Perhaps the most thorough video on method and procedure. You obviously are as methodical to your collection process as this is not your primary source of income but rather a side aspect of an old school jeweler. Good demonstration of 'MacGuyver' skills with basic understanding of chemistry and physics with a little smathering of the economic side of the equation. Kudos...and well done.
Hey I just have to say is I’m so impressed with your thoroughly detailed steps . This is something I was lucky to be forced into doing because of a car accident that took my career as an electrician of 1 years. I immediately dumped my savings into gold for scrap recovery not knowing if I could do it. I haven’t found any steps like yours anywhere on RU-vid or on line as a good video to tutorial. I have been missing just a couple steps in my refining process that I picked up from watching this video thank you so much for your hard work and teaching in allowing us to benefit from you and your videos. I have been doing this now for about six months and gone through about 16 ounces of gold . Again thank you so much
Excelent video. The details you walk through are so important to anyone trying to learn. Thanks for sharing your knowledge in an easy to follow, complete format.
Well done sir I've been researching the refining process for sometime now. I'm in the process of precipitating some gold and some gold scrap, I'm watching your videos step by step as I take on the science of refining gold. I've sat through hundreds of videos but yours are by far the best out there the easiest and most thorough person sharing your process. Thanks for the knowledge.
Hey Sreetips, having done this myself years ago... I found that using tap water was the source of the cloudiness - because tap water and tap water ice has iron, lead, copper, tin, PVC chlorides and other impurities in it too, but I do appreciate your tenacity in creating as pure a gold concentrate as you can get.
I watched and loved the entire video. I am intrigued by the refining process and how meticulous you are with each step. Keep up the great work and thanks for sharing.
I don't understand how anyone can dislike this video. He's giving us the keys to the kingdom here! I watched the whole thing a few times now and took pages of notes! I've already dismantled two of my old PCs and accumulated other bits of gold plated junk over the years and as soon as I have enough I'll be doing all this cooking and refining myself. I've already done a shopping list for the materials needed. If and when "shtf" with the world economy, people who do this stuff will be just fine. This knowledge is priceless and I can't thank Sreetips and others such as Archimedes Channel enough for sharing it with the world!
@@sreetips Ok no worries I'm still learning about this stuff. I really appreciate you putting these videos out there and sharing this knowledge though. Thanks again.
Thank you for your positive comments. I agree with your statements. Most people believe that the dollar is still backed by gold, it's not. Also, most folks have no clue what inflation is (it's an expansion of the money supply) or where it comes from (it comes from endless money printing). It's not a question of "if" but rather "when" the shtf. It's coming. But as long as people remain confident that the dollar has value, and the Fed doesn't get out of hand with printing dollars, they can probably do it for quite some time to come. But this lul will enable those who know the truth to accumulate precious metals. But at some point, all hell will break lose.
@@sreetips Absolutely! Well as you say if the Fed control themselves with printing it might postpone the "shtf" for a while buying us more time to prepare. I'm so happy I came across your channel! It's brilliant! I'm hooked on all this gold refining stuff now! Seriously thank you with all my heart! I will take what you said on board about the computer parts and junk jewellery being separate processes. I will keep watching your videos to learn more. So far what I have seen has been brilliant honestly! Keep it up and keep churning out that gold! :)
Thank you @sreetips for all the years of videos you have created. I have watched and rewatched them over and over. I learn new things from you all the time. Thank you.
GROWING UP I WAS THE GUY WHO GOT INTO MOST FIGHTS BECAUSE OF MARTIAL ARTS AND WAS THE GUY THAT ALWAYS SAID TO MY BUDDIES ,"SMELL MY FINGER" LOL LMAO , COOL NAME BRO LOL !!!
Thank you sreetips for some very informative video's showing the method & techniques involved from the UK. I am up-scaling what ive been doing for a hobby for a few years now as ime getting so much computer & jewellery scrap here its now worth the learning.
Your videos are the absolute BEST. You are an excellent instructor with the perfect balance of expertise and entertainment. You could probably make a video of yourself reading the phone book and somehow make it seem like the most interesting thing in the world. Thank you for making these. I'm seriously thinking of pursuing this as a hobby.
I watched the video from beginning until the end and I must say that this is the first time that I really learned something about the whole proces of refining gold. You see on TV Gold Rush and hear these amounts of gold they find and now i realise that refining that gold will cost a lot of ounces of gold. In Parker Schnabels case maybe hundreds or thousands of ounces of gold but you never hear about that. You only hear the gross earnings never the netto earnings. Thanks for the video sreetips. Keep up the good work!!!!
Aqua regia dissolves gold, though neither constituent acid will do so alone, because, in combination, each acid performs a different task. Nitric acid is a powerful oxidizer, which will actually dissolve a virtually undetectable amount of gold, forming gold ions (Au3+). The hydrochloric acid provides a ready supply of chloride ions (Cl−), which react with the gold ions to produce tetrachloroaurate(III) anions, also in solution. The reaction with hydrochloric acid is an equilibrium reaction that favors formation of chloroaurate anions (AuCl4−). This results in a removal of gold ions from solution and allows further oxidation of gold to take place. The gold dissolves to become chloroauric acid. In addition, gold may be dissolved by the chlorine present in aqua regia. Appropriate equations are: Au + 3 HNO 3 + 4 HCl {\displaystyle {\ce {>}}} {\displaystyle {\ce {>}}} [AuCl 4]− + 3 [NO 2] + [H 3O]+ + 2 H 2O or Au + HNO 3 + 4 HCl {\displaystyle {\ce {>}}} {\displaystyle {\ce {>}}} [AuCl 4]− + [NO] + [H 3O]+ + H 2O If the aqua regia solution only contains gold, solid tetrachloroauric acid may be prepared by boiling off excess aqua regia, and removing residual nitric acid by repeatedly heating with hydrochloric acid. That step reduces nitric acid (see decomposition of aqua regia). If elemental gold is desired, it may be selectively reduced with sulfur dioxide, hydrazine, oxalic acid, etc.[6] The equation for the reduction of gold by sulfur dioxide is: 2 AuCl− 4 (aq) + 3 SO 2(g) + 6 H 2O (l) → 2 Au (s) + 12 H+ (aq) + 3 SO2− 4(aq) + 8 Cl− Aqua regia dissolves gold, though neither constituent acid will do so alone, because, in combination, each acid performs a different task. Nitric acid is a powerful oxidizer, which will actually dissolve a virtually undetectable amount of gold, forming gold ions (Au3+). The hydrochloric acid provides a ready supply of chloride ions (Cl−), which react with the gold ions to produce tetrachloroaurate(III) anions, also in solution. The reaction with hydrochloric acid is an equilibrium reaction that favors formation of chloroaurate anions (AuCl4−). This results in a removal of gold ions from solution and allows further oxidation of gold to take place. The gold dissolves to become chloroauric acid. In addition, gold may be dissolved by the chlorine present in aqua regia. Appropriate equations are: Au + 3 HNO 3 + 4 HCl {\displaystyle {\ce {>}}} {\displaystyle {\ce {>}}} [AuCl 4]− + 3 [NO 2] + [H 3O]+ + 2 H 2O or Au + HNO 3 + 4 HCl {\displaystyle {\ce {>}}} {\displaystyle {\ce {>}}} [AuCl 4]− + [NO] + [H 3O]+ + H 2O If the aqua regia solution only contains gold, solid tetrachloroauric acid may be prepared by boiling off excess aqua regia, and removing residual nitric acid by repeatedly heating with hydrochloric acid. That step reduces nitric acid (see decomposition of aqua regia). If elemental gold is desired, it may be selectively reduced with sulfur dioxide, hydrazine, oxalic acid, etc.[6] The equation for the reduction of gold by sulfur dioxide is: 2 AuCl− 4 (aq) + 3 SO 2(g) + 6 H 2O (l) → 2 Au (s) + 12 H+ (aq) + 3 SO2− 4(aq) + 8 Cl− Aqua regia dissolves gold, though neither constituent acid will do so alone, because, in combination, each acid performs a different task. Nitric acid is a powerful oxidizer, which will actually dissolve a virtually undetectable amount of gold, forming gold ions (Au3+). The hydrochloric acid provides a ready supply of chloride ions (Cl−), which react with the gold ions to produce tetrachloroaurate(III) anions, also in solution. The reaction with hydrochloric acid is an equilibrium reaction that favors formation of chloroaurate anions (AuCl4−). This results in a removal of gold ions from solution and allows further oxidation of gold to take place. The gold dissolves to become chloroauric acid. In addition, gold may be dissolved by the chlorine present in aqua regia. Appropriate equations are: Au + 3 HNO 3 + 4 HCl {\displaystyle {\ce {>}}} {\displaystyle {\ce {>}}} [AuCl 4]− + 3 [NO 2] + [H 3O]+ + 2 H 2O or Au + HNO 3 + 4 HCl {\displaystyle {\ce {>}}} {\displaystyle {\ce {>}}} [AuCl 4]− + [NO] + [H 3O]+ + H 2O If the aqua regia solution only contains gold, solid tetrachloroauric acid may be prepared by boiling off excess aqua regia, and removing residual nitric acid by repeatedly heating with hydrochloric acid. That step reduces nitric acid (see decomposition of aqua regia). If elemental gold is desired, it may be selectively reduced with sulfur dioxide, hydrazine, oxalic acid, etc.[6] The equation for the reduction of gold by sulfur dioxide is: 2 AuCl− 4 (aq) + 3 SO 2(g) + 6 H 2O (l) → 2 Au (s) + 12 H+ (aq) + 3 SO2− 4(aq) + 8 Cl− Aqua regia dissolves gold, though neither constituent acid will do so alone, because, in combination, each acid performs a different task. Nitric acid is a powerful oxidizer, which will actually dissolve a virtually undetectable amount of gold, forming gold ions (Au3+). The hydrochloric acid provides a ready supply of chloride ions (Cl−), which react with the gold ions to produce tetrachloroaurate(III) anions, also in solution. The reaction with hydrochloric acid is an equilibrium reaction that favors formation of chloroaurate anions (AuCl4−). This results in a removal of gold ions from solution and allows further oxidation of gold to take place. The gold dissolves to become chloroauric acid. In addition, gold may be dissolved by the chlorine present in aqua regia. Appropriate equations are: Au + 3 HNO 3 + 4 HCl {\displaystyle {\ce {>}}} {\displaystyle {\ce {>}}} [AuCl 4]− + 3 [NO 2] + [H 3O]+ + 2 H 2O or Au + HNO 3 + 4 HCl {\displaystyle {\ce {>}}} {\displaystyle {\ce {>}}} [AuCl 4]− + [NO] + [H 3O]+ + H 2O If the aqua regia solution only contains gold, solid tetrachloroauric acid may be prepared by boiling off excess aqua regia, and removing residual nitric acid by repeatedly heating with hydrochloric acid. That step reduces nitric acid (see decomposition of aqua regia). If elemental gold is desired, it may be selectively reduced with sulfur dioxide, hydrazine, oxalic acid, etc.[6] The equation for the reduction of gold by sulfur dioxide is: 2 AuCl− 4 (aq) + 3 SO 2(g) + 6 H 2O (l) → 2 Au (s) + 12 H+ (aq) + 3 SO2− 4(aq) + 8 Cl−
Thanks to your expansion and explanation every step of the way I understand all the processes and the reason for every chemical involved the precipitation and the turning back to solid is now crystal clear whereas I had seen other videos and I was completely lost
I've watched other videos on refining. They were bits and pieces or they left out critical details. I even bought DVDs from a guy. They were missing parts of the process as well. Hopefully my videos are the best source for anyone who wants to learn about refining. Thank you for your feedback.
sreetips, love watching your videos. haven't been on the forum in ages... but still just enjoy how thoroughly and methodically you explain everything to the viewers! haven't added the lab to my new house yet so haven't refined anything in the last couple years... looking forward to starting it again!
Fantastic process as always. So satisfying to watch. Especially that melt at the end wow. I'd love to see a high speed slow motion of the meta bisulfite precipitating out the gold (plus many more reactions). Destin from Smarter every day might be willing to record that if you send him an email. That would be cool.
Good evening Mr. Sreetips. Long time watching, first time commenting. I have to say that I love that you you refined your Black and Decker into a Gold and Decker.
👍you are awesome. The chemistry that it takes to refine gold is outstanding. I didn’t know you could take gold turn it into a liquid and bring it back. Beautiful thing!
Thank you so much for slowing and expanding the formerly complex chemical processes so that a Layman like me can understand it I loved the video thank you
I make these videos, with as much detail as possible, for the benefit of those who want to learn. I only wish that videos like mine were around when I first started refining nine years ago.
Hello sreetips, I have about 10 lb of marked gold filled jewelry and scrap. A vast majority of this jewelry and scrap is gold colored or looks like gold except on the edges where some of it is wearing off. A small percentage of the marked gold filled jewelry and scrap is either very bright like Steel with no color or it is copper colored. Has the gold worn off this jewelry and scrap? Or should I process it along with the gold colored jewelry and scrap?
Philip, the thick coating of gold does wear off over the years. It's usually around the edges. Then it becomes very apparent because you can see the base metal and the thick gold coating at the point of wear. For gf stuff wore through clean down to the copper, your yield will suffer. If it were me and I had ten pounds, I would process it in one pound batches starting with the good stuff first. Especially if working as a beginner. The stuff that's worn through, you'll have to make a judgement call.
That's a good idea thank you for the advice. After doing some research online I think some of the very bright white colored scrap and Jewelry is white gold filled. I will definitely process that all separately just to be sure.
I know we’ve talked about this before, but I’m going to point out once again that you look exactly like a retired senior chief lol. Thanks for your videos shipmate!
a nice bite of work 😋 to clean up that gold that was impressive thank you for sharing the process and the time it took. i see where patients is a valuable component of this and you got a good payment for your efforts. thank you for sharing your time and information on this 😊
Are they all filled with gold? seems silly to fill something with gold, surely you'd want the gold on the outside, and fill it with something cheaper? In UK we do just that. and call it gold-plated. I realise that in this case, "filled" probably does mean an outer covering. I just can't resist pointing out the absurdity of using the term "filled".
@@roguekwads_fpv7368 The original poster is spending quite a bit on the chemicals he uses, to get a return of slightly more value in gold. Blame USA is being sarcastic, but his/her point is valid - is the cost & time involved worth the effort?
Ah perfect! I recently picked up a large collection of gold filled ladies watches and was planning on refining them! this will be a great refresher for me!
Anyone who wishes to learn how it's done will watch the entire video, maybe several times. Anyone who just wants to see the final product and don't care about learning the process will do just as you did. Thanks for watching.
I sell my gold to Elemetal Direct. They pay 98% of spot. This bar sold under that but I don't care. I'm trying to promote my social media presence. I've got some more gold coming up in future videos. Eventually the bars will start to bring a premium. But for now I have to pay my dues and let the chips fall where they may.
Really enjoying video from start to finish. Amazing that the steps of gold filled refining process is so different then your / the 10k & 14k refining process-video. I can imagine Alchemists where considered magicians back in the days.
That's a LOT of work over MANY days... for $900. Not sure it is worth it, especially when you add in the cost of the chemicals and glassware. But if you are happy doing it, then have fun!
I watched the whole thing, thought it was a very good idea to include the process as related to cleaning the materials. To me it would cut back processing time and yield a better gold content
@ 34:43 I was thinking the Corningwear bowl with the reaction vessel in it might break when you lifted it from the side. Man, I'm glad it didn't. Great video. Lots of stressful work there. Kudos!
Gold plated is base metal (brass) that is electroplated with copper, then a thin layer of gold electroplated over the copper. The gold is maybe 5 microns thick. A micron is a millionth of a meter. GOLD FILLED: a piece of brass with a sheet of 12 karat gold on the top and bottom of the brass is heated red hot and passed through rollers into a uniform thickness forming a thick layer of gold on top and bottom. It's then used to make jewelry. Thousands of time thicker than electroplate.
@@sreetips I have seen gold filled silver jewelry. I have a sheet that is 1/20 12K on one side and sterling silver on the other. I have no idea what the jeweler from whom I bought it intended to use it for.
Reminded me of Chem 102.(what I remember from 50 years ago...). Watched the whole thing......and thoroughly enjoyed the whole thing! Excellent video, my friend!
Love your work and how cautious you are.....the end result is beautiful and worth all the wait and hard work.......even the small nuggets are worth the watch.......
Four nines can be done at the hobby level. But there is really no reason to do it. Three nines is the industry standard. I could get four nines by dissolving and precip twice using AR and SMB. Then dissolve the gold powder a third time with chlorine gas and precip with oxalic acid. But the only way to tell if four nines is achieved is to have an ICP assay performed. That would make a good video!
I watched the whole video, looked at the 2018 selling and value price then calculated the today price $1,413.11 nice profit for the buyer, Thanks for the greatly detailed video!
I went to a good Catholic high school and a pretty good university. Out of all those years of schooling, I don't believe I had a science teacher that taught me nearly as much as you have with your videos.
*To make this more profitable if you install a simple scrubber to the top of the nitric acid beaker that bubbles the red NO2 into water you will recover 1 liter of mild-moderate strength nitric acid for every litre of conc you start with. That's just money going out the fume hood* Also is your fume hood outside all corroded and discolored from the gallons of NO2 that flow around it?
I like this video especially that sreetips said ML every time is even better that way there is no assumptions that he actually used another unit of measurement...
@@TheMFrelly The dude is saying ML Not Mill. Try following along with the comment. The joke is he keeps saying ML,ML,ML,ML........................ Get it now?
Great video! You must have had a few pieces of 1/5th GF mixed in to get such a good recovery. I love finding good deals on Gold Filled items, it's one of the many things I'm stockpiling for future recovery and refining.
I was taken aback at the scale. I couldn't believe it. And I even took some of the pieces out during the process. I think that the key is in the nitric boils. Keeping the foils in the hot nitric to get rid of as much base metal as possible. And the incineration before the refining is very important.
I have never seen 1/5th GF, it is likely to be quite rare. But it wouldn't take a lot of 1/10k12GF to get the recovered gold up to what you obtained. If your lot had been all 1/10k12GF, the theoretical recovery would be 37 grams.
I did the mental math and only expected a few grams of gold. Gold fill has more gold than gold plate but is generally worthless. You would have to accumulate much of it to make money from the scrap. I used to go to yard sales and buy scrap gold from the people there. It was a lot of fun and I made some money. It was easy if a divorce had just happened, they were happy to get rid of wedding rings. And wives would make the husbands get rid of jewelry gifted from old girlfriends. I always paid cash and I never cheated anyone. I gave my wife and daughters nice gold necklaces and bracelets that were too good for the scrap pile. There was some jewelry I regret selling for scrap but I needed the money. I had a very nice wedding/engagement ring set that was made in 1932. It came in the original box from a jewelry store in Washingtion DC. It had 4 diamonds to equal 1 carat and was made of platinum. I didn't scrap it but I did sell it as jewelry. for a good profit.
You did one of these videos a while back, in that video you pulled out all the magnetic material. You said that magnetic gold filled had to be processed differently. Do you plan on making a video on how to process magnetic gold filled? I've been watching your videos over and over for the past 3 years prepping myself to refine some gold. Thank you for sharing with us.
Brenda, I excluded magnetic in the last video. In this video, however, there were some magnetic wrist watch cases. I included them with no problems. In this video I carefully picked EVERYTHING apart and removed any iron and steel pieces before going to nitric treatments because nitric does not dissolve iron very well. If you want to try some GF scrap its best to remove any iron or steel and you'll get a better result. This was a very difficult video to make. But I included as much detail as I could so that you could see the little problems that can throw the whole batch into a nightmare. And there are other problems that can happen that were not shown because I didn't encounter them. If one little piece of soft solder gets in there it can make a mess of the whole thing. Processing GF scrap is not for beginners, but you got to start somewhere.
Ok I'm slightly new to this, I'm an organic/biochem major, metallurgy and the like really aren't my thing. That being said, if you were afraid of lead being present couldn't you just add in an appropriate amount of silver, melt them all down together and turn them into shot. Then hit the shot with Nitric Acid and cupel the gold and lead. Then maybe run the lead-free impure gold through aqua regia? Just curious, at this point in time it's purely academic.
That solder probably had lead and tin. Tin dissolved in nitric forms metastannic acid or tin paste. It gums up filters like trying to filter elmers glue. It's best to remove as much of it as possible by boiling in hydrochloric acid to soften the solder then scrap it off with a knife.
I'm starting to get items (equipment) that I'll need to refine. I always try to get things for as cheep as possible, because of my fixed income. I've accumulated alot of the smaller more basic items for free going around town and... well, scrapping!! I've inspected each item for quality and I've had to get rid of a few things that isn't good enough for the job. People will get rid of some very expensive things out there!! Have a GREAT Day!!! P.S. Learning possibly more the 2nd time around!!! Thanks!!
I've put hot metal into glass containers hundreds of times and have never had a problem with cracking or exploding. Please see my video on refining karat scrap. In that video I pour molten metal into water in a metal container. Every now and then I'll get the molten metal too hot and it does explode when it hits the water. Scares the ghost out of me every time it happens, thankfully that's not very often.
I don't know if this is a stupid question, but here it goes... Why don't you use AP to dissolve the base metals? Wouldn't it be cheaper than Nitric? Does Nitric dissolve more metal per ML than AP? Thanks
Very good, awesome process and well explained. It would be great to see the continuation in this video of how to precipitate the silver off the nitric acid that is disposed. Thanks a lot. Liked and subscribed!
I did some rough figuring , removed costs of chemicals , fluxes , filters, ect. , the enitial costs of buying the scrap jewelry . Figuring in the time for this whole process , you are barely making minimum wages ! WOW that's a lot of work !
For material like this, it is more a process documentary than an attempt to make a profit from the refining. The same is true for the videos he has done on refining computer scrap.
Great job, video too! I watched the whole thing!!. I have a question, what's the price of the chemicals? I'm wondering how or where you get the scrap?? I find it amazing how the metals are turned into solution and back!!
Less than $100 all in, including the price of the gf scrap. My wife finds it in junk jewelry bags that she buys. Without her, I wouldn't be able to do this for very long.
Taking those watch bands apart a piece at a time? That thought makes me cringe. Damn, you have some patience! I used to work in Jewelry dept in Retail and had to adjust watch bands a lot, that's why that idea made me cringe. … and made my fingers hurt as I remember fighting to open some of those taps on the smaller bands. But then, I had to work to NOT damage it, lol.
I work setting replacement diamonds at a jewelry repair shop. I also do watch batteries and band adjustments. Taking them apart is easy. The challenge comes when I try to put them back together. Getting pure gold, from any source, is never easy.
@@sreetips I didn't have much problem with men's watchbands, esp. Elgin or Cassio brands. But those really thin women's bands? I don't mean the "oh its just under 1/2 wide" thin, but those REALLY thin ones that seem to barely be 1/4th wide. Opening the tabs were annoying but getting the pins back in to reconnect the band? I had to really learn patience for those. Wow, I suppose doing settings for replacement diamonds would give you the patience to do resizing watchbands. I'd imagine the bands be easier to do. But then I know nothing of the process for diamond replacement so it could be my ignorance speaking :)
What I don't see nor hear you say, is what kind of special masks & special heavy protective equipment is required? All of these acids are toxic & need special handling, is it really costly to prperly set up? How do you dispose of waste? How does one get permission for a home set up or what permits are required? Do you purchase gold filled scrap from other in-home jewelers or be interested in purchasing computer boards from another in-home jeweler? Do old cell phones have a lot of precious metals worth collecting? Sorry, I have so many questions but I understand every step, even the chemistry involved. I'm a gold & silversmith, have done plating, which is basically the reverse, (although gold fill is much much thicker & different from plating)
We buy mostly karat scrap. We buy at local sales. No permits required. No licenses. I’m not a business. This is my hobby. I don’t refine other people’s materials. Only stuff my wife and I find at local sales. Waste treatment for the acids.
