definitely! I'm certain that if he were to do more silver crystal videos, he'd go viral for a bit. I dunno, but i just think that the thought of crystals of silver is just so damn cool. Gold bars are cool of course, but just something about a crystal of silver is just another level of gorgeous imo. He should defiitely try and make some biiig crystals and make a video about it 😂
I would love to see a time lapse from inside the Silver Cell! If you make an opening on the side of the bowl, install a circular piece of plexiglass or glass and seal it up with silicone caulking, you could place your camera right against the window and with the correct lighting, get some phenomenal footage!!!😊
One of these times, you must put a nice sized seed crystal or three on the bottom just to see what happens after the power is turned on for a week or two. An experiment.
Thank you for being out there doing this stuff. When my wife complains about my odd experimentations in my lab (the garage) I can always point out that I am not insane and someone else plays with this stuff also.
Just watching the process for everything you get is amazing. And the Beautiful crystals you just retrieve. Makes me feel like having just 1 of them and hold it as a display and admire nature's process.
You are welcome. If you were to fabricate homemade gold crystals like those it would be tough to beat the diamond-like sparkle of the silver crystals. Thank you Sir! 👍👍🤟
I would sure love to refine my silverware like this. If only to see the beauty before my very eyes lol Alas... I'll likely just melt it and cast to unique items. You sir, are a treasure yourself. Love all your videos!
Very nice snowflake you got there. I love all of the experiments you show. Very interesting and informative as usual. Props to you and keep these videos coming!
Those specimen silver crystals are amazing - I keep thinking they would be really cool set it clear epoxy resin as display pieces. Awesome video! You're silver refining process is really impressive. 👍
Silver is so interesting. It conducts heat better than any other metal. I have a 10-ounce cast bar on my desk as a paperweight and I always marvel how it always feels very cool to the touch when I pick it up. Do you know what causes that? It conducts electricity better than any other metal at normal temperatures. Yes, better than copper and gold. It is the most reflective metal. Back in the old times the best mirrors were made from polished silver. Heck, I just like it because it's pretty.
Just love it Ag is my Favorite. And that process is amazing. And the Large Silver Crystals wuld look great in a Glass dome with a wooden base . Keep them Vidios coming & Thanks 🇬🇧
one of your silver cell videos is what attracted me to your channel, and I watch the episode where you upgraded to your current setup. Now watching your back episodes I keep thinking how much better your setup is now.
The pure silver crystals are always my favorite part of these vids. The melts are awesome but those crystals are so cool its something I wasnt aware silver did physically.
These silver crystal videos are always fantastic! Have you ever mentioned what your "3 tips" are concering becoming a gold, silver and precious metal refiner?
Lower current = larger crystals + greater harvesting intervals. Higher current = smaller crystals + shorter harvesting intervals. I would like to see how big of a crystal you could grow. Maybe fire up another cell for an experiment.
Very interesting, have you thought about doing a time lapse of the crystals growing if you can get a good angle and enough light in there, I think that would be interesting
@@sreetips shame but maybe something to look forward to in the future, you mentioned the condensation so just a suggestion from someone who doesn't know much but how about cutting a new lid/basket holder with a section cut out that the camera could look through at an angle then cover the whole thing in something like one of those bug screens people put over food so no dirt or debris falls in. Would something like that be a possibility? I was thinking if the camera isn't mounted directly above it might not get covered in condensation.
Know what would be cool? Maybe if you could build a silver cell cover out of plexiglass instead of an old cutting board, you could get some phenomenal shots of the cell without risk of contamination from lifting the cover.
Looking awesome. If you want, I can 3D print a basket that's easier to assemble that would allow you to re-use your filter materials after you clean them. I don't know why, but silver is my favorite metal.
Next silver cell harvest. Request: Before disturbing the cell walls, flash some brighter light inside for some photos to show the shape and sparkle of the crystals. Thank you. Go! Sreetips! Go! 🥳
I wonder if it’s possible to leave one giant crystal in there as a seed? And grow it huge? Or can you make a pure silver circle? To do the same? See what that comes out like? Love your channel!!
What would make for a really cool video is, if you got one of those small waterproof camera lenses, put it in the solution, and time laps it for a few days. I'm sure that video would earn more than the silver itself.
I look forward to watch your videos. They are always exciting one way or another. Precious metals have always been a favorite of mine. I used to have a antique business on the side, weekends, along with my regular job. Found many nice pieces in my yard sales, auctions and estate sales in Denver. Still have it all. I can’t let any of it go. Plus I don’t know who to trust if I did want to sell any of it. Too many people want to lowball you so they can make as much profit off of you as possible. As I said, I was in the business, so I know how people operate. Roger in Pierre South Dakota USA
Roger, most of the stuff I get is old sterling flatware. And an unlimited supply of 925 jewelry. With the price of silver down, folks don’t care about silver. It’s a wonderful time for silver buyers right now. People actually believe that paper dollars are more valuable than silver and gold!
@@sreetips I have acquired a few diamonds through the years, I have had them looked at, so I know they are real. It I don’t trust anyone enough to try to sell them. I know what they are worth, but as you well know, you will never get what they are worth. Plus I am afraid to let them out of my sight when I visited my local jeweler. I’ve seen and read stories about the jeweler switching real diamonds for fake ones. It happened to a couple of antique dealers in Denver. And there was nothing they could do about it. The jeweler would tell them he had to take the diamond out of the setting to get a better look at it. Then switch them for glass. Reset it, but they didn’t notice until they got home and took a better look at the diamond. Went back, but they had no proof he switched them. I’m not going to fall for any of that. Thank for writing back. Roger in Pierre South Dakota
As a side project, I'm pretty sure you could direct the silver crystal growth by forming some solid pure silver wire into shapes and putting them in the bath.
I wonder if you put a waveform generator on the current if you'd be able to produce some differently, and consistently, shaped crystals that way? Beautiful stuff you have coming out this batch regardless! Mesmerizing, and I'm sure in person it is even more so.
Love Your Great Videos !! Have you ever done electroplating Videos? I am Very Interested in Copper Plating some Copper Items I make. They are Pyramids made with pure copper wire and soldered together and I want to get the whole pyramid copper plated to cover all the solder joints :) Thank You so Much for all you share !!!
I notice the stir bar in the solution used to stir it up once every day or so and I was thinking that there must be some better way. Sadly nitrate solutions especially silver nitrate will attack any pump with exposed metal parts inside or outside so there are only 2 ways that I can think of and neither are good. 1. Aeriation is an option but prolonged aeriation of a soluble heavy metal nitrate solution cannot be good for your health long term without a fume extractor or scrubber demister hooked up to the loop. 2. fluoropolymer diaphragm pumps but they are prohibitively expensive up to the hundreds of dollars for a small one just because of scarcity and lack of demand. Aeriation is the more viable option here but it would be bulky to assemble a demister venturi fume extractor just to power the device and potentially cause other issues like suck down sludge from the anode basket due to differential pressure.
Experimenting with different surface textures of the cathode in contact with the electrolyte will probably give you different crystal growth patterns. I would think if you put small spikes the crystals would grow from them first.
What conditions do you believe have the most effect on how large or small the crystals grow? More or less voltage? More or less amperage? Initial electrolyte concentration? Type of container? Have you experimented with purposely trying to grow large crystals?
The slower the growing, the bigger the crystal... so my hunch is the fact the cathode is so big, plus relatively high current, tends to lead to small crumbly crystals. If the electrolyte bath was just a big/deep Pyrex container, and the cathode was just a pure silver wire, then use much less amperage (in mA)... that'll give the time to grow chunky crystals right on the wire. Would take a fair bit more time too though...
You need to drill a hole through the bolt on the ground side of your silver sale then you don't have to take the bolt out every time you can just loosen the bolt and remove the wire out of the hole in the bolt can stay in place. 😊👍
I’m not a chemist either. And as far as refining, I’m just an advanced beginner. There are only a few in the world who really qualify as professional. I’m not one of them. But since most refiners would rather take their refining secrets to the grave than share them with the masses, I’m all you have because I don’t care about secrecy. That makes be a bit of an outcast among the refining community. But it’s also what enables my to have a successful RU-vid channel. And believe me, I’m grateful for the honor, and privilege, to be granted this awesome experience.
Man, I wish I was smart enough or mechanically inclined to be able to build one of these. This would be amazing and a game changer for me anyway and my family.
Great video... I was watching one of the big channels , modern marvels or discovery and they use a clip from your channel . Had you name in the clip and everything .
I wish that I had taken some pictures back in the 70s when I was doing this kind of work. When the Hunt brothers tried to corner the Silver market in the late 70s it drove the price up $50 per Troy ounce. This caused many people to sell just about anything made from Silver. My company got into the refining aspect and I was put in charge. The process was very similar to what I just watched but on a much larger scale. One day they pushed a large flatcar into my area that was packed high with nothing but bags of coins mostly Silver dollars. I melted every one and extruded them into anodes. What a shame!
I've said it before, and I'll say it again and again. I'd love to have one of those monster "trees" encased in resin or something along the like. Would make an absolutely gorgeous investment grade paperweight.
Sreetips, im not sure if anyone else noticed, but you didn't put the fuse back on the anode. Love your videos. Watched every one from the beginning to now. Keep up the good work.
Early operation is above 3 amps so the fuse would immediately blow. He puts the fuse in later when the normal value is below that because if the crystal grows to touch the basket it will spike the amps and cause a problem.
What about a small, thick steel plate at the cathode? I would think that would coax the crystals in the dirction of the anode basket from a smaller initial point and concentrate crystal formation. Your mileage may vary.
The silver crystals are beautiful as always, thanks for showing us that they do that! The whole time, though, I couldn't help but wonder about the status of your fume hood?
The crystals looked like they formed near the thing u used to stir the electrolytes. Would the temperature of the stirrer effect the formation of the crystals? This is the first video I have ever watched like this. Not my usual thing to watch but this is so interesting. Can't stop watching.
I wonder if the the particular actions you took the last time you cleaned the bowl is responsible for those beautiful crystals. Perhaps there was a tiny amount of crystal remaining that acted as a seed for those large ones. Thanks for creating this!
Here's a silly question from an amateur chemist, ignoring price for a second, could this process make gold crystals?. Or is it a completely different animal somehow? Great video as usual sir!
I had the same question and just watched the 2 videos on the wohwill process, it was quite interesting, wish I could see it closer but the gold crystals didn't look as nice or as large as the silver ones for the silver cell, to bad some nice large sparkly gold crystals would be nice. ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-zDfujDqEPMo.html
Hi, thanks for another great video, I learned a lot from you, and thanks for sharing your knowledge and experience. I have a question about the car catalyst, I saw in previous videos that you recycled platinum and palladium, is it possible to recycle rhodium from these types of catalysts chemically?
As always another great video sir I was wondering could you do something similar like this but with gold instead of silver is it possible and what would it look like?
It would be lovely if you made metals like tin or gold electrolytically. Tin is easy to obtain electrolytically from tin(II) chloride (with some excess HCl and metallic tin to prevent hydrolysis and oxidation).
Why use the craftsman brand shop vac filters for the anode basket? Couldn’t you get bulk Dacron sailcloth or other bulk fabric for this to cut down on cost of consumables?
well crystal formation is all about the speed in which it grows at, slow and steady will give larger crystalline structures, so maybe the voltage was lower or the solution was colder, i assume colder slows it down tho warmer might mean more can be dissolved in solution before it has to fall out side note, is this kind of reaction possible for gold? would a gold cell work the same way
Have you ever considered spot welding a stainless steel stud on to the bowl? Also how do you know when your electrolyte is spent, or should I say no longer usable?
I use electrolyte no more than twice. And I add some fresh electrolyte on the second run. I tried to use it a third time way back. I tried to drop the silver with hydrochloric acid. The third-use electrolyte was so devoid of silver that none came down upon adding the HCl. Made a believer out of me. The silver in the electrolyte gets depleted as the cell operates. It plates out on the cathode. That’s why it’s important to replenish with fresh electrolyte on the second use.
Have you done calculations on how much prep work in hours is done to make a single 1.5Kg batch of Pure Silver Crystals? I am curious as to if the cost of materials to do Silver refinement, plus the hours it takes to get the batches ready and processed/cleaned/smelted down etc. is a break-even or is it actually a profit? 10 Days for like $1,300CAD Silver seems pretty good off the top but... that prep work to get everything ready to do what 2-3 months worth of shot? I don't know how much you can do per prep work cycle.
It all depends on acquiring the scrap silver to refine. Silver is out of favor and cheap right now. People actually believe, incorrectly, that paper dollars are more valuable than silver. With this misconception (perpetuated by the money printers) we can buy silver for pennies if we know when, where and what to look for. It’s a silver buyers paradise out there!
I know you said you have never seen crystals like these before but I wonder if they might be manipulated by taping a magnet or a piece of copper on the outside of the stainless bowl, I’m curious if the crystal formations would react. Thanks for your great videos , your awesome!
Taping another metal on the outside of the bowl would not have any affect on the crystal growth. Silver is weakly diamagnetic - but, as far as I know, a magnet would have no affect either.
0:30 How do you separate the non dissolved silver-shots from the Anode slime? Do you seperate/rinse it with acid or do you just collect the whole slime with silver-shots for a recovery later? Stefan from Switzerland 🇨🇭
Question? If you didn't clean the SS bowl so good and left some of the crystals still stuck would the crystals grow quicker or faster ? Or does it not matter?
