• Welcome to Photrio!
    Registration is fast and free. Join today to unlock search, see fewer ads, and access all forum features.
    Click here to sign up

Silver Magnet Silver Recovery Device

I'm not sure if I made mention of the means by which I now 'recover' the silver from my used fixer by a 'stupid' mistake when I poured some partially used developer into a glass carboy into which I 'saved my partially used paper and film fixer and a day or so later found a layer of a black 'powder' on the bottom of the carboy.
It turns out that I had found a somewhat 'new' and extremely cheap method of 'recovering ' the purest form of silver you can 'get' (according to the late Dr. Ron Mowery (a.k.a. "Chemical Engineer' in the employ of Kodak in New York at that time). Wash the black precipitate well numerous time and let eventually settle after a final wash with distilled water. That black precipitate is the PUREST form of silver you can 'get' anywhere.
after that 'final' wash let it dry...and have it melted down and sell it.... Much easier and less expensive than many (if not ALL) 'commercial' silver recovery means.

Ken
 
Last edited:
I am not sure how how mixing "partially used developer" with "partially used paper developer" will lead to silver precipitation, but even with an erroneous wording in mind, I can tell that even the largest fixer recuperator in Europe wanted to get pure spent fixer and did not precipitate by mixing baths.
 
juan said:
I think you’ve made an error of some kind in explaining. Pour partially used developer into paper developer?
Click to expand...
After reading @KenS 's thread many months ago I tried his methods thinking I would save myself a few dollars and make a few bucks with silver.
It is a messy process and does not yield pure silver not even close It produces a silver sludge which then requires a crucible, high heat and lab hood. My chemistry teacher said the fumes are poisonous.. Maybe people have nothing to lose?
I have my future ahead of me.
 
The only reason to try to recover silver is for environmental protection. There's no easy way. Refineries usually melt very large quantities of scrap sterling and old jewelry several hundred ounces then assay the mass. In the old days old X-rays were recovered using cyanide, massive operations.
 
mshchem said:
The only reason to try to recover silver is for environmental protection.
Click to expand...
This applies for amateur standards.
Silver metal is precious. In large enough batches industrial recycling of baths is economic. Also new-film snippets are industrially processed for silver recovery.
 
with the trickle tanks, unless you live in Canada refiners typically charge you for bringing them to be refined. As mshchem said cyanide is used and it is a lot of work for very little return for a refiner unless there are a few buckets to refine ( or so I have been told ) in Canada ECS Cares will pay for shipping and actually pay you for the silver if it is a single trickle tank core ... the silver magnets used to be a great solution to this recovery and $$ issue, they would pay the user whether it was 1 cathode or 10 ( took very little space so they didn't need to actually refine it right away and it was a known quantity of silver, you never know how much of the metallic ion exchange filter was used up with a trickle tank.. it could be 100% or it could be 50%. ... ). unfortunately the magnets are no longer ...
maybe in some instances even with amateurs they can make a bit of cash extracting silver from their tailings (fixer and wash) but for the most part, here in the states, it is just being a good photographic citizen and not fouling up the environment with their waste...
 
If I did any volume at all I would figure out something. Not to get too far off the subject, I put out my trash tonight, recycling, one full tote of corrugated and cardboard, separate bin of steel cans. I try not to buy things in plastic, plastic is a nightmare.
 

+1
I take my toxic waste and electronic waste to a hazardous waste disposal site near me.
 

if you don't do much volume you might as well get a bucket and bring it to hazmat, or evaporating it in the summertime ... not worth plating out / corroding metal pipes
 
jnamia said:
if you don't do much volume you might as well get a bucket and bring it to hazmat, or evaporating it in the summertime ... not worth plating out / corroding metal pipes
Click to expand...

I'm not sure if evaporation wouldn't complicate things. Ammonium thiosulfate is hygroscopic, and I have no safe place to try to evaporate fixer. If I would drive to the county it would be treated same as sanitary sewer.
 

The black precipitate is the purest form of silver you will ever find... just make sure you WASH it a few times before melting it down. The chemical reaction is NOT immediate It may take a day (or more) but make sure you allow some time for the reaction to take place and give it a stir (now and again and give the chemical 'mixture' time to 'work'.

I was willing (and able) to take the 'word' of the late Ron Mowery long before I'd be willing to take the word of others who usually..(or often) have a business interest in selling other methods of recovering silver from used fixer).

Just make sure you give the black silver 'powder' a few good washes [perhaps a final wash (or two) in distilled water before letting it dry enough to then have it 'melted down''

Ken
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Menu
Log in
Register