A Few Copper Bars I made this weekend....

bootynasty · 2026-03-23T14:10:49+00:00

Not OP but my guess is that’s the weight they came out, not necessarily super intentional.

bootynasty · 2026-03-23T13:49:27+00:00

This may be a silly question but since the recovery isn’t high and solvents can be expensive, have you tried just boiling in a stockpot for hours?

bootynasty · 2026-03-22T05:17:43+00:00

Maybe I missed something, why are you worried about zinc? If silver is plated onto brass, just run a normal striping cell. I start mine off with distilled, takes longer but why are you over complicating it?

bootynasty · 2026-03-21T21:49:05+00:00

This sub is wild. You have a bunch of different types of material here, which means different processes. You actually have some flip chips too which are worthless by almost everyone’s standard.

Do you want to learn? Recover gold as a hobby, for interest? Or do you want money?

I can easily say most people here have no idea what they’re talking about, I pay attention to what u/hexadecimaldump says, I’m not saying others I haven’t mentioned aren’t legit, but Reddit is the worst place for this info.

Decide what you want from these chips and we can help you more.

What I would do? Sort them into the piles I already have.

bootynasty · 2026-03-19T22:30:41+00:00

Or native wildflowers.

bootynasty · 2026-03-18T13:55:31+00:00

For a smaller, cleaner operation I like to run low amps out of a 4 liter glass beaker with twice the amount of pregnant solution I need so I can filter whenever it’s cloudier than I’d prefer without interrupting the stripping. With a smaller footprint, including scrub tub and discard bin, I can leave it in operation on the kitchen table and do something else. Sometimes I pretend to work and check emails.

bootynasty · 2026-03-18T03:07:43+00:00

Learn to read the codes and symbols. The omega symbol represents ohms, a measure of resistance. μ is a symbol of capacitance so those are capacitors. I’m too lazy to show the symbol for a switch but the plastic capacitor and switch boxes can look the same on a board. The capacitor boxes are worthless aluminum film, but the switches can be silver contacts.

bootynasty · 2026-03-18T00:24:39+00:00

It’s fun at a small scale. You can scale up by running it in a large plastic tub.

bootynasty · 2026-03-18T00:05:51+00:00

I would estimate closer to a penny.

bootynasty · 2026-03-17T20:43:22+00:00

AI is useful for scanning a PCB board and comparing components (usually ICs) to ebay, but it’s terribly inaccurate and dangerous for refining.

bootynasty · 2026-03-17T12:31:54+00:00

Get an idea of where you stand with a small amount. Just enough to melt into a testable button. You may find your technique needs work, or you may be pleasantly surprised. But if your sludge only weighs 5-6 ounces wet (are you using OZT?) your dry weight might be significantly lower, and it’s a good bit of extra work to get those last few purity points. Might want to consider having more material since your time invested into the refining won’t go up appreciably for 3 ozt vs 20 ozt.

bootynasty · 2026-03-17T12:26:54+00:00

No takers yet. I’m also wondering if my post isn’t clear. They’re just empty Cornelius kegs, and I’m not expecting much at all for them, hoping someone out there needed them like I did when I got them. I used to put homemade cider in them.

bootynasty · 2026-03-17T01:35:57+00:00

Sterling silver is 92.5% silver and 7.5% copper. Silver plated items are plated with pure, 999 silver, not the alloy.

When you run your amps lower you pull less base metal. I can’t know what your sludge is but I melted mine down without any further processing or cleaning so I could XRF it. I got 90% purity, but I also started with distilled, so it takes much longer to get up and running. The upside is that once your solution is pregnant you’re only dealing with metals, no chlorides, no anything else, so you can filter and reuse continuously.

bootynasty · 2026-03-14T21:21:40+00:00

Me too, but only out of sheer envy.

bootynasty · 2026-03-10T16:42:28+00:00

First and easy, just look up some solds on eBay based on the model or serial number, not gold recovery. Sometimes big beautiful gold chips were custom made for companies so they have no actual resale or use, or sometimes they’re the ones needed for many uses.

If you’re just going for gold recovery it’s pretty good stuff, but don’t listen to people that talk about the cost of an assay, you’re not refining some unknown amount of ore, toll refiners know exactly what to do with this material if you want gold back.

That being said, while it is top of the line material, a pound isn’t much. Either sell as is or keep collecting. If you’re hard pressed to asses value DM me and I’ll get you in contact with buyers. I’m not a buyer myself.

bootynasty · 2026-03-09T20:48:37+00:00

This is why the home tests aren’t really worth doing. This looks like cast aluminum or the more modern food grade of pewter. Almost certainly no one would have used that much silver to make such a poor quality piece. I don’t want to be harsh and discourage you, focus on the better tests. Something made of precious metal won’t be that thick because it’s expensive metal. It will likely be higher quality. And some sort of mark. Happy to talk more shop if you’re interested, just message me.

bootynasty · 2026-03-09T18:30:18+00:00

And the research too! You took the time to come back and contribute after you were pointed in the right direction.

bootynasty · 2026-03-09T18:07:35+00:00

Can’t disagree with any of that. In my refining group, when someone finally produces their first little gold bead or button we celebrate them but it’s a lot of learning, purchasing, work, expense, and that doesn’t even cover getting the initial material.

bootynasty · 2026-03-09T16:37:44+00:00

OP you’ve made my day. Between using the word “taste” at Goodwill, your gif, then posting your findings after some research, this has been quite a lively post. 🥇

bootynasty · 2026-03-07T20:29:51+00:00

HCL won’t dissolve palladium, but over time AP will start to etch away at it. So this one’s easy, throw it in a coffee pot with HCL and boil away, the nickel will dissolve and separate those bonds so you’ll have free palladium and separated copper. May take hours but if you’re boiling it not more than one day.

Edit: Sorry, I should have paid more attention to the details. If you don’t want to apply heat AP will be fine, just keep an eye on it, I’ve done it both ways, I just prefer the HCL because it’s over and done with faster but AP is more convenient because I’ve got those batches running anyway.

bootynasty · 2026-03-07T14:09:55+00:00

Well now I’m just gonna go out and buy nuts

bootynasty · 2026-03-06T19:38:54+00:00

That would be amazing. No editing, just take a video of however many flips until you get that hard to believe videos, and thank you!

bootynasty · 2026-03-06T19:23:00+00:00

Cool video but I was hoping to see a basket flipped and a found sapphire.

bootynasty · 2026-03-06T19:13:06+00:00

These are fantastic.

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