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Question regarding silver contacts in breakers

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  1. 12-19-2016, 03:53 PM #1
    DKPhilly is offline Experienced Scrapper
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    Question regarding silver contacts in breakers

    Picked up a couple of circuit breakers while doing a remodel a couple months ago. My boss doesn't do anything with the scrap except toss it, so he lets me take it to keep his waste removal prices down. I've never scrapped a breaker, so I've been researching on them for the past few weeks. I have identified the contacts with no problem, and am about to clip them off and start hoarding them. I have either heard or read somewhere that sometimes the pieces / components that they are attached too are sometimes silver too. Running a magnet over it reveals that the pieces the contacts are on, are non ferrous. I'm thinking it's most likely aluminium then, as it looks like aluminium, but admittedly I don't know much about what silver looks like tarnished, so I figured I'd check in here first and see if you guys had any input. I don't want to toss it in with aluminum and lose money on the off chance that it is silver."

    I searched around on the forums too. I didn't see anything that could answer this for me, but if anyone knows of a thread similar to this with some insight, feel free to link it!



    Thanks in advance.

    EDIT: It says I'm not allowed to post any pictures. Any ideas?
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  2. 12-19-2016, 03:53 PM

  3. 12-19-2016, 04:09 PM #2
    MattInTheHat is offline
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    Question regarding silver contacts in breakers

    there was an excellent post about this a few years ago. maybe someone can find it. I won't have much time to look till Christmas.
    Currently looking for a job in or related to scrap/recycling. Relocation is possible for the right offer.
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  4. 12-20-2016, 02:37 AM #3
    eesakiwi is offline Metal Recycling Entrepreneur
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    The buss bars in the contactor that have the Silver/Cadmium contacts on them.... Yes there's Cadmium in them...
    https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cadmium_poisoning

    The buss bars are normally Copper, often plated with something Silvery, Silver or Nickel, I dunno what.
    Use side cutters and nip the bar and then bend and break it there at the nip, it will break and if its Copper you will get a very Reddish colour at the break.
    (If you cut it, often the coated metal will smear across the cut and cover the red of the Copper)

    Often everything metal in the contactor is Copper coated, often Copper coated Steel parts, but its easy to check with a magnet for Steel.


    Pics? You will need to make more posts to be able to post pics.
    Or you can make a link to a site that has your pics.
    Last edited by eesakiwi; 12-20-2016 at 02:39 AM.

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  6. 12-20-2016, 03:28 PM #4
    DKPhilly is offline Experienced Scrapper
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    http://i1383.photobucket.com/albums/...psoneiyj1a.jpg

    http://i1383.photobucket.com/albums/...pskjpfiw9w.jpg

    So I guess I'll hit them with a file next chance I get, or bend them and see if they're copper.
  7. 12-23-2016, 04:54 PM #5
    TheCreator is offline Experienced Scrapper
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    Silver turns a darker colour, sometimes bluish or rainbows. Aluminium often turns dull whitish.
    You can test Silver with a bit of bleech - it should turn tarnish very quickly.
    A good investment is a Silver/Platinum testing kit.
  8. 03-23-2017, 01:01 PM #6
    Silencetriedgood is offline Experienced Scrapper
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    Where would one locate a silver/ plat test kit? Or gold for that matter? Newbie to PM recovery
  9. 03-23-2017, 06:32 PM #7
    miked is offline
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    Test kits are available on ebay and amazon. I have used the ones for gold testing and find them easy to use. I have little experience with testing silver and recommend looking at youtube for demonstrations.

    Keep in mind a large percentage of youtube folks know less than you and you need to use good judgement when viewing them.

    As I recall some silver contacts can have some material that will become very dangerous if heated with a torch. So until you are very knowledgeable I recommend using mechanical means to separate the silver contact from the base metal.

    There is a forum that only deals with refining PM's (GRF) as this forum does not support refining.

    Generally you will be advised here to fine tune your gathering of material and finding good quality buyers. Please check out our buyers here on the forum and read over their reviews. 73, Mike
    "Profit begins when you buy NOT when you sell." {quote passed down to me from a wise man}

    Now go beat the copper out of something, Miked
  10. 04-06-2017, 10:00 AM #8
    DKPhilly is offline Experienced Scrapper
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    I know I'm really late, and an update isn't really needed, but thanks for all the replies and help.

    What I did was hit all the non ferrous pieces with my metal files. A lot of them were copper, some aluminium. I clipped off the contacts and put them in a jar. Going to hang onto them incase I get more breaker boxes, and then I'll see about shipping them to a refiner.

    Thanks again.
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