"It's really goopy down there." For those of you wondering, I am a Chemist and I can assure you that "Goopy" is in fact the correct term for that material.🤣🤣🤣
@@jakeeasterwood3204 My favorite term, and it's the one that drives the engineers crazy is "squiggly." As in, "We can't accurately model this vein because it is too squiggly." The reality is that I have it modeled in 3d to a gnat's ass, but I just like to watch the engineers reactions.
You’re welcome. I’d like to thank you for your clear concise instructional video library that covers all aspects of refining. It seems almost all of the questions you receive have been thoroughly covered in previous posts. Thank you Sir!👍👍🤟
Really enjoying all the silver stuff lately. Plus…anticipating a filter processing series! As always thanks for doing this stuff for everyone to enjoy. Endlessly fascinating and a lot of fun to watch. Enjoy your Memorial Day!
Hey sreetips you should just melt all the anode basket filters up into one big bar and hit it with an xrf gun so we can see what ends up leftover then granulate it and process it. At least that way you won't have to fight with all that carbon from the filters all the way threw the refining process!
As a vet, I can say it's not about us it about those who paid to Ultimate price and didn't come home. Not trying to be that guy but we get veteran's day. The fallin get memorial day. But thank you for your service.
possible suggestion: use multiple ‘levels’ of cementation buckets to recover silver (transferring solutions from one cementation bucket to the next until it reaches the waste disposal). This method minimizes silver loss, while not taking too much time and effort 🤔
I'm addicted to learning and I ALWAYS learn many new pieces of knowledge from every single video you produce I just can't get enough you could refine pot ash and make it knowledgeable and entertaining thank you for the countless terabytes of top shelf knowledge for all to learn from ... I can only imagine all the amazing job offers you've had and currently get
BTW, thanks again for all the inspiring videos. I have really learned a lot! Spent 6 hrs last night watching the platinum series. Wow! I can't imagine the work these videos must entail.
Can you imagine this being your your middle school / high school chemistry classes. I always liked chemistry anyway but this would have taken it to a whole other level.
I wonder if you could puncture like a few more filter holes in the same container lid while giving enough space for Silver Crystal growth & cranking up the current by the amount of filters you've got and just feed those from the main cable. For low amperage you wouldn't need to replace the main cable but if you end up adding many filters I'd use a thicker main cable for safety measures in case it gets hot by the current. If this works then it could speed up the recovery process immensely. Also, I love your videos man, great work ! The way you explain everything always leaves me in awe.
This makes me wonder about the natural formation of silver ore and electron flow within associated minerals and the natural telluric current of the earth.
I think the process of purifying the slimes/slimebags is the only operational phase we haven't seen you perform. Of course, I am happy to be able to properly use the word "slimebag". You have a fair number of hundreds of $$ in silver tied up in those anode baskets until the day they are liberated.
Hey.. I guess if you can fish out or simply wash out the undissolved impure silver shots before nitric treatment.. You will save a lot on the nitric consumption while recovering gold and other pgm's from those anode baskets.. Lots of love❤ from India🇮🇳
I got a large glass lemonade pitcher, with glass stir stick from the thrift stores for 25% off $7. Planning to use it for refining my gold filled material...someday.
the last time you did the filters, you had a hard time getting all the remaining silver bits to dissolve why not rinse out remaining gunk into a classifier to get the larger silver bits to just put back in impure bucket to be reloaded just a suggestion may be helpful
Sreetips, thanks for these awesome videos, I just stumbled upon your channel recently. My question is, where are you getting the material that has all this gold, platinum etc, and silver? My interest is in getting my hands on silver, but the other metals would be a nice perk. Thank you and enjoy your weekend!
I can't wait to watch the recovery of the precious metals from your old filter baskets! That's going to be fascinating. I'm really curious to see how much gold you can actually find in them since so much impure silver goes through each filter.
@@gordonburns8731 His channel wouldn't be growing the way it is if all he posted was the same vanilla video (turning scrap jewelry into a .999 ingot) again and again. Unpredictable yields, challenges and new techniques make for truly interesting content. Sreetips and most of his longtime viewers are fully aware that this recovery won't even net him minimum wage, but we aren't here to watch someone make money, we're here watch cool chemistry and learn. He'll end up with a bead of gold, a bead platinum-group metals, a few ounces of silver, liters of waste and thousands of happy viewers. This time, the journey is more important than the destination.
The dual set up.. the numbers being inconsistent drives me crazy 😂 but I'm learning. I am truly grateful you are educating myself and so many others. Great science being shared.
Truly amazing !! I'm learning a lot by watching every video that you have. One question I have. If I don't have in pure silver like you have. What can I use instead? I'm trying to build silver cell setup like you to pay for my son school. Please let me know. Thank you
I’ve used pure silver coins or bars to make the electrolyte. I by sterling silver at local sales. I use it to refine gold. Then I recover the silver from that and run it through my silver cell. Then I add it to my savings and forget about it.
Silver (and some white gold) are carriers of platinum group metals. But it’s usually trace amounts. They will tend to follow the silver. Ultimately they usually end up in my gold refining stock pot, or as “slimes” in my silver cell anode filters. Then I recover the platinum and palladium and refine them. Rhodium, iridium, ruthenium and Osmium are enigmas to me.
What Sreetips uses here to kick the silver out of solution with copper is called the reactivity serie. PMGs (Platinum) is less reactive than gold which is less reactive than silver which is less reactive than copper. So in his silver cell, the gold and PMGs aren't "interested" to disolve because the silver in the silver nitrate is more stable in there. They stay in the basket. But the copper will disolve and kick what it can of the silver out of solution. Basicly he starts with pure silver nitrate that will allow silver ions to disolve and flow to the cathode and form cristals. The copper will remain in solution. If too much copper is present, then the flow of silver would slow down because it can't go less and less into solution anymore and reach the cathode since the copper is more stable in there. When the flow of silver ions becomes too poor, he changes the nitrate solution for a fresh one. When it happens, there's still plenty of silver in solution (but not enough for a good ion flow) and kicks it out with copper. He could the kick copper out with lead or nickel to recover it and make copper ingots, but that's another story (is copper more expensive than lead? yes. about 4 times)
So then would reversing the anode and cathode move the copper out of the solution and back up into the filter basket? ( Assume that the pure Silver Crystals are removed and a fresh filter with impure silver is installed)
Have you ever thought about adding a cupelling step in your process? Removing the copper first, saving on filters and fluid changes. A little more gas and some bags of Portland cement.
I am having a heck of a time finding nitric acid and don't know what its really worth.. What do you think is a decent price for 67% Nitric (not including shipping)?? BTW have you arrived at a preferred ratio for the electrolyte for the silver cell since the early days? I am trying to make up a batch of electrolyte and kick off a silver cell of my own. Saw your original video back in the day and it really inspired me but have not had the time for a new hobby until recently (got old, LOL). Regards, Dach.
@@sreetips Thanks, just looked. Whew. Not cheap with the shipping but looks decent and definitely reliable quality. BTW, they have an affiliate program that looks real quick and easy to sign up for. Maybe you could generate a few extra biscuits to help with the overhead? Thanks Again, Dach.
Second question, when you are doing the refinings, what is your rough expense cost? (Gold and Silver). I am not trying to get into your personal finances just curious how much it costs.
why did the 2nd silver cell filter get so bad so fast? do you think maybe it's because of whatever material that cutting board you used is made out of? i even see some what looks like some weird blue gel forming on the sides of the container on top of the board, the first silver cell doesn't exhibit such things and its cover seems to be made of a different material
Her Streetips, been watching & lurking commenting some too. Wo dering how much $ the electric bill went up running a few amps thru the cells 24/7 from the powersupplies? I have a few lbs of old silicon fast acting high amp fuse clips/ends. Industrial electrician and saved them from hoppers over the years. New ones are plated copper but old ones appear solid silver (industrial grade) that i would like to try this out on. I also have some tear out Type R thermocouples (platinum & platinum/rhodium) would like to refine back to a small ingot/bead. Also have salvaged a bunch of old Electrical Contactor "buttons" that can be refined some way.?
Thank you so much for sharing your vast knowledge I have a question regarding the anode , How much silver shot do you use per run of a bowl till harvesting a bowl of grown silver Thanks in advance Kind regards Sam
I'm surprised you didn't get a complete 14 day run on that $10.00 anode basket. Looks like an extra hot distilled water boil wash or two should clean up that impure silver shot a little bit. Alleviating the filter slimes from occurring so fast. Fun stuff Sreetips...
@@williamfoote2888 If you paid attention to what Sreetips said. His impure silver shot is contaminated with mostly copper. At $10.00 a filter. You'll still get the precious metal without clogging the filter full of copper well before a simple 10 to 14 day run.
@sreetips: Would it be helpfull to reduce the PGM slimes to include in the process the extra steps which are a) to use pure silver with the silver nitrate solution to precipitate those PGMs, b) then to filter the PGMs precipitates, and then you to the copper to precipitate the silver as usual? I am guessing i could have almost pure silver when melting the silver shots and then much less slime on the silver cell. I other words i am hoping it would work to apply the reactivity series of metals twice on the solution: first to use pure silver to separate PGMs, and then copper to get pure silver. could this work?
I like watching how you refine these precious metals. I know that the copper causes the silver to drop out because it is more reactive than silver and displaces it in the solution. Silver is more reactive than gold and platinum so would it be possible/worthwhile to first put a chunk of pure silver into the solution to displace the gold and platinum group metals? Is it possible to separate the metals by first dissolving everything in aqua regia then stepping through pure metal sheets (i.e. first gold to concrete out the platinum, then silver to concrete out the gold and finally copper to concrete out the silver)?
Hi Sreetips, I've been watching your video's for a very long time now, great content as always. I was thinking of getting into refining precious metals myself, but I know many dangerous fumes are given off with the processes. I was wondering about your fume hood and extraction system. The gasses that are sent outside are these treated .. I.e. with carbon filters, etc? I was just wondering about your setup and how it works... On another note, with your silver cells, I am curious and it has been making me ponder for a while now... I've noticed that your silver shot is quite large, would reducing the size of the shot make the process more efficient? Or instead of melting the silver into shot would it be more efficient to just use the cemented out material, if not what are the reasons behind this? One other thing , sorry for all the questions today, what do you do with all your silver refining liquids to make them safe for disposal.? I know the process upto cementing out the copper using iron to get ferrous nitrate, what is done after this? Thank you so much for all the great info 😀 👍 keep up the great work.
Hi @Sreetips The contact me message in this post is not from you is it? If not, I'll report it as a potential scammer link. You don't need scammers in you chat feed! Regards MysticMCWizard
@@ethanwilson1001 They, theoretically, could be. However, the slimes are rich in platinum group metals, gold and more silver. Recovering them requires the Dacron to be ashed in a furnaces and the metals extracted from the ash. The metal value far exceeds the cost of the filters. The same principle is in play when he ashes all his filter paper that he creates when he filters his raw gold solutions before he gets to the SMB step. The residue on that paper is going to be rich in PGM and maybe some bits of leftover gold and silver. That media is valueless compared to winning more valuable metal product.
@streetips im curious to know, how LONG did it take you to accumulate all that material in the shot bucket? And how LONG will it take to refine that whole bucket into pure silver?
I have no idea, I couldn’t put a number on it. I buy sterling at local sales. I use it to refine gold. Then I recover the silver and run it through the silver cell. I melted that “shot” about a month and 1/2 ago. There was 22 pounds. I’ve got about half through my silver cells. So in another month or so I’ll need to melt up some more cement silver to use a feed stock for my silver cells.
Please forgive me as I'm not sure if someone has already asked this question. However I am wondering if it is possible to clean the filters by washing etc. then be able to reuse them?
I have a question, you that you get your impure silver from processing gold. How much gold did it take to accumulate that much and where did do find your gold?
I would make the assumption that the dirty filter just inhibits fluid flow. You could possibly increase efficiency by adding a small pump to draw electrolyte from the larger part of the cell to pour over the granules.
Will a bit of copper hurt your purity if you run it through your silver Cell? I just dried my cement silver and there's a sign that not all the copper was rinsed out so should I re rinse or just continue to stage 2 running it through my silver Cell
@@apveening how do you know if there's only 1% I saw green spots in my cement silver size of a quarter and a few smaller spots that indicates the presents of copper.
What I want to know is how much does it cost for this setup and where do you get the materiel and chemicals. Also, what is the cost per ounce of pure silver?
Hello Mr. Sreetips, thank you for another stupendous video, these are actually lectures to get anyone to build their skills. It is possible to optimize your anode, make it work somewhat fater, and even reduce loss: when replenishing the basked, you add one or two spoons of the shots, then add the silver bar, and then you add other 2 spoons of shots. Instead of ion flow (like an electric circuit) you would have an electromagnetic field and a large volume of ions flowing. You might need to shuffle the shots more often though. Don't remember the equation out the top of my head, if you want I can easily find your current circuitry with the one I am proposing. Just saying.
What are the baskets themselves made from? Fiberglass or nylon cloth? I imagine cotton or another natural fiber would disintegrate in the nitrate solution? Wonder if you could do an electrode out of very fine stainless mesh or stainless steel wool. and use that to press the impure shot into solution?
Is it possible to recover the acid and re use it because in norway its har to get and if i can re use the nitric acid i hope you have or can make a video how to do this safe Safety is nr 1 priority 😊 Much love from norway
The acid can’t be reused once it’s been allowed to react. I suppose that there’s a way to recover acid, but it’s costly and inefficient. Be the same as trying to recover the copper. It costs more to recover the used copper than its worth.
@sreetips actually I mean starting from the moment you drop it in place at low current versus at high current, do you think there's a difference in the amount of shot you process before the filter is clogged or does the filter last for about the same amount of material?
From that moment, at first, the shot dissolves quickly. But in a few days the current flow drops off as the bag gets full again f slimes. The impure silver dissolves slower at that point. The silver deposits slower also, at that point. High current flow equals fast operation. Low current flow equals slow.
Unless you're running on solar, you should be able to automate the process while also expanding the surface area of the reaction (bigger bowl, bigger basket), and If you run the power supply at about 80% of it's maximum output (strict maximum at any point in the reaction) then automate the operation within off-peak hours of your electrical company, you would get maximum yield in the shortest and cheapest amount of time.
They are averaging less than 10 watts. At $0.17 a kwh these cost $14 a YEAR to run. The savings in electricity wouldn't be worth the loss in production speed. He's already made a second cell due to throughput limitations. It wouldn't be worth spending on a third power supply to keep production up just to save less than 5 dollars in electricity a year. You'd never recoup the costs of setting up a third cell. Not even close.
@@ExtractingMetals is it as simple as weighing them and multiplying by 0.925? Just curious. Except I just thought of something - candlesticks are usually weighted so they won’t be solid sterling silver right? The “weighted” part is probably what material?
@streettips I dig your video's, like the idea of renewing the precious metals. I'd luv to do a setup like this myself, but my inherent problem is I'm not a chemist and would be awsome to apprentice with someone doing this setup in my area(NE Tn). Curious what % this adds to your electric bill, then best place to source the materials. Always liked silver stacking, Gold an platinum is on the agenda when my wallet will allow. Always disliked having to pay a premium on coins, etc. Also don't have the funds for degree in chemistry. But one can gain knowledge without paying a ton twords college debt. Anyway, cool stuff Hawse. Keep up kicken the knowledge on video format. Would say this should first be tried with someone that has done this several times. Luv the side hustles, just findin the ones with a decent to gd return. But ya know pple that have the gd ones are not running school shops for obvious reasons. 1 things for sure, local state lotto has seen my last dollars, my state lotto has to be one the worst for payouts, they can keep the free tickets for the next guy. But keep mining buddro! Hope the e-scrap an materials overfloweth 4ya this year! 👍👍 breads not getting any cheaper, side jobs are must in this new age. Can't go wrong with prec metals. Maybe one day soon I'll have a solid 24k dookie chain rockn me chest🤞🏻🪂
Hello. I got a “D” in the only chemistry class I ever took 50 years ago in high school. You don’t have to be a chemist to refine precious metals (but it wouldn’t hurt). My electric bill last month was $109. Unfortunately I don’t offer any training or tutoring services. We buy at local sales. My wife found 29 pieces of sterling flatware at a consignment shop for $400 But she got there just as they were putting it out on the display. Cheap silver is everywhere. Sellers go by the spot price (which is grossly undervalued) so right now it’s a silver-buyers paradise. But you’ve got to go look. It won’t just fall in your lap. As far as gains? I gain my profit in pure silver (that’s rising), not in paper dollars that are declining. If I need paper to pay bills or buy food, then I sell a little metal. Hope this helps.
@sreetips Jus sayin, me n NY folks never sold a personal cpu for personal reasons, have all but last mobile phone since they were affordable in 90's, plus other motors n things. The gas from the chemicals is one thing that'd bother me about doin this. I just never liked idea of throwing $ away...
"It's really goopy down there." For those of you wondering, I am a Chemist and I can assure you that "Goopy" is in fact the correct term for that material.🤣🤣🤣
Do you use technical terms like “thingy” and “whachamacallit” too?
Yes
@@jakeeasterwood3204 My favorite term, and it's the one that drives the engineers crazy is "squiggly." As in, "We can't accurately model this vein because it is too squiggly."
The reality is that I have it modeled in 3d to a gnat's ass, but I just like to watch the engineers reactions.
@@rockbutcher I can imagine. “Just a smidge” could certainly make them break out in a cold sweat too.
Can't wait to see this goopy material on my screen
You’re welcome. I’d like to thank you for your clear concise instructional video library that covers all aspects of refining. It seems almost all of the questions you receive have been thoroughly covered in previous posts. Thank you Sir!👍👍🤟
So excited, I love the silver cell anode recovery videos. Looks like it’s gonna be a good one this year. Hoo Rah senior chief.
Very informative and wonderfully presented for anyone who wants to learn. Thank you.
Really enjoying all the silver stuff lately. Plus…anticipating a filter processing series! As always thanks for doing this stuff for everyone to enjoy. Endlessly fascinating and a lot of fun to watch. Enjoy your Memorial Day!
Another great, educational video. Thanks for posting!
Nice to keep up to date on the functionality of the silver cell. Excellent
You don’t have to pay for silver when you have an awesome wife that brings home silver all the time! Lucky man.
Hey sreetips you should just melt all the anode basket filters up into one big bar and hit it with an xrf gun so we can see what ends up leftover then granulate it and process it. At least that way you won't have to fight with all that carbon from the filters all the way threw the refining process!
Your amazing man! From one vet to another happy memorial day
As a vet, I can say it's not about us it about those who paid to Ultimate price and didn't come home. Not trying to be that guy but we get veteran's day. The fallin get memorial day. But thank you for your service.
Enjoy the long weekend! -kamala harris
@@familyengineering5591 why do you feel the need to be that guy and bring politics into the mix? .!. -.- .!.
Because kamala harris hates our fallen vets and everyone needs to know that
@@uwillnevahno6837 its the only thing his type know how to do. All of his friends live on talk radio.
Happy memorial day sir! Thank u for ur service!!!
Thank you!
I really enjoy watching your work... I only wish I had my own house instead of living in a apartment where I can undertake this venture.
possible suggestion: use multiple ‘levels’ of cementation buckets to recover silver (transferring solutions from one cementation bucket to the next until it reaches the waste disposal). This method minimizes silver loss, while not taking too much time and effort 🤔
Mstr. Ch., that should be your next video, recovering all those baskets...That'll be cool to watch...Shabbat Shalom and Happy Memorial Day...
Once I can retire I want to copy a lot of what I've seen you do. I hope your channel stays up forever so that this info is easy to find.
My Man! You are loving the dream!
I'm addicted to learning and I ALWAYS learn many new pieces of knowledge from every single video you produce I just can't get enough you could refine pot ash and make it knowledgeable and entertaining thank you for the countless terabytes of top shelf knowledge for all to learn from ... I can only imagine all the amazing job offers you've had and currently get
Excellent you are going to be really busy with the harvest thank you for sharing this six stars sir
BTW, thanks again for all the inspiring videos. I have really learned a lot! Spent 6 hrs last night watching the platinum series. Wow! I can't imagine the work these videos must entail.
Can you imagine this being your your middle school / high school chemistry classes. I always liked chemistry anyway but this would have taken it to a whole other level.
So cool!!! Thanks for sharing!
I wonder if you could puncture like a few more filter holes in the same container lid while giving enough space for Silver Crystal growth & cranking up the current by the amount of filters you've got and just feed those from the main cable. For low amperage you wouldn't need to replace the main cable but if you end up adding many filters I'd use a thicker main cable for safety measures in case it gets hot by the current. If this works then it could speed up the recovery process immensely.
Also, I love your videos man, great work ! The way you explain everything always leaves me in awe.
This makes me wonder about the natural formation of silver ore and electron flow within associated minerals and the natural telluric current of the earth.
I think the process of purifying the slimes/slimebags is the only operational phase we haven't seen you perform. Of course, I am happy to be able to properly use the word "slimebag". You have a fair number of hundreds of $$ in silver tied up in those anode baskets until the day they are liberated.
Hey.. I guess if you can fish out or simply wash out the undissolved impure silver shots before nitric treatment.. You will save a lot on the nitric consumption while recovering gold and other pgm's from those anode baskets.. Lots of love❤ from India🇮🇳
I tried that the last time I processed the silver cell slimes. But it was a weak effort. Seems like a good idea but turns out to be lots of work.
Great silvercell update. Sure will be interesting to see you process those slimes in the filter papers. 👍
@Streetips looks like they're at it again 😭
I got a large glass lemonade pitcher, with glass stir stick from the thrift stores for 25% off $7. Planning to use it for refining my gold filled material...someday.
the last time you did the filters, you had a hard time getting all the remaining silver bits to dissolve why not rinse out remaining gunk into a classifier to get the larger silver bits to just put back in impure bucket to be reloaded just a suggestion may be helpful
Good suggestion. Thank you.
Glad to see you stepped up your game Kev. More silver never hurt anyone
Sreetips, thanks for these awesome videos, I just stumbled upon your channel recently. My question is, where are you getting the material that has all this gold, platinum etc, and silver? My interest is in getting my hands on silver, but the other metals would be a nice perk. Thank you and enjoy your weekend!
We buy sterling silver at estate sales. Silver is a carrier of platinum group metals and gold.
Love these videos - Thanks for making them!
How long does it take for a filter to become loaded with slimes?
About a week
I can't wait to watch the recovery of the precious metals from your old filter baskets! That's going to be fascinating. I'm really curious to see how much gold you can actually find in them since so much impure silver goes through each filter.
It'll be a case of spending many dollars on recovering just a few cent's worth milligrams of precious metals.
He is a fool!
The loudest one in the room is usually the fool.
@@gordonburns8731 His channel wouldn't be growing the way it is if all he posted was the same vanilla video (turning scrap jewelry into a .999 ingot) again and again. Unpredictable yields, challenges and new techniques make for truly interesting content. Sreetips and most of his longtime viewers are fully aware that this recovery won't even net him minimum wage, but we aren't here to watch someone make money, we're here watch cool chemistry and learn. He'll end up with a bead of gold, a bead platinum-group metals, a few ounces of silver, liters of waste and thousands of happy viewers. This time, the journey is more important than the destination.
@@gordonburns8731 Abraham Lincoln - Quote - Better to remain silent and be thought a fool than to speak and to remove all doubt
@@gordonburns8731 why would you say something like that? are you jealous or just a keyboard moron?? both i suspect.
What a skill to have!! Great video Sreetips!
The dual set up.. the numbers being inconsistent drives me crazy 😂 but I'm learning. I am truly grateful you are educating myself and so many others. Great science being shared.
There are many variables that determine the numbers.
Close to a quarter mill subs Sreetips!
Great vid, thanks for sharing...
I'm wondering when you will do another silver cell filter bag refining
And most importantly THANK YOU FOR YOUR SERVICE my friend the Pendleton household highly apperciates you and ALL service members sacrifice
Thank you
Truly amazing !! I'm learning a lot by watching every video that you have. One question I have. If I don't have in pure silver like you have. What can I use instead? I'm trying to build silver cell setup like you to pay for my son school. Please let me know. Thank you
I’ve used pure silver coins or bars to make the electrolyte. I by sterling silver at local sales. I use it to refine gold. Then I recover the silver from that and run it through my silver cell. Then I add it to my savings and forget about it.
Very Interesting. I havent looked through your videos yet but am interested in the detection and removal of platinum group metals
Silver (and some white gold) are carriers of platinum group metals. But it’s usually trace amounts. They will tend to follow the silver. Ultimately they usually end up in my gold refining stock pot, or as “slimes” in my silver cell anode filters. Then I recover the platinum and palladium and refine them. Rhodium, iridium, ruthenium and Osmium are enigmas to me.
What Sreetips uses here to kick the silver out of solution with copper is called the reactivity serie. PMGs (Platinum) is less reactive than gold which is less reactive than silver which is less reactive than copper. So in his silver cell, the gold and PMGs aren't "interested" to disolve because the silver in the silver nitrate is more stable in there. They stay in the basket. But the copper will disolve and kick what it can of the silver out of solution. Basicly he starts with pure silver nitrate that will allow silver ions to disolve and flow to the cathode and form cristals. The copper will remain in solution. If too much copper is present, then the flow of silver would slow down because it can't go less and less into solution anymore and reach the cathode since the copper is more stable in there. When the flow of silver ions becomes too poor, he changes the nitrate solution for a fresh one. When it happens, there's still plenty of silver in solution (but not enough for a good ion flow) and kicks it out with copper. He could the kick copper out with lead or nickel to recover it and make copper ingots, but that's another story (is copper more expensive than lead? yes. about 4 times)
So then would reversing the anode and cathode move the copper out of the solution and back up into the filter basket? ( Assume that the pure Silver Crystals are removed and a fresh filter with impure silver is installed)
I don’t think that would work.
@@sreetips I was just thinking out loud again. My only thought was, " Removing the copper accumulated". It wouldn't be significant anyway. My bad.
@@sreetips It would not indeed.
Idea for storage of bulk silver: Cast or forge it into furniture like end tables then oxidize so it just looks like old furniture. 🤔
Have you ever thought about adding a cupelling step in your process? Removing the copper first, saving on filters and fluid changes. A little more gas and some bags of Portland cement.
None of the professional refiners that I learned from used cupel.
@@sreetips I noticed that you said that you don't save the copper, so I figured why not remove it first. Less buckets lol.
I am having a heck of a time finding nitric acid and don't know what its really worth.. What do you think is a decent price for 67% Nitric (not including shipping)?? BTW have you arrived at a preferred ratio for the electrolyte for the silver cell since the early days? I am trying to make up a batch of electrolyte and kick off a silver cell of my own. Saw your original video back in the day and it really inspired me but have not had the time for a new hobby until recently (got old, LOL). Regards, Dach.
Try dudadiesel.com for nitric.
@@sreetips Thanks, just looked. Whew. Not cheap with the shipping but looks decent and definitely reliable quality. BTW, they have an affiliate program that looks real quick and easy to sign up for. Maybe you could generate a few extra biscuits to help with the overhead? Thanks Again, Dach.
One day I will own all the turquoise on this wretched planet.😊
Thanks for sharing
Second question, when you are doing the refinings, what is your rough expense cost? (Gold and Silver). I am not trying to get into your personal finances just curious how much it costs.
I really don’t know. I use sterling silver to refine gold. Then I recover the silver, melt into granules, then run it through the silver cell.
Maybe it would be better to place a dextron filter outside the the rubber basket and leave some room for the slimes.
why did the 2nd silver cell filter get so bad so fast? do you think maybe it's because of whatever material that cutting board you used is made out of? i even see some what looks like some weird blue gel forming on the sides of the container on top of the board, the first silver cell doesn't exhibit such things and its cover seems to be made of a different material
It’s the impure silver going in that forms the slimes. The blue gel is some of the silver nitrate that gets wicked up and deposits on the cover.
Thank you Mr Sreetips. How did you get that thick glass rod ?
Bought it on eBay
@@sreetips thank you sir, we love you!
Her Streetips, been watching & lurking commenting some too. Wo dering how much $ the electric bill went up running a few amps thru the cells 24/7 from the powersupplies?
I have a few lbs of old silicon fast acting high amp fuse clips/ends. Industrial electrician and saved them from hoppers over the years. New ones are plated copper but old ones appear solid silver (industrial grade) that i would like to try this out on.
I also have some tear out Type R thermocouples (platinum & platinum/rhodium) would like to refine back to a small ingot/bead.
Also have salvaged a bunch of old Electrical Contactor "buttons" that can be refined some way.?
The feed stock going into the anode must be relatively high purity to begin with.
Thank you so much for sharing your vast knowledge
I have a question regarding the anode ,
How much silver shot do you use per run of a bowl till harvesting a bowl of grown silver
Thanks in advance
Kind regards
Sam
For every 100g of impure silver I put in, I’ll get about 98g of high purity silver out, roughly.
Looking forward to you processing the leftovers as I'm interested in the amount of accumulated gold you recover.
I'm surprised you didn't get a complete 14 day run on that $10.00 anode basket. Looks like an extra hot distilled water boil wash or two should clean up that impure silver shot a little bit. Alleviating the filter slimes from occurring so fast. Fun stuff Sreetips...
He wants as much ‘slimes’ as he can generate. Things like Pd and Pt, plus some Au, are in those slimes and are worth 40x to 80x the value of Ag.
@@williamfoote2888
If you paid attention to what Sreetips said. His impure silver shot is contaminated with mostly copper. At $10.00 a filter. You'll still get the precious metal without clogging the filter full of copper well before a simple 10 to 14 day run.
@sreetips: Would it be helpfull to reduce the PGM slimes to include in the process the extra steps which are a) to use pure silver with the silver nitrate solution to precipitate those PGMs, b) then to filter the PGMs precipitates, and then you to the copper to precipitate the silver as usual? I am guessing i could have almost pure silver when melting the silver shots and then much less slime on the silver cell. I other words i am hoping it would work to apply the reactivity series of metals twice on the solution: first to use pure silver to separate PGMs, and then copper to get pure silver. could this work?
I don’t think that will work very well
So does the new SS bowl work better then the one that is a few years old?
Hi. What can i use instead of inpure silver. Can i use silver shots?
I like watching how you refine these precious metals.
I know that the copper causes the silver to drop out because it is more reactive than silver and displaces it in the solution.
Silver is more reactive than gold and platinum so would it be possible/worthwhile to first put a chunk of pure silver into the solution to displace the gold and platinum group metals?
Is it possible to separate the metals by first dissolving everything in aqua regia then stepping through pure metal sheets (i.e. first gold to concrete out the platinum, then silver to concrete out the gold and finally copper to concrete out the silver)?
No, that’s probably not going to work.
@@sreetips Yep it's dawned on me that it wouldn't work because the Hydrochloric acid would react with the silver which would mess up the process.
Perhaps Sreettips could build some sort of NOx reclaiming system by sucking the brown gas through water and getting nitric acid back
Hello Mrs and Mr screetips. Happy memorial day,to you and all my famely on the best canal🎉. Thanks for sharing sir. A good day to you😊 Arne
Same to you, thanks Arne.
You welcome Sir😊
Have a great day both of you
Have you had any luck washing out the dacron filters and reusing them?
No, they are custom fit in the anode basket.
Mr. Sreetips needs a soup ladle for that impure silver shot! 😂
the silver crystal sitting down in the blue liquid inside the cathode bowl reminds me of the inside of a geode for some reason.
Any idea what the mesh size (microns) is of the vacuum filters you have been using? Do you think 150 microns is fine enough?
I’ll have to check. It should be published somewhere.
i have a quick question, could you put the cement silver powder in the silver cell without melting it into granules?
No, clogs the filter.
Hi Sreetips,
I've been watching your video's for a very long time now, great content as always. I was thinking of getting into refining precious metals myself, but I know many dangerous fumes are given off with the processes. I was wondering about your fume hood and extraction system. The gasses that are sent outside are these treated .. I.e. with carbon filters, etc? I was just wondering about your setup and how it works...
On another note, with your silver cells, I am curious and it has been making me ponder for a while now... I've noticed that your silver shot is quite large, would reducing the size of the shot make the process more efficient? Or instead of melting the silver into shot would it be more efficient to just use the cemented out material, if not what are the reasons behind this?
One other thing , sorry for all the questions today, what do you do with all your silver refining liquids to make them safe for disposal.? I know the process upto cementing out the copper using iron to get ferrous nitrate, what is done after this?
Thank you so much for all the great info 😀 👍 keep up the great work.
The fume hood doesn’t have a filter. Shot must be used, powder clogs the filter. I use a waste treatment process on the waste solutions.
@@sreetips thanks 👍
Hi @Sreetips
The contact me message in this post is not from you is it? If not, I'll report it as a potential scammer link. You don't need scammers in you chat feed!
Regards
MysticMCWizard
Very informative video! Is it feasible to clean or rinse out those dacron filter bags when they get filled with the slimes?
No, they’re custom fit.
The slimes are where the money is.
@@williamfoote2888 Are those dacron bags reusable?
@@ethanwilson1001 They, theoretically, could be. However, the slimes are rich in platinum group metals, gold and more silver.
Recovering them requires the Dacron to be ashed in a furnaces and the metals extracted from the ash.
The metal value far exceeds the cost of the filters.
The same principle is in play when he ashes all his filter paper that he creates when he filters his raw gold solutions before he gets to the SMB step.
The residue on that paper is going to be rich in PGM and maybe some bits of leftover gold and silver.
That media is valueless compared to winning more valuable metal product.
@streetips im curious to know, how LONG did it take you to accumulate all that material in the shot bucket? And how LONG will it take to refine that whole bucket into pure silver?
I have no idea, I couldn’t put a number on it. I buy sterling at local sales. I use it to refine gold. Then I recover the silver and run it through the silver cell. I melted that “shot” about a month and 1/2 ago. There was 22 pounds. I’ve got about half through my silver cells. So in another month or so I’ll need to melt up some more cement silver to use a feed stock for my silver cells.
Could you reduce the copper content by using a copper electrolysis cell therefore prolonging the silver nitrate life span?
They have very similar characteristics and would be difficult to separate.
Please forgive me as I'm not sure if someone has already asked this question. However I am wondering if it is possible to clean the filters by washing etc. then be able to reuse them?
I can clean and rescue them but they are custom fit and it would be nearly impossible to re-fit them into the anode basket.
I think the low current after the exchange of the filter is caused by thin oxide layers on the impure silver shot.
A clean new filter will cause the current flow to increase dramatically.
Love it, thanks.
Can't wait for the slimes video. Been waiting literal years for you to finally refine all those damn filters
I have a question, you that you get your impure silver from processing gold. How much gold did it take to accumulate that much and where did do find your gold?
It takes about twice as much silver. We buy it at local sales.
Where do you get your silver nitrate solution?
I make it by dissolving pure silver in nitric acid.
I would make the assumption that the dirty filter just inhibits fluid flow. You could possibly increase efficiency by adding a small pump to draw electrolyte from the larger part of the cell to pour over the granules.
is it possible to calculate the yield per hour using the current flow values?
Probably, but there are many variables.
Will a bit of copper hurt your purity if you run it through your silver Cell? I just dried my cement silver and there's a sign that not all the copper was rinsed out so should I re rinse or just continue to stage 2 running it through my silver Cell
The silver cell is there to separate the copper and silver. As long as there is no more than about 1% copper, there is no real problem.
@@apveening how do you know if there's only 1% I saw green spots in my cement silver size of a quarter and a few smaller spots that indicates the presents of copper.
@@_TheCraftylittleWitch In that case I would rinse some more, better safe than sorry.
What I want to know is how much does it cost for this setup and where do you get the materiel and chemicals. Also, what is the cost per ounce of pure silver?
The power supply is most costly item.
Very interesting......thnx!!
What is the purpose of the glass rod left in the silver cell?
To stir the electrolyte
Beautiful display and example.
What type of power supplies are you using?
Inexpensive 30volt 10amp no-name
could you use 2-3 more anodes in your silver cells to speed up the process?
The scalability does work that way, it has to be duplicated instead.
Hello Mr. Sreetips, thank you for another stupendous video, these are actually lectures to get anyone to build their skills.
It is possible to optimize your anode, make it work somewhat fater, and even reduce loss: when replenishing the basked, you add one or two spoons of the shots, then add the silver bar, and then you add other 2 spoons of shots.
Instead of ion flow (like an electric circuit) you would have an electromagnetic field and a large volume of ions flowing.
You might need to shuffle the shots more often though.
Don't remember the equation out the top of my head, if you want I can easily find your current circuitry with the one I am proposing.
Just saying.
What are the baskets themselves made from? Fiberglass or nylon cloth? I imagine cotton or another natural fiber would disintegrate in the nitrate solution? Wonder if you could do an electrode out of very fine stainless mesh or stainless steel wool. and use that to press the impure shot into solution?
Tupperware.
@@sreetips No no... not the tanks, I got that... I mean the filter material? Automotive fiberglass cloth?
Dacron vacuum filter bags from the hardware store.
@@sreetips I didn't see that coming. Very nicely done.
Can't wait to see the silver slimes video.
How much do you accumulate before you process your used filters?
It’s hard to put a number on it.
I notice a lot of blue liquid. I would think mostly copper. What would be used to cement that back out of solution?
I cement the copper on iron
I have one question, why did you not use a thick plexiglass lid ,so you could see what's happening in your cell without having to move lid?
It’s been tried. Condensation forms and obscures the view.
Is it possible to recover the acid and re use it because in norway its har to get and if i can re use the nitric acid i hope you have or can make a video how to do this safe
Safety is nr 1 priority 😊
Much love from norway
The acid can’t be reused once it’s been allowed to react. I suppose that there’s a way to recover acid, but it’s costly and inefficient. Be the same as trying to recover the copper. It costs more to recover the used copper than its worth.
Question: do you think you run more silver thru at lower current before the filter clogs or is it about the same volume?
Definitely. Once the filter gets full of slimes, the current flow, and silver depositing, slows way down.
@sreetips actually I mean starting from the moment you drop it in place at low current versus at high current, do you think there's a difference in the amount of shot you process before the filter is clogged or does the filter last for about the same amount of material?
From that moment, at first, the shot dissolves quickly. But in a few days the current flow drops off as the bag gets full again f slimes. The impure silver dissolves slower at that point. The silver deposits slower also, at that point. High current flow equals fast operation. Low current flow equals slow.
@@sreetips ahh, so basically the same amount of slime production regardless of how high your current flow. Got it
Where are you getting large diameter copper pipe?
Is the 3”?
I bought it off Craigslist.
Unless you're running on solar, you should be able to automate the process while also expanding the surface area of the reaction (bigger bowl, bigger basket), and If you run the power supply at about 80% of it's maximum output (strict maximum at any point in the reaction) then automate the operation within off-peak hours of your electrical company, you would get maximum yield in the shortest and cheapest amount of time.
They are averaging less than 10 watts. At $0.17 a kwh these cost $14 a YEAR to run. The savings in electricity wouldn't be worth the loss in production speed. He's already made a second cell due to throughput limitations. It wouldn't be worth spending on a third power supply to keep production up just to save less than 5 dollars in electricity a year. You'd never recoup the costs of setting up a third cell. Not even close.
Gotta love chemistry
Can i ask why you keep a glass rod in the solution?
To stir it
Do you have to turn the cement silver into shot for this to work?
Yes
Thanks ¦-)
Just got two of those #958 candle stick holders at a thrift store for $15/each. How much silver do you think is in these weighted holders?
Make sure that they are sterling - will be marked if they are. If you can’t find “sterling” on it then chances are high that they are not silver.
@@sreetips yeah, they are marked stirling. How much silver do you think might be in them? The are the Gorham sterling candle holders number 948.
@@ExtractingMetals is it as simple as weighing them and multiplying by 0.925? Just curious. Except I just thought of something - candlesticks are usually weighted so they won’t be solid sterling silver right? The “weighted” part is probably what material?
Nice find. Those are hard to determine because they are full of plaster to weight them down. They have a thin coating of sterling silver.
Plaster or some other easily cast material.
can you explain what the liquid is that you're using .. like names an stuff an everthing... thanks
The liquid is silver nitrate.
@streettips I dig your video's, like the idea of renewing the precious metals. I'd luv to do a setup like this myself, but my inherent problem is I'm not a chemist and would be awsome to apprentice with someone doing this setup in my area(NE Tn). Curious what % this adds to your electric bill, then best place to source the materials. Always liked silver stacking, Gold an platinum is on the agenda when my wallet will allow. Always disliked having to pay a premium on coins, etc. Also don't have the funds for degree in chemistry. But one can gain knowledge without paying a ton twords college debt. Anyway, cool stuff Hawse. Keep up kicken the knowledge on video format. Would say this should first be tried with someone that has done this several times. Luv the side hustles, just findin the ones with a decent to gd return. But ya know pple that have the gd ones are not running school shops for obvious reasons. 1 things for sure, local state lotto has seen my last dollars, my state lotto has to be one the worst for payouts, they can keep the free tickets for the next guy. But keep mining buddro! Hope the e-scrap an materials overfloweth 4ya this year!
👍👍
breads not getting any cheaper, side jobs are must in this new age. Can't go wrong with prec metals. Maybe one day soon I'll have a solid 24k dookie chain rockn me chest🤞🏻🪂
Hello. I got a “D” in the only chemistry class I ever took 50 years ago in high school. You don’t have to be a chemist to refine precious metals (but it wouldn’t hurt). My electric bill last month was $109. Unfortunately I don’t offer any training or tutoring services. We buy at local sales. My wife found 29 pieces of sterling flatware at a consignment shop for $400 But she got there just as they were putting it out on the display. Cheap silver is everywhere. Sellers go by the spot price (which is grossly undervalued) so right now it’s a silver-buyers paradise. But you’ve got to go look. It won’t just fall in your lap. As far as gains? I gain my profit in pure silver (that’s rising), not in paper dollars that are declining. If I need paper to pay bills or buy food, then I sell a little metal. Hope this helps.
@sreetips Jus sayin, me n NY folks never sold a personal cpu for personal reasons, have all but last mobile phone since they were affordable in 90's, plus other motors n things. The gas from the chemicals is one thing that'd bother me about doin this. I just never liked idea of throwing $ away...
what is the metal bar on the electrode bar? it looks like pure silver. sorry I'm a social work major not a hard science major 😂
Yes, pure silver