Where To Find Silver ?

Gold isn't difficult, as opposed to silver, which seems to look identical to lead. tin, solder, etc.
In what places are you most likely to find silver?

There is also silver in all refrigeration solder joints. Most silver solder runs from 15 to 45% silver content. Just need to find someone to recover it for you.

That's cool, because I see all that silver(color) in there and can't help but wonder, am I tossing lead solder or silver here?

Originally Posted by olddude

there is silver in the solder, in key board mylar. in some ribbon cable and mylar on hard drives and other components, also on some mylar in printers.

don't know for a fact but have read the recovery of silver in e waste is much greater then the gold.

Maybe that's what I found tonight in an old Sun server I just pulled apart. One of the SCSI cables is clear with silver looking wires and much stiffer and heaver than other SCSI wires

Originally Posted by twmart

Maybe that's what I found tonight in an old Sun server I just pulled apart. One of the SCSI cables is clear with silver looking wires and much stiffer and heaver than other SCSI wires

does silver melt as easily as aluminum? I tried a lighter to some silver IDE cable wires last night, and they melted right away, so I figured those were aluminum

Also tin melts around 450 F

what temp does a lighter burn at ?

Originally Posted by Bear

what temp does a lighter burn at ?

bic lighter - 1,977 degrees Celsius or 3590.6 degrees Fahrenheit

https://www.google.com/#hl=en&safe=o...w=1658&bih=896

[QUOTE=oldtoothlessbassmaster;115022]bic lighter - 1,977 degrees Celsius or 3590.6 degrees Fahrenheit

I pulled the plastic strip of wires out of a flat bed scanner today & bared out a single strand of silver looking metal. It also looked like Ali.
I melted it with a BIC lighter & it went red hot, then drooped as it melted.
Afterwards the metal seemed a little 'blacker', sorta like silver does when it gets tarnished.

So I tested doing that on some Ali from a AC condensor (tinsel type). It heated the tinsel, without changing its colour, then it melted.

In all? Great quick test. Results are not 100% until I actually test the metal for silver in the first place. But it looks promising....

Originally Posted by eesakiwi

I pulled the plastic strip of wires out of a flat bed scanner today & bared out a single strand of silver looking metal. It also looked like Ali.
I melted it with a BIC lighter & it went red hot, then drooped as it melted.
Afterwards the metal seemed a little 'blacker', sorta like silver does when it gets tarnished.

I did that same thing recently in a similar way, with a ribbon cable from 1982, thinking if any would be silver it was older ones, but those wires basically evaporated. I don't recall how long the lighter was under it, I wasn't timing, and the wires were extremely tiny, as in angel hair, but according to the temp specs stated in earlier posts, the lighter would pretty much melt any of it in time

At that temp it would melt them all pretty quick

Hey Bear, I have started collecting breakers to get the silver contacts. They are pretty easy to ID if you bust open a breaker they will be soldered on to the copper arms (actually sometimes steel also). I also go for motor starters and pump pressure switches. The bigger breakers/starters like 400 amp and more have several good sized silver contacts on them. I don't have a value on them yet. I do plan on doing a breaker breakdown soon.

I wish I had someone near me who was a refiner because all the refrigeration solder joints and radiator solder joints I see at the yards just go into #2 copper.

Oh, and the obvious. I just got three pounds of silver solder sticks. They tell the silver content right on the tube.

the ram that is silver colored is that really silver?

Originally Posted by jghilino

the ram that is silver colored is that really silver?

Nope. Tin, just tin.

Originally Posted by jghilino

the ram that is silver colored is that really silver?

haha! When they were selling it to us it was ; )

Some batteries contain silver, relays and my favorite 2nd hand stores/ auctions. As mentioned earlier concerning the breakers, seems that items requiring the most current have the larger and/or more abundent contacts. So an item with a 120 cord would contain less than a 220 v item. At this point only a visual observation no real data yet.

I make my own silver testing solution that will test, according to the color, the purity of silver and other metals such as:

.925 .800 .500 silver
German silver
Nickel
Copper
Brass
Lead
Zinc
Aluminum
Platinum

Would anyone be interested in the testing solution and a color guide if I were to put something like that together for forum members? I would only charge the cost of the actual solution, and shipping. I would be willing to do this at cost if there is enough interest.

I think of it in this way. If I can help forum members determine the type of scrap they are breaking down, they will be able to make more informed purchases which would benefit any refiner they were selling to and in the end everyone does far better.

I can't do this tomorrow, or even before Christmas, but if there is enough interest I can do it in the first part of January.

Scott