Thank you for continuing to share your knowledge so freely. I am still an avid reader of your posts on the gold refining forum. Based on your information I built and operated 4 silver cells, generating an income for my family. I personally can vouch that your videos are accurate in all aspects. Thanks once again.
@@HARLEYQUINN-tf6ee I dont get it. How do you supply an income. At the moment everyone is selling scrap .925 at above spot so by the time it is refined you break even. It is actually cheaper in Australia to buy silver from the mint. How can this be supporting your family?
In the USA people are clueless about silver and gold. They believe, incorrectly, that paper currency is more valuable than gold and silver. I don’t know where we’d be without gold and silver. And thankfully, I don’t even have to sell it anymore.
The cobalt blue of that copper in solution is one of the prettiest hues of any color there is. Absolutely stunning. I want a car that color. Thank you, Sr. I've watched this one before but your videos generate multiple views. That's great. lol
Thanks for advising video! I really appreciate your hard work around these videos! I know, it is not just lika that and everything is done. There is a lot of work, cutting, editing etc., to get everything also look nice at the end! Good job! And thanks a lot.
Great Video!!! That lab coat makes it look official. The 1st comment I made, I eluded to the fact that I thought you were a chemistry professor. Then you told me that you had no formal chemistry education, besides being self taught!! Very good, Sreetips!!!!
Have to say i am glad you decided a while ago to get infront of the camera and speak, the videos were brill before but much better now your in them chatting
Hey that was one fantastic show I have never seen this proceses , and I wanted to thank you for going through the trouble of teaching us , but what I am most surprised about is how safe you work, and your humbleness witch tells me that you and your family have been blessed by the Lord, when the Lord gives you a talent, you have to multiply it and when you teach that talent to others you are bering fruits, for every person you teach, you are multiplying the talent God gave you greetings to you from Hector.
I had no idea i was interested in this kinda thing until I saw your videos ! I had chemistry kits as a kid growing crystals but this is the kinda thing you'd never let a child do. Way cooler !
I had a Gilbert. And we had a variety store called Sanford’s when I was a kid in the 60s they sold hobby level chemistry glassware in their basement. The brand was “Perfect”. I’d go there just to look at the condensers and flasks. I had a small lab set up in our basement.
I want to thank you so much. I got into metal detecting and I think I found some silver and no one could even tell me what I found. So heck let's go make some. I'm gonna try myself.
Get some schwerters solution. It’s potassium dichromate dissolved in a little dilute nitric acid. It turns blood red when it comes in contact with silver.
i love your silver videos thanks for taking the time to make them for us. I sent you a PM with a thought for a video idea, i just didnt want to post it in the chat and look stupid lol. keep up the good work
Hello Sreetips , when I'm entering to this refining field the first video I watched is yours , and day by day I learnd lots and lots of things that I entirely aware about this field , I write this comment after long time silently learning from you , for thanking you , Thank you very much for teaching and your guide to success in the refinery field ! Thank you very much and wish you all the best 🙏
Oh my friend.... You are the most professional and diligent scientist I have seem... Thank you for sharing... Would like to buy some refined metal from you soon...I make jewelry with it.....:) :) :)
Sorry, I was up until 3am the previous night, and got up around 7am to get back to work on the video. It was done by 6pm that evening, so I began the upload and passed out from being so tired. I woke up at 2:30 and hit the publish button, then went back to bed for an hour and a half.
I really like your shows. Thank you. I've just starting learning about geology ,trying to gather some gold. Im 65 and thought this might be something to do when i retire @ 70.
❤Very, very beautiful. Indeed, I am the one who wants to thank you for everything you offer. Good luck and success. I am following you from Egypt and I hope to see you and talk to you. Thank you and to everyone who is with you. Thank you. merry Christmas
Hello Sir, I would love to hear some more thoughts on when to change the electrolyte. How do I know it is not usable anymore, because of too much copper in it? Thank you so much and best greetings
I have a degree in metallurgy , but I'm not a chemist. I totally understand what you are achieving and amazed with your ability to use one solution to apply to another solution. Nitric Acid is the problem. Where do I find it? Muriatic is easy. If you could provide me with the sources, I will watch these videos over and over again until I have it right. SAFETY FIRST!!!!All of your videos are great but, the last two with your commentary put it into perspective. GREAT JOB!Please respond as I am eager to try this. Thanks
Hi dear Thank you for this video. Please, Could you write down the final components amount of the electrolyte solution. -Total HNO3 added= - amount of H2O added while dissolving silver= -Final Total H2O added for the electrolyte solution.
@sreetips -how many nitric acid per liter electrolyte? -how many distilled water per liter electrolyte? -the percentages for both H2O and HNO3 per liter electrolyte
Good video once again- I enjoy learning from you. One thought of caution please... do not wear nitrile gloves when working with HNO3- the reaction can be rather aggressive and it can be fairly rapid at the strengths you use. Maybe its selfish of me- but I would like to see you making videos for a long time. Excellent as always.
I do this for a living... And although latex gloves and nitrile gloves are NOT approved PPE, when you wear 2 pairs of either, they are in fact protective... I have NEVER been burned even when the outer glove gets slimy from slightly dissolving in the Nitric Acid....
You can mix your concentrated silver nitrate and additional distilled water by just pouring the solution back and forth between a couple of bowls/pitchers a few times. It does a more thorough job of mixing, but I don't know if the introduction of more air into the solution would cause problems.
Did not get to see the finish with lye and sugar I will check other videos to see if you finished one with lye and sugar. So which one is better lye and sugar or copper method? Thanks again
Get yourself a hotplate/stirrer and add a stirbar. It speeds things up a Lot, especially near the end - it'll save you a Lot of time. Basically the acid and metal need to hit each other, so stirring makes that happen faster.
You can get nitric at any chemical supply. But you’ll need to jump through a few hoops. They don’t deliver to residential address. Get a business to receive it for you.
Be sure and do these reactions in a fume hood. I ignored this critical advice when I first started. Did reactions in my back yard. DON’T DO IT. The fumes will get in your lungs no matter how well you can hold your breath. On your skin, eyes, hair and clothing. I now suffer reduced lung function, spots on my eye lenses, and thin enamel on my teeth (nitric will dissolve tooth enamel) from repeated exposure to those red fumes. No way to safely do these reactions without a fume hood.
I decided to do a few brushes ups on your channel, before starting my first silver cell. The entire process is inline with your teachings, however the DC power source once set using constant voltage mode to 3.5 Volts once hooked up to the power supply cell leads automatically switches to constant current mode and the volts drop to 1.8. Any thoughts would be helpful as I'm not generating crystal only silver grain at bottom of cell.
No, if I did that the palladium would build up and accumulate in the silver. This would increase the chance of palladium getting into the silver cell electrolyte and plating out with the silver crystal. But contamination of the silver crystal is secondary; palladium is 100 times more valuable than silver!
So is the purpose to keep dissolving the "pure" silver shot to make it purer? How much more silver shot will this take? Is this the silver that has been dissolved in nitric acid and deposited onto the copper wire, then melted?
fantastic video as always. thank you for sharing. as i'm currently putting together my first silver cell, i have a quick question, if i may. in the making of the electrolyte, you mentioned that cement silver should not be used to make electrolyte, as it may contain palladium. my presumption is because hot nitric dissolves palladium, and it could be inadvertently in the cement silver as copper will cement out both silver and palladium. so my question is, would cemented silver that contained a small amount of palladium, turned into shot, and then ran through the cell, hold the palladium in the slime basket, and not allow it into the electrolyte? or will it end up in the electrolye anyhow? if so, will it stay in solution, and thus the reason for the silver chloride production instead of just cementing out the old electrolyte on copper?
Excellent question. I keep excess free nitric out of my electrolyte. If there’s palladium in the anode silver then it can leach into the electrolyte, if there’s a bunch of free nitric in the electrolyte. That’s why it’s important, to me, to ensure all the free nitric gets consumed when I make the electrolyte. I can tell when all the nitric has been consumed when the electrolyte is boiling, there’s no fumes production (no red fumes), and there’s a little excess undissolved silver in the bottom of the beaker. I can tell if palladium has leached into the cell because the electrolyte will turn green. A little palladium is not a problem. But higher concentrations could cause the Pd to begin co-depositing with the silver. It’s been said that the silver can have as much as 10% palladium in it before you’d start to notice a difference in the silver. But contaminated silver is not the main concern. Palladium is about thirty times more valuable than silver.
It’s ok to have a little palladium in the cement silver. Just remember to keep the excess nitric out of the electrolyte and it should stay in the anode filter and not leach into the electrolyte.
Instead of trying to use cement silver to make the electrolyte, just use pure silver bars or coins. Then remember to reserve part of the harvest of pure silver crystal for the next time you make electrolyte.
Where do the impurities end up? When you poured that acid in I noticed that at first it made white formations. Later it was green for a bit. What made the green color.
I made a video that described what your talking about. The solution turns color because of the way the nitric acid reflects the light when it first starts reacting. If it didn’t become clear and colorless then blue is the color of copper in solution.
@@sreetips I must have missed that video. I thought the copper was green in Solution and the silver was blue. I guess I need to watch these videos when I'm not half asleep ☺️
I see in your videos that you do your best to minimize waste and by-products. I may have missed the video on it, but what do you do with unavoidable waste and by-products? How do you safely and legally dispose of them?
Please see my video on waste treatment. I get all the toxic metals out and render the solids and solutions harmless, using chemistry, myself. It’s not hard to do.
The reason I asked is because I used the wrong type of casserole dish, it exploded within 2 mins. The beaker was ok, had 10 oz of silver and 500ml of distilled water. Just got back from goodwill and picked up vision corningware. Tested both on hot plate and no explosion. 😃👽
Back when I first started doing this other refiners used muslin. I tried the Dacron bags because I couldn’t find muslin. They worked so well that I just kept on using them.
Dacron is the same material as PET soda bottles, spun into thread. en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Polyethylene_terephthalate . So it's an organic chemical made of only carbon, oxygen, and hydrogen. As long as there's enough air supplied for complete combustion, the incineration products will be carbon dioxide and water.
When I make the electrolyte I make sure that there is a little undissolved silver left in the beaker to ensure that all the excess nitric has been completely consumed.
What if I use tap water to begin with and salt in a stainless steel bowl with a car charger what will that do and what would be next to try and correct that? Love all your work 🥼🥽🌡️⚗️🧫📝☢️☣️🍻
Awesome video I've been watching for a while and thinking of trying it . I do have one question for the dacron bag could polyester be used in the same way double layer
The anode basket electrode bar is made of some of the impure silver shot. If you watch my silver refining videos for the amateur refiner, part 2 shows how I make the electrode bar for the anode basket. The electrode bar provides a place to attach the alligator clip from the positive side of the power supply.
Did you ever XRF any of your silver that you melted from the silver chloride, sodium hydroxide, sugar conversion? I consistently got 4 nines with a one run processing using the chloride method on sterling. So I never had the need to use a cell. With the chloride you just have to make sure to rinse it very well before using the sodium hydroxide and sugar. I'd put the chloride in a 5 gallon bucket and blast it with the garden hose until it ran clear. I do the shooting slightly different btw.
Yes, I've made high purity silver with silver chloride, lye and sugar. There are refiners who prefer this method. "you get your palladium up front..." One refiner remarked. And no need to tie up a bunch of silver in electrolyte. I prefer the silver cell method because there's less waste that must be treated. And I'm familiar with the silver cell. Plus, I get to make videos about recovering the metals from my anode filters fron the silver cell.
Hey Mr Sreetip! You've been very kind to answer a couple of my "rookie" questions so thank you very much. I am on my journey, to make my first silver cell ever but I have a couple questions: I don't have any "cement silver", so what do you recommend I use to make my impure shot? I have a bunch of pure silver 1oz coins, but of course I'd prefer not to use them unless I have to. Also, the silver bars you make for your anode basket ....are they pure silver or can they be made of impure silver as well? Again, thank you so much for your time and wisdom.
I buy sterling silver at estate sales. After dissolving in hot dilute nitric, I cement the silver on copper, rinse it off, melt into shot, and run it through my silver cell.
@@sreetips I have several questions. Why did it not make silver nitrate when you dissolved the crystal in the Nitric acid? Do you recover the 600 grams of silver you used to make the electrolyte? How many litters of electrolyte did the 600 grams make if you can only recover 150 - 200 grams from a litter?
Thanks as always! I've been watching, learning, and commenting but never thought I would indulge in this, Things have changed and I'm gathering the necessary pieces to do some silver and maybe other metal refining. I have more than a few questions, that I'm getting answers from your vids, but one in particular I haven't spotted yet. Does the power supply have to be constant current capable?
@@sreetips Thank you for your fast reply! I haven't started refining yet. I forgot to ask, to get started in the process, can I use a silver coin as a anode? I'm going to use a silver bar to make my electrolyte.
@@stevenpederson1645 I use pure silver for the electrolyte. I use 98% impure silver that I recover from my gold refining to use as anode material for the silver cell. The 98% impure silver is a by-product of my gold refining.
So if i desolved just sterling silver in nitric, cemented it back out on copper, i use that cement silver to make electrolyte?? That cement silver would not possibly contain poladium??
@sreetips so basically, you have one chamber to make the electrolyte then you dump that into the silver cell to solidify into pure crystal? Awesome videos by the way
What do you do with the silver nitrate crystals? Sorry if you covered that in the video, if you did I missed it because I watched it twice trying to catch it.
@sreetips I see, so on the market it would demand the highest dollar? Does it meltdown into metal or do you have to turn it to the oxide first? 'Im going to guess it would melt down since you said elemental. Im not trying to be funny or anything but everyone I watch one of your videos on the silver cells I get the feeling that I would be hard pressed not to eat some if it was in front of me. It looks tasty for some reason.
Agree. The silver crystal is elemental silver metal. I can melt and pour pure silver bars. I used to melt it and sell every bit of it after each harvest. But today I’m so situated that I don’t have to sell any of my silver.
@sreetips That's awesome! I hope to be there someday myself. I am having a rough time starting out refining. I have read and watched so many variations of refin I ng thatvI thi k they've started to blend together and I end up messing up. I've decided to watch your videos and that's it until I get a solid grip on refining. I know how to safely work with the chemicals and the proper disposal of them; it's the procedures for what metal in specific situations that I'm hung up on.
Thanks so much for the video. When you melt out the silver from the reagent process does it always have that coffee color to it. Or is it sometimes just a silver color?
Most interesting process. I have been meaning to try it but have not done so yet. Leaving large open containers of AgNO2 around in MY workshop for days on end is just asking for trouble. I use another method which utilises sodium formate. Have you heard if it?
Who supplies your chemicals where do you buy them? I bought nitric acid about 10 years ago and the only way I could get it was because I work in a lab.
Does the silver sell for a higher price when it is 5 nines rather than industry standard 3 nines? Just wondering why you do the extra step to run it through twice. Thanks for the video and info. Thumbs up and God Bless
sreetips .... Thanks for the reply. That makes sense why you go through this procedure then. The video is a great selling point also. After watching a couple myself, I am going to check you out on UA-cam and buy me some just cuz they are really beautiful and come with a cool story of how they were processed. Thanks again.
I refine gold. I use sterling silver, that I buy at estate sales, to refine the scrap gold. I recover the silver from that, melt into shot, and run it through my silver cell. Silver is a by-product of my gold refining. The cell converts the impure silver (about 980 parts per thousand silver) to high purity four nines fine (9999 parts per ten thousand) pure elemental silver metal. So I’m refining the impure silver, into high purity silver, not creating silver out of thin air. When it’s full, I harvest the pure silver crystal, put it away and forget about it. Then I repeat the whole thing again.
Stree how do you get the power supply not shorting out when you put the positive negative in the same conductive fluid? So far I haven't been able to get that to not happen
Do you gotta have license to buy those chemicals and if so what kind and what's a ball park number on how much it would cost to get them I love watching your videos science is so cool love the reactions of the silver chloride it was awesome that it turned to cottage cheese white
assuming the impure silver is low grade, will it still get refined? and how well will it refine? plus will it refine better the more I repeat the process?
The impure silver going into the cell must be relatively high purity to begin with or else the cell will quickly become fouled. I’ve run some of the pure silver crystal back through the cell a second time. Had it analyzed ICP and it came back greater than five nines fine. That’s 99999 parts per one hundred thousand pure silver.
@@sreetips I was wondering if I could increase the purity of a low grade silver by melting and mixing it with a batch of pure silver? if I can in a sense increase the purity to 97-97% but the method I implied, will the electrolytic process work well? thanks in advance.
Hi Sreetips. When you dissolved the silver in the nitric and distilled water solution I was thinking the solution must be saturated for the silver cell to work correctly.... but then you add a load more distilled water. Does the electrolyte need to be saturated or not? This is confusing me somewhat and I am struggling to find an answer to that question.
I add enough distilled water to achieve 150g of pure silver dissolve in one liter of solution. This cell holds 3.5 liters. So I’ll have 3.5l x 150g = about 525g of silver dissolved in 3.5 liters of liquid.
Well that was eventful. I just bought a brand new corningware 2.5 qt container and it exploded on the stovetop. Any clue as to why. Are yours some kinda special ones.
They will take the heat but they're not indestructable. I had one shatter once. I was drying some cement silver. Turned the electric burner on high, walked away, and forgot about it. I was in another room and I heard it break. I knew what it was as soon as I heard it. I've had them on high heat as long as no liquid is in it.
I think the older ones were able to handle the heat. Cause they were made out of different material. From what I’ve gathered These new ones say not to put them on a burner. Should’ve read that before I blew it up. 😂🤣
@@sreetips ok thanks, 1 quick question on the current on the power supply mines set at 3.5 and my current keeps climbing what are the safe zones I also have 3 amp inline fuse and my current is at 2.6 I'm getting worried that the current will rise to over 3 then the fuse will blow, can you shed some light please
Wondering why you don’t pour your silver-cell crystals through a fine stainless screen mesh so you won’t have to painstakingly pour the electrolyte off the crystals... also, would your stirring method be more effective if you used a glass paddle and not just a rod?
So are or can the volts be used to regulate growth speed? Like turn down volts to low while at work, back up a few hrs when home, then back down again? To keep from having to knock down the crystals so often / worry about a short? And with this being electrolysis, normal ventilation is ok? Say an attached garage without worry of fumes infiltrating the home? (just the electrolysis part)
I’ve run voltage as low as 3.3vdc and high 3.7vdc anytime we work with acidic solutions in our garage expect surface corrosion on any metal surfaces including your car, motorcycle or tools. To avoid this it can be done in a fume hood.
The purpose of this process is to separate the silver from the other metals present in the source material. The electrolytic process moves metal from the anode to the cathode. Choice of the voltage affects which metal goes where - at 3.6V silver dissolves but other precious metals don't dissolve. The 'anode slime' is the tiny particles of any precious metal (gold, platinum, palladium) that happened to be in the pieces of silver he put in the anode basket.
Pardon me for asking but how come you didn't use a battery charger there are small chargeable batteries that you can plug in and do the same thing I'm just curious anywhere from 6 volts and up
Thank you for continuing to share your knowledge so freely. I am still an avid reader of your posts on the gold refining forum. Based on your information I built and operated 4 silver cells, generating an income for my family. I personally can vouch that your videos are accurate in all aspects. Thanks once again.
@@HARLEYQUINN-tf6ee I dont get it. How do you supply an income. At the moment everyone is selling scrap .925 at above spot so by the time it is refined you break even. It is actually cheaper in Australia to buy silver from the mint. How can this be supporting your family?
In the USA people are clueless about silver and gold. They believe, incorrectly, that paper currency is more valuable than gold and silver. I don’t know where we’d be without gold and silver. And thankfully, I don’t even have to sell it anymore.
You can buy silver at fraction of the grossly undervalued spot price. If you know when, where, and what to look for. Get some!
You are a legend, I refine silver since 2010 and your videos are so freaking useful, great thanks from Italy
Excellent, thank you
Where did you find nitric acid and what procentige?
The cobalt blue of that copper in solution is one of the prettiest hues of any color there is. Absolutely stunning. I want a car that color.
Thank you, Sr. I've watched this one before but your videos generate multiple views. That's great. lol
My favorite color as well
I like how you show the gear you use to help others find and use the same as well. Thanks for sharing Sreetips!
You're welcome, thank you!
@@sreetips hey I have a question, what's that bar made out of in 27:17?
@@ultimaterandomvids7875 Pure silver bar
Thanks for your videos. Are you available to do remote consulting for me. @@sreetips
Thanks for advising video! I really appreciate your hard work around these videos! I know, it is not just lika that and everything is done. There is a lot of work, cutting, editing etc., to get everything also look nice at the end! Good job! And thanks a lot.
Thank you
Great Video!!!
That lab coat makes it look official.
The 1st comment I made, I eluded to the fact that I thought you were a chemistry professor. Then you told me that you had no formal chemistry education, besides being self taught!!
Very good, Sreetips!!!!
Not sure how I ended up on your channel but I've watched a ton of your videos.
Have to say i am glad you decided a while ago to get infront of the camera and speak, the videos were brill before but much better now your in them chatting
Brilliant! Pure science. Methodical, practical, and concise. You`ve got my attention and support. Thanx
Hey that was one fantastic show I have never seen this proceses , and I wanted to thank you for going through the trouble of teaching us , but what I am most surprised about is how safe you work, and your humbleness witch tells me that you and your family have been blessed by the Lord, when the Lord gives you a talent, you have to multiply it and when you teach that talent to others you are bering fruits, for every person you teach, you are multiplying the talent God gave you greetings to you from Hector.
Hector, I believe it to be true. Thank you
I had no idea i was interested in this kinda thing until I saw your videos ! I had chemistry kits as a kid growing crystals but this is the kinda thing you'd never let a child do. Way cooler !
I had a Gilbert. And we had a variety store called Sanford’s when I was a kid in the 60s they sold hobby level chemistry glassware in their basement. The brand was “Perfect”. I’d go there just to look at the condensers and flasks. I had a small lab set up in our basement.
I'd like to thank you for all the education you pass on
I want to thank you so much. I got into metal detecting and I think I found some silver and no one could even tell me what I found. So heck let's go make some. I'm gonna try myself.
Get some schwerters solution. It’s potassium dichromate dissolved in a little dilute nitric acid. It turns blood red when it comes in contact with silver.
i love your silver videos thanks for taking the time to make them for us. I sent you a PM with a thought for a video idea, i just didnt want to post it in the chat and look stupid lol. keep up the good work
Really nice to put a face and voice to the videos, so much more informative. Thank you.
Thank you for sharing your recipe. And congratulations on the new shop coat. 😊
Hello Sreetips , when I'm entering to this refining field the first video I watched is yours , and day by day I learnd lots and lots of things that I entirely aware about this field , I write this comment after long time silently learning from you , for thanking you , Thank you very much for teaching and your guide to success in the refinery field ! Thank you very much and wish you all the best 🙏
Bravo
@@sreetips 💕💕💕💕💕
Love the new video as usual, love the way you explain the process in simple form.
Oh my friend....
You are the most professional and diligent scientist I have seem...
Thank you for sharing...
Would like to buy some refined metal from you soon...I make jewelry with it.....:) :) :)
Another great video, thanks. It would be cool if you did a small batch with chlorinated water, just to show why not to use it.
I'm interested in the same thing. And how to correct it
2:30am and a new Sreetips video gets uploaded? Guess I'm not going to bed for a while!
Sorry, I was up until 3am the previous night, and got up around 7am to get back to work on the video. It was done by 6pm that evening, so I began the upload and passed out from being so tired. I woke up at 2:30 and hit the publish button, then went back to bed for an hour and a half.
I really like your shows.
Thank you.
I've just starting learning about geology ,trying to gather some gold. Im 65 and thought this might be something to do when i retire @ 70.
Thanks for all your tutorials! Now my turn to make rookie mistakes! 😊
❤Very, very beautiful. Indeed, I am the one who wants to thank you for everything you offer. Good luck and success. I am following you from Egypt and I hope to see you and talk to you. Thank you and to everyone who is with you. Thank you. merry Christmas
Merry Christmas!
Hello Sir,
I would love to hear some more thoughts on when to change the electrolyte. How do I know it is not usable anymore, because of too much copper in it?
Thank you so much and best greetings
I have a degree in metallurgy , but I'm not a chemist. I totally understand what you are achieving and amazed with your ability to use one solution to apply to another solution. Nitric Acid is the problem. Where do I find it? Muriatic is easy. If you could provide me with the sources, I will watch these videos over and over again until I have it right. SAFETY FIRST!!!!All of your videos are great but, the last two with your commentary put it into perspective. GREAT JOB!Please respond as I am eager to try this. Thanks
If you have the lab equipment and patience you can try making it yourself out of nitrate fertilizers to get yourself started.
Akhirnya saya menemukan Chanel untuk belajar. Terimakasih
Excellent, welcome!
Hi dear
Thank you for this video.
Please, Could you write down the final components amount of the electrolyte solution.
-Total HNO3 added=
- amount of H2O added while dissolving silver=
-Final Total H2O added for the electrolyte solution.
I use 150g of silver per liter of electrolyte.
@sreetips -how many nitric acid per liter electrolyte?
-how many distilled water per liter electrolyte?
-the percentages for both H2O and HNO3 per liter electrolyte
About 0.9 ml of nitric to dissolve one gram of pure silver. 50/50 distilled water/nitric acid.
@@sreetips thank you
That Silver looks really nice.
Got the book now budgeting for everything else. LoL really liking the videos too.
Good video once again- I enjoy learning from you. One thought of caution please... do not wear nitrile gloves when working with HNO3- the reaction can be rather aggressive and it can be fairly rapid at the strengths you use. Maybe its selfish of me- but I would like to see you making videos for a long time. Excellent as always.
I do this for a living... And although latex gloves and nitrile gloves are NOT approved PPE, when you wear 2 pairs of either, they are in fact protective... I have NEVER been burned even when the outer glove gets slimy from slightly dissolving in the Nitric Acid....
You can mix your concentrated silver nitrate and additional distilled water by just pouring the solution back and forth between a couple of bowls/pitchers a few times. It does a more thorough job of mixing, but I don't know if the introduction of more air into the solution would cause problems.
Hey man ur awesome I learn alot from watching where did u learn how to do this ....
The goldrefiningforum.com
Thank you for this video . i've learned alot today . Very inspirational
Thanks ever so much. Your very kind. Love your videos they're great. Have a lovely day.
Did not get to see the finish with lye and sugar I will check other videos to see if you finished one with lye and sugar. So which one is better lye and sugar or copper method? Thanks again
I prefer cementing on copper
@@sreetips ok thank you
Get yourself a hotplate/stirrer and add a stirbar.
It speeds things up a Lot, especially near the end - it'll save you a Lot of time.
Basically the acid and metal need to hit each other, so stirring makes that happen faster.
What kind of power supply do you use??
A cheap 30vdc 10amp eBay model. Think I paid about $70 for it ten years ago
@@sreetips thank you so much for the response. I enjoy learning from your videos.
I'm finally about to build my own silver cell i hope it goes as good as u make it out to be lol
Very good Lisa and Randy, Super Like
Beez?!?!
Very informative! Thank you!
I am just starting i have gotten everything ready with two ciels. Where do you get your nitric acid at. Very exciting thank you so much for sharing.
You can get nitric at any chemical supply. But you’ll need to jump through a few hoops. They don’t deliver to residential address. Get a business to receive it for you.
Be sure and do these reactions in a fume hood. I ignored this critical advice when I first started. Did reactions in my back yard. DON’T DO IT. The fumes will get in your lungs no matter how well you can hold your breath. On your skin, eyes, hair and clothing. I now suffer reduced lung function, spots on my eye lenses, and thin enamel on my teeth (nitric will dissolve tooth enamel) from repeated exposure to those red fumes. No way to safely do these reactions without a fume hood.
I decided to do a few brushes ups on your channel, before starting my first silver cell. The entire process is inline with your teachings, however the DC power source once set using constant voltage mode to 3.5 Volts once hooked up to the power supply cell leads automatically switches to constant current mode and the volts drop to 1.8. Any thoughts would be helpful as I'm not generating crystal only silver grain at bottom of cell.
Turn amps knob up all the way up to max amps and see if that solves it.
can the contents of that anode basket which i assume is mainly copper and palladium be just incinerated and use to inquart more gold?
No, if I did that the palladium would build up and accumulate in the silver. This would increase the chance of palladium getting into the silver cell electrolyte and plating out with the silver crystal. But contamination of the silver crystal is secondary; palladium is 100 times more valuable than silver!
Can you put crushed up el
Electronics in the daccron filter. Play will that work will it pull the silver out of those components?
No, the silver going in must be relatively high purity to begin with.
So is the purpose to keep dissolving the "pure" silver shot to make it purer? How much more silver shot will this take?
Is this the silver that has been dissolved in nitric acid and deposited onto the copper wire, then melted?
That’s Dr. Sreetips to you.
it workes great itsawesome see the cystalls grow. i curiouse why does h2so4 make bubbles after 1volt but agno3 can run at 3.6
I’ve never tried sulfuric
Can we use any regular cotton/synthetic fabric for the filter if we cant get the vacuum bags?
I’ve heard that people use layers of muslin cloth for these filters. But I’ve always used the Dacron vacuum cleaner bags since day one.
Thanks sreetips, you da best!
Hey nice touch with that lab coat, it even has "SREETIPS" on it lol.
fantastic video as always. thank you for sharing. as i'm currently putting together my first silver cell, i have a quick question, if i may. in the making of the electrolyte, you mentioned that cement silver should not be used to make electrolyte, as it may contain palladium. my presumption is because hot nitric dissolves palladium, and it could be inadvertently in the cement silver as copper will cement out both silver and palladium. so my question is, would cemented silver that contained a small amount of palladium, turned into shot, and then ran through the cell, hold the palladium in the slime basket, and not allow it into the electrolyte? or will it end up in the electrolye anyhow? if so, will it stay in solution, and thus the reason for the silver chloride production instead of just cementing out the old electrolyte on copper?
Excellent question. I keep excess free nitric out of my electrolyte. If there’s palladium in the anode silver then it can leach into the electrolyte, if there’s a bunch of free nitric in the electrolyte. That’s why it’s important, to me, to ensure all the free nitric gets consumed when I make the electrolyte. I can tell when all the nitric has been consumed when the electrolyte is boiling, there’s no fumes production (no red fumes), and there’s a little excess undissolved silver in the bottom of the beaker. I can tell if palladium has leached into the cell because the electrolyte will turn green. A little palladium is not a problem. But higher concentrations could cause the Pd to begin co-depositing with the silver. It’s been said that the silver can have as much as 10% palladium in it before you’d start to notice a difference in the silver. But contaminated silver is not the main concern. Palladium is about thirty times more valuable than silver.
It’s ok to have a little palladium in the cement silver. Just remember to keep the excess nitric out of the electrolyte and it should stay in the anode filter and not leach into the electrolyte.
Instead of trying to use cement silver to make the electrolyte, just use pure silver bars or coins. Then remember to reserve part of the harvest of pure silver crystal for the next time you make electrolyte.
Where do the impurities end up?
When you poured that acid in I noticed that at first it made white formations. Later it was green for a bit. What made the green color.
I made a video that described what your talking about. The solution turns color because of the way the nitric acid reflects the light when it first starts reacting. If it didn’t become clear and colorless then blue is the color of copper in solution.
@@sreetips I must have missed that video. I thought the copper was green in Solution and the silver was blue. I guess I need to watch these videos when I'm not half asleep ☺️
I see in your videos that you do your best to minimize waste and by-products. I may have missed the video on it, but what do you do with unavoidable waste and by-products? How do you safely and legally dispose of them?
Waste treatment.
@@sreetips I don't know what that means. You treat it yourself? You take it somewhere?
Please see my video on waste treatment. I get all the toxic metals out and render the solids and solutions harmless, using chemistry, myself. It’s not hard to do.
Wow I just watched one of your more recent videos. The vent hood is so quiet compared to the one in this video.
I'm very new to this but is there a reason you didn't melt the shot into a bar and use it as an anode?
Shot presents more surface area than a bar
What white dish are you using? Do you think I could use a deep pan?
Corning ware.
The reason I asked is because I used the wrong type of casserole dish, it exploded within 2 mins. The beaker was ok, had 10 oz of silver and 500ml of distilled water. Just got back from goodwill and picked up vision corningware. Tested both on hot plate and no explosion. 😃👽
Why do you you use dacron for the filter? Wouldnt an organic filter material be cleaner to incinerate when processing the filter slimes?
Back when I first started doing this other refiners used muslin. I tried the Dacron bags because I couldn’t find muslin. They worked so well that I just kept on using them.
@@sreetips thanks!!
Dacron is the same material as PET soda bottles, spun into thread. en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Polyethylene_terephthalate . So it's an organic chemical made of only carbon, oxygen, and hydrogen. As long as there's enough air supplied for complete combustion, the incineration products will be carbon dioxide and water.
is there any loss? in this process that gets caught up with the waste?
That will depend on the patience, experience and skill of the refiner.
Have you ever had to replace your stainless bowl .i isr a similar setup and have had to replace stainless 2x in 3months
Never. Those that I use are about 6 years old. They still look brand new.
Maybe excess nitric is the problem. I get tiny pin holes
When I make the electrolyte I make sure that there is a little undissolved silver left in the beaker to ensure that all the excess nitric has been completely consumed.
What if I use tap water to begin with and salt in a stainless steel bowl with a car charger what will that do and what would be next to try and correct that?
Love all your work 🥼🥽🌡️⚗️🧫📝☢️☣️🍻
Tap water and salt will form insoluble silver chloride.
Awesome video I've been watching for a while and thinking of trying it . I do have one question for the dacron bag could polyester be used in the same way double layer
Possibly, but I’ve never tried polyester.
Great video! I have a beginner question for you, What is the material of you anode?
The anode basket electrode bar is made of some of the impure silver shot. If you watch my silver refining videos for the amateur refiner, part 2 shows how I make the electrode bar for the anode basket. The electrode bar provides a place to attach the alligator clip from the positive side of the power supply.
Great thank you, I just watched the other videos. You have some of the best detailed videos on youtube! keep it up!
Another great video!
Could you out line the equipment needed to produce process to make silver.
Did you ever XRF any of your silver that you melted from the silver chloride, sodium hydroxide, sugar conversion? I consistently got 4 nines with a one run processing using the chloride method on sterling. So I never had the need to use a cell. With the chloride you just have to make sure to rinse it very well before using the sodium hydroxide and sugar. I'd put the chloride in a 5 gallon bucket and blast it with the garden hose until it ran clear. I do the shooting slightly different btw.
Yes, I've made high purity silver with silver chloride, lye and sugar. There are refiners who prefer this method. "you get your palladium up front..." One refiner remarked. And no need to tie up a bunch of silver in electrolyte. I prefer the silver cell method because there's less waste that must be treated. And I'm familiar with the silver cell. Plus, I get to make videos about recovering the metals from my anode filters fron the silver cell.
Hey Mr Sreetip! You've been very kind to answer a couple of my "rookie" questions so thank you very much. I am on my journey, to make my first silver cell ever but I have a couple questions: I don't have any "cement silver", so what do you recommend I use to make my impure shot? I have a bunch of pure silver 1oz coins, but of course I'd prefer not to use them unless I have to. Also, the silver bars you make for your anode basket ....are they pure silver or can they be made of impure silver as well? Again, thank you so much for your time and wisdom.
I buy sterling silver at estate sales. After dissolving in hot dilute nitric, I cement the silver on copper, rinse it off, melt into shot, and run it through my silver cell.
can u reuse the filters once youve washed the slimes out of them ?
They are custom fit and trimmed with a razor. I don’t think that they would fit properly
Thank you for this Series of Vids
What is the anode made out of? Thank you so much, love your work.
Melted cement silver
Okay what was the rod that you put the positive lead on made of and how many holes did you punch in the bottom of your basket ?
Rod = pure silver, ten holes
@@sreetips okay thanks for your help
Hi my friend. Thank you so much for your videos. I have a question. How many grams of silver can you dissolve in one liter of electrolyte?
I've never tried to go beyond 150 to 200 grams per liter. But it wouldn't surprise me if a kilo would dissolve into a liter of liquid.
@@sreetips I have several questions. Why did it not make silver nitrate when you dissolved the crystal in the Nitric acid? Do you recover the 600 grams of silver you used to make the electrolyte? How many litters of electrolyte did the 600 grams make if you can only recover 150 - 200 grams from a litter?
Thanks as always! I've been watching, learning, and commenting but never thought I would indulge in this, Things have changed and I'm gathering the necessary pieces to do some silver and maybe other metal refining. I have more than a few questions, that I'm getting answers from your vids, but one in particular I haven't spotted yet. Does the power supply have to be constant current capable?
No, I run mine in constant voltage let the amps fall where they may.
@@sreetips Thank you for your fast reply! I haven't started refining yet. I forgot to ask, to get started in the process, can I use a silver coin as a anode? I'm going to use a silver bar to make my electrolyte.
90% silver is too much copper. The electrolyte would quickly become saturated with copper.
@@sreetips Somehow I knew you were going to say that🙃, what about a big piece of sterling then, or do I need to go buy some more silver bar?
@@stevenpederson1645 I use pure silver for the electrolyte. I use 98% impure silver that I recover from my gold refining to use as anode material for the silver cell. The 98% impure silver is a by-product of my gold refining.
So if i desolved just sterling silver in nitric, cemented it back out on copper, i use that cement silver to make electrolyte?? That cement silver would not possibly contain poladium??
It’s not recommended. You can use pure silver bars or coins to make electrolyte.
Can you do this with junk silver or does it contaminate the end product?
The anode material must be fairly high purity to begin with. Otherwise the cell will become contaminated very quickly.
@sreetips so basically, you have one chamber to make the electrolyte then you dump that into the silver cell to solidify into pure crystal? Awesome videos by the way
No, the sole purpose of the electrolyte is to enable the silver ions to travel from the anode basket to the cathode.
What do you do with the silver nitrate crystals? Sorry if you covered that in the video, if you did I missed it because I watched it twice trying to catch it.
The pure silver crystal is high purity investment grade elemental silver.
@sreetips I see, so on the market it would demand the highest dollar? Does it meltdown into metal or do you have to turn it to the oxide first? 'Im going to guess it would melt down since you said elemental. Im not trying to be funny or anything but everyone I watch one of your videos on the silver cells I get the feeling that I would be hard pressed not to eat some if it was in front of me. It looks tasty for some reason.
Agree. The silver crystal is elemental silver metal. I can melt and pour pure silver bars. I used to melt it and sell every bit of it after each harvest. But today I’m so situated that I don’t have to sell any of my silver.
@sreetips That's awesome! I hope to be there someday myself. I am having a rough time starting out refining. I have read and watched so many variations of refin I ng thatvI thi k they've started to blend together and I end up messing up. I've decided to watch your videos and that's it until I get a solid grip on refining. I know how to safely work with the chemicals and the proper disposal of them; it's the procedures for what metal in specific situations that I'm hung up on.
Thanks so much for the video. When you melt out the silver from the reagent process does it always have that coffee color to it. Or is it sometimes just a silver color?
Another great video
Most interesting process. I have been meaning to try it but have not done so yet. Leaving large open containers of AgNO2 around in MY workshop for days on end is just asking for trouble. I use another method which utilises sodium formate. Have you heard if it?
I have not
If don't have one of those power supplies will a 6-12 v. Car batt. Work?
3.5 volts DC is what you want. 12v battery is too high
@@sreetips Thanks
Who supplies your chemicals where do you buy them? I bought nitric acid about 10 years ago and the only way I could get it was because I work in a lab.
Any chemical supply has nitric acid for sale. They just don’t ship to residential address. So I use a business address.
@@sreetips oh that makes sense okay thank you
Does the silver sell for a higher price when it is 5 nines rather than industry standard 3 nines?
Just wondering why you do the extra step to run it through twice.
Thanks for the video and info.
Thumbs up and God Bless
Not really, but I like making it extra pure, just a personal preference. But the crystals seem to bring a premium over poured bars.
sreetips .... Thanks for the reply. That makes sense why you go through this procedure then. The video is a great selling point also. After watching a couple myself, I am going to check you out on UA-cam and buy me some just cuz they are really beautiful and come with a cool story of how they were processed.
Thanks again.
So clear instructions thanks so much!
Could you use silver nitrate and distilled water?
Yes
Life changing information!
So do you actually grow more silver than you put in it?or is it more about just refining it?
I refine gold. I use sterling silver, that I buy at estate sales, to refine the scrap gold. I recover the silver from that, melt into shot, and run it through my silver cell. Silver is a by-product of my gold refining. The cell converts the impure silver (about 980 parts per thousand silver) to high purity four nines fine (9999 parts per ten thousand) pure elemental silver metal. So I’m refining the impure silver, into high purity silver, not creating silver out of thin air. When it’s full, I harvest the pure silver crystal, put it away and forget about it. Then I repeat the whole thing again.
Thanks man I love the vids
Stree how do you get the power supply not shorting out when you put the positive negative in the same conductive fluid? So far I haven't been able to get that to not happen
It just does t short out.
Do you gotta have license to buy those chemicals and if so what kind and what's a ball park number on how much it would cost to get them I love watching your videos science is so cool love the reactions of the silver chloride it was awesome that it turned to cottage cheese white
I’ve got a drivers license, that’s about it. I get most chemicals on eBay or at Ace Hardware.
@@sreetips that's exactly what I was wondering thanks maybe I will try it
assuming the impure silver is low grade, will it still get refined? and how well will it refine? plus will it refine better the more I repeat the process?
The impure silver going into the cell must be relatively high purity to begin with or else the cell will quickly become fouled. I’ve run some of the pure silver crystal back through the cell a second time. Had it analyzed ICP and it came back greater than five nines fine. That’s 99999 parts per one hundred thousand pure silver.
@@sreetips I was wondering if I could increase the purity of a low grade silver by melting and mixing it with a batch of pure silver? if I can in a sense increase the purity to 97-97% but the method I implied, will the electrolytic process work well? thanks in advance.
I wouldn’t do that if it were mine.
Hi Sreetips.
When you dissolved the silver in the nitric and distilled water solution I was thinking the solution must be saturated for the silver cell to work correctly.... but then you add a load more distilled water. Does the electrolyte need to be saturated or not? This is confusing me somewhat and I am struggling to find an answer to that question.
I add enough distilled water to achieve 150g of pure silver dissolve in one liter of solution. This cell holds 3.5 liters. So I’ll have 3.5l x 150g = about 525g of silver dissolved in 3.5 liters of liquid.
Well that was eventful. I just bought a brand new corningware 2.5 qt container and it exploded on the stovetop. Any clue as to why. Are yours some kinda special ones.
They will take the heat but they're not indestructable. I had one shatter once. I was drying some cement silver. Turned the electric burner on high, walked away, and forgot about it. I was in another room and I heard it break. I knew what it was as soon as I heard it. I've had them on high heat as long as no liquid is in it.
I only use the smaller ones to heat my experiments 2.5 quarts is big and may not do well with high heat
I think the older ones were able to handle the heat. Cause they were made out of different material. From what I’ve gathered These new ones say not to put them on a burner. Should’ve read that before I blew it up. 😂🤣
I don't think any of them are suitable for a direct flame. I use electric heaters and have never put a direct flame on it.
Fantastic video.
Can u resalvGe the siver from the electrolyte when you're done?
Yes, but some of it will be gone; it plates out in the cathode as the cell operates.
Another great video.
Hello what size container is the rubber made cantainer?
It's Bly about 2 inches
@@sreetips thanks for your input and they are hard to find. Also quick question does it matter the size wiring you use on the silver cell?
@@sreetips ok thanks, 1 quick question on the current on the power supply mines set at 3.5 and my current keeps climbing what are the safe zones I also have 3 amp inline fuse and my current is at 2.6 I'm getting worried that the current will rise to over 3 then the fuse will blow, can you shed some light please
Wondering why you don’t pour your silver-cell crystals through a fine stainless screen mesh so you won’t have to painstakingly pour the electrolyte off the crystals... also, would your stirring method be more effective if you used a glass paddle and not just a rod?
So are or can the volts be used to regulate growth speed? Like turn down volts to low while at work, back up a few hrs when home, then back down again? To keep from having to knock down the crystals so often / worry about a short?
And with this being electrolysis, normal ventilation is ok? Say an attached garage without worry of fumes infiltrating the home? (just the electrolysis part)
I’ve run voltage as low as 3.3vdc and high 3.7vdc anytime we work with acidic solutions in our garage expect surface corrosion on any metal surfaces including your car, motorcycle or tools. To avoid this it can be done in a fume hood.
Would it be better to use silver derived from chloride rather than cement silver to make electrolyte if pure silver isn't available? Thx
Probably, but I’ve never tried it.
How do you calculate the amount of silver for the silver cell. And. will it produce more than the amount used in the cell
The amount of silver I get from the cell will never be more than what I put in due to entropy.
The purpose of this process is to separate the silver from the other metals present in the source material. The electrolytic process moves metal from the anode to the cathode. Choice of the voltage affects which metal goes where - at 3.6V silver dissolves but other precious metals don't dissolve. The 'anode slime' is the tiny particles of any precious metal (gold, platinum, palladium) that happened to be in the pieces of silver he put in the anode basket.
Can I cement the silver from the used electrolyte solution with copper instead of acid lye and sugar?
That’s what I do
Pardon me for asking but how come you didn't use a battery charger there are small chargeable batteries that you can plug in and do the same thing I'm just curious anywhere from 6 volts and up
6 volts is too high. Other metals, if present, could plate out with the silver and contaminated it
Thank you for the reply I was curious about that!
That's good information to know thank you!