Electrolysis is such a cool thing. My brother used to be one of the top printed circuit board production managers in the country, if not the world back in the 1980s and 1990s producing multilayer, flex, and exotic materials printed circuit boards doing small batch prototypes and large batch production runs for years. He was 17 yrs old when he got in the business. We used to use the large plating tanks to gold plate small items just to mess around. He was the first person to get circuits on a board made from Teflon. He was also one of the first to perfect the process of wire bonding processors to circuit boards. He knows all the chemistry and electrical engineering , all the processes for plating copper, nickel , silver, and gold and probably more. Thanks for the video. It brought back some fond memories
@@anomicxtreme --- no, he stayed in the production manager capacity as troubleshooter. He had a friend who was THE go to guy in the board building industry if your company was losing money and the owners or board members wanted to spend a bunch of money they hired this guy and he had power to hire and fire anyone in order to make a company profitable again and he would go around the country and spend maybe 6 mos or a year figuring out where the problems were in these companies and he had multiple degrees and was seriously a genius and he taught my brother most of what he needed to know to be the best production manager and this guy would get hired by comanies like Texas Instruments, Teradyne, Gould, just to name some I remember, and when he got settled in he would then tell the owners that they were losing money in whatever department and if they were losing in processing department he would then hire my brother to come in and figure out where in the process system they were screwed up. Why their boards weren't passing inspections, whether it was in photo, or cad, or laminating, etching, drilling, wherever, my brother could and still can look at any circuit board, and figure out what is wrong with it. So he and his friend traveled atound the country fixing companies or setting up board manufacturing divisions of companies that wanted into the business. But once they did what they needed they moved on to another company until my brother got tired of moving every year to another state. He was only in his late 20s and decided to stay in Silicon Valley around 1988 and worked for big and small companies doing prototypes, exotics and specialty boards. Then he burned out in his mid thirties and learned to restore and install hardwood floors. Total 180° turn in trades. He worked on old Victorians in the Bay Area with his own business for around 20 years. Board shops would still call him a couple times a year to consult or troubleshoot their processes when they had a batch of boards they couldn't get right and he'd walk in and sometimes he could just look at one of the boards and he would know immediately what was wrong with it and he would need a day to figure out why it was messed up and he'd figure that out set that particular process right, run a few boards through the whole process and test them and make any adjustments in whatever department and get it right and charge a bunch of money and go back to working on hardwood floors. That businesses, board and chip/wafer processing is and was moving so fast, and the technology changes daily and the amount of money being made or being lost on a daily basis (millions per day) the pressure from the owners on a production manager is insanely intense and to try to stay at the top of the industry is not possible for very long especially when everything started going micro and nano. A person cannot keep up with the new developments at the pace that things were changing during the 2000s. You could keep up if you were given time to go back to school and by that time the industry has changed again. That industry was killing my brother. He was 17 when he got in the business as a driver. By the time he was 21 he was one of the best in the business of producing top tier custom and prototype small batch military and exotic materials board building. About 17 yrs he did that.
@@lp8650 --- I see exactly what you are saying or I should say I'm picking up what you're puttin' down. LOL I see no benefit in the refinement if it is already .99999 24k gold. I think he is doing the process just for the chemistry method to show people that it is possible to take raw or scrap gold (of any karat or mixed with other material) and break it down, get the other valuable minerals separated and the worthless crap separated as well, and then the processes of then the refinement and then turning it into an ingot or bar. I think he uses 24k because it is straightforward for people who may not understand the differences in gold refinement? I can't remember if he started this video with a bunch of scrap jewelry of plated and filled etc... and then did the processes of bringing it up to 24k or if that was a different video.
It's been a couple of months since I watched one of your videos. You remind me a lot of Bob Ross....seriously. I'd love to have you as my neighbor. Man, you have some cool equipment
When you go to melt very high purity stuff; get a fresh graphite mold that has a graphite lid; load it, then put it in one of your melting furnaces.... The bar that comes out of it will look immaculate when you let it cool and solidify then remove it from the mold. Looks excellent. Keep up the good work Kevin!
Big issue is for this refining technique to get the gold in the spent electrowinning solution low enough. In our gold recovery process (using standard cyanide leaching solutions) we can get down to 1-2 ppm Au in spent solution however we are not trying to produce high purity cathode, just trying to recover everything we can from solution and put it in a bullion bar. The refining is the Refinery's problem we sell to. Great video as always!!!
A couple of tips: 1: obviously a pure gold anode is best, but if you use titanium, give it a light spray with WD40 - gold will peel off nicely. 2: best not to use a stir bar. You want any impurities to fall to the bottom as a sludge. Constant stirring will stir sludge into electrolyte and enable it to be entrapped in the collected gold sponge defeating the whole purpose of purification. 3: voltage control is critical. You want contaminants to sludge out and not be transferred to cathode. Slow and steady does the job - higher volt (and amps) will force contaminants across to cathode and not give them time to sludge out.
Not sure how I ran across your video but I’m glad I did. Your videos are amazing and very informative. Can’t wait to watch more videos when I have time.
in the future for a setup that doesnt need soldering, you should run the anode through the rollers to make it thin enough that the alligator clip can hold the gold directly, and instead of soldering leads on, just make some ladder steps to hold it higher, and as the bar shortens you can lower it down farther into the solution, this will also mean that the excess gold in the end is smaller in mass and easier to process later without having to melt all the solder off. This also makes it faster to switch to a new anode, just have another thin long piece prepared and you can effectively hot swap it, you just have to get a little better at rolling them not in the shape of a banana lol
Your videos are very fascinating to watch. I've always been impressed by the things you can do in chemistry. I really appreciate your explanations too, very informative
I been watching you a long time Doc this was 1 super satisfying video. I can't wait to see where you go with this? The silver cell by itself is totally badass.
I have been doing electroforming process and refining using AR for 7 yrs. Electrolytic refining for 3 years using almost the same procedure as this in the video.
Had me watching like a hawk. It never ceases to amaze me watching the gold disolve and float through the electrolite and reform. Beautiful. Thank you for sharing with us!
It is fun, and not as daunting to get set up for an introductory experiment as you make it sound. Firstly you don't even need a power supply to start with simple reactions. You can weakly plate copper onto steel by dipping a piece of steel in a solution of copper sulphate, sold as root killer in most hardware stores. You can also electrolitically clean metalc surfaces like copper or silver, with a weak vinegar and salt solution, and 9v battery. You can grow copper and tin crystals crystals the same way, but for tin you first make tin chloride and use that as your electrolyte.
My and my mate used to make hygrogen and oxegen with with nothing but a pair of wires, 2 nails, a jam jar and a power socket (extreamly dangerous btw, do not do this). You don't need much more to do it safely, just a cheap powersupply and you're rolling. You'll not be able to refine/plate with gold or silver, but you'll be able to at least start learning stuff and dip your toes into electrolosis.
@@DaftyBoi412 yes I used 5v 2A USB chargers successfully for plating copper. I used copper wire as (+) and the workpiece as (-) as a electrolyte I used HCL hydrochloric acid. Very simple setup. No need for any copper sulphate And of course standard batteries AA to plate with gold and silver, graphite (pencil) electrode
I have done a hell of a lot of gold and silver soldering, it can be time consuming and can go wrong easily without a lot of experience. Get an orion pulse tig welder and the job is literally done in 2 mins, the biggest plus that no flux or solder is required and a weld way way outdoes a solder joint for strength by many factors. Love your videos they bring me joy.🏴👍
I used to work in a macinist/welding shop. Per the hi tech welder had, you can weld any metal. He welded a big copper cooling head for NASA, die to complexity it was machined in 2 parts and welded with the big welder and #4 copper ground wire.
Did you know magnetism can replace electrolyte! So measure the amps your system is using, and then switch to another method of stirring, like a glass 'T' shape connected to an overhead drill etc. And you will notice less amperage is being consumed!!! So if you want to make it consume more amperage without adding anything extra... introduce a Powerfull 'AF' magnet on the side or somewhere where that won't interfere with the stirring.
Good to see you using CORNING casserole dishes and lab equipment. I grew up in Corning and my ancestors worked in the factory there. Thanks for the chemistry lesson and neat video on creating beautiful gold from scrap items.
NurdRage did a demonstration of recovering copper from copper nitrate/sulfate. In his video he showed that low current and high concentration led to stronger deposition on the cathode, while high current and low concentration led to poor, powdery deposits that detached from the cathode. So it depends on what you want.
@@nothingnothing1799 -Or maybe the opposite? Start low so you get a poor powdery deposit on the cathode that will detach easier later, and then crank it up so the rest of it sticks to the poor deposit, and when you're done pull it all off in one piece since the innermost part will be poorly attached.- nvm, I'm dumb.
@@williambarnes5023 low current produces the stronger composition and high current produces the powdery deposits, so starting high would make the base layer crumbly Edit: np I honestly had to reread it a couple of time to make sure I hadn't made the mistake
@@nuggetellawho taught you math? Lol. It's a difference of 0.0009. And it doesn't matter: do you know that that small of a difference of a chemical in our organs can kill us? It's not arbitrary.
One thing you might try is using a cylindrical pin/needle/rod cathode for collection. Seems you could just twist that crystal right off so long as the substrate was smooth enough. Real cool vid thnx. Hope to see more improvement on the gold crystal making.
Okay so Anon chemist here who's been watching your videos for a while when I'm seeing this and I look at this and I see you're using the gold anode and it just looks like literally your precipitating it and it's entirely different way instead of doing it the way that you normally do it just looks like you're melting down the gold bar in a gold solution just to be collected neponsit titanium bar 18:01 so given that are you really actually gaining anything by doing it this way or is it just another way to precipitate gold from the solution
Here is something else, don't know if it will help, Exclusion Zone Water is negatively charged. That is you could make your cathode Superhydrophillic, leave it is distilled water for a while then bring it into the electrolyte ???
I worked in custom thermoplastic injection molding. Any part that had to release besides off a flat surface had a draft angle of about 3 degrees. I kept looking at your turbine blade and I instinctively wanted to place a draft on all surfaces with fine sandpaper finishing with Emory cloth to a polished surface. Wouldn't have to be mirror just less than the draft angle. It would pop off with a few taps. Also was thinking seeing how thermocondictive Ti is you could place ice against the hanger bend while running the gold end under hot faucet water. It would release easier that way. Another technique used in injection molding. Cooling channels inside mold , drafted angles for release. Little round details on the plastic part is remnant of the ejector pins that push out part. Retired, i miss work so much.
When you love your job, it’s hard to leave it. I have another turbine blade. I’ll trim it up to the specs you gave and I’ll repeat this in a future video. It was easy to do and the gold is very high purity.
Thank you for a very informative workshop. I'm not sure if anyone else has mentioned this, but if you can't find a sharpie, you can use the lines on the beaker as reference points.
87 grams of .9999 pure gold at $64.66 per gram = $5,625.00 in gold. Awesome job! If you've never held an ounce of pure gold in your hand the weight, density and the glow are amazing.
@@trillionairebyinflation8527 I'm also curious why people wouldn't do this all the time, and he hasn't really answered the question... is it because it's too dangerous? is it not cost effective? does it cost more to acquire the equipment and raw materials than you would earn by selling the gold?
I would just like to give you a hearty thank you. Learning about electrolysis has allowed me to create hydrogen fuel from water and baking soda. I would have never alleviated my electricity bill had it not been for you sir... THANK YOU SO KINDLY❤
I’d be interested to see the difference between the quality of that bar and the good you precipitated from the electrolyte. It seems you used pure gold to refine pure gold so are you really getting better quality pure gold or is it just that much more gold? Plus your melt dish looked like it may have had some trash in it as well so I wonder how much contamination came into the bar from there. Very interesting indeed. I’d be interested in an analysis of the bars quality.
I am also concerned that the melt dish used to produce the 0.9999 pure bar wasn't completely virginal or in pristine & new 'factory clean' condition. Any informative thoughts you may have to allay these concerns would be greatly appreciated if not completely helpful.
Awesome work Sreetips. The lighting and angle on the electrolyte has been one of your best shots, it actually looked like shining gold in solution rather than the forbidden chloroauric coolade. Room for improvement but I guess thats partially what this second attempt was for. Like other commenters I'm sceptical that a soldered anode is the best approach. Cant knock Bobs welding though... Great vid! Great result, great process... Hats off to Emil Wohlwill from 149 years in the future. Wonder what kind of hat he was wearing in 1874...
Nice, electrolysis was my favorite part of chemistry. Our chemistry teacher taught us a lab that let us electroplate our quarters in gold hahaha it was epic to learn that AND we got to walk away with a cool ass momento. Cool to see you do it here
if you used a stainless steel bowl like with the silver cell, would the gold not come off the bowl in the same way the silver does? or would the electrolyte corrode/dissolve the bowl?
If you want to grow much larger crystals, try a pulse deposition plating at kHz range frequency. Something like a 1.5V sine wave with a .5V DC offset, so it spends most of its time plating, at 1~10 kHz. If it's easier for you to set up a square wave, that should also work fine.
@@kanepritchard5831 At a glance, it seems legit, 1.5V sine wave with 0.5V DC offset will have a range of -1V to 2V, the negative portion reverses the process, dissolving the gold on the cathode, but it should affect the smallest crystals more, so that the larger crystals are left behind.
A Fantastic experiment ! Thanks so much for risking your gold to show us what happens when you leave your plating machine on too long , the gold collected was beautiful and would be nice to see a close up. Thank you much
you should consider making silver and gold 'art exhibits' using this crystal growing method. gold and silver crystals together mounted onto something would be a huge hit with the fans. i would buy several.
i'd be massively interested to see what some of what you have produced looks like under an electron microscope. i'm curious if we can see differences in structure at that scale, or if it looks the same as standard methods. not sure if there's any near you, but your local uni/college might have some fans that can help :)
Just had another thought concerning the supports can you scratch or etch into the mould a thin semicircle From one end and connect the outside edges together forming the semicircle. This way all that's needed is to bend it over the beakers edge and then connect the positive lead to the loop
Next time you do make a new bar for the gold cell, you could try taking a small bar and have it rolled out into a wire of desired thickness and when pouring the new bar have them either sitting in the mold or dip them into the molten gold. The cathode might benefit from a narrowing a slight bit near the end to help it come off a bit easier but not too much so it will just slip off in the cell.
the gold you precip'd out of the electrolyte looks SUPER clean. Normally its a caramel to " gold " color. That is straight gold yellow. very nice looking.
So you started up with a block of gold you used as a anode which melted away during the process Then you get gold on the cathode from the process that you smelted down into a gold bar but how much extra gold did you end up with?
Since I have no clue I’m wondering if you shaped your titanium into a tapered needle shape if it would pull right out of the gold when your done. Or if you used a ..9999 fine gold bead shape or square or pyramid ect would it plate into that shape? Great video I’ve heard a lot about your channel but never had time to watch a vid till now. Very cool in my opinion. Thanks for sharing see you on the next one 👍🏼👊🏼
It wasn't exactly what I expected to see. For some reason I hoped to see well formed crystals like the silver cell, but It does answer a question I've always wondered. It is possible! Although ridiculously expensive to put together!
Your videos are fascinating. I used to work as an electroplater, coat the surfaces you don’t want plated with protective dipping wax. That’s what used for the item being plated. A different product is used in the anode and cathode bars and racks. It’s called plastisol.
My question is, did you just create more gold as an end result or just refine the same amount to a more pure gold? And if more pure, is it less in amount because of less impurities?
silver crystals and now gold! 🤩 That titanium worked a lot better than I expected as well, probably a good decision to go with in hindsight as opposed to the ribbon as the ribbon would've probably caused even more hassle next to an impossibility to separate the 9999. Do you think you could melt away the gold from the titanium or would that cause some impurities to mix in?
Just for future reference, never try to melt a metal element from another metal element. Whichever has the lowest melting point (Au in this case) will obviously melt, but the Higher melting metal (Ti in this case) will just be that perfect warm temperature for the molten element to stick to... think how fabricators pre heat work beforehand etc.
Was interesting to see the slight change in growth structure when bumping up the voltage.. as you mentioned when asked about the voltage in silver cell, I gather the crystal structures would grow too thin and too fast and result in a short if left unattended. I wonder if in the right vessel, you might be able to create some interesting structures.. Very cool to see.. but seems far more labour intensive.. but a nice change in content.. still entertaining as always. Looking forward to seeing what you do next
So wait, can you get a yield several times what you put into this cell? As in making additional weight of gold and then melt it and sell it or stock pile it?
Wow it's crazy how you mentioned the gold specs after you increased the voltage i saw them right before you mentioned it, And then as you were saying it they literally started popping up everywhere. Science and chemistry is awesome. No doubt about it.
@30:84 you can see another silver coloured metal in the melting dish so your bar won't be pure if that's added to the gold. Maybe use a new dish for something that takes that much to produce just to ensure there's no impurities get in with the pure gold.👍❤️💛💚
SINCE YOU CAN CONTROLL ALSO THE CONTENT OF THE ELECTROLITE YOU CAN BE ALSO VERRY SELECTIVE WITH THE METALS THAT YOU TRANSFER FROM THE SRAP TO THE ANODE, AND THE QUANTITY OF ACIDS AND MATERIAL WILL DECREASE SUBSTANTIALY INCREASING YOUR YEALD
I'm wondering if you could use a Gel as the Anode conductor. This would be similar to a PEM (Proton Exchange Membrane) as used in Fuel Cells. Only the Gold ions would be allowed to pass through gel with the correct electron travel.
I see why gold is sort of like a joke that keep crashing it and stuff like that this looks like you can just make gold like Kool-Aid but this is very interesting and very intricate❤❤🎉❤
Another very nice video sreetips. Currently building a silver cell. Going to watch this one again to work out final gain of gold weight. Thankyou again sir.
Thank you for yet another cool educational video! Might be a good idea to taper the cathode and make the edges smooth in order to easily pull off the golden sleeve.
Curious... If you started with 58.2 grams and ended with 45.6 grams, how many grams was left of the anode? (shark tooth), and how many grams actually left in the electrolytic? Your videos are PERFECT, by the way.
It’s all in there. No gold was lost. It all adds up. Less any spills, gold sticking to melt dish, gold left in funnels or flasks. No gold is created or lost (except loses noted).
@@sreetips now I'm more confused. No gold was created? It's always the same amount from the beginning of the process to the end, just a matter of "where" it is? It's very intriguing, and your videos are perfect!
So ive seen you do this and its suoer cool but ive always wondered what is the benefit of this over traditional precipitatation methods? Ultra high purity, correct?
I was watching your episode on gold from cell phones (SIM cards) I was wondering if It would be possible to do it using vinegar or something else less dangerous? I don't have the fume hood and don't want to end up killing my self or and others.Thanks really enjoy watching your videos of someone actually doing something.I am an old broken down vet that needs something to do.Thanks.
Question. Couldn't you just have taken a nail, or a sharp long punch with a fine tip, and drive a small hole into each corner of the bar, then insert you hanger arms into those that are also made of gold. Then hammer down the holes you made to make the small bar to hold on the dog ears with friction. This method should help with purity levels. The solders he was using could possibly affect purity. This way if you cut the dog ear arms off they want have to be refined again. Would that work?
@sreetips Great. Hopefully that can save ya some time and hassle. I wonder if they sell 24kt gold alligator clips also? I guess a person can make a version of that in thier shop also. Later bud
If I continue to use this method, and now that I know the titanium cathode works, I probably will, then I’ll refine this process to make it easier to perform. Thank you.
I’m really not considering to do this! I’m wondering if your consumption/supply cost is worth it vs return in gold/silver. Is it more hobby or are you pulling a solid profit?
This is my hobby. It’s highly profitable. My profit is in general led and silver, not paper dollars. If I need some paper to pay bills, then I can sell a little metal.
From the rock bottom of my depression I would like to say big thanks. This channel takes my mind of negative and harmful thoughts.
Hope youre doing better today :) Hang in there, it does get better 😊
❤
Hope all is good, god bless.
❤
God bless you mate.
Electrolysis is such a cool thing.
My brother used to be one of the top printed circuit board production managers in the country, if not the world back in the 1980s and 1990s producing multilayer, flex, and exotic materials printed circuit boards doing small batch prototypes and large batch production runs for years.
He was 17 yrs old when he got in the business.
We used to use the large plating tanks to gold plate small items just to mess around.
He was the first person to get circuits on a board made from Teflon. He was also one of the first to perfect the process of wire bonding processors to circuit boards.
He knows all the chemistry and electrical engineering , all the processes for plating copper, nickel , silver, and gold and probably more.
Thanks for the video. It brought back some fond memories
Awesome story!💙🖤
Was he one of the two guys that started Jabo? If it was, he knows my cousin very well, she worked for them and helped grow the company worldwide.
@@anomicxtreme --- no, he stayed in the production manager capacity as troubleshooter. He had a friend who was THE go to guy in the board building industry if your company was losing money and the owners or board members wanted to spend a bunch of money they hired this guy and he had power to hire and fire anyone in order to make a company profitable again and he would go around the country and spend maybe 6 mos or a year figuring out where the problems were in these companies and he had multiple degrees and was seriously a genius and he taught my brother most of what he needed to know to be the best production manager and this guy would get hired by comanies like Texas Instruments, Teradyne, Gould, just to name some I remember, and when he got settled in he would then tell the owners that they were losing money in whatever department and if they were losing in processing department he would then hire my brother to come in and figure out where in the process system they were screwed up. Why their boards weren't passing inspections, whether it was in photo, or cad, or laminating, etching, drilling, wherever, my brother could and still can look at any circuit board, and figure out what is wrong with it.
So he and his friend traveled atound the country fixing companies or setting up board manufacturing divisions of companies that wanted into the business.
But once they did what they needed they moved on to another company until my brother got tired of moving every year to another state. He was only in his late 20s and decided to stay in Silicon Valley around 1988 and worked for big and small companies doing prototypes, exotics and specialty boards. Then he burned out in his mid thirties and learned to restore and install hardwood floors. Total 180° turn in trades. He worked on old Victorians in the Bay Area with his own business for around 20 years.
Board shops would still call him a couple times a year to consult or troubleshoot their processes when they had a batch of boards they couldn't get right and he'd walk in and sometimes he could just look at one of the boards and he would know immediately what was wrong with it and he would need a day to figure out why it was messed up and he'd figure that out set that particular process right, run a few boards through the whole process and test them and make any adjustments in whatever department and get it right and charge a bunch of money and go back to working on hardwood floors.
That businesses, board and chip/wafer processing is and was moving so fast, and the technology changes daily and the amount of money being made or being lost on a daily basis (millions per day) the pressure from the owners on a production manager is insanely intense and to try to stay at the top of the industry is not possible for very long especially when everything started going micro and nano. A person cannot keep up with the new developments at the pace that things were changing during the 2000s. You could keep up if you were given time to go back to school and by that time the industry has changed again.
That industry was killing my brother. He was 17 when he got in the business as a driver. By the time he was 21 he was one of the best in the business of producing top tier custom and prototype small batch military and exotic materials board building. About 17 yrs he did that.
@@lp8650 --- I see exactly what you are saying or I should say I'm picking up what you're puttin' down. LOL
I see no benefit in the refinement if it is already .99999 24k gold.
I think he is doing the process just for the chemistry method to show people that it is possible to take raw or scrap gold (of any karat or mixed with other material) and break it down, get the other valuable minerals separated and the worthless crap separated as well, and then the processes of then the refinement and then turning it into an ingot or bar. I think he uses 24k because it is straightforward for people who may not understand the differences in gold refinement?
I can't remember if he started this video with a bunch of scrap jewelry of plated and filled etc... and then did the processes of bringing it up to 24k or if that was a different video.
are major bullion companies so stingy they make certain their coins are about 99.91% so you ... never get more than you paid for?
I've never had an interest in chemistry until I started following you! Now I'm hooked after being a carpenter and fire fighter for 25 years
Be careful, your carpentry wood may catch on fire.
It's been a couple of months since I watched one of your videos.
You remind me a lot of Bob Ross....seriously.
I'd love to have you as my neighbor. Man, you have some cool equipment
This is the guy you want to know personally during the zombie apocalypse.
When you go to melt very high purity stuff; get a fresh graphite mold that has a graphite lid; load it, then put it in one of your melting furnaces.... The bar that comes out of it will look immaculate when you let it cool and solidify then remove it from the mold.
Looks excellent.
Keep up the good work Kevin!
Man you do the coolest stuff with the perfect mix of entertaining and educational. Great job as always!
Big issue is for this refining technique to get the gold in the spent electrowinning solution low enough. In our gold recovery process (using standard cyanide leaching solutions) we can get down to 1-2 ppm Au in spent solution however we are not trying to produce high purity cathode, just trying to recover everything we can from solution and put it in a bullion bar. The refining is the Refinery's problem we sell to. Great video as always!!!
Cyanide leaching sounds like the most time and cost effective method. I think I’ll start with that.
A couple of tips:
1: obviously a pure gold anode is best, but if you use titanium, give it a light spray with WD40 - gold will peel off nicely.
2: best not to use a stir bar. You want any impurities to fall to the bottom as a sludge. Constant stirring will stir sludge into electrolyte and enable it to be entrapped in the collected gold sponge defeating the whole purpose of purification.
3: voltage control is critical. You want contaminants to sludge out and not be transferred to cathode. Slow and steady does the job - higher volt (and amps) will force contaminants across to cathode and not give them time to sludge out.
Have you made gold I wish I could perfect this
I’ve refined the gold, electrolytically.
Refined, this isn't a process to create gold from basically scrap is it?
what do you know, noob
No , refining is making it more pure you may even loose a few grams
Not sure how I ran across your video but I’m glad I did. Your videos are amazing and very informative. Can’t wait to watch more videos when I have time.
in the future for a setup that doesnt need soldering, you should run the anode through the rollers to make it thin enough that the alligator clip can hold the gold directly, and instead of soldering leads on, just make some ladder steps to hold it higher, and as the bar shortens you can lower it down farther into the solution, this will also mean that the excess gold in the end is smaller in mass and easier to process later without having to melt all the solder off. This also makes it faster to switch to a new anode, just have another thin long piece prepared and you can effectively hot swap it, you just have to get a little better at rolling them not in the shape of a banana lol
Good suggestion, thank you.
but wont that lower surface area?
he did that last time
Reading this as the banana comes out of the roller 😂in my real view time
@@dynorat12 no, that was the cathode he had setup like that
Your videos are very fascinating to watch. I've always been impressed by the things you can do in chemistry. I really appreciate your explanations too, very informative
I wish they were teaching this at school when I was there .
Can you explain what is in the orange 🍊 solution for electrolytes?
Orange = chloroauric acid (gold chloride) or (gold dissolved in aqua regia)
@@sreetips sreetips you use alot of chemicals in your refining. Are they typically expensive to acquire?
Yes
Your little gold bars are always so perfect shape sheen and pour lines everything looks great
ماشاءالله تبارك الله
لقد اعطاكم الرب العلم والصبر والامكانيات فهنيئا لكم.
تحياتي
Thank you
Absolutely fascinating.
I like chemistry. Thanks for bringing these videos to us
Looking forward to seeing where you take this Kev. Thank you for sharing your experience.
I been watching you a long time Doc this was 1 super satisfying video. I can't wait to see where you go with this? The silver cell by itself is totally badass.
I so looked forward to seeing this video and the electrolytic gold refining process. Another great video, they never fail to fascinate me.
I have been doing electroforming process and refining using AR for 7 yrs. Electrolytic refining for 3 years using almost the same procedure as this in the video.
Had me watching like a hawk. It never ceases to amaze me watching the gold disolve and float through the electrolite and reform. Beautiful. Thank you for sharing with us!
Wish I had the setup to do metallurgical chemistry, but I'll just continue to enjoy every video you post.👍
Start small. Start easy. First steps to walking are tenious little baby steps after all.
It is fun, and not as daunting to get set up for an introductory experiment as you make it sound. Firstly you don't even need a power supply to start with simple reactions. You can weakly plate copper onto steel by dipping a piece of steel in a solution of copper sulphate, sold as root killer in most hardware stores.
You can also electrolitically clean metalc surfaces like copper or silver, with a weak vinegar and salt solution, and 9v battery. You can grow copper and tin crystals crystals the same way, but for tin you first make tin chloride and use that as your electrolyte.
@@nunyabisnass1141 many more Blessings to U Sir ❤
My and my mate used to make hygrogen and oxegen with with nothing but a pair of wires, 2 nails, a jam jar and a power socket (extreamly dangerous btw, do not do this). You don't need much more to do it safely, just a cheap powersupply and you're rolling. You'll not be able to refine/plate with gold or silver, but you'll be able to at least start learning stuff and dip your toes into electrolosis.
@@DaftyBoi412 yes I used 5v 2A USB chargers successfully for plating copper. I used copper wire as (+) and the workpiece as (-) as a electrolyte I used HCL hydrochloric acid. Very simple setup. No need for any copper sulphate
And of course standard batteries AA to plate with gold and silver, graphite (pencil) electrode
I have done a hell of a lot of gold and silver soldering, it can be time consuming and can go wrong easily without a lot of experience. Get an orion pulse tig welder and the job is literally done in 2 mins, the biggest plus that no flux or solder is required and a weld way way outdoes a solder joint for strength by many factors. Love your videos they bring me joy.🏴👍
I didn’t know that gold could be welded.
I used to work in a macinist/welding shop. Per the hi tech welder had, you can weld any metal. He welded a big copper cooling head for NASA, die to complexity it was machined in 2 parts and welded with the big welder and #4 copper ground wire.
I wonder if a spot welder would work, or maybe the gold would be too conductive to allow it to heat up enough
@@DavidWilliamsisslpdave "you can weld any metal"
Good luck with some of them, especially Hg.
@@apveening At -100 C, a small jet of hot air would melt just enough of it to work like a welding torch
Did you know magnetism can replace electrolyte! So measure the amps your system is using, and then switch to another method of stirring, like a glass 'T' shape connected to an overhead drill etc. And you will notice less amperage is being consumed!!!
So if you want to make it consume more amperage without adding anything extra... introduce a Powerfull 'AF' magnet on the side or somewhere where that won't interfere with the stirring.
Good to see you using CORNING casserole dishes and lab equipment. I grew up in Corning and my ancestors worked in the factory there. Thanks for the chemistry lesson and neat video on creating beautiful gold from scrap items.
Corning is in charleroi PA. I used to live there my mom in law retired from there about 10 years ago
NurdRage did a demonstration of recovering copper from copper nitrate/sulfate. In his video he showed that low current and high concentration led to stronger deposition on the cathode, while high current and low concentration led to poor, powdery deposits that detached from the cathode. So it depends on what you want.
So start really high and then lower it for easy removal
@@nothingnothing1799 -Or maybe the opposite? Start low so you get a poor powdery deposit on the cathode that will detach easier later, and then crank it up so the rest of it sticks to the poor deposit, and when you're done pull it all off in one piece since the innermost part will be poorly attached.- nvm, I'm dumb.
@@williambarnes5023 low current produces the stronger composition and high current produces the powdery deposits, so starting high would make the base layer crumbly
Edit: np I honestly had to reread it a couple of time to make sure I hadn't made the mistake
@@nothingnothing1799 I'm sorry, you're right. I read that completely backwards somehow. Thank you for the correction.
So slow and steady low current from beginning to end, no need to ever hit it with high Currents
Compared with the stump out approach, which yield’s .999 vs the electrolyte approach that can achieve .9999
99.9% versus 99.99% is a mere margin of .09%, your talking .9 cents in the dollar..!
What's the mark up on covid shots..? 😂
@@nuggetellathere's a huge premium paid for super pure precious metals for special applications in electronics and optics among others
@@nuggetellawho taught you math? Lol. It's a difference of 0.0009. And it doesn't matter: do you know that that small of a difference of a chemical in our organs can kill us? It's not arbitrary.
One thing you might try is using a cylindrical pin/needle/rod cathode for collection. Seems you could just twist that crystal right off so long as the substrate was smooth enough. Real cool vid thnx. Hope to see more improvement on the gold crystal making.
Rod has less surface he just needs to put a tapper on the cathode he is using right now
How thin could you go on the titanium sheet to get the most surface area and gold crystal yield?
The titanium was about 1/32 inch thick
Okay so Anon chemist here who's been watching your videos for a while when I'm seeing this and I look at this and I see you're using the gold anode and it just looks like literally your precipitating it and it's entirely different way instead of doing it the way that you normally do it just looks like you're melting down the gold bar in a gold solution just to be collected neponsit titanium bar 18:01 so given that are you really actually gaining anything by doing it this way or is it just another way to precipitate gold from the solution
Here is something else, don't know if it will help, Exclusion Zone Water is negatively charged. That is you could make your cathode Superhydrophillic, leave it is distilled water for a while then bring it into the electrolyte ???
I worked in custom thermoplastic injection molding. Any part that had to release besides off a flat surface had a draft angle of about 3 degrees. I kept looking at your turbine blade and I instinctively wanted to place a draft on all surfaces with fine sandpaper finishing with Emory cloth to a polished surface. Wouldn't have to be mirror just less than the draft angle. It would pop off with a few taps.
Also was thinking seeing how thermocondictive Ti is you could place ice against the hanger bend while running the gold end under hot faucet water. It would release easier that way. Another technique used in injection molding. Cooling channels inside mold , drafted angles for release. Little round details on the plastic part is remnant of the ejector pins that push out part. Retired, i miss work so much.
When you love your job, it’s hard to leave it. I have another turbine blade. I’ll trim it up to the specs you gave and I’ll repeat this in a future video. It was easy to do and the gold is very high purity.
Thank you for a very informative workshop. I'm not sure if anyone else has mentioned this, but if you can't find a sharpie, you can use the lines on the beaker as reference points.
87 grams of .9999 pure gold at $64.66 per gram = $5,625.00 in gold. Awesome job! If you've never held an ounce of pure gold in your hand the weight, density and the glow are amazing.
Why don't people do this all the time then? Seems like a money printing machine
@@trillionairebyinflation8527 I want to know that too. Am I missing something?
Same…is the gold of a different quality?
Yes, it’s higher purity once electrolytically refined.
@@trillionairebyinflation8527 I'm also curious why people wouldn't do this all the time, and he hasn't really answered the question... is it because it's too dangerous? is it not cost effective? does it cost more to acquire the equipment and raw materials than you would earn by selling the gold?
OMFG!!!! You are amazingly crazy! This is the equivalent of quantum computing! Wow just wow!!!!!
If your edges was rounded smooth, wouldn't it stick less? So what about a titanium rod instead of a sheet?
I would just like to give you a hearty thank you. Learning about electrolysis has allowed me to create hydrogen fuel from water and baking soda. I would have never alleviated my electricity bill had it not been for you sir... THANK YOU SO KINDLY❤
I'm going to need you to explain that in further detail lol
I’d be interested to see the difference between the quality of that bar and the good you precipitated from the electrolyte. It seems you used pure gold to refine pure gold so are you really getting better quality pure gold or is it just that much more gold? Plus your melt dish looked like it may have had some trash in it as well so I wonder how much contamination came into the bar from there.
Very interesting indeed. I’d be interested in an analysis of the bars quality.
I am also concerned that the melt dish used to produce the 0.9999 pure bar wasn't completely virginal or in pristine & new 'factory clean' condition. Any informative thoughts you may have to allay these concerns would be greatly appreciated if not completely helpful.
Awesome work Sreetips.
The lighting and angle on the electrolyte has been one of your best shots, it actually looked like shining gold in solution rather than the forbidden chloroauric coolade.
Room for improvement but I guess thats partially what this second attempt was for. Like other commenters I'm sceptical that a soldered anode is the best approach. Cant knock Bobs welding though...
Great vid! Great result, great process...
Hats off to Emil Wohlwill from 149 years in the future.
Wonder what kind of hat he was wearing in 1874...
This seemed to be a lot of extra work. Is there a benefit to doing a final refining this way vs chemically?
Electrolytic refining produces the purest gold.
Now i want to build negative pressure chemical safe laboratory in my basement🧪
Let me guess. These are NOT the elecrolights I take as a hydration suplement ? 🤣
Correct
Nice, electrolysis was my favorite part of chemistry.
Our chemistry teacher taught us a lab that let us electroplate our quarters in gold hahaha it was epic to learn that AND we got to walk away with a cool ass momento. Cool to see you do it here
Cool teacher, nice..
if you used a stainless steel bowl like with the silver cell, would the gold not come off the bowl in the same way the silver does? or would the electrolyte corrode/dissolve the bowl?
The silver electrolyte is a nitrate. The gold is a chloride. I don’t think the chloride will work with stainless.
If you want to grow much larger crystals, try a pulse deposition plating at kHz range frequency. Something like a 1.5V sine wave with a .5V DC offset, so it spends most of its time plating, at 1~10 kHz. If it's easier for you to set up a square wave, that should also work fine.
This sounds like the terminator (Arnold) at the gun store asking for a phase plasma rifle in the 40 watt range.
@@sreetipsis this legit?
@@kanepritchard5831 At a glance, it seems legit, 1.5V sine wave with 0.5V DC offset will have a range of -1V to 2V, the negative portion reverses the process, dissolving the gold on the cathode, but it should affect the smallest crystals more, so that the larger crystals are left behind.
It’s a little over my head.
A Fantastic experiment ! Thanks so much for risking your gold to show us what happens when you leave your plating machine on too long , the gold collected was beautiful and would be nice to see a close up. Thank you much
You were very kind and encouraging to your jeweler friend. I thought every complement you gave him was quite generous.
Be interesting to see them crystals under a microscope
omg id love that
I agree.
More interesting to see them in my hand!!!
Yeahhhhh it sure would be interestin to see them damn crystals up n close to my face…yup real interestin, need my sweet tea
Possibly
Amazing that gold in every form looks stunning. This was an interesting experiment 👍
you should consider making silver and gold 'art exhibits' using this crystal growing method. gold and silver crystals together mounted onto something would be a huge hit with the fans. i would buy several.
Fantastic idea.
And stream while you make them on twitch. You’ll have million subs
The silver crystals are absolutely beautiful!!
Love these process's. It amazes me to no end, thank you.
Im shook at the beauty of the end result.. what a beautiful ingot... I liked this so much!!!!✌🏼💗😊
Round the edges of the cathode for easier release?
And give it a taper
I like to think the floor of Sreetips' basement is essentially a Superfund cleanup site at this point.
i'd be massively interested to see what some of what you have produced looks like under an electron microscope. i'm curious if we can see differences in structure at that scale, or if it looks the same as standard methods. not sure if there's any near you, but your local uni/college might have some fans that can help :)
SEM - scanning electron microscope. I’ve got a couple experiments that could be interesting if I had access to one.
That purity level is (well) above medical grade standards. Bravo!
Just had another thought concerning the supports can you scratch or etch into the mould a thin semicircle From one end and connect the outside edges together forming the semicircle. This way all that's needed is to bend it over the beakers edge and then connect the positive lead to the loop
Next time you do make a new bar for the gold cell, you could try taking a small bar and have it rolled out into a wire of desired thickness and when pouring the new bar have them either sitting in the mold or dip them into the molten gold. The cathode might benefit from a narrowing a slight bit near the end to help it come off a bit easier but not too much so it will just slip off in the cell.
Now that’s a good idea.
the gold you precip'd out of the electrolyte looks SUPER clean. Normally its a caramel to " gold " color. That is straight gold yellow. very nice looking.
Full Metal Alchemist
Very thorough and well explained video. Much appreciated..and happy 2023 👍
So you started up with a block of gold you used as a anode which melted away during the process Then you get gold on the cathode from the process that you smelted down into a gold bar but how much extra gold did you end up with?
Smelt: rendering metals from ore. I’ve never done any smelting.
Since I have no clue I’m wondering if you shaped your titanium into a tapered needle shape if it would pull right out of the gold when your done. Or if you used a ..9999 fine gold bead shape or square or pyramid ect would it plate into that shape? Great video I’ve heard a lot about your channel but never had time to watch a vid till now. Very cool in my opinion. Thanks for sharing see you on the next one 👍🏼👊🏼
It wasn't exactly what I expected to see. For some reason I hoped to see well formed crystals like the silver cell, but It does answer a question I've always wondered. It is possible! Although ridiculously expensive to put together!
I wonder if you can make a profit from it???
No or else everybody would
First 👍's up sreetips thank you for sharing
Your videos are fascinating.
I used to work as an electroplater, coat the surfaces you don’t want plated with protective dipping wax. That’s what used for the item being plated. A different product is used in the anode and cathode bars and racks. It’s called plastisol.
I could put platisol around the edges of the titanium cathode. Maybe it would release better for me.
My question is, did you just create more gold as an end result or just refine the same amount to a more pure gold? And if more pure, is it less in amount because of less impurities?
There’s no more gold than I started with. I’m refining the gold. I’m not creating gold.
Just outstanding
silver crystals and now gold! 🤩 That titanium worked a lot better than I expected as well, probably a good decision to go with in hindsight as opposed to the ribbon as the ribbon would've probably caused even more hassle next to an impossibility to separate the 9999. Do you think you could melt away the gold from the titanium or would that cause some impurities to mix in?
The molten gold would get welded to the titanium.
Just for future reference, never try to melt a metal element from another metal element.
Whichever has the lowest melting point (Au in this case) will obviously melt, but the Higher melting metal (Ti in this case) will just be that perfect warm temperature for the molten element to stick to... think how fabricators pre heat work beforehand etc.
Was interesting to see the slight change in growth structure when bumping up the voltage..
as you mentioned when asked about the voltage in silver cell, I gather the crystal structures would grow too thin and too fast and result in a short if left unattended.
I wonder if in the right vessel, you might be able to create some interesting structures..
Very cool to see.. but seems far more labour intensive.. but a nice change in content..
still entertaining as always.
Looking forward to seeing what you do next
Fascinating i am loving this , learning without getting bored to death is the best thank you great work ,interesting to see the conversion
Amazing job, always looking for excellence. Congratulations.
So wait, can you get a yield several times what you put into this cell? As in making additional weight of gold and then melt it and sell it or stock pile it?
No! That’s against the laws of physics. I only get out what I put in, less impurities.
Wow it's crazy how you mentioned the gold specs after you increased the voltage i saw them right before you mentioned it, And then as you were saying it they literally started popping up everywhere. Science and chemistry is awesome. No doubt about it.
@30:84 you can see another silver coloured metal in the melting dish so your bar won't be pure if that's added to the gold. Maybe use a new dish for something that takes that much to produce just to ensure there's no impurities get in with the pure gold.👍❤️💛💚
Good suggestion, thank you.
@@sreetips cheers 👍💚💛❤️
Hello Mrs and Mr sreetips. Have a nice day both of you.Take care,and God bless you🎉. Arne
Thanks Arne.
Self tanks Sir🌹🌹
Awesome kathode titanium proces mr Sreetips...your chanel is super keep it up man greetings from the Netherlands 🎉
Thank you Netherlands
Amazing! Well done! That final product is beautiful.
SINCE YOU CAN CONTROLL ALSO THE CONTENT OF THE ELECTROLITE YOU CAN BE ALSO VERRY SELECTIVE WITH THE METALS THAT YOU TRANSFER FROM THE SRAP TO THE ANODE, AND THE QUANTITY OF ACIDS AND MATERIAL WILL DECREASE SUBSTANTIALY INCREASING YOUR YEALD
My favorite part is when you said, “I don’t know what’s going to happen here but we’re gunna hook this titanium cathode up” my dude 😂
You are an absolute genius!!! This is amazing!!! And by the way, that watch is fire!!! I love it!!!
I gold plated a 1939 knucklehead HD . With the cell reverse plating .
I'm wondering if you could use a Gel as the Anode conductor.
This would be similar to a PEM (Proton Exchange Membrane) as used in Fuel Cells.
Only the Gold ions would be allowed to pass through gel with the correct electron travel.
I Don know about that.
The HP bar has the most wonderful luster, prestine, so fun to see, speaks to so much in physics
I see why gold is sort of like a joke that keep crashing it and stuff like that this looks like you can just make gold like Kool-Aid but this is very interesting and very intricate❤❤🎉❤
That was really cool. Never saw that don't before. Thanks for creating this video😊
Another very nice video sreetips. Currently building a silver cell. Going to watch this one again to work out final gain of gold weight. Thankyou again sir.
What a fine specimen unbelievably beautiful. Great job friend
Oxidizing with heat is way safer, easier and faster. About 20 minutes for the same result. Great video
Thank you for yet another cool educational video! Might be a good idea to taper the cathode and make the edges smooth in order to easily pull off the golden sleeve.
Which method do you find easiest the cell or the chemicals you use?
The cell is more work but the purity of the gold is what counts, for me.
Any day where Sreetips uploads is a good day. Such a comfort to be able to view the process! Thanks again, Sreetips!
Nice work .
You didnt feel happy struggling to remove your treasure from the titanium.
You did excellent job .
The pour was perfect..
Curious... If you started with 58.2 grams and ended with 45.6 grams, how many grams was left of the anode? (shark tooth), and how many grams actually left in the electrolytic?
Your videos are PERFECT, by the way.
It’s all in there. No gold was lost. It all adds up. Less any spills, gold sticking to melt dish, gold left in funnels or flasks. No gold is created or lost (except loses noted).
@@sreetips now I'm more confused. No gold was created? It's always the same amount from the beginning of the process to the end, just a matter of "where" it is? It's very intriguing, and your videos are perfect!
Love your Omega watch bro 😊 it’s Nik name in the watch world 🌎 is Omega pie pan very collectable vintage watch .
Thats some of the best looking gold I have ever seen in my life, gorgeous results
How did you precipitate the gold from the electrolyte?
I’ve used sodium metabisulfite (SMB), ferrous sulfate, oxalic acid, SO2 gas, even pure zinc metal. In this case I think I used SMB.
So ive seen you do this and its suoer cool but ive always wondered what is the benefit of this over traditional precipitatation methods? Ultra high purity, correct?
Correct
I was watching your episode on gold from cell phones (SIM cards) I was wondering if It would be possible to do it using vinegar or something else less dangerous? I don't have the fume hood and don't want to end up killing my self or and others.Thanks really enjoy watching your videos of someone actually doing something.I am an old broken down vet that needs something to do.Thanks.
After all that effort what impurities were added back in with that used melt dish?
No sure
Question. Couldn't you just have taken a nail, or a sharp long punch with a fine tip, and drive a small hole into each corner of the bar, then insert you hanger arms into those that are also made of gold. Then hammer down the holes you made to make the small bar to hold on the dog ears with friction.
This method should help with purity levels. The solders he was using could possibly affect purity. This way if you cut the dog ear arms off they want have to be refined again. Would that work?
Yes
@sreetips Great. Hopefully that can save ya some time and hassle. I wonder if they sell 24kt gold alligator clips also? I guess a person can make a version of that in thier shop also.
Later bud
If I continue to use this method, and now that I know the titanium cathode works, I probably will, then I’ll refine this process to make it easier to perform. Thank you.
I’m really not considering to do this! I’m wondering if your consumption/supply cost is worth it vs return in gold/silver.
Is it more hobby or are you pulling a solid profit?
This is my hobby. It’s highly profitable. My profit is in general led and silver, not paper dollars. If I need some paper to pay bills, then I can sell a little metal.