Melting "Silver" Contacts - Are They REALLY Silver?? We Find Out.
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- เผยแพร่เมื่อ 26 ก.ย. 2024
- A lot of us collect contacts that we are told are silver, or we're told they could be 40% silver. So I tried to melt some down and make a bar out of them. Watch the video to find out the result.
A big THANK YOU to all the subscribers that put me over the 2,000 mark. That is AWESOME! I really appreciate you all and hope you continue to be entertained.
Cheers!
I cant believe that you are wearing sock in open-toed sandals.. crazy.
Majority of those contacts are around 85 percent silver definitely. I've been extracting silver from them alot lately. You shouldn't give up on them so easily. Most of them don't necessarily melt. You have to get them considerably hotter than silvers melting point and then the silver will bleed out of the contact. And the reason why you couldn't get them off of the copper part was because the solder is of a high silver content, therefor u have to get them glowing hot to melt the solder. But yea.. most of those contacts are really nice ones. U could of got at least a pound of pure silver out of them for the looks of the amount u have there.
Twist it! Hold from top with small cutters above silver and also below it with another pair. Twist longer side and it pops off super easily.
Yep I've seen scrapitall do it that way which is ok for small ones I guess
Probably tungsten?? I've got a bunch of those, too. ☹
Your guess is probably better than mine. I mean it didn't even start to melt them. I probably had the temp up to 2100 F.
That's what I was thinking too. Tungsten has a super high melt point
Great video. I have seen people take places and use the other type of torch. They would melt and drip off. No idea what that was on those unless it was titanium
watch out for cadmium
I think they fished you in! Great video!
Heavy duty ontacts are usually silver 60% tungsten 30% and other metals such as copper rhenium and palladium making the last 10%. Smaller ones are 90% silver and 10% copper.
This video brought back memories lol. That green flame is toxic as it gets. It takes extreme temp to brick electrical contacts.
Yeah I wont be doing that again. Thankfully I'm still alive and kicking.
Great video
Bravo 😊
Some are tungsten but the large square ones are silver-cadmium contacts.. When heated to hi temps Cadmium release extremely toxic fumes that can poison your body and do long-term damage so please use proper ventilation and ppe... The silver-cadmium contacts can be dissolved in boiling sulfuric acid(drain cleaner) then the silver precipitated out using hydrochloric acid.. ⚠ 💀💀this process is extremely hazardous!!! Uses extremely crossive acid and will produce toxic and corrosive fumes that will kill you if inhaled (will literally melt your lungs) 💀💀💀 ⚠
It is a known fact in the Electrical Trade that "Silver" electrical contacts have very little silver in them, the main reason being that high levels of silver can not take the mechanical ware and also the arcing in use.
Ya silver is very soft
Study up on metals, gotta lot to learn but it's fun.
Nice video,congrats with 2 K subs!
Hey thanks Harry!
What do you do with your melted copper
So far I'm just stacking it. Making a copper wall in my basement. :)
Wow, Love your safety shoes. LOL
Don't underestimate breathability. I was fine with those with the electric forge and didn't think about it when I switched to the biggie.
@@SkullerMetals Just dont wait till its too late too think about it.
Congrats on the 2K subs
Hey thanks Mike!!
Most likely those big bits are brass if non magnetic a scratch test at the start would tell. The buttons you were trying to melt off may contain silver but heat the back of it instead.
Was it actual silver?
2k congratulations 🎊 👏
Thank you BC!
CheeRs Bro I love watching melt videos I’d love to get a crucible and forge one day!
Thanks. If you get one you'll love it.
@@SkullerMetals I don’t have one and I’m already in love with it!
Interesting video. Did you figured out what the silvery stuff was? May a friend of yours has an XRF?
Education at its finest. Now you know they aren’t silver. So you won’t have to try that experiment again. And some bonus bricks 🎉🎉
The easiest way to remove the gold from the pins is chemically.
All melting the pins will do is make an inquarted allow of gold and copper. Thats if the base metal is copper.
If it was, you can still recover the gold by placing the allow in nitric acid. It will dissolve the copper and leave the gold behind as powder
is he wearing Flip Flops. Winner
I put the torch rig in a vise to hold it. I hold the contact with a pair of needle nose pliers heat up one side at a time till the copper bit it dull orange then I tap the pliers on a coffee can filled with water. The silver bit will fly right in the water. You will ruin those needle nose so use a crappy set.
Youde be better off dissolving the silver with Nitric acid, but You really got to know what you're doing with acids. It will dissolve all silver & copper and leave the tungsten alone.
Then all you have to do Is drop a bar of copper in the acid and drop all the silver. That's when you melt. Full process can be found in TH-cam.
No way I'm messing with acids. No interest. Will be collaborating with another channel soon since he uses the chemicals. He'll get the silver then I'll melt it.
I think maybe that "solder" you knocked off at the beginning (with the torch) were the actual contact points on those pieces of metal, therefore that would be the silver content?
Melting gold plated pins makes it harder to extract the gold. You should always research the material before you heat, grind, or use chemicals on it. Let's stay safe and live longer. Good luck and hope you are safe.
often there is a lot of sintered tungsten in those contacts, or some are silver plated tungsten.
Gratz on reaching 2 k
Thanks Philip!
Bummer that the one stuff didn't turn out good atlease you got a great copper bar and a skull out of it thanks for sharing skuller metals
Yes sir. I wasn't planning on melting copper but I couldn't come away with nothing. 😁
Right
I heat them up until it gets about red and then I tap it into a stainless bowl of water and I use needle nose, vice grips
You might of melted the crucible most of the cheap ones can only handle med temps to melt copper you sure did have that piping hot I learned this after my first day and had to buy a new one med -low heat is better and long burn time with borax added after it’s all melted
It's Tungsten. You will never melt it and its not valuable.
You didn't keep your torch on the contacts long enough to get the silver contacts off.
Get your torch stationary so that you can hold the metal in one hand and your screwdriver in the other hand toscrape them off. .
The contacts are typically on silver plated copper when they are that size.
I've done hundreds.
Electric contacts use a really strong solder. MAPP gas does burn hot enough, but you might have better luck if you position some duct seal putty around it to hold the heat in, or some fire bricks.
Oxy-acetylene is better than mapp gas for this.
I do these contacts all the time. Very simple process to a nice fat bar of 999 silver. Aldo that bag of gold pins can also be refined for a small gold button.
Assuming you want to play with a bunch of acids and chemicals. That is out of my wheelhouse.
@@SkullerMetals lol you caught me. Yeah i love doing this as a hobby. Been doing it for quite some time now. Maybe one day i get enough nerves to make videos. Thats the part thsts way outa my league lol.
Night melts. Metal still red hot when it goes in the bucket. Can't wait to get more Skuller bars. My next batch of copper will go for a copper skull
Thanks. Sweet...a skull it is!
@@SkullerMetals
Yea I don't have a skull yet but I want one of ur big bars this time from the stuff I sent ya. Except the cords. Those are urs
@@White_Ram_Aerial I'll hook you up.
When you was dropping them they had a thud sound and silver has a ting sound when dropped
Where did you get that great pile of graphite molds?
Off Ebay. Huge selection there.
@@SkullerMetals thank you!! I’ll check it out
Use nitric acid it will turn silver into solution
Can I recommend not doing that between your truck and your house. The area you are doing that is unnecessarily dangerous
Hold your torch to close. Easy to melt contacts off
That looks like a lot of work
Hello
A celebration for 2K🎈🎈🎈
Thank you kind lady! 😉
Borax and baking soda then use 4 or 5 good iron nails❤❤❤
Nice 2 k sweet
Thank you!
@@SkullerMetals your welcome it looked like brass
Looked like brass
@@roadhog1987 Except brass would have melted long before then. It's similar to copper. Actually I can melt brass with lower heat.
@@SkullerMetals o ok then I'm confused
duda diesel is where i got my nitric acid read up on it before playing with that stuff watch sreetip vids
I like sreetips. That's not my forte so I'll leave the chemicals to him.
@@SkullerMetals avoiding acids doesn't necessarily make you safer when you make a video melting these without knowing what metals they consist of, reading up and then doing a safe acid process would have been the best way forward realistically. there are processes I do involving only 10% vinegar/acetic acid and hydrogen peroxide, the acid alone isn't enough to even cause me skin irritation (obviously you must still be careful and if you get it in your eyes well that will hurt lol) and that is able to dissolve copper and leave behind gold foils or powder.
@@mentallychallengeddolphin9677 There are only a couple ways to find out "what a metal consists of - do what I did or get it tested on an XRF machine which would cost me money. I was told they were silver so I wanted to find out. I don't see what the issue is here - people do trial and error on stuff all the time.
@@SkullerMetals I enjoyed your video, the trial and error was good. I was just meaning to leave my thoughts on it. I also cannot afford xrf equipment or testing so for the most part i've done the same in the past. It seems like both you and I could have been better off fumes wise with a bit more internet digging and research about different contacts, I have tried cupelling smaller ones from relays and found out about the cadmium risk and have been trying to figure out better ways of refining, seemingly weaker acid solutions like acid peroxide mixes are a really good place to start and could be great for lower grades of silver stuff, these other noble metals need aqua regia or concentrated nitric, now I cannot get these nor am I comfortable messing with stuff that corrosive at this point. However, something like hcl 20%-30% and some copper II Chloride (add hydrogen peroxide 3-6% to accelerate if desired) should work well on stuff that is showing copper if you want to try that.
😎✌️
Plated possibly
fun watching! good content 😌
If I don't save silver contacts can they go in clean copper /brass
I really don't know.
@SkullerMetals thank you
Let me know if you want to do a collaboration on refining these!
Hey there, why don't shoot me an email at skullermetals@gmail.com and let me know what you're thinking. I'm always open to something different and interesting.
@@SkullerMetals perfect I just sent you one!
Progress?
tungsten
At least you got to meals something, good video.
Great vid otherwise
DONT WATCH !
THIS AMATEUR...
HE IS WASTING YOUR TIME !
Ok for one that's a shitty thing to say. You must be a miserable person. Secondly, watch some other vids, you might like them. I'll be sure to mention you in my next vid for sure - you won't want to miss that one.
By the way you're too late with your warning, 10k people have already watched it. Peace out!
Without failure there is no advancement.
i have melted cast iron in my homemade furnace so what that is that have has got me
I had people say it was tungsten. I'm really not sure.
@@SkullerMetals could very well be
Like like you know just about enough to be dangerous.
1 yr ago you made this. Anything you would do differently now
Yep - I wouldn't have wasted my time with it. Of course sometimes you dont know until you try it. Lesson learned!!
Save the contractors whole, clean the contacts and sell them whole as intended ❤
Dont bother removing the buttons since you have elwctric oven sulver melts leaving base netal behind
Yup the easiest way melt them all then slowly electrolyze with CuSO4. The Zn etc stays in solution, silver forms a mush with any tungsten or pgms. Treat the mush by rinsing well and then boiling in NaOH to remove the tungsten then disolve what's left in nitric acid to get the Ag as AgNO3. The salt is a bit more valued than actual silver if marketed right. The black powder that is left is mostly palladium ❤
your too slow you get it melted the you put down the torch grab your screw driver pour a cup of coffee talk on the phone pet the dog then by the time you get your screw driver onto the work sirface its already cold
@@CravenMoorhead-r2y Except for the coffee you're right.
Go to contact echnologies , bring these 2 words together as is; site. and go to materials at top. (See if this works)
It's tungsten. You're not going to melt that.
So I found out. Bummer. The only way to get the silver out is playing with acid, and I'm not doing that.
I cut off the silver tabs with a thin cutting disc on my grinder. You really have to pay attention when doing this to ensure you don't have any copper still attached. On a lot of those contacts you CAN remove them with a torch using MAP gas. It takes a couple of minutes but eventually you can slide them free with a knife blade.
However, I enjoyed your video.
@@SkullerMetals its not all tungsten, i've cooked plenty of them. if you file off a corner or cut them in half with bolt cutters they will melt, however the kind you got there look like the suckers that are rich in platinum as they're high amp contacts. Any high amp contacts don't use silver as they'll melt... so even if you file the whole outside of it and can melt copper off them before they melt, its platinum and they can be rich in it from personal experience. Extremely difficult to melt
@@bevsman3284 no need to remove copper lol... it melts off first... cook copper off, cool, bolt cutters to slice them, cook clean contacts and they're incredibly hard to melt still and i assure its not lots of tungsten.
You should try electrical way because that's the way how we weld them.😁Generally those tips contain 505-85% silver. If they contain tungsten, the color is darker.
This is the third time I've commented on this video, but it keeps getting deleted because I was trying to send a link, or describing a website without a direct link 😣. Bottom line is those contacts are an alloy of silver and tungsten. No wonder they didn't melt. 👍
Ahhh, ok. Thanks for the info. Weird that the silver wouldn't melt out and just leave the tungsten, but what do I know?
@@SkullerMetals, Well yes and no. When alloys are made they have completely different properties to the original metals. One common example is bronze, being copper and tin. Tin is quite soft, a lot softer than copper, but bronze is harder than copper even though it's alloyed with tin, a softer metal. Strange.
I sent a fourth comment but I see it didn't make it.
Silver plated those piece where tungsten , thats why they did not melt at 950°C , that is my guess, good job anyway
TUNGSTEN
You're the second one to say it. You're probably right.
@@SkullerMetals try to grind tungsten is very hard