Thank you for continuing to share your knowledge so freely. I am still an avid reader of your posts on the gold refining forum. Based on your information I built and operated 4 silver cells, generating an income for my family. I personally can vouch that your videos are accurate in all aspects. Thanks once again.
Great Video!!! That lab coat makes it look official. The 1st comment I made, I eluded to the fact that I thought you were a chemistry professor. Then you told me that you had no formal chemistry education, besides being self taught!! Very good, Sreetips!!!!
Have to say i am glad you decided a while ago to get infront of the camera and speak, the videos were brill before but much better now your in them chatting
I had no idea i was interested in this kinda thing until I saw your videos ! I had chemistry kits as a kid growing crystals but this is the kinda thing you'd never let a child do. Way cooler !
I had a Gilbert. And we had a variety store called Sanford’s when I was a kid in the 60s they sold hobby level chemistry glassware in their basement. The brand was “Perfect”. I’d go there just to look at the condensers and flasks. I had a small lab set up in our basement.
The cobalt blue of that copper in solution is one of the prettiest hues of any color there is. Absolutely stunning. I want a car that color. Thank you, Sr. I've watched this one before but your videos generate multiple views. That's great. lol
Hey that was one fantastic show I have never seen this proceses , and I wanted to thank you for going through the trouble of teaching us , but what I am most surprised about is how safe you work, and your humbleness witch tells me that you and your family have been blessed by the Lord, when the Lord gives you a talent, you have to multiply it and when you teach that talent to others you are bering fruits, for every person you teach, you are multiplying the talent God gave you greetings to you from Hector.
i love your silver videos thanks for taking the time to make them for us. I sent you a PM with a thought for a video idea, i just didnt want to post it in the chat and look stupid lol. keep up the good work
I really like your shows. Thank you. I've just starting learning about geology ,trying to gather some gold. Im 65 and thought this might be something to do when i retire @ 70.
I want to thank you so much. I got into metal detecting and I think I found some silver and no one could even tell me what I found. So heck let's go make some. I'm gonna try myself.
Get some schwerters solution. It’s potassium dichromate dissolved in a little dilute nitric acid. It turns blood red when it comes in contact with silver.
Oh my friend.... You are the most professional and diligent scientist I have seem... Thank you for sharing... Would like to buy some refined metal from you soon...I make jewelry with it.....:) :) :)
You can mix your concentrated silver nitrate and additional distilled water by just pouring the solution back and forth between a couple of bowls/pitchers a few times. It does a more thorough job of mixing, but I don't know if the introduction of more air into the solution would cause problems.
Thanks so much for the video. When you melt out the silver from the reagent process does it always have that coffee color to it. Or is it sometimes just a silver color?
Hello Sreetips , when I'm entering to this refining field the first video I watched is yours , and day by day I learnd lots and lots of things that I entirely aware about this field , I write this comment after long time silently learning from you , for thanking you , Thank you very much for teaching and your guide to success in the refinery field ! Thank you very much and wish you all the best 🙏
❤Very, very beautiful. Indeed, I am the one who wants to thank you for everything you offer. Good luck and success. I am following you from Egypt and I hope to see you and talk to you. Thank you and to everyone who is with you. Thank you. merry Christmas
Awesome video I've been watching for a while and thinking of trying it . I do have one question for the dacron bag could polyester be used in the same way double layer
Hello Sir, I would love to hear some more thoughts on when to change the electrolyte. How do I know it is not usable anymore, because of too much copper in it? Thank you so much and best greetings
Sorry, I was up until 3am the previous night, and got up around 7am to get back to work on the video. It was done by 6pm that evening, so I began the upload and passed out from being so tired. I woke up at 2:30 and hit the publish button, then went back to bed for an hour and a half.
Get yourself a hotplate/stirrer and add a stirbar. It speeds things up a Lot, especially near the end - it'll save you a Lot of time. Basically the acid and metal need to hit each other, so stirring makes that happen faster.
Another very interesting and well put together video. Looking forward to seeing how you process the slimes which, I presume contains silver, PMGs and copper?
I've got about six filters from previous silver cell runs. I might do this as my next video. But I am concerned that folks are going to abandon me if I don't get the catalytic converter and stock pot videos out soon. Thanks for the input.
I have a degree in metallurgy , but I'm not a chemist. I totally understand what you are achieving and amazed with your ability to use one solution to apply to another solution. Nitric Acid is the problem. Where do I find it? Muriatic is easy. If you could provide me with the sources, I will watch these videos over and over again until I have it right. SAFETY FIRST!!!!All of your videos are great but, the last two with your commentary put it into perspective. GREAT JOB!Please respond as I am eager to try this. Thanks
Hi Streetips. I liked the video. You mentioned you run thr silver through the cell twice. Do you know the purity after the first pass and how much better does it get after the second pass.
The silver will be at least three nines fine after the first pass, depending on electrolyte contaminated with palladium, dissolved copper concentration, electrical parameters, if all are kept in the proper range. The second pass, again depending on many factors, should be close to five nines fine.
Good video once again- I enjoy learning from you. One thought of caution please... do not wear nitrile gloves when working with HNO3- the reaction can be rather aggressive and it can be fairly rapid at the strengths you use. Maybe its selfish of me- but I would like to see you making videos for a long time. Excellent as always.
I do this for a living... And although latex gloves and nitrile gloves are NOT approved PPE, when you wear 2 pairs of either, they are in fact protective... I have NEVER been burned even when the outer glove gets slimy from slightly dissolving in the Nitric Acid....
I just stumbled upon this video and it's fabulous! I see you have quite a few video's . My Question is do you have a video on how or where you get the impure silver shots from? to fill the little anode basket? Also what kind of tourch do you use when your smelting? Love to see that setup as well. TY Have a wonderful Blessed Day!
I buy sterling silver at local sales. I use it to refine gold. Silver is a by-product of my gold refining operation. I recover the silver from tgat, melt it into shot and use that as feed stock for my silver cell. I use an oxy/acetylene torch with a cutting head to melt the precious metals.
Hi i have recently been watching your Vid's and find them fascinating ! a question if i may on the Electrolyte, Does it have to be Silver Nitrate ? or could i use Silver Sulphate or other. Best regards from accross the pond in the UK, Kev
Most interesting process. I have been meaning to try it but have not done so yet. Leaving large open containers of AgNO2 around in MY workshop for days on end is just asking for trouble. I use another method which utilises sodium formate. Have you heard if it?
Wondering why you don’t pour your silver-cell crystals through a fine stainless screen mesh so you won’t have to painstakingly pour the electrolyte off the crystals... also, would your stirring method be more effective if you used a glass paddle and not just a rod?
As always, another great video! Thank you for sharing! I'm looking forward to getting to try this. Having trouble sourcing some Con Nitric Acid, otherwise I have all I need. Will this work with Nitric made from Potassium Nitrate? Or should I continue to hunt down some Con Nitric Acid?
I don't know about the home made nitric because I've never tried to make it myself. But my guess is that it should work, might take longer to dissolve with the home brew nitric. I'll have to learn how to make it myself then do a video.
Continue to search, sulfuric acid will gum up the electorite as silver sulfate. Nitric acid can be made at home with air and electric arcing. Google "Jacobs Ladder"
If you own a proper distillation apparatus it is not hard to do check out Doug‘s lab the only issue I’ve had with making my own is it takes all day and you get maybe 300 mL of nitric. my distillation kit I use a 2000 mL reaction boiling flask and end up with that small of a yield but good luck
So is the purpose to keep dissolving the "pure" silver shot to make it purer? How much more silver shot will this take? Is this the silver that has been dissolved in nitric acid and deposited onto the copper wire, then melted?
I topped it off every day. I'd estimate that 900 to 1000 grams was the silver crystal yield judging by the volume of the crystal that I took out of the cell. It was slow because the filter got clogged with slimes and the electrolyte was on its third run. The silver gets depleted out of the electrolyte as the cell operates causing crystal formation to slow.
Did you ever XRF any of your silver that you melted from the silver chloride, sodium hydroxide, sugar conversion? I consistently got 4 nines with a one run processing using the chloride method on sterling. So I never had the need to use a cell. With the chloride you just have to make sure to rinse it very well before using the sodium hydroxide and sugar. I'd put the chloride in a 5 gallon bucket and blast it with the garden hose until it ran clear. I do the shooting slightly different btw.
Yes, I've made high purity silver with silver chloride, lye and sugar. There are refiners who prefer this method. "you get your palladium up front..." One refiner remarked. And no need to tie up a bunch of silver in electrolyte. I prefer the silver cell method because there's less waste that must be treated. And I'm familiar with the silver cell. Plus, I get to make videos about recovering the metals from my anode filters fron the silver cell.
Hi Streetips love the videos they are some of my favorite on RU-vid. I have a question I don’t have any pure silver yet so I wanted to know if I could start out making electrolyte with cemented silver and work up refining each time until I have pure silver crystal to make a proper electrolyte with? and thank you for your service in the Navy I appreciate all veterans you guys are truly my heroes!!
@@sreetips Would it be possible to start this multi-step silver purificationwith sterling silver, or would the high copper concentration cause problems?
First off thank you as it was very informative. also i have this question: is this process intended to make dirty silver as what would be found in scrap jewelry pure ? or can it also clean up raw silver poured into an ingot like that of silver ore ? my first watch was out of curiosity and i admit a little awe as well. I have done some gold plating, silver, copper, rhodium, nickle, and cobalt. UN fortunately these were all prepared solutions that i purchased. figureing out how to make my own would be great can you advise for a future build so as not to become a chemical menace to everyone around me.
The silver going into this cell is about 99% pure. 925/Sterling can be used but the electrolyte quickly becomes saturated with copper and the cell electrolyte must be changed. Running ore through the cell probably wouldn't work but I've never tried it.
You're a valuable resource sir. As valuable as GFR. Did you buy laser steves dvds? If so which ones? I am new to GRF, just familiarising myself with the safety section,some hazards, reading Hoke and trying to navigate and accumulate equiptment. Its going to be a fun filled learning curve. Stonemason+HNO3=(very)Amateur chemist. Thankyou for the videos.
Hello sreetips :) Love your vids. I have a question about the silver cell.. Is it possible to use the silver cell with scrap 925 silver in the anode basket instead of the pure silver shots?
Hello Sreetips! I'm talking from Brazil and I found your channel looking for methods to recovery silver from many places (x-ray, stearling etc...). Your videos are awesome and you are a very didatic teacher. Thanks a lot for the "classes". I live in an apartament and i don't have many space to do this stuff. I have a real concern about of the fumes (for me, my wife and the neighbors), so, i like to ask you, there's a way to buy the eletrolyte? I presume that is AgNO3 (Silver Nitrate) and I could buy some in pharmacys our chemical stores. If the answer is "yes you can buy" what could be the proportion, mixed with destiled water? Again, thanks a lot for the videos!
The anode basket electrode bar is made of some of the impure silver shot. If you watch my silver refining videos for the amateur refiner, part 2 shows how I make the electrode bar for the anode basket. The electrode bar provides a place to attach the alligator clip from the positive side of the power supply.
So are or can the volts be used to regulate growth speed? Like turn down volts to low while at work, back up a few hrs when home, then back down again? To keep from having to knock down the crystals so often / worry about a short? And with this being electrolysis, normal ventilation is ok? Say an attached garage without worry of fumes infiltrating the home? (just the electrolysis part)
I’ve run voltage as low as 3.3vdc and high 3.7vdc anytime we work with acidic solutions in our garage expect surface corrosion on any metal surfaces including your car, motorcycle or tools. To avoid this it can be done in a fume hood.
What if I use tap water to begin with and salt in a stainless steel bowl with a car charger what will that do and what would be next to try and correct that? Love all your work 🥼🥽🌡️⚗️🧫📝☢️☣️🍻
No, if I did that the palladium would build up and accumulate in the silver. This would increase the chance of palladium getting into the silver cell electrolyte and plating out with the silver crystal. But contamination of the silver crystal is secondary; palladium is 100 times more valuable than silver!
I enjoy your videos, well composed and straight to the point. Now from watching your videos, i deduce that the cost for refining silver is significantly higher than gold. Do you foresee a spike in silver spot price soon?
Refining silver takes much longer than gold. And it is probably more expensive because of the additional steps. I think silver is going to skyrocket when there is a loss faith in our currency. It's a mathematical certainty, just don't know when it will happen. $200 silver and $5000 gold.
You can minimize the prouction of the brown NO2 gas / dimer colorless N2O4 gas (when hot brown gas, when cold converts to colorless dimer), but NOT the NO gas, by using dilute nitric acid solutions -- it does take much longer though. All nitrogen oxides (with the possible exception of N2O, laughing gas -- dosage determines whether something is safe or deadly -- even air or water or food) are toxic.
So... I was wondering... I have a heap of old coins with a fairly high silver content. There is probably a bit of nickel and copper in them as well. Do you think that the silver cell process would work if I filled the anode basket with these coins rather than cemented silver shot?
Yes, it would work. But, with the base metal content that high, the electrolyte would quickly become saturated. Electrolytic refining should be done on metal that is already close to three nines.
Do you have a video showing how to make the Silver cell solution with a CS grade silver nitrate that I purchased or can you just tell me what I mix it with please
100g of pure silver dissolved in one liter is sufficient concentration for a single run of the silver cell. If I chose to use silver nitrate to achieve the same concentration then I’d use 155g of silver nitrate dissolved in one liter of distilled water to achieve the same concentration as 100g of pure silver. My silver cell is 3.5 liters.
Hello Sreetips, Perhaps you would help ME with a problem involving the reactivity series of metals. I want to separate nickel from nickel coins (75% copper, 25% nickel). I HAVE zinc metal in my shop as well as your common acids. No matter what I have DONE I always end up with the nickel and copper mixed together in whatever form. Can you suggest how I can get the nickel out of solution and leave the copper for later? Much thanks in advance.
Zinc won’t work because it will cement both. I had the same problem during my first stock pot series. If you look at a reactivity series table, nickel and copper are very close together so using a metal to separate by cementation probably won’t work. What you need is a chemical that will react and form a precipitate with one and leave the other in solution. I don’t have any experience. Try posing the question on sciencemadness.org lots of trained chemists there.
@@sreetips Thank you, sir. If I get a working answer to this I'll let you know. Keep up the good work. I hope your daughter is happy and that YOU are happy with how its going for her.
@@sreetips I have several questions. Why did it not make silver nitrate when you dissolved the crystal in the Nitric acid? Do you recover the 600 grams of silver you used to make the electrolyte? How many litters of electrolyte did the 600 grams make if you can only recover 150 - 200 grams from a litter?
Do you gotta have license to buy those chemicals and if so what kind and what's a ball park number on how much it would cost to get them I love watching your videos science is so cool love the reactions of the silver chloride it was awesome that it turned to cottage cheese white
I used some coppernitrate (used silver cell) electrolyte for electrochemically etching a circuit board today..worked for 90%... the edges wore out fast so you still need etch chemicals but you will reduce that consumtion dramatically...The copper on the board went so thin that I could see through the copper layer.
Haha...I think I need a video how to make a video cause etching a PCB is too easy with spend silver cell electrolyte and goes real fast,but as I said it ain't perfect cause in the last stage you loose your electro(de)plating circuit ofcourse. The edges of the "voids" wear out first so a little material stays in the middle of it. I had no Ironchloride or such and made wide voids so sanded away the see-through copper to finish the PCB. I thought it was a nice tip for silver refiners that also like to make their own circuit boards. Atm. I'm still thinking on what to do with the waste solution... It's at least ideal for electroplating I think and if you want you can be really creative with it :D...I'm btw also really interested in what you do with the waste solutions....copper can't be waste material as it is 5$ a kilo :D...cementing out with lead isn't a nice solution for me. Cementing out half of it with nikkel could give you 2 solutions to use for plating but I've seen the sulfides are used more often... I'm just fantasizing and haven't overseen the consequences of my electrochemical endeavor ;) I liked you demonstrated that you saturated your acid with metal to make the electrolyte. It's not ideal to electroplate in solutions that have free acid in them :D.
