Sreetips' dinner guest: "That's an interesting choice of toilet Sreetips. Stainless steel is very modern." Sreetips: "That's not stainless steel it's silver. Running out of places to store it and I feel very powerful going on a silver throne" :D :D
@@DFPercush i literally just came here to say exactly this! Or, he could pull all the copper out of the solutions he already got all the silver out of, 6 and make an antimicrobial copper toilet and he could electroplate it in silver so he doesn't waste too much silver. Just coat the copper with a couple mm of silver and boom, same antimicrobial effects, same look, and Sreetips gets to keep most of his pure silver crystal. That's what I would do, personally. This way, he can use the copper nitrate he has sitting around in solution.
He has a 3 part series on refining sterling. It's very informative and he does the cementing out in a glass jar. You can you actually see it happen. It's my second favorite part of his videos, melting is the first.
another great vid and i watch them all but as an older fellow with hearing issues having the closed captions makes watching much more of a pleasure, help an old guy out, thanks.
Thanks to this channel I now have 380 gram bar of gold., 85% karat gold stock. 14% gold filled, 1% e-scrap. Never again will touch e scrap. , gold filled uses to much acid . Refining karat gold can be done from start to finish in half a day.
Great video. Really clarified the whole process. Would it make sence to add a lot of water to the cement silver bucket and mix it around in there to dilute the blue liquid? I'm thinking you could then use a vacuum to remove the rinse off the top once it settled, and repeat a few times. Mixing the hot water around in that small container with trying tk avoid tearing the filter paper seems like a real chore
It probably would perhaps speed things up but I think this is more for the novice. The main bucket of silver cement must weigh many kilos. So I may be wrong but he is probably showing it like this for people doing small scale production. And also the purity is also his main goal.
Also, I think I just realized that Sreetips house is basically Heaven for sterling silver flatware...it's made, it has a useful life, it languishes in storage until someone decides to sell it to Mr. or Mrs. Sreetips, then it's broken down to its basic elements, purified, and crystallized in its purest form to be kept with all the other possibly trillions of other crystals that Sreetips has in his various undisclosed storage locations. 😄
Excellent video thank you for sharing your system and expertise with us!!!! One of my favorite hobbies by far!!! My copper almost pays for my nitric acid now
@jozefigueiredo8792 I think it's lab core just Google it, can't buy on Amazon. Prices vary all over the board and cheap prices means you pay more on shipping
Fantastic process. Fairly simple and straightforward but the stress could easily well up if you’re not constantly at it leading to an overwhelming amount of work. Like juggling knives and Ming vases together. Thank you Sir!👍👍
The only thing prettier than natural polished silver crystals are the same thing in gold. Silver crystals are part blinding reflection and part frosty wonder. They are amazing to actually see irl. Sr, do you have a camera capable of doing a closeup of some of the crystals? Remember the gold ones? Wow. Once again, my thanks and appreciation.
Maybe when you go to throw away the cemented copper out, you could instead send some of it to BigstackD. He does all sorts of melts/smelting and casts with copper, brass, and aluminum. Could be an interesting "collaboration" and we'd get to see your copper be used to make a bar or something.
he covers this in an earlier video on waste treatment, there was a pH adjustment to 7, and i think some bleach but i might be confusing that with a codyslab video where he used cyanide on dishes with gold trimmings
How long did it take a accumulate all that cement silver, Mr Sreetips? have you ever melted down something you wish you hadn't? eg, item was more valuable left as jewellery.
Sometimes, when I have something nice, and I hate to have to destroy it. I close my eyes, put two big cutters on the piece, and chop it, and let it go, without regret.
Nice very interesting and informative . These videos are so cool to watch . Because it shows us the viewers tips on what to do with our scrap precious metals .
So Sreetips... I have worked with silver compounds in the past and some were light sensitive. Light exposure gave a dark silver precipitate. Have you experienced any issues with light when handling your silver nitrate solutions?
Not so much with silver nitrate. Direct sun light may be a different story. But I have seen silver chloride turn color just from exposure to ambient artificial light.
cemented out silver have other uses? used for inquartation gold or cementing gold? or do you prefer to use thrifted silver for that kind of stuff? maybe cement silver is too small / packed to cement out gold?
It would work well cementing gold. Using cement silver to inquart is not recommended because palladium follows silver and it would tend to build up in the silver.
@Cameron Keillor The best way to deal with it would be converting it to copper sulfate by adding sulfuric acid, then distilling out the nitric acid that formed; then doing electrolysis of the copper sulfate. This way, nitric acid and pure copper would be recovered, possibly also remaining precious metals as anode slimes. NurdRage has a video on that. Platinum anode may be needed for the electrolysis cell.
love watching you at work and if you listen well you find out much more iron to bring copper out of solution i did not even know-that. coper to cement out silver -its like watching a master crafts man at work each show
Guess: Anything more reactive than silver stayed in solution when the silver was cemented out on the copper and got rinsed off in the funnels. And anything less reactive than silver stayed in the anode baskets (1) because the voltage was set low enough that it only picked up the silver and (2) because it wasn't soluble in the electrolyte.
The contaminants are insoluble and remain trapped in the anode filter. Only copper and silver get through. If the electrolyte is acidic (excess nitric) and there is palladium in the slimes, then the nitric could dissolve the palladium and it would contaminate the electrolyte turning it green.
7:57 did you know that if you crystalize out copper nitrate then distill it destructively you can recover the nitric acid. same holds true for iron nitrate.
He's talked about that in past videos and how the time and energy cost plus danger of nitric acid vapours during the distillation simply does not stack up against the convenience and cost of simply wandering down to the hardware store for a bottle of nitric acid. I'm slowly buying kit myself to try refining gold as a hobby scale on old computer parts. And due to local laws restricting access to nitric acid, I'd have to make my own. Mixing copper sulphate (farm footrot treatment) with calcium nitrate (hydroponic nutrient) to form copper nitrate and calcium sulphate (gypsum) then Thermal decomposition of copper nitrate to nitric acid and copper oxide IS viable for me. Through I'm actually planning on the potassium nitrate and sodium bisulfate method. The copper oxide crust from thermal decomposition of copper nitrate can then be cleaned off the distillation flask with Hydrochloric acid to form copper chloride which is easily electrolyzed to pure copper on a graphite electrode off gassing the chloride as chlorine gas. So you get your copper back rather than disposing of it. But for Sreetips, he's worked out it's just not worth it with nitric acid available on the shelf.
@@CatboyChemicalSociety I mentioned chlorine gas offgassing. Fume hood and extractor fan and exhaust the gas away from dwellings and it's diluted enough to be harmless. You breathe plenty of chlorine gas in enclosed public chlorinated pools. It's simply a matter of concentration/dilution. Just use common sense.
@@rhysfirth3506 Take a look at this video if you're interested in making your own nitric acid: th-cam.com/video/HN6tv7NKtPk/w-d-xo.html - Making Nitric Acid From Air - Elementalmaker
@@rhysfirth3506 Check out a video of NurdRage on copper nitrate, the proposed processes recovers both nitric acid, copper, and sulfuric acid. You also don't need to decompose anything, just distill.
Wow just did my 1st nitric acid boils for rendering .925, I have a greater respect for the time, energy and real work you put in with your channel, as well as all the knowledge you share, So much to learn, and so many questions, Thanks for doing the channel. I would have never done any of this without your channel! Quick question is the gray powder which clogs up the filter paper when filtering the silver nitrate solution actually silver cement? and should I keep it for melting down the silver cement?
Love your work. Two questions: 1.) Why don't you get a rotavap to reduce the enormous amounts of liquids you are handling? 2.) Did you ever try to substitute conc. nitric acid by dilute nitric acid / hydrogen peroxide? It should dissolve silver just as good minus the red nitrogen dioxide fumes.
Question Mr. Tips, if you will, Why can't you dissolve the silver cement into an electrolyte and pull the copper or silver out directly? Please forgive my ignorance, but im truly invested in watching all your various processes. Its mesmerizing to watch.
Actually the silver can be separated from the copper by adding hydrochloric acid. This will immediately precipitate silver chloride but leave the copper in solution. The silver chloride can then be converted to pure elemental silver with lye and sugar.
Never get sick of seeing these videos Thanks. Would it be possible to suspend 9999 silver wire in the cell in an interesting shape and have crystals form upon it ? I have always wondered if this was possible and make for an interesting video .
@@scrappydoo7887 Good piont , If this is correct , Stainless figurines large enough for display , could be acid etched before being hooked up in a deeper stainless container . Crystals could coat the rough surface to the point were they become too fragile or practical to continue , before cutting free , as stunning original pieces .
The blue liquid goes in waste treatment bucket full of iron. The copper cements out on the iron and is tossed. Then the acidic iron solution goes in a waste treatment bucket and sodium hydroxide is added to drop the metal hydroxides. These are filtered out and the solids disposed of.
What is the best way to melt down silver jewelry that has cheap/fake stones? Removing the tiny ones is a PITA, so just wondering if just melting it all down and separating would work
I'm pretty sure that one of your subscribers made a video on making a Buckner funnel out of two five gallon buckets. That seems to be the point that you have reached.
Hi doctor You all time make best video and answer people according to your experience thx so much🌹❤️❤️ I have question: You put ice in AR for get rid silver Chloride and filter your solution this way all silver chloride and lead remains in your filter. how do you recovery this kind of silver?
I add the filters to my paper storage. After I get enough filters saved up I burn them and recover the traces of precious metals from the ashes. As far a silver chloride specifically, unless there is a large quantity, half liter or more, then it’s not very efficient or economically feasible to try and recover the small amounts in the filters.
This is FASCINATING to me. What advice would you have for someone (like me) looking to get into this sort of thing? I’m extremely interested in building a very professional and streamlined version of this operation. Thank you!
After leaving my silver nitrate settle overnight, and before adding copper, I noticed it had started to crystallize by about 25% in the bottom of the beaker, what might cause this? and should I reheat the solution to dissolve these crystals? Was this solution starving for more distilled water , could it have been too rich in silver?, Please enjoy your holiday weekend, and don't make any special accommodations to answer these questions
Used to do PM chemistry a while back, definitely messy toxic and not too forgiving. Requires nitric acid and other chemicals that could get the undevided attention of homeland security as well.
Does the Stainless Steel bowl cathode get displaced by the silver in solution, or is it inert? Also your electrolyte becomes blue. Why doesn't the copper contaminate the silver crystals?
The stainless is inert. The copper stays in solution and doesn’t plate out with the silver as long as copper concentration stays below 60g per liter and the voltage is kept constant at 3.5 volt DC
@@sreetips Thank you for your response. I don't doubt you but I find it counterintuitive that voltage can be used to select for silver over copper. Copper is higher on the reactivity series so one would think it requires a weaker electric field to be reduced.
Afternoon Gunny, or, "Shark Tooth", whichever you're going by now 😂. I have a question for you. Silver Nitrate. Going by definition, it is a clear liquid. Mine always comes out blue. I noticed that yours does also. Copper is the antagonist. What I don't understand is, if I'm using pure Silver crystal, to make my electrolyte, why is there Copper present? The light blue color of the electrolyte doesn't impede the growth of crystal. It works wonderfully, just as yours does. Does the trace amount of Copper affect the three nines fine purity of the Silver crystal? I know that there is a way to remove all traces of Copper, to yield a completely clear Siver Nitrate electrolyte. Is it necessary to do this? I have collected 384 ounces of Silver Chloride and am about to do the conversion to Silver Oxide, with NaOH. Then glucose to drop the Silver metal. This process, I am to understand, will yield 99.9 Silver, if rinsed correctly. I am still going to run it through the Silver Cell. Would you be concerned with a pure Silver Nitrate solution, or, is light blue acceptable? I really appreciate your input and your willingness to mentor an old curmudgeon like myself! Thank you for all you do! I call you friend, and so you are! Maybe someday, I will be able to meet you in person, to shake your hand, buy you and Mrs. Shark Tooth a wonderful meal, and thank you as you deserve to be thanked! Your tutorials have been a life saver for a me. As always, your devoted fan, Wade
Goldsilverpro on the goldrefiningforum.com recommends adding some copper to the clear silver nitrate to promote fat crystal growth. But I always just let it build up from the impure silver that I add. Copper in your pure silver crystal probably means some parameter is off in the cell.
Excellent video I never get tired of seeing this it's so interesting can you recover the copper if you wanted to? Keep up the great work five stars my friend thank you for sharing
Yes. He said in this video, that to recover the copper, the copper solution goes into a bucket with iron bars, which copper is cemented onto, just like silver cements into copper.
@@josephcormier5974 _"I was asking if he's started to keep it."_ No. You asked if he *_COULD_* recover the copper if he wanted to. That's what you asked, and that's what I answered.
How do you feel about refining silver smelting instead of using acids to remove all base metals? The only time I need to use nitric acid would be to separate gold from silver.
Would cooling the solution decrease the rate of crystal formation, increasing size of crystal? Just wonder if it could be a fairly profitable solution as I know you're selling the more well developed crystals.
For growing large monocrystals, special measures must be taken. There must be videos on TH-cam how large monocrystals of silicon are grown for electronics.
Hi, if I buy 50 OZ> of sterling silver can you please tell me the cost of refining it. or at what price to buy to make it cost afective. thanks in advance love youre channel
Sterling silver has a known quantity of pure silver and can be held just like it is. There’s no reason to refine it. It will track right on up with bullion. But only if you don’t melt it and ruin the makings.
@sreetips question. I've binge watched at least 3 days worth of videos, maybe more. In one of your videos you are torching some sterling silver candle holders to add to your gold refining byproduct pot. Is it possible to just start from there with sterling silver and create the silver nitrate solution and then use the copper to cement out the sliver?
I think I used clean cement silver a long time ago to start my silver cell. Afterwards I saved some silver crystal from each harvest to use to make electrolyte for my silver cell.
@@sreetipsI planned on using some pure .999 silver like you did with that massive silver coin to create my silver electrolyte for the silver cell. Is this correct? I'm talking about skipping the gold inquartation process and going straight to creating the solution using the hot dilute nitric acid to dissolve the silver from the sterling silver to start the process. (Creating silver nitrate and copper nitrate solution) Then cement out the silver onto copper. After that drying and melting into shot. Then using a silver cell to grow the silver crystals. I know you use
@@Camelguy069 I think it should work this way. It's just that Sreetips refines both silver and gold, to the benefit of both processes. It saves on nitric acid and labor.
@@sreetips many thanx Sir, ill watcb and rewatch to get it perfect. Just one. More question. That dirty silver you make to feed the bucket ontop, can any 925 or lower silver also be inserted in filter.
Yes, however, if you do then the electrolyte will quickly turn dark blue and become saturated with copper. If the copper gets to a certain level (I’ve been told 60 grams per liter) then it could start to co-deposit with the silver and contaminate it. Best to use fairly high purity silver to begin with for best results.
In precious metals refining, shortcuts usually end up costing more time and effort in the long run. But it does give a first-rate education in what not to do.
What’s the rate of speed that your cell is dissolving a kg of silver shot at, given the settings you run it? Does bowl size affect the plating speed given more or less surface area?
No, the speed is determined solely by the electric current passed through the cell (current is a rate of charge transfer). Calculation is easy. You divide the current (in amps) by the electron charge (1.6e-19) to get the number of atoms deposited per second. Then you divide the result by the Avogadro constant (6.02e23) to get the number of moles of silver deposited per second. Multiply the result by the silver's standard atomic weight (107.87g/mol) which yields the silver deposition rate in grams per second. Dissolution rate is the same as the deposition rate. For example, for 1A current, the rate is about 0,001g/s, which is about 4g/h. In 10 days typical cell running time of Sreetips, 967g of silver would be processed.
The anode material is unimportant until the anode touches the electrolyte, which happened to Sreetips a couple of times. Then, if it is made of pure silver, it would just dissolve but not spoil the previously deposited silver. If it's made of platinum, I guess, it would not dissolve but the electrolyte would get depleted of silver. Finally, if the anode is made of copper or iron or other crap, it would severely contaminate the electrolyte upon contact and possibly spoil the deposited silver.
Have you made Gold Crystals? What solution did you have those crystals stored in? If crystals do tone, what would you suggest to remove toning? Acetone?
Hey what's up brother..is it normal to get a gas off from the copper cementing or did i have a delayed nitric reaction? I left a fork in to assure all nitric was used up but seems after adding more distilled ( wash out) it reignited? Also the cement top half has an obvious copper tone where as the bottom has pure clean silver appearance. Does your cement look like that? Wondering if i should smelt and then redissolve before putting in the cell. I appreciate any feed back you can give me!
Outgassing (with fumes) happens when there’s excess nitric. To reduce this I add some sterling and heat until all fumes are gone. But even then I still get some gassing. Going back to nitric isn’t necessary. I’d just melt into shot and run it.
@@sirridok Same here. I'm actually working around all of this equipment putting in all the plumbing at an old mine in Ca. Everything used in the video's explains everything I've seen or had to move out of my way multiple times.
When dealing with that much cement silver, I honestly have no experience or knowledge on this other than your videos, would it be easier to fill the bucket with distilled water to dilute then tip off/filter off the excess liquid and continue that way until it's clean instead of doing multiple tiny batches trying to pull through a blocked filter?
I love your videos and I highly respect your attention to process and detail. So did you basically turn your garage into your lab or did you buy/lease a separate property to work in?
I do this as a hobby aswell. With much smaller amounts, i tried the silver alloy - nitric acid - chloride out the salt - hydroxide and dextrose. It was a mess. Im redissolving all of it, it was not good
Can't believe I mist this one! Just one question for you Mr Sreetips, Will we ever see you refine the Copper you have in the stock pot or will you send it off to someone else?
@@sreetips As a metal caster from South Wales UK. I'm always using Copper! I just wish we could readily get nitric in this country so that I get the best out of the copper I use!
Question for you streetips is it possible to get the silver from 35 percent silver war nickels? I'm sure it's not cost effective but it has always intrigued me how it would be possible. Just wondering if it was possible and if it is if you could make a video about it. Thanks Jon
Very important show tho the price of Silver is at a low point. I have now nearly 15kgs of sterling silver. And this should be a great heap. With the extras if your other shows.
My silver cement looks green , not perfectly gray, is that normal I did filter with boiling water as learned on your channel, but it’s not pure gray in color
So you’re buying the sterling silver to inquart gold, then you recover the silver… does this actually make you money or is it simply to recapture silver that you have previously used to buy more sterling silverware to use for gold inquarting?
Sreetips' dinner guest: "That's an interesting choice of toilet Sreetips. Stainless steel is very modern." Sreetips: "That's not stainless steel it's silver. Running out of places to store it and I feel very powerful going on a silver throne" :D :D
As a bonus, it's also anti-microbial!
@@DFPercush i literally just came here to say exactly this! Or, he could pull all the copper out of the solutions he already got all the silver out of, 6 and make an antimicrobial copper toilet and he could electroplate it in silver so he doesn't waste too much silver. Just coat the copper with a couple mm of silver and boom, same antimicrobial effects, same look, and Sreetips gets to keep most of his pure silver crystal. That's what I would do, personally. This way, he can use the copper nitrate he has sitting around in solution.
What an operation!!! I applaud your attention to detail in how you manage the waste from all your refining. Excellent work!
When you really look at it, his setup there is pretty darn amazing. I think he has done a pretty good job.
This is my first cement silver and silver nitrate refinery video! Thanks for this!
He has a 3 part series on refining sterling. It's very informative and he does the cementing out in a glass jar. You can you actually see it happen. It's my second favorite part of his videos, melting is the first.
As an ex-Automobile Technician I have to salute your awesome vacuum gauge! I have that same model in my tool box.
It’s big and readable,
Current mechanic. I haven't had to use a vacuum gauge in many moons. That is a good gauge though.
another great vid and i watch them all but as an older fellow with hearing issues having the closed captions makes watching much more of a pleasure, help an old guy out, thanks.
Thanks to this channel I now have 380 gram bar of gold., 85% karat gold stock. 14% gold filled, 1% e-scrap. Never again will touch e scrap. , gold filled uses to much acid .
Refining karat gold can be done from start to finish in half a day.
Great video. Really clarified the whole process. Would it make sence to add a lot of water to the cement silver bucket and mix it around in there to dilute the blue liquid? I'm thinking you could then use a vacuum to remove the rinse off the top once it settled, and repeat a few times. Mixing the hot water around in that small container with trying tk avoid tearing the filter paper seems like a real chore
makes sense to me
It probably would perhaps speed things up but I think this is more for the novice. The main bucket of silver cement must weigh many kilos. So I may be wrong but he is probably showing it like this for people doing small scale production. And also the purity is also his main goal.
Also, I think I just realized that Sreetips house is basically Heaven for sterling silver flatware...it's made, it has a useful life, it languishes in storage until someone decides to sell it to Mr. or Mrs. Sreetips, then it's broken down to its basic elements, purified, and crystallized in its purest form to be kept with all the other possibly trillions of other crystals that Sreetips has in his various undisclosed storage locations. 😄
Thanks for the information. You have a very organized progression that you follow!
Excellent video thank you for sharing your system and expertise with us!!!! One of my favorite hobbies by far!!! My copper almost pays for my nitric acid now
Where do you buy the nitric acid? Thx
@jozefigueiredo8792 I think it's lab core just Google it, can't buy on Amazon. Prices vary all over the board and cheap prices means you pay more on shipping
I had absolutely zero insight about this stuff until I came across this channel. It's really cool
Welcome!
Received my silver crystal and gold sponge. Thank you! Beautiful specimens.
Fantastic process. Fairly simple and straightforward but the stress could easily well up if you’re not constantly at it leading to an overwhelming amount of work. Like juggling knives and Ming vases together.
Thank you Sir!👍👍
The only thing prettier than natural polished silver crystals are the same thing in gold.
Silver crystals are part blinding reflection and part frosty wonder. They are amazing to actually see irl.
Sr, do you have a camera capable of doing a closeup of some of the crystals? Remember the gold ones? Wow.
Once again, my thanks and appreciation.
Maybe when you go to throw away the cemented copper out, you could instead send some of it to BigstackD. He does all sorts of melts/smelting and casts with copper, brass, and aluminum. Could be an interesting "collaboration" and we'd get to see your copper be used to make a bar or something.
As lovely as high purity gold is, the color of that ultra pure silver is also amazing.
Awesome! thank you Sreetips. Love the silver videos.
Very cool, what happens to the liquid after you cement out the copper on the angle iron? Can you finally run it down the drain?
he covers this in an earlier video on waste treatment, there was a pH adjustment to 7, and i think some bleach but i might be confusing that with a codyslab video where he used cyanide on dishes with gold trimmings
@@m3sca1 so eventually it is determined safe to dump it into the city sewer?
@@weasel6three597 yeah once it has all the metals dropped and neutral pH it is fine, i will see if i can find his video and give you the title....
friend, why don't you boil the silver precipitate after reduction with copper in sulfuric acid?
and then silver will be purer on electrolysis
Love it. Make it look easy, although it isn’t. It is still inspiring me to start my own small scale project.
How long did it take a accumulate all that cement silver, Mr Sreetips? have you ever melted down something you wish you hadn't? eg, item was more valuable left as jewellery.
Sometimes, when I have something nice, and I hate to have to destroy it. I close my eyes, put two big cutters on the piece, and chop it, and let it go, without regret.
Nice very interesting and informative . These videos are so cool to watch . Because it shows us the viewers tips on what to do with our scrap precious metals .
I have learned so much from watching just a couple of your videos thank you I’m glad I found your channel 👍🏽
Welcome!
I would love to see you melt the silver crystal down, and mold a bar of pure silver, like the size kept in Ft.Knox.
Sreetips the only guy that scoops silver like most people scoop ice cream 🍨. LoL 😂
So Sreetips... I have worked with silver compounds in the past and some were light sensitive. Light exposure gave a dark silver precipitate. Have you experienced any issues with light when handling your silver nitrate solutions?
Not so much with silver nitrate. Direct sun light may be a different story. But I have seen silver chloride turn color just from exposure to ambient artificial light.
Hello Mr sreetips. Arne here🙂. Thank you that you let the clip coming😀. Remember to rest also.
Have a Nice Day both of you. Nice clip...
That is quite the operation you have Sreetips. You make it look easy 🙏 God Bless
I wonder if a final dilute HNO3 (5%) rinse would bring the purity up to 99.99, it happened to me... anyway great video
cemented out silver have other uses? used for inquartation gold or cementing gold? or do you prefer to use thrifted silver for that kind of stuff? maybe cement silver is too small / packed to cement out gold?
It would work well cementing gold. Using cement silver to inquart is not recommended because palladium follows silver and it would tend to build up in the silver.
Have you ever had your copper cement tested to see if there is any recoverable yield?
@Cameron Keillor The best way to deal with it would be converting it to copper sulfate by adding sulfuric acid, then distilling out the nitric acid that formed; then doing electrolysis of the copper sulfate. This way, nitric acid and pure copper would be recovered, possibly also remaining precious metals as anode slimes. NurdRage has a video on that. Platinum anode may be needed for the electrolysis cell.
No
Fun stuff Sreetips. Are you going to be working with your filter and paper storage anytime soon?
love watching you at work and if you listen well you find out much more iron to bring copper out of solution i did not even know-that. coper to cement out silver -its like watching a master crafts man at work each show
Why does only silver crystallize out on the bowl? Why don't contaminates come through?
Guess: Anything more reactive than silver stayed in solution when the silver was cemented out on the copper and got rinsed off in the funnels. And anything less reactive than silver stayed in the anode baskets (1) because the voltage was set low enough that it only picked up the silver and (2) because it wasn't soluble in the electrolyte.
The contaminants are insoluble and remain trapped in the anode filter. Only copper and silver get through. If the electrolyte is acidic (excess nitric) and there is palladium in the slimes, then the nitric could dissolve the palladium and it would contaminate the electrolyte turning it green.
Hey Sreetips, @ 6:49 what are those long thin green crystals forming around the silverware at the bottom of that large jar?
It could be silver or copper nitrate crystals.
I don’t know. I’ve seen them before and it’s usually when the solution is shaded green.
7:57 did you know that if you crystalize out copper nitrate then distill it destructively you can recover the nitric acid.
same holds true for iron nitrate.
He's talked about that in past videos and how the time and energy cost plus danger of nitric acid vapours during the distillation simply does not stack up against the convenience and cost of simply wandering down to the hardware store for a bottle of nitric acid.
I'm slowly buying kit myself to try refining gold as a hobby scale on old computer parts. And due to local laws restricting access to nitric acid, I'd have to make my own.
Mixing copper sulphate (farm footrot treatment) with calcium nitrate (hydroponic nutrient) to form copper nitrate and calcium sulphate (gypsum) then Thermal decomposition of copper nitrate to nitric acid and copper oxide IS viable for me. Through I'm actually planning on the potassium nitrate and sodium bisulfate method.
The copper oxide crust from thermal decomposition of copper nitrate can then be cleaned off the distillation flask with Hydrochloric acid to form copper chloride which is easily electrolyzed to pure copper on a graphite electrode off gassing the chloride as chlorine gas. So you get your copper back rather than disposing of it.
But for Sreetips, he's worked out it's just not worth it with nitric acid available on the shelf.
@@rhysfirth3506 electrolysis of copper chloride will release copious amounts of chlorine gas.
@@CatboyChemicalSociety I mentioned chlorine gas offgassing. Fume hood and extractor fan and exhaust the gas away from dwellings and it's diluted enough to be harmless.
You breathe plenty of chlorine gas in enclosed public chlorinated pools. It's simply a matter of concentration/dilution.
Just use common sense.
@@rhysfirth3506 Take a look at this video if you're interested in making your own nitric acid:
th-cam.com/video/HN6tv7NKtPk/w-d-xo.html - Making Nitric Acid From Air - Elementalmaker
@@rhysfirth3506 Check out a video of NurdRage on copper nitrate, the proposed processes recovers both nitric acid, copper, and sulfuric acid. You also don't need to decompose anything, just distill.
Can u give us more details about liquid name and water temp and everything if u want?!
There need to be a 24 hour Sreetips channel. Constant refining. I want my SreeTV..........
Silver Day!!! Who else is celebrating??
I love it! Still stacking until I can start to refine.
Wow just did my 1st nitric acid boils for rendering .925, I have a greater respect for the time, energy and real work you put in with your channel, as well as all the knowledge you share, So much to learn, and so many questions, Thanks for doing the channel. I would have never done any of this without your channel! Quick question is the gray powder which clogs up the filter paper when filtering the silver nitrate solution actually silver cement? and should I keep it for melting down the silver cement?
I don’t know what the gray powder is. I save all my filters and process them later on.
I didn’t realize how much filler powder was inside of sterling knife handles , it is probably some of that, as well, as cement
I CAN'T WAIT FOR you to melt up a huge bar of silver. This is pretty cool stuff SREETIPS . GOOD FOR A LIKE AND A THUMBS UP 👍
Love your work. Two questions: 1.) Why don't you get a rotavap to reduce the enormous amounts of liquids you are handling? 2.) Did you ever try to substitute conc. nitric acid by dilute nitric acid / hydrogen peroxide? It should dissolve silver just as good minus the red nitrogen dioxide fumes.
I’m too poor for a rotating evaporator. I’ve heard of using hydrogen peroxide but I’ve never tried it
What a horrible problem to have, all those silver solutions backing up!
I do love the blue of silver nitrate. Beautiful
Clean silver nitrate is colorless like distilled water. Blue comes from the copper that is also contained in those (impure) solutions.
@@bormisha yes I know. I was taking about the video
Could you use a centrifugal filter system to speed up the filtration process . Almost a spin drier
He has a centrifuge, but its use is kinda inconvenient. It has to be balanced carefully. Loading materials and fetching the results also take time.
Possibly
Question Mr. Tips, if you will,
Why can't you dissolve the silver cement into an electrolyte and pull the copper or silver out directly?
Please forgive my ignorance, but im truly invested in watching all your various processes. Its mesmerizing to watch.
I don’t know, I’ve never tried that.
Actually the silver can be separated from the copper by adding hydrochloric acid. This will immediately precipitate silver chloride but leave the copper in solution. The silver chloride can then be converted to pure elemental silver with lye and sugar.
@sreetips
Sounds messy. Is it more or less work than melting and running it through electrolysis?
Less work but creates a lot more waste that must be treated
@sreetips the free education you're providing is literally worth its weight in gold. You're the man! Thank you.
Never get sick of seeing these videos Thanks. Would it be possible to suspend 9999 silver wire in the cell in an interesting shape and have crystals form upon it ? I have always wondered if this was possible and make for an interesting video .
I think the wire might have to be stainless steel but it would look cool if it works
@@scrappydoo7887 Good piont , If this is correct , Stainless figurines large enough for display , could be acid etched before being hooked up in a deeper stainless container . Crystals could coat the rough surface to the point were they become too fragile or practical to continue , before cutting free , as stunning original pieces .
@@GR19611 yes that would be very cool. I'd like to know how fragile the crystals actually are to be honest because they would make excellent gifts
@@scrappydoo7887 Yes , I wonder what Sreetips might say about this. Use the figurine as the Cathode . Cheers👍
Wish I had the knowledge to do that.Right on man good for you.
This is kind of like a lesson on how to deal with waste products. Could you go into more detail about the chemistry behind this? Thank you.
The blue liquid goes in waste treatment bucket full of iron. The copper cements out on the iron and is tossed. Then the acidic iron solution goes in a waste treatment bucket and sodium hydroxide is added to drop the metal hydroxides. These are filtered out and the solids disposed of.
What is the best way to melt down silver jewelry that has cheap/fake stones? Removing the tiny ones is a PITA, so just wondering if just melting it all down and separating would work
I try to remove all the stones with cutters
What would happen if you put the cement silver directly into the silver cell filter basket? Larger surface area so might go faster.
It would just turn into a silver mud cake, fouling the cloth.
I’ve tried it with negative results. The filter plugged, the current flow dropped off rapidly. Silver shot/granules are the way to go.
I'm pretty sure that one of your subscribers made a video on making a Buckner funnel out of two five gallon buckets. That seems to be the point that you have reached.
I remember.
Hi doctor
You all time make best video and answer people according to your experience thx so much🌹❤️❤️
I have question:
You put ice in AR for get rid silver Chloride and filter your solution this way all silver chloride and lead remains in your filter.
how do you recovery this kind of silver?
I add the filters to my paper storage. After I get enough filters saved up I burn them and recover the traces of precious metals from the ashes. As far a silver chloride specifically, unless there is a large quantity, half liter or more, then it’s not very efficient or economically feasible to try and recover the small amounts in the filters.
@@sreetips thx so much for reply
Doctor do you separate your filter paper from Stanos test papers?
I don’t save the stannous
@@sreetips doctor after burning filter paper do you put ash in Nitric acidic then AR or go straight AR?
Nitric first
This is FASCINATING to me. What advice would you have for someone (like me) looking to get into this sort of thing? I’m extremely interested in building a very professional and streamlined version of this operation. Thank you!
Check the goldrefiningforum.com there’s folks there that can help get you started.
why don't you use the BIG BIG funnel to do larger amounts of the cement silver with?
I didn’t think of it
every time you show this process I look at my etched tequila bottle with the crystals in it and say thanks man for showing me how to do that
What do you do with all that copper cement that’s left ?
AFAIK, he gives it to a scrap yard.
Toss it.
Wow, you stay busy with the silver,thanks for sharing!
After leaving my silver nitrate settle overnight, and before adding copper, I noticed it had started to crystallize by about 25% in the bottom of the beaker, what might cause this? and should I reheat the solution to dissolve these crystals? Was this solution starving for more distilled water , could it have been too rich in silver?, Please enjoy your holiday weekend, and don't make any special accommodations to answer these questions
The silver nitrate crystals will dissolve in distilled water
@@sreetips Thanks
Have you ever tried to reverse polarity on your silver cell to see what the outcome would be? Would there be a different outcome? Thank you!
No
@@sreetips can you use Sterling silver in the collector or would that be a bad idea
It would saturate the electrolyte with copper very quickly
@@sreetips thank you..
Not sure if would work but could you run the silver cement through a small sluice to capture and clean it?
I don’t know
Used to do PM chemistry a while back, definitely messy toxic and not too forgiving. Requires nitric acid and other chemicals that could get the undevided attention of homeland security as well.
Does the Stainless Steel bowl cathode get displaced by the silver in solution, or is it inert? Also your electrolyte becomes blue. Why doesn't the copper contaminate the silver crystals?
The stainless is inert. The copper stays in solution and doesn’t plate out with the silver as long as copper concentration stays below 60g per liter and the voltage is kept constant at 3.5 volt DC
@@sreetips Thank you for your response. I don't doubt you but I find it counterintuitive that voltage can be used to select for silver over copper. Copper is higher on the reactivity series so one would think it requires a weaker electric field to be reduced.
Afternoon Gunny, or, "Shark Tooth", whichever you're going by now 😂. I have a question for you. Silver Nitrate. Going by definition, it is a clear liquid. Mine always comes out blue. I noticed that yours does also. Copper is the antagonist. What I don't understand is, if I'm using pure Silver crystal, to make my electrolyte, why is there Copper present?
The light blue color of the electrolyte doesn't impede the growth of crystal. It works wonderfully, just as yours does. Does the trace amount of Copper affect the three nines fine purity of the Silver crystal?
I know that there is a way to remove all traces of Copper, to yield a completely clear Siver Nitrate electrolyte. Is it necessary to do this?
I have collected 384 ounces of Silver Chloride and am about to do the conversion to Silver Oxide, with NaOH. Then glucose to drop the Silver metal. This process, I am to understand, will yield 99.9 Silver, if rinsed correctly. I am still going to run it through the Silver Cell.
Would you be concerned with a pure Silver Nitrate solution, or, is light blue acceptable? I really appreciate your input and your willingness to mentor an old curmudgeon like myself! Thank you for all you do! I call you friend, and so you are! Maybe someday, I will be able to meet you in person, to shake your hand, buy you and Mrs. Shark Tooth a wonderful meal, and thank you as you deserve to be thanked! Your tutorials have been a life saver for a me. As always, your devoted fan,
Wade
Goldsilverpro on the goldrefiningforum.com recommends adding some copper to the clear silver nitrate to promote fat crystal growth. But I always just let it build up from the impure silver that I add. Copper in your pure silver crystal probably means some parameter is off in the cell.
Excellent video I never get tired of seeing this it's so interesting can you recover the copper if you wanted to? Keep up the great work five stars my friend thank you for sharing
Yes. He said in this video, that to recover the copper, the copper solution goes into a bucket with iron bars, which copper is cemented onto, just like silver cements into copper.
@@xenaguy01 yes but in previous video he stated that he doesn't recover the copper he tossed it away I was asking if he's started to keep it
Copper is very useful for refining silver. But after it’s been used it becomes waste. I have fallen way behind with the silver.
@@josephcormier5974 _"I was asking if he's started to keep it."_
No. You asked if he *_COULD_* recover the copper if he wanted to. That's what you asked, and that's what I answered.
How do you feel about refining silver smelting instead of using acids to remove all base metals? The only time I need to use nitric acid would be to separate gold from silver.
I don’t know how
Would cooling the solution decrease the rate of crystal formation, increasing size of crystal? Just wonder if it could be a fairly profitable solution as I know you're selling the more well developed crystals.
For growing large monocrystals, special measures must be taken. There must be videos on TH-cam how large monocrystals of silicon are grown for electronics.
Hi, if I buy 50 OZ> of sterling silver can you please tell me the cost of refining it. or at what price to buy to make it cost afective. thanks in advance love youre channel
Sterling silver has a known quantity of pure silver and can be held just like it is. There’s no reason to refine it. It will track right on up with bullion. But only if you don’t melt it and ruin the makings.
Thank you, Sir. Fella wants 20 dollars per ounce. What do think.
With silver so grossly undervalued, I buy silver all day long for that. Then put it away and forget about it.
@sreetips question. I've binge watched at least 3 days worth of videos, maybe more. In one of your videos you are torching some sterling silver candle holders to add to your gold refining byproduct pot. Is it possible to just start from there with sterling silver and create the silver nitrate solution and then use the copper to cement out the sliver?
I think I used clean cement silver a long time ago to start my silver cell. Afterwards I saved some silver crystal from each harvest to use to make electrolyte for my silver cell.
@@sreetipsI planned on using some pure .999 silver like you did with that massive silver coin to create my silver electrolyte for the silver cell.
Is this correct?
I'm talking about skipping the gold inquartation process and going straight to creating the solution using the hot dilute nitric acid to dissolve the silver from the sterling silver to start the process. (Creating silver nitrate and copper nitrate solution) Then cement out the silver onto copper. After that drying and melting into shot. Then using a silver cell to grow the silver crystals.
I know you use
@@sreetips also, thank you for responding!
@@Camelguy069 I think it should work this way. It's just that Sreetips refines both silver and gold, to the benefit of both processes. It saves on nitric acid and labor.
That wet silver cement looks like alien mud, the way light reflects off it.
hello, can you make a video of the path installation for the vacuum
I’ve got a video titled “How to Build a Reliable Vacuum System” posted on my channel detailed show flow on paper diagram
Can I purchase a quantity of that silver shot? My Grandkids would love that stuff!!!
Goodday sir, what types of acid and purity% do i need, to refine, gold silver, also to make silver cell.
I have a video titled “silver cell build from scratch step by step”
@@sreetips many thanx Sir, ill watcb and rewatch to get it perfect. Just one. More question. That dirty silver you make to feed the bucket ontop, can any 925 or lower silver also be inserted in filter.
Yes, however, if you do then the electrolyte will quickly turn dark blue and become saturated with copper. If the copper gets to a certain level (I’ve been told 60 grams per liter) then it could start to co-deposit with the silver and contaminate it. Best to use fairly high purity silver to begin with for best results.
In precious metals refining, shortcuts usually end up costing more time and effort in the long run. But it does give a first-rate education in what not to do.
What’s the rate of speed that your cell is dissolving a kg of silver shot at, given the settings you run it? Does bowl size affect the plating speed given more or less surface area?
No, the speed is determined solely by the electric current passed through the cell (current is a rate of charge transfer). Calculation is easy. You divide the current (in amps) by the electron charge (1.6e-19) to get the number of atoms deposited per second. Then you divide the result by the Avogadro constant (6.02e23) to get the number of moles of silver deposited per second. Multiply the result by the silver's standard atomic weight (107.87g/mol) which yields the silver deposition rate in grams per second. Dissolution rate is the same as the deposition rate. For example, for 1A current, the rate is about 0,001g/s, which is about 4g/h. In 10 days typical cell running time of Sreetips, 967g of silver would be processed.
@@bormisha awesome explanation! Thank you 🙏🏼
What is the concentration of the silver nitrate solution in the electric cell?? And the anode must be pure silver??
The anode material is unimportant until the anode touches the electrolyte, which happened to Sreetips a couple of times. Then, if it is made of pure silver, it would just dissolve but not spoil the previously deposited silver. If it's made of platinum, I guess, it would not dissolve but the electrolyte would get depleted of silver. Finally, if the anode is made of copper or iron or other crap, it would severely contaminate the electrolyte upon contact and possibly spoil the deposited silver.
150g pure silver per liter of liquid.
Anode is pure silver. The impure silver granules are 99% pure.
so many good episodes this week! Hope you're doing well sir
Seeing the blue liquid come out of the grey cement silver is quite something.
Have you made Gold Crystals? What solution did you have those crystals stored in? If crystals do tone, what would you suggest to remove toning? Acetone?
I’ve never seen pure gold tone.
Mr. Sreetips, do you keep most/all of your silver? Or do you ever sell any of it to larger refiners or mints like you do with your gold sometimes?
I sell small quantities on my eBay site
@@sreetips And the rest you store for personal use/wealth building?
Hey what's up brother..is it normal to get a gas off from the copper cementing or did i have a delayed nitric reaction? I left a fork in to assure all nitric was used up but seems after adding more distilled ( wash out) it reignited?
Also the cement top half has an obvious copper tone where as the bottom has pure clean silver appearance. Does your cement look like that? Wondering if i should smelt and then redissolve before putting in the cell. I appreciate any feed back you can give me!
Outgassing (with fumes) happens when there’s excess nitric. To reduce this I add some sterling and heat until all fumes are gone. But even then I still get some gassing. Going back to nitric isn’t necessary. I’d just melt into shot and run it.
@@sreetips thank you brother! I've learned a ton from you already! I wouldn't have known any of that a couple weeks ago, this is very interesting!
@@sirridok Same here. I'm actually working around all of this equipment putting in all the plumbing at an old mine in Ca.
Everything used in the video's explains everything I've seen or had to move out of my way multiple times.
I want to get into this so bad! I just don’t know where to start!
When dealing with that much cement silver, I honestly have no experience or knowledge on this other than your videos, would it be easier to fill the bucket with distilled water to dilute then tip off/filter off the excess liquid and continue that way until it's clean instead of doing multiple tiny batches trying to pull through a blocked filter?
I’m curious-do you live out in the sticks somewhere? Any issues with neighbors/fumes, etc?
No issues with neighbors. I do this fairly infrequently. It’s my hobby, not my job.
Доброго времени суток. Подскажите пожалуйста как приготовить электролит для электролиза серебра? Большое Спасибо зарание
Your mic is a little too close to your mouth..... I absolutely love your videos and watch every single one and I appreciate your time and effort sir 👍
Fixed it.
Amazing you definitely are the best I ever seen Streetips
Thank you!
I love your videos and I highly respect your attention to process and detail. So did you basically turn your garage into your lab or did you buy/lease a separate property to work in?
It’s my garage
sir,how much copper should I put in a solution per every liter and how do I know all silver in a solution participated or not ?
I add enough copper to have some pieces left when the reaction is complete - usually overnight.
We're gonna need a bigger buchner funnel 😀
I do this as a hobby aswell. With much smaller amounts, i tried the silver alloy - nitric acid - chloride out the salt - hydroxide and dextrose. It was a mess. Im redissolving all of it, it was not good
It takes some getting used to doing it.
Can't believe I mist this one! Just one question for you Mr Sreetips, Will we ever see you refine the Copper you have in the stock pot or will you send it off to someone else?
I don’t have much use for copper from the waste bucket.
@@sreetips As a metal caster from South Wales UK. I'm always using Copper! I just wish we could readily get nitric in this country so that I get the best out of the copper I use!
Question for you streetips is it possible to get the silver from 35 percent silver war nickels? I'm sure it's not cost effective but it has always intrigued me how it would be possible. Just wondering if it was possible and if it is if you could make a video about it. Thanks Jon
Yes, just dissolve in nitric, filter, cement in copper or do a silver chloride conversion with lye and sugar.
So cool you share these with us… WOW
Very important show tho the price of Silver is at a low point. I have now nearly 15kgs of sterling silver. And this should be a great heap. With the extras if your other shows.
My silver cement looks green , not perfectly gray, is that normal I did filter with boiling water as learned on your channel, but it’s not pure gray in color
Mine looks like that some times
@@sreetips Thanks, I have a tendency to overthink things sometimes.
Is there any value in trying to recover the copper. Figured in enough volume it might’ve worth it?
It takes more time and effort than it’s worth. I can find it cheap at sales. No need to waste time with copper.
Are there any waste bucket refining videos out there in sreetips land?
Yes, I just need to get caught up on all the routine stuff that gets pushed aside when I’m producing my videos.
So you’re buying the sterling silver to inquart gold, then you recover the silver… does this actually make you money or is it simply to recapture silver that you have previously used to buy more sterling silverware to use for gold inquarting?
Silver is a by-product of my gold refining.
Do you think you would sell any of those silver nitrate bottles?