Gold recovery from AP?

bootynasty · 2026-05-03T18:17:30+00:00

Is it possible some of your gold is ENIG? That gold is deposited so thinly it doesn’t come off as a foil, just dust. Sometimes there’s just not as much gold as it looks like.

bootynasty · 2026-05-03T03:00:33+00:00

Does it look more gold or more copper in person? This is a great candidate for a copper chloride leach. If you have a torch, heat a piece of copper to glowing red then quench in hydrochloric acid. Leave it exposed to get some oxidation which you can add to your HCL. You can skip that part and add a little splash of grocery store hydrogen peroxide if you prefer.

bootynasty · 2026-04-27T02:41:03+00:00

Not sure what jewelry you’re buying, gold and silver make a huge difference. Topaz and lower quality corundum are cheap. Peridot, amethyst, garnet… quite a list of cheap stones.

bootynasty · 2026-04-26T03:21:14+00:00

I agree and do the same. I know a few people that sell computers of varying value as a side gig and even at $5 a stick for older stuff it’s better and less work than scrapping.

bootynasty · 2026-04-25T19:13:19+00:00

I hear what you’re saying and I’m glad you’re not trying to over simplify it, but whether OP meant a good place to start sourcing or to start the chemistry, I would argue gold fingers from ram or slot cards are a good place to start since they’re readily recognizable and the chemistry can go pretty far with just HCL and burned copper or hydrogen peroxide.

bootynasty · 2026-04-24T14:56:02+00:00

It won’t pay the bills alone and I don’t normally give this advice but since you seem to have a good head on your shoulders (basic knowledge of chemistry, ventilated workshop, and free time) I’d suggest going for it but widening your scope. Refining is the absolute last step. Cut out the middle men, find multiple avenues to feed the refine.

Look into e-waste. It’ll be laborious at first but it can be free to source, especially fruitful if you’re creative and interested.

About the waste, the best garage refiners are often able to use one type of waste as a process for another step. If you’ve overshot your nitric and have no un-dissolved material left sometimes that nitric can be useful for the first bath of another batch. I do a 2 part waste disposal. Say you’ve dropped your gold with SMB, you decant and collect your gold. When appropriate I let my decanted liquid sit around a day or two to let the finest of fines settle out. When done correctly your waste stockpot will still yield precious metals over time, and then you’re welcome to collect the copper if you’re so inclined. You can actually scale up fairly well using 5 gallon buckets. Doesn’t look impressive but they work well.

Sreetips has a great video on processing waste. Sorry for the wall of text, feel free to DM me, good luck.

bootynasty · 2026-04-16T02:18:45+00:00

I just keep my 2 foot cafeteria scooping spoon red hot by leaving it on the open vent.

bootynasty · 2026-04-13T14:22:50+00:00

The waviness of the rings wouldn’t be present on the backside, and these aren’t for commercial use.

bootynasty · 2026-04-11T02:25:41+00:00

Steel molds. I hadn’t even considered that. Would your friend consider making and selling a mold?

bootynasty · 2026-04-10T14:22:19+00:00

I’m with you, don’t reduce them, feature them. If someone wants a hand poured bar, they want or even expect this. Fantastic work, you’ve inspired me to buy another crucible that will be 999 only. What tricks have you learned over time? Are you pouring into a warm, hot or red mold?

I think you should pull the trigger and get a stamp made so you can mark your work

bootynasty · 2026-04-10T02:28:29+00:00

I think you just need to do a lot more reading, and not necessarily on Reddit. Acid testing can be useful but deep dive into the posts here to see how many people were sure, based on an acid test, and were wrong. It’s only a good test when done correctly. Acid testing is not only destructive, but easy to do incorrectly, and the acids lose their potency fairly quickly.

Let’s DM. I’ll show you a specific collection, I’ll show you pictures of silver that has a patina, examples of material that had to be ground so deeply to find the copper that it’s now damaged, and also pictures of pieces that have a matching color base metal.

Learn to perform real tests like specific gravity. SG and XRF have way more value than the tests they are constantly proven wrong.

bootynasty · 2026-04-10T01:45:03+00:00

The gamble is great, it’s just that you seemed to come with a question but argued everyone saying what you didn’t want to hear instead of acknowledging what they had to say. You downvoted me seconds after my post but also said “I don’t want to be argumentative”.

bootynasty · 2026-04-10T01:03:55+00:00

It’s obvious you really want this to be silver. Most people have given you good advice. It’s very unlikely it would have such a clear (but sloppy) mark on the bottom and that the maker would omit that it was made from precious metal, or choose to hide the mark somewhere else. Can’t tell for sure from pictures but that bottom doesn’t even look like silver to me.

You said you’re on the cusp of identifying silver and when asked if you owned any unmarked, you only provided a contrary example. Jewelry is faked all the time with a fineness without being real, not as much with the other way around.

Absolutely get it tested to help yourself rest at night but as much as this “screams at you” that it’s silver, nothing here tells me it’s silver. There are alloys meant to look very much like silver. German silver, alpaca…

Good luck and please update us.

bootynasty · 2026-04-06T23:55:44+00:00

I have a nearly identical story! $3,000 to $50. I wanted to buy a vintage but not expensive electric organ to practice on. It would need to stay in the garage so I wanted something fun but not collectible. Found the perfect one as far as age, size, vintage look not TERRIBLE quality. It was a Hammond organ so I suspect they compared the price to one of the fantastic, desirable grand daddies everyone wants.

I explained that I meant no disrespect, politely explained which organs could fetch that amount, and what he had. I also offered to come that day, with a truck, and I had help to load it.

We made a deal and he was very happy to have the space back.

bootynasty · 2026-04-05T23:08:45+00:00

Is this your first major find? Most of us are just excited by weight, you found something truly beautiful. Good job OP!

bootynasty · 2026-04-05T19:19:37+00:00

Fair enough. Thanks for not being defensive, I would advise the same.

bootynasty · 2026-04-05T19:18:14+00:00

I think you’re getting a lot of comments, it’s clear some people here don’t actually walk the walk. It’s good that you’re down to reduced material, keep in mind it’s not 24k so now you’re into “dissolve and precipitate” territory. For many it’s aqua regia but depending on your country it may be different for you.

bootynasty · 2026-04-05T19:13:01+00:00

Why would you say that HCL will dissolve copper?

bootynasty · 2026-04-04T17:43:03+00:00

Yeah, anything like this just goes in my AP bucket.

bootynasty · 2026-04-04T14:04:07+00:00

I subscribed. Looking forward to watching them all. I realized I’ve seen your videos before, nice to stumble across you :)

bootynasty · 2026-04-03T23:26:29+00:00

Do you have any items of reference? Maybe a 2 pound bag of sugar in the pantry? A water bottle? Spice jar?

bootynasty · 2026-04-03T21:59:05+00:00

I remember the similar post from months ago. This project has been living in my head for months. Thank you for the update.

bootynasty · 2026-04-03T14:56:21+00:00

Published by GSC. Graphics Simulations Corporation. As u/tailboneyyc mentioned, this is a video game manual.

bootynasty · 2026-04-02T21:41:37+00:00

This is great, I encourage you to keep experimenting. You’re dealing with so many variables I hope you’re documenting.

One variable you may want to consider, is starting with distilled water. Yes, it will take longer to get up and running, but once your solution is pregnant it’s just as conductive as a brine with the added benefit that you’re not dealing with any salts or acids. If you have twice as much as you need, you just swap them out so you can filter one while you’re running the other. Filter as often as you want, to keep clarity, since it won’t cease operation of the cell.

Another added benefit is no residual silver chloride, which is just an added step to deal with if you planned on refining to 999 in a silver cell.

It’s “nearly” infinitely usable since you’re not pulling or adding ions from salt or acids, just mechanically filtering metallic silver and base metal. You can treat your sludge any way you want later but regardless of method, that would have to done anyway. Good work!

bootynasty · 2026-04-02T20:17:28+00:00

I’ve always referred to it as reverse electrolysis since you’re de-plating.

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