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world gathers for metal finishing
Q&As since 1989


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How to reclaim my polishing dust etc

 

I use a lot of polishing/buffing wheel and it's compounds ( jeweler's rouge (polishing/buffing compound) [affil links] & brown tripoli rouge (polishing/buffing compound) [affil links] ). Every time I used them there is roughly 2% decrease in weight of the gold jewelry. The question is how can I reclaim my gold back ? Which method is fast, easy and efficient ? I don't need the whole thing I just need maybe 60 -70% reclaim rate ? Please explain in details.

Thanks in advance

H JUDY
- SBY, INDONESIA

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I am sure there are chemical methods I don't know that are used by precious metal recyclers. Other method I could suggest would be vacuum heating and condensation. Heat the compound in a boat in vacuum, increasing temp in stages so that low temp materials evaporate first, then raise the temp above melting point to about 1200 to 1400 C. Keep a metal sheet above the evaporant to a distance >12" and condense gold vapors. The boats are sold by many companies for vacuum metallizing. The set up is very expensive (>$25k) however. You may be able to build one yourself for about $10k.

Mandar Sunthankar
- Fort Collins, Colorado
 

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First of all, you must collect and /or save your dust and debris. In mass finishing systems, a liquid system does an efficient job of containment. Now, I don't know the exact details or equipment used from here, but the bottom line is that all this junk is then placed into a furnace. Debris and all is then heated to high temperatures and the metal is collected as it re-solidifies.

AF Kenton
retired business owner - Hatboro, Pennsylvania