How To Refine Silver To Three Nines

eBay link: www.ebay.com/itm/266001373160...

[@zackc3767]

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]

As a bonus, it's also anti-microbial!

[@catch22frubert]

@@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.

[@tassovarvarikos384]

What an operation!!! I applaud your attention to detail in how you manage the waste from all your refining. Excellent work!

[@ut000bs]

When you really look at it, his setup there is pretty darn amazing. I think he has done a pretty good job.

[@L3adb3lly]

This is my first cement silver and silver nitrate refinery video! Thanks for this!

[@slimpickins09er87]

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.

[@prestontucker6171]

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. 😄

[@brianjay692]

As an ex-Automobile Technician I have to salute your awesome vacuum gauge! I have that same model in my tool box.

[@sreetips]

It’s big and readable,

[@user-qo3yy9nv1u]

Current mechanic. I haven't had to use a vacuum gauge in many moons. That is a good gauge though.

[@busterclover3852]

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.

[@fatmirsejdini5992]

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.

[@arcare001]

Thanks for the information. You have a very organized progression that you follow!

[@beardedxj]

Received my silver crystal and gold sponge. Thank you! Beautiful specimens.

[@CrimFerret]

As lovely as high purity gold is, the color of that ultra pure silver is also amazing.

[@Antonowskyfly]

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!👍👍

[@josephrupsis4623]

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.

[@mattjirgal1676]

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

[@saeedTHEgreat]

makes sense to me

[@patrickaussieMilartry]

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.

[@Mike1-]

I have learned so much from watching just a couple of your videos thank you I’m glad I found your channel 👍🏽

[@sreetips]

Welcome!

[@coloradopatriotbaker3069]

Awesome! thank you Sreetips. Love the silver videos.

[@ut000bs]

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.

[@JamesSkellington-xj8nn]

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 .

[@jamisontaylor878]

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]

Where do you buy the nitric acid? Thx

[@jamisontaylor878]

@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

[@SpartanONegative]

That is quite the operation you have Sreetips. You make it look easy 🙏 God Bless

[@senslayer5052]

I had absolutely zero insight about this stuff until I came across this channel. It's really cool

[@sreetips]

Welcome!

[@rhetthagstrom5797]

Love it. Make it look easy, although it isn’t. It is still inspiring me to start my own small scale project.

[@SteelerStacker33]

So cool you share these with us… WOW

[@mhughes1160]

Sreetips the only guy that scoops silver like most people scoop ice cream 🍨. LoL 😂

[@scottindestin4292]

There need to be a 24 hour Sreetips channel. Constant refining. I want my SreeTV..........

[@charleswise5570]

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.

[@djanes7210]

Very nice. Thank you for Sharing your time and knowledge

[@kennyarmer4092]

Wow, you stay busy with the silver,thanks for sharing!

[@adamrobbins2091]

Learning more and more! Have a silver cell running now!

[@burriedhistory]

Awesome tutorial. Thank you.

[@racecar2933]

I love it! Still stacking until I can start to refine.

[@scrapwomblecreatives6944]

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

[@scrappydoo7887]

I do love the blue of silver nitrate. Beautiful

[@bormisha]

Clean silver nitrate is colorless like distilled water. Blue comes from the copper that is also contained in those (impure) solutions.

[@scrappydoo7887]

@@bormisha yes I know. I was taking about the video

[@dawnjennings4864]

Thanks for the upload!

[@arnedalbakk6315]

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...

[@billasegan3261]

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 👍

[@LexYeen]

That wet silver cement looks like alien mud, the way light reflects off it.

[@titanicfilmsbymark]

Great video as always

[@bfd1565]

Fun stuff Sreetips. Are you going to be working with your filter and paper storage anytime soon?

[@Ninja_Mittens]

so many good episodes this week! Hope you're doing well sir

[@almacli8360]

Amazing you definitely are the best I ever seen Streetips

[@sreetips]

Thank you!

[@vanidar21]

great vid as always!

[@taunusrunner3767]

another great video from you :-)

[@jwrappuhn71]

Excellent.

[@cditzler6313]

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

[@gyvren]

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?

[@sreetips]

It’s my garage

[@stefche_88]

Awesome I’m going to try it

[@eddiel7033]

What a horrible problem to have, all those silver solutions backing up!

[@user-lb8do4ew6k]

We're gonna need a bigger buchner funnel 😀

[@chrisp7641]

Reminds me of a homemade clay I made as a kid. Once the water is pulled out that is.

[@davemi00]

Awesome 😎 Thanks again.

[@ablelawrence5750]

Thank you sir

[@alexandr_chuprov]

Nice video I've missed. Wow!

[@ScottMorganINFJ]

Seeing the blue liquid come out of the grey cement silver is quite something.

[@christopherleubner6633]

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.

[@craigwillis9491]

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?

[@sreetips]

I don’t know what the gray powder is. I save all my filters and process them later on.

[@craigwillis9491]

I didn’t realize how much filler powder was inside of sterling knife handles , it is probably some of that, as well, as cement

[@toomuchdebt5669]

Ahh so shinny. I hope to do triple 9s some day.

[@OwlTech333]

I wonder if a final dilute HNO3 (5%) rinse would bring the purity up to 99.99, it happened to me... anyway great video

[@piranhabadass1]

Impressive stuff :)

[@slowmotion2268]

Can u give us more details about liquid name and water temp and everything if u want?!

[@Addh0le]

I just watched a Jeff Williams video where he inquarted with lead, it was very cool.

[@kerzwhile]

So damn cool! I'd Love to see the final product! Do you form bars or sell it in crystal form? 🤔

[@MrRammsteinforlife]

He generally sells it in crystal form, after doing the electrolysis process

[@sreetips]

Crystal

[@hiseminencetheholymacdiarmada]

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!

[@sreetips]

Check the goldrefiningforum.com there’s folks there that can help get you started.

[@ivsongold322]

Very good 👏🏾👏🏾👍🏾🇧🇷

[@matthewsemenuk8953]

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?

[@sreetips]

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.

[@user-kl6ej9zh2i]

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.

[@sreetips]

I remember.

[@jensbeckmann2736]

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.

[@sreetips]

I’m too poor for a rotating evaporator. I’ve heard of using hydrogen peroxide but I’ve never tried it

[@RainHavok1111]

Interesting. 🖤🖤🖤

[@elbybrook9466]

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.

[@sreetips]

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.

[@nicholasb8799]

Silver Day!!! Who else is celebrating??

[@DicipleForJesus]

Hello, I love your channel. Refining noble metals is so important. Would you please make a video demonstrating the process of taking the silver to 9999 purity?

[@sreetips]

I’ve already posted that in a series a little over a year ago. Sent it off for analysis, came back greater than 99,999 parts per 100,000 as per guardian labs in the UK. That’s five nines fine.

[@DicipleForJesus]

@@sreetips Thank you sir. I must have missed it. I'll check it out.

[@Emma-cq9oy]

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?

[@josephcormier5974]

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

[@xenaguy01]

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]

@@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

[@sreetips]

Copper is very useful for refining silver. But after it’s been used it becomes waste. I have fallen way behind with the silver.

[@xenaguy01]

@@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.

[@gonetroutfishing]

Gooood evening from central Florida! Hope everyone has a great night! To much silver isn't always a bad thing lol.

[@sreetips]

I love silver. But refining it is a giant pain. That’s why I’m so far behind.

[@bormisha]

@@sreetips Still not as much pain as with Platinum!

[@weasel6three597]

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?

[@m3sca1]

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

[@weasel6three597]

@@m3sca1 so eventually it is determined safe to dump it into the city sewer?

[@m3sca1]

@@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....

[@joetexas1546]

Can I purchase a quantity of that silver shot? My Grandkids would love that stuff!!!

[@mrisseeuw]

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?

[@sreetips]

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.

[@badtrip801]

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 👍

[@sreetips]

Fixed it.

[@hobbiesrus]

Do you ever melt the crystal into bars? I would like to see that. Nice work on the flow through to waste!

[@scubamech707]

I do beleive you can charge more for crystals than bars cause of the formations. I beleive.

[@bormisha]

Yes, Sreetips has some videos on melting the crystal into bars. Not very practical, though. The silver in those bars gets contaminated by burning products of the acetylene and oxidation during melting and the bars don't look that great. He'd need some hydrogen flame to avoid contamination, or a furnace capable of the appropriate temperatures.

[@Camelguy069]

@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?

[@sreetips]

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.

[@Camelguy069]

@@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]

@@sreetips also, thank you for responding!

[@bormisha]

@@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.

[@GR19611]

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]

I think the wire might have to be stainless steel but it would look cool if it works

[@GR19611]

@@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 .

[@scrappydoo7887]

@@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

[@GR19611]

@@scrappydoo7887 Yes , I wonder what Sreetips might say about this. Use the figurine as the Cathode . Cheers👍

[@scotthultin7769]

21👍's up thanks for sharing

[@GR8SCOTT]

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?

[@sreetips]

I’ve never seen pure gold tone.

[@mikeandre7364]

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.

[@bormisha]

For growing large monocrystals, special measures must be taken. There must be videos on KZbin how large monocrystals of silicon are grown for electronics.

[@neiljervis1]

Could you use a centrifugal filter system to speed up the filtration process . Almost a spin drier

[@bormisha]

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.

[@sreetips]

Possibly

[@terrybourke7838]

Not sure if would work but could you run the silver cement through a small sluice to capture and clean it?

[@sreetips]

I don’t know

[@patmccrady6063]

Have you ever had your copper cement tested to see if there is any recoverable yield?

[@bormisha]

@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.

[@sreetips]

No

[@jozefigueiredo8792]

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.

[@sreetips]

I don’t know how

[@Sigma33sailor]

What would happen if you put the cement silver directly into the silver cell filter basket? Larger surface area so might go faster.

[@terryfrench5632]

It would just turn into a silver mud cake, fouling the cloth.

[@sreetips]

I’ve tried it with negative results. The filter plugged, the current flow dropped off rapidly. Silver shot/granules are the way to go.

[@kennethredden7473]

Thank so that cool

[@gregdobrick3410]

Another great video !!!!! how pure is the dried cement silver ?

[@mattjirgal1676]

I vaguely remember it being mentioned to he around 85 to 90 %

[@apveening]

@@mattjirgal1676 According to the video a bit over 98%

[@sreetips]

The cement silver is between 98% to 99% pure silver with the main contaminant being copper. We get all the copper out by running it through the silver cell. The copper dissolves along with the impure silver. But it doesn’t plate out with the silver, but rather, builds up and collects in the electrolyte. This is what cause the electrolyte to turn that beautiful blue color. As long as conditions are kept within specific limits, the copper will just build up in the electrolyte and not plate out with the silver. One professional refiner that I learned from on the goldrefiningforum.com (I think his name was Goldsilverpro) even recommended adding some dissolved copper to the electrolyte because it promoted crystal growth.

[@ilmulogamdantehnikpelogama9569]

hello, can you make a video of the path installation for the vacuum

[@sreetips]

I’ve got a video titled “How to Build a Reliable Vacuum System” posted on my channel detailed show flow on paper diagram

[@jeremiah1528]

So cool Sreetips ❤️....

[@jonmalinowski2620]

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

[@sreetips]

Yes, just dissolve in nitric, filter, cement in copper or do a silver chloride conversion with lye and sugar.

[@shaneyork300]

From what I've seen, if you clean the cement silver until clear with distilled water and boil it in HCL it'll be .999 fine. The silver crystal is easily .9999 fine!

[@Addh0le]

Do you think you would sell any of those silver nitrate bottles?

[@kyzercube]

Hey Sreetips, @ 6:49 what are those long thin green crystals forming around the silverware at the bottom of that large jar?

[@bormisha]

It could be silver or copper nitrate crystals.

[@sreetips]

I don’t know. I’ve seen them before and it’s usually when the solution is shaded green.

[@Silvercrypto-xk4zy]

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

[@sreetips]

I try to remove all the stones with cutters

[@ssofmas8473]

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?

[@sreetips]

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.

[@ssofmas8473]

@@sreetips thx so much for reply Doctor do you separate your filter paper from Stanos test papers?

[@sreetips]

I don’t save the stannous

[@ssofmas8473]

@@sreetips doctor after burning filter paper do you put ash in Nitric acidic then AR or go straight AR?

[@sreetips]

Nitric first

[@Reasonist]

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?

[@bormisha]

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.

[@Reasonist]

@@bormisha awesome explanation! Thank you 🙏🏼

[@user-ed9tb1yz9b]

friend, why don't you boil the silver precipitate after reduction with copper in sulfuric acid? and then silver will be purer on electrolysis