension.This will help the drops of metal to keep their shape when hitting the water surface. This will suppress splashing even further!
As a result you should get nice shiny balls of silver or any (precius) metal.... just like mercury! And not like that pop-corn flake shape... ;-)
de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Granalien#/media/Datei:Granulated_fine_silver.JPG
This is the easiest way that I've found so far, copied it from a TV commercial about precious metals: ruclips.net/video/F_Md0Lc6F94/видео.html
What happens if you directly put a sterling silver necklace into the basket? Will all the non-silver remain in the basket, or will it not be affected as well by the electric current?
And wouldn’t you be able to use the cement silver directly into the basket?
Sterling in the basket, the electrolyte would quickly become saturated with copper. Cement silver in the filter, it would quickly get clogged up.
870.6g of silver, maybe 2 grams of silver lost in spatter (bouncing off ice), but still good result! i like your cell construction :D im looking at 3 power supply on my back shelf lol
Ah, this is the part I needed! I have several ounces of roughly 99% silver crystals that I want to take to the max purity.
Why not drill through the graphite and just wrap the bare wire around and twist to secure?
Thanks for sharing your knowledge! Good stuff!!
WOW,~~~Who would ever know just what all is involved in this process!!! It's no wonder that the coin/metal shops offer so much less than spot/ask when dealing!! AND~~~~practicing this sort of endeavor requires (as most science projects do) a certain level of OCD involvement to be successful ~~~not to mention the cost/product ratio, eh!! Me thinks I'll just turn in my coin, walk with a small gain, and keep on a'goin~~~I honor Your Journey through metals and such~~~~Blessings abound, ehyaHO
Jeff, silver is a pain to refine. It's not difficult, like platinum, it's just messy and there are a ton of steps. But the silver crystal is so beautiful at the end.
Dude you are awesome......the real life walter white.....keep it up man your videos are great!
That was a great and through demonstration of how to build and operate a silver cell. Just an idea for your stainless steal bowel silver cell. I was just wondering what would happen if a neodymium magnet was in the cell? For instance, would the silver follow the magnetic lines.
Not the silver, but maybe the current flow since electricity and magnetism are related.
1:05:46 How concentrated does the HCl have to be to precipitate out silver chloride?
The label says 31.45%
@@sreetips cool, thanks!
Damn this guy's amazing - he knows how to do every bloody thing!!! lol...
Why the electrólisis process? Can’t you just melt the Silver shot into bars and still be 999 fine? Not sure what the reason for it?
Possibly, but the only way to be sure is to run it through the cell.
Would it be possible to drill a hole in the graphite with a regular drill or does it have to be with the machine you used?
Regular drill should work
@@sreetips Alright, thank you!
How do you know what your different options are for the cathode . You know graphite, copper, etc. what are the choices? And how do you know
Copper is not an option. I’ve used graphite block and stainless steel bowl. I learned this on the goldrefiningforum.com
Question: Why create pellets out of the powdered silver instead of just putting the powder into the silver cell basket filter?
Powdered silver doesn’t work, clogs the filter and current flow drops off. Plus it’s messy. Tried it with negative results.
Would you hypothesis that based on the multiple required “high temp” water washes to eliminate the silver chloride from the wash water, that a small amount of silver chloride was water soluble?
Yes, it is
*Just an FYI MOST(Every computer power supply I repurposed into a lab power supply) power supplies aren't that easy to hook up* , if the green wire to ground doesn't work you need to take a 5 watt power resistor at around 100 ohms and put it across the 3 volt lead to ground, so that it detects a load to turn it on. Also you may need to connect a momentary switch to the green wire to turn it on. The resistor should be one of those big white ceramic ones and will get quite warm too warm to touch so stick it to the metal in the power supply.
What is the difference and what you’re doing with a lot of chemicals and what we did in the photo shop taking a silver out of the room film chemicals?
You “recovered” the silver from chemicals. I “refined” the silver in the electrolytic silver cell. Recovery and refining are two different processes.
@@sreetips what then would I have to do to refine the scrapings off my cylinder?
Thanks so much for this series.
Two questions: What is the purity of the cement silver, and how much trouble is it to get something of value out of the copper sludge?
disgruntledtoons cement silver is about 99% and I’ve never tried getting copper
Is this the same cell you're using nowadays? I thought the one made out of the steel bowl worked a bit better, IE you didn't have to constantly push down the crystals.
I use the 3.5 liter stainless cell. It runs constantly. But I figured that most folks don't have 600 grams (almost 20 Troy ounces) of pure silver needed for the electrolyte. The small cell is a good one for new comers to learn with.
If the anod bar is not contacting with electrolyte, is it nessesary for it to be made out of cement silver?
No
Is the brushes you bought carbon silver, carbon copper or carbon brass.
If you precipitate the copper out of the solution with iron can you use the electrolyte again after you reach the copper saturation point.
I don’t think that would work.
Sreetips is there a specific reason why the cement silver cannot be put straight into the basket?
The only thing I can think of is particle size. Too small for the filter causing contamination. 🤷
Tried it once, the filter clogged up and current flow dropped off rapidly
@@sreetipsthank you, that's interesting, do you have any theory of why that happened?
I honestly don’t know
Great videos! What’s the use for silver crystal? I’m sure you mentioned it somewhere, I somehow didn’t catch it!
999 parts per thousand is industry standard. The only way to be sure is to run it through the silver cell. The only way to know if it’s been through the form that it’s in.
Good work, what is purpose for converting silver powder into granules? Granules takes time to dissolve and form Silver crystal in the electrolyte for recovery! can you give information on this
The powder clogs the filter
What if you only cut in pieces all the silverware and put it as anod in the silver cell?
It has too much copper in it. The electrolyte would quickly become contaminated with dissolved copper.
I could watch this all day. Too bad I got to work.
Hello. First of all i wanted to thank you for this channel, which is awesome, and wish you all the best in the comming new year.
Please answer for my four questions:
1. What is the difference between two methods "graphite cathode" and "stainless bowl as cathode".
2. Which of these two methods, has a higher purity ratio? Or does it no matter?
3. Does the graphite cathode wear out/spend out/break? Or can be used a million times?
4. Why didn't you use silver cement directly in a anode basket instead of silver shot? Wasn't the melting down a waste of time and energy?
@edit- I found an answer for fourth question. In your video named "Silver Cell Basics Making Silver Shot" you say that you have tried this and "it had tended to clog the anode basket". Please tell me, are you sure? This clog was too serious problem to stop the production? Im asking for this step, because i think that the melting down cement->shot is about 20-30% of whole/entire venture/project. If its somehow possible to save this 20-30% it would be really nice, don't you think?
Waiting for your reply. Thank you very much.
1. In the glass cell I use graphite because it will conduct electricity to flow through the cell electrolyte. The stainless cell is much easier to operate. The silver is much less likely to hit the anode basket and cause a shot circuit. And the stainless cell is much faster but it ties up more silver in the electrolyte. 2. Both cells produce high purity silver. Because it's soluble in nitric, palladium, in higher concentrations, will tend to plate out with the silver and contaminate the silver. As long as palladium is kept out then both cells produce high purity silver up in the five nines range. 3. The graphite can be used over and over as long as the seal around the wire doesn't fail and allow electrolyte to enter. 4. I tried using silver powder in the anode basket once and it didn't do well. I don't know why. The filter seemed to get clogged up right away and the current flow dropped off. Plus, incinerating (melting into shot) burns off junk you don't want in the cell. It kind of purifies the silver. Here's what your looking for; Ralph on the goldrefiningforum.com said, "you'll throw rocks at your glass and graphite cell once you change to stainless." He was right.
@@sreetips Great video and easy to understand but when you code( you will throw rocks at your glass and graphite cell once you change to stainless steel.) I don't understand because in no. 2, you said both produce high purity silver.
How about changing the graphite cell to a silver bar, will that produce higher purity silver.
Just finished all 3 parts after the ultrasound gold fingers and the $24k gold bar...FASCINATING! Say...can I buy a small vile of crystals?
5 grams listed on my eBay store
I had the question about your copper nitrate solution that you dumped in the bucket with the angle iron. Is there a way to easily harvest the copper to have pure copper that could be melted down?
Possibly, but I don’t work much with base metals. No money in it.
Why do you have to add the silver to the silver cell after you have melted the silver cement, is it to get a higher purity?
Yes
when you're torching the silver _powder,_ (such as 29:37 or 34:33), do you not need to worry about any of the powder getting lost from the pressure? Is it dense enough that you don't need to worry about it getting blown away? (I know that's the case with gold).
Yes, it will blow away. I keep the flame low until a crust forms over the powder then turn the flame up.
@@sreetips Ahh, good to know. Do you worry about powder falling out the bottom of the dish through the hole you drilled (before it gets melted)? Or is that pretty minuscule?
So on your oxygen accedelyne torch, it appeared as if you're using a cutting tip, would it work better using brazing tips?
Yes
Sreetips if you don't have a wirestripper, instead of fiddling around with a razor blade you can just hold a lighter to the wire until the rubber casing starts to deform then pull it right off with your fingers. Works every time super easy and I may even prefer it to using strippers.
I’ll give it a try, thanks
I've collected about 300 + lbs. of silver plate material with the plan of reverse electroplating it to collect the silver. Can I put it in a silver cell when it is in the silver flake form or do I have to remelt it to turn it into "shot" before using it in a silver cell to increase the purity of the metal?
I melt into shot before running the impure silver through the silver cell.
Thanks for the video could you use pure silver wire for the cathode instead of the graphite block?
Possibly, but I've never tried that so I don't know for sure.
Could the cell apparatus be fitted with something that adds a clonk to it every minute or so? This crystal doesn't seem to grow that strong so maybe a little blow to the side or bottom (depending on where it grows from) could maybe break it up so that it doesn't need to be manually broken, at least as often.
This was for demo purposes only. I’ve used 1 liter glass silver cells to produce and sell silver before. Then, Ralph at Aquilla Refining told me, “switch to a stainless steel silver cell, you’ll throw rocks at your glass cell when you do”. He was right.
A slow stirring device that could rotate slowly and continuously knock down the crystals might be beneficial.
Why do you melt the silver cement into shot to make the silver crystal rather than using the silver cement to make the crystal?
I tried adding the silver powder directly to the anode basket with poor results. The filter loaded up and current flow dropped off.
Okay, thanks a lot for the information, I appreciate the reply. I knew there must be a good reason because it just seemed like too much extra work if there were not a good reason, Thanks again, I appreciate it.
I thought the same. I just wonder if it could be done more easy, maybe to press little pellets with the powder.
Try to read the brand of kiln you use but cannot see it. Could you please recommend a good kiln for repeatable use?
I see the going models on amazon run about $300.00 and i've seen some videos already where the coils burn out and maintenance needs to be performed.
Id rather purchase something "old" that was manufactured with higher quality and stands the trails of time then to buy a "new" setup that will burn out after 5 uses.
Also I cannot thank you enough for the education you're giving out. I would love to be a volunteer assistant for any projects you need help with.
I have a Kerr Electromelt electric furnace bought on eBay used. About $300
@@sreetips TY for such quick reply. I would appreciate your opinion on a situation i've found myself in.
I inherited some karat gold & silver that my dad & grandfather accumulated during the recession about 15 yrs ago. They purchased the very things you sell on Ebay. Scrap jewelry, e-scrap, you name it.. They started to refine the gold in small amounts using the nitric/hcl solution just as you do however life events took place and now i'm stuck with what I consider a mess.
I'm finding myself sinking hours and hours trying to figure out how to "cash out" of this situation.
What I personally would like to do is just have the gold and silver refined to purity, assayed and then keep until ready to sell. However its the journey that's costing me time and money.
I've recently purchased the Ishor AGR2 kit because it looked like the easy 1.2.3 step to getting what I want. However I believe I might've just bough snake oil instead.
I processed 3oz weight worth of some escrap gold pins that yielded litterally nothing worth my time and I wont continue the escrap at all. I have no interest in so much work for such little yield (TY so much for you video of that BTW)
So now im left with the karat gold, scraps and what not. IDKW to do right now.. I feel in over my head. I dont have anyone nearby that is into this sort of hobby and the local jewelers only offer pennies on the dollar for what these PMs are supposedly worth (i,e: Spot Price).
All in all it seems like PMs are a scam to the public unless you're truly into it as a hobby or plan to make it your living.
What do you recommend for someone in my situation?
FYI: That ARG2 kit has some "mystery chemicals" like MX3 (non-toxic nitric alternative), Urea (nitric neutralizer?), Quadradic precipitant (precips the dissolved gold). Im ok with this process but would like to know from your knowledge just how likely I am to recover the advertised 99.5% pure gold. Also what happens to all of those other dissolved metals? They are wasted I suppose unless I am interested in doing what you do by trying to recover. It seems quite a chore..
Sorry, I have no experience with any of those names. i learned from the pros on the goldrefiningforum.com
Gold plated pins should be done in a sulfuric acid stripping cell. Karat gold is inquart with silver or copper, part with nitric then refine with aqua regia. Gold filled material - I just did a series on it. I don’t refine computer scrap anymore because the yields are too low.
I'm wondering if you could use the silver powder instead of making shot, would the process be faster with the same result
No, I’ve tried and it doesn’t work