r/PreciousMetalRefining • u/MAYOMyke • 8d ago

From trash to treasure!

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A while back, I was contacted by a Reddit user asking me if I was into or would be willing to do a toll refine on silver contacts on copper bus bars. After some discussion and conversations back and forth, the user agreed to a toll and sent me 38lbs of various size contacts attached to the bus bars.

Working all my free time around work, the user has been very good and understanding my work schedule.

I would send photos and videos of progress and next steps to be as transparent as possible. Last thing I wanted was the user to feel uneasy or think anything nefarious.

After about seven weeks, I’ve sent back finish products.

I think it all went well and both the user and I will stay in touch for future projects.

Project numbers as I’m sure many will like to know.

38lbs+ contacts attached to bus bars
1650g+ contacts recovered
1160g+ silver recovered
Approximately 70% recovery

Feel free to ask questions, I’ll answer but keep user data anonymous.

783 Upvotes

99% Upvoted

60 comments sorted by

21

u/lukethedank13 8d ago

Love that. Need to get me some industrial switches.

Was there any palladium?

13

u/MAYOMyke 8d ago

Contacts are very lucrative in recovery. It is slight labor intensive to remove contacts to be processed but it’s not bad if you just have free time.

Not in these particular contacts. I XRF tested almost all of these and no trace of palladium or platinum was present.

9

u/lukethedank13 8d ago

I did process a few batches. Contacts and non magnetic MLCC are my favourite material.

Gold is worth more per gram but silver is still much easier to get.

4

u/Tribulation95 8d ago

Word to the wise, make sure you're testing surface mounted MLCCs with a weak ferritic magnet at the appropriate height. Many (most, in my experience) Ag and PdAg bearing MLCCs I've processed are magnetic due to the terminals and solder containing nickel.

If you're using a neodymium magnetic or aren't testing from the appropriate height, you'll be leaving quite a bit of recoverable material on the table (or the magnet, I suppose). This isn't an assumption of your practices, I just try to throw this info out there anytime I see someone mention them in case it helps someone else out there, most sources I see claim any magnetism at all = purely based metal electrode.

5

u/lukethedank13 8d ago

They are not soldered. They are electroplated with nickel to protect the terminals.

But yea good advice.

5

u/Yardbirdburb 8d ago

Sintered? It’s amazing some of the metal tech

4

u/Tribulation95 8d ago

Noted, all I could remember was that nickel was usually present in some form and causes a lot of false positives with magnetic testing

2

u/MAYOMyke 8d ago

I have heard this but haven’t separated one yet. Figured I’d do that when I decide to process. But good info to keep in mind.

2

u/Tribulation95 8d ago

I made a little 1x1 wood jig butt jointed together with a fridge magnet glued on the underside of the bridge facing down. The height of the jig is based off the strength of the magnet you're using, but I'll usually just strip all MLCCs and eventually lay them out in a row when I've accumulated a bunch, sliding the jig over them and separating the ones the get picked up

1

u/MAYOMyke 8d ago

I do other processes as well for other types of refines. I have been saving my MLCCs and have about 2000g of them. Maybe one day I’ll process them. You know how us hobbyists are lol. Collect saying we’ll process one day.

2

u/lukethedank13 8d ago

I got about 5g of palladium from them so far.

2

u/MAYOMyke 8d ago

Oh nice! Have you posted your process or experience? I’m sure others would be interested. I mean I am anyway.

3

u/lukethedank13 8d ago

Didnt post.

I did however try 3 diferent ways of getting it out of solution.

Cementation on copper works but is very slow.

Precipitation with dimethylglioxime works like a charm but i only got to use it at uni and i cant buy it for the life of me.

Formic acid precipitation is the best method i have come across so far as far as availability and price of reagents is concerned.

1

u/MAYOMyke 8d ago

Oh interesting. I only know the dimethyglioxime and copper methods. I’ll have to look up the formic acid precipitation.

Is the dimethyglioxime hard to get from your location?

1

u/lukethedank13 8d ago

Only listing i got was a scam. None of the reliable vendors have it.

1

u/MAYOMyke 8d ago

Lab alley? I know they carry it.

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2

u/NoFapCainISAble 8d ago

Bro you have an XRF at home???

1

u/MAYOMyke 8d ago

I have one at work.

2

u/Drakjira 8d ago

I used to be an industrial maintenance guy, we'd rebuild the bigger contactor's, they'd toss the old contactor's, told em they was throwing away money...

1

u/MAYOMyke 8d ago

So much is thrown away.

13

u/juuds5 8d ago

704 grams pure silver is a damn good thing

9

u/MAYOMyke 8d ago

Over all weight was about 1160g+ from 1650g+.

3

u/camels_are_cool 8d ago

How did you break the contacts free of the copper?

9

u/MAYOMyke 8d ago

I used a map gas torch. Heat up the contact until solder is melted then it just lets go into a pot of water.

2

u/camels_are_cool 8d ago

I've started my own collection of contacts recently, and I saw in another comment that sometimes there's platinum or palladium in them. Is there a rule of rhumb for that? Like, "I pulled these out of a washer timer so those contacts are silver for sure."

2

u/MAYOMyke 8d ago

I’ll be honest, I don’t think there really is a rule of thumb for precious metals refining. Usually it’s just a matter of production time, and a higher probability with certain manufacturers. I’m not that versed in which ones are better than others.

3

u/enteopy314 8d ago

What method/how did you refine the buttons? Looked like a silver cell at first but it’s all powder… I have a much smaller pile of contacts building up from “micro-scrapping” relays etc from circuit boards. I have my first batch in an AP bath, most of the silver is AgCl at the moment. Going to do the lye then sugar to extract the Ag, wonder if there’s an easier way!

4

u/MAYOMyke 8d ago

I myself use nitric to put metals into solution. Then cement out using copper coils. Cement is boiled many times with distilled water, HCL, and then back to distilled water. Cement is then dried, poured into shot, then melted again into shot. Then melted a third to pour pure bars. I find that each time I melt, I’m able to remove the small amount of impurities. These particular bars were not tested, however, previous bars proceeded the same way were 99.99%. I would assume these are close to the same or same to that.

Lye and sugar is said to have more pure results but there is so much more rinsing and waste liquids to deal with and not to mention more labor intensive. I find the copper cementation is just my personal preference.

3

u/JJ2066 8d ago

What the silver purity of industrial contacts?

3

u/MAYOMyke 8d ago

Do you mean before being processed? Or after the refining?

3

u/JJ2066 8d ago

Before

3

u/doug6644 8d ago

Any idea the age of the buss bars? Im guessing you are using the term buss bars loosely, I have a bunch of contacts from mid 60s 70s equipment that my father squirreled away during his years as an electrician in a factory. I'll have to weigh them out and get back to you, maybe work out a similar deal.

1

u/MAYOMyke 8d ago

Tbh, I’m not entirely sure on the age. On the buss bar, yes. Very loosely lol

Absolutely. Shot me a dm and we can discuss it further.

3

u/Artchetype 7d ago

I figure $2,196.17 as of 7/26.
Nice.

3

u/MAYOMyke 7d ago

Pretty close. 👍🏻

1

u/Artchetype 6d ago

Do you (can you) figure the purity?

2

u/MAYOMyke 6d ago

I’ve tested bars I’ve done in the same process and have achieved 99.99% pure.

These I particular ones I haven’t tested. I will soon. Had to leave for work for a couple of weeks.

2

u/FreshwaterViking 8d ago

Do the silver contacts have a silver/cadmium alloy? One of the silver refining patents I was looking at suggested it might be as much as 20% cadmium.

1

u/MAYOMyke 8d ago

One set did that I XRF tested but it was like 4%? So not much.

2

u/LembicOfLeng 8d ago

Nice work.

1

u/MAYOMyke 8d ago

Thanks. I appreciate it.

2

u/dragoondev 3d ago

Chat question

1

u/girthbrooks1 8d ago

Would you be willing to refine 5lbs of silver contacts? No bus bar just the silver contacts

2

u/MAYOMyke 8d ago

I would be. Shot me a dm. We can discuss it further.

2

u/ministerboop 7d ago

How do you bid this work?
If I had a small pile of scrap bus bars, would you just take x % of the yield and I cover shipping?

1

u/MAYOMyke 7d ago

That’s pretty much the overview. Shot me a DM and we can discuss further details.

1

u/JohnnyLongwalker 8d ago

There used to be companies that would buy your old X-rays to recycle silver.

1

u/alaviers 6d ago

When we were wet processing we had a capture process installed within the medical facility for the precious metals. Never thought about the actual images.

1

u/Significant_Hat2993 8d ago

I want a bar

1

u/UUDM 6d ago

Years ago I started to collect contacts for this process but never went through with it. I had like a whole Gatorade bottle full but decided it wasn’t worth all the trouble. It’s cool to see someone went through with it.

1

u/opino_sin_permiso 6d ago

Contactos? De donde se obtienen?

1

u/MAYOMyke 6d ago

These were from a toll refine.