Fixer & steel wool

[Claire Senft]

Are you charged in RI to have the waste picked up or is that part of your services received as a taxpayer?

 

[removed account4]

Are you charged in RI to have the waste picked up or is that part of your services received as a taxpayer?

i am charged by the waste hauler.
but my permit is free

 

[peteconsidine]

Found this thread through Google and I've got a follow-up question on this: if the fixer isn't exhausted yet, is it at all usable after this process? I've got a jug of fixer that's still working, but it stinks like a bottle of death from all that silver sulfide in it.

Just curious.

 

[Anon Ymous]

No, you can't use it.

BTW, welcome.

 

[fotch]

Hello Pete and welcome to APUG. Just curious, if it stinks like a bottle of death, why would you want to reuse it?

 

[peteconsidine]

Hello Pete and welcome to APUG. Just curious, if it stinks like a bottle of death, why would you want to reuse it?

In this case, because I don't know when I'll be able to pick up more. In general, though, I like to use things until they die a slow lingering death. Thus my taste for vintage cameras.

 

[Pat Erson]

And if I use aluminum foil how long shall I wait before completion? I'll try it on a jug filled with 5 litres of fixer?

 

[Marco B]

I doubt that it's better for the environment. If you pour used fixer down the drain, the silver ions will react with sulfides (and there's a lot of those in the drains - witness the smell) to form a sludge of silver sulfide, which is not toxic. See Dead Link Removed

To simulate this, pour Kodak Brown Toner instead of steel wool into the used fix.

I had to laugh when I saw this quote from the otherwise useful and informative above link :

"The only effect resulting from long-term chronic overexposure to soluble silver is argyria, a condition characterized by bluish-gray pigmentation of the skin, mucous membranes, and eyes. Argyria is considered a cosmetic effect by the EPA and is not associated with compromised health status."

Anyone here on APUG working on his "makeup"?

 

[Photo-gear]

Again, how long does it take to precipitate the silver?
AND what kind of filter is required to collect the silver?

:confused:

 

[Fluidphoto]

Again, how long does it take to precipitate the silver?
AND what kind of filter is required to collect the silver?

:confused:

We did a test in school (way back when) and found that if you mix some table salt into the used fixer, it precipitates out the silver as silver chloride in a white powder which then settles out of the solution. I seem to remember a quarter cup per litre seemed to do the trick. Mix it in really well, let it sit for an hour, pour off the top solution then rinse the container with water and use a coffee filter to catch the precip.

The steel wool method was messy and the foil method doesn't take much silver out of the solution. Most of the silver recovery units that I've seen use a kind of electroplating system to get the silver out of the solution which is way beyond what most people have access to in their homes.

Ryan

 

[removed account4]

the silver isn't really precipitated out of solution as pure silver if using steel wool, but as a black sludge
in order for it to be realized as silver it needs to be further processed, and the black sludge
can not just be thrown in the trash, but it has to be brought to a haz waste disposal site.
you can use a coffee filter to strain your solution ...

you might think if something like a low cost electrolytic recovery unit
they cost about 45$ + shipping and will extract silver from your fixer
( leaving about 50 pts / million for your steel wool, or even a SUPER saturated salt solution )
the difference between using a device and the steel wool, is you can SELL the
cathode once it is full of silver and get $$ for it. why throw away all that silver ?

good luck !

john

 

[Ian Grant]

The silver doesn't precipitate it replaces the iron or other metal, so ends up usually a s a steel wool sludge, you dry this out usually by evaporation and send for refining.

Ian

 

[wblynch]

Whatever you do. Do not allow silver to reenter the Earth.

 

[CBG]

Check this thread www.apug.org/forums/forum37/19569-silver-recovery.html

 

[removed account4]

The silver doesn't precipitate it replaces the iron or other metal, so ends up usually a s a steel wool sludge, you dry this out usually by evaporation and send for refining.

Ian

ian

when i used to do this with copper flashing the sludge was on the copper,
but there was also stuff on the bottom of the container ( which is what i was thinking
of when i said precipitate ). was that the same "stuff" that was on the copper
or something else that exited the fixer solution ?

john

 

[Ian Grant]

You posted as I was writing John so I wasn't referring to your comments, copper's different to steel wool so you may get more sludge, and even with steel wool you get an iron sludge once the fixer begins to attack the wool rather than the silver.

If you placed wire wool or copper in unused (no silver) fixer it's slowly raect and form sludge so that's why even with a good trickle tank system you often run through a couple of tanks, one fresh the other older.

Ian

 

[removed account4]

tanks ian !

( pardon the pun )

the days that i was using copper to do this, it was
cheap, but there was so much goop that exited the fixer ...
i have never done this with steel wool, so my commentary
seems a bit off ... wire wool
seems like a pretty inexpensive and useful way to desilver fix .. ..

john