Gold Plated Picks for the WIN!

[Dragunov-21]

So I've been messing around with electroplating (one of my other hobbies is chemistry) and I've been coating some of my streetsweeper picks with things like copper and chrome, then I thought of something.

To get cheap credit on my mobile I buy bulk packs of SIM cards off ebay, activate them and transfer the credit. This gets me cheap credit, but also leaves me with about a hundred spare numbers/cards. I wondered if I could extract the gold from them, so I dumped the whole lot into a beaker of hydrochloric acid, left them for a coupla days, and was left with a bunch of gold leaf and auric chloride.

Just to be a bit of a dick, I then electroplated my fauxgotasâ„¢ and hooks.

In gold.

Hopefully I'll be able to post pics soon, just thought i'd share.

[Kaotik]

Thanks for sharing, i'd love to see them.

Even though there electro-plated, don't expect them to last that long with minimal to continuous use. It will wear off and if scratched by the warding, it won't take long at all to have something pretty look not so pretty.

Plating over the handles followed by a clear coat will make them last long but not on the pick tips and shafts, it will make the pick thicker.

[Dragunov-21]

Yeah, I know, like I said, it was just for fun.

I'll post the photos as soon as my camera's working...

[Eyes_Only]

So is this our first official lockpicking bling?

[Dragunov-21]

Nah, that'd be if you turned Kaotik's awesome LP101 Key into a big pendant, but that'd be a desecration...

[kg4boj]

Why not use cadmium? far cheaper, and when oxidized properly it gives a nice gold coloring to steel, protects against corosion too.

[ObiWonShinobi]

These would be nice prizes for compititions yaknow.

[Kaotik]

Nah, that'd be if you turned Kaotik's awesome LP101 Key into a big pendant, but that'd be a desecration...

I don't think it would be a desecration.



I even made one as you can see above just for that reason. The proud owner is pretty fond of it to. Ain't that right d_b?!

[TOWCH]

I've never seen that before. That's really cool. :P

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aqua_regia

As far as electrowinning it out... I don't think this is how they electroplate connectors personally.

http://www.finishing.com/362/29.shtml

^Neither do these chemists.

[BrownLeopard]

Hmm, wonder if lockout tools for vehicles can be plated *scratches goatee thoughtfully*

[Dragunov-21]

Goddamn you Kaotik...

Bling is supposed to be tacky as craft glue, and then you do something like that...

[ObiWonShinobi]

Ok... so then try mounting diamonds in the crown.

[Trip Doctor]

I think I can see part of a fingerprint in the "101", lol.

You gotta wipe it with your shirt and not touch it before you take a picture !

[digital_blue]

The proud owner is pretty fond of it to. Ain't that right d_b?!

Indeed. It hangs proudly from the review mirror on my car. A beautiful piece of work.

Mind you... I'm not so keen on attention being drawn to it again. As much as I'm a BIG fan of Kaotik's work... I kinda like the fact that there aren't a whole bunch of these floating around. Kinda makes mine... special.

db

[mercurial]

Dragunov-21 - Chemistry is also a long-term interest of mine, but now I am very confused

I'm well aware of the potential that electronic hardware has to be used as 'gold ore', I understand the process of extracting gold and other precious metals from it.

I am confused and would like to learn how you managed to extract the gold by having "dumped the whole lot[of SIM cards] into a beaker of hydrochloric acid, left them for a coupla days" and being left with "a bunch of gold leaf and auric chloride. "

Given that gold is a noble metal, it should be unreactive to even conc. hydrochloric acid. Gold dissolving in a beaker of hydrochloric acid to give auric chloride just doesn't make any sense to me. In fact chemistry textbooks state outright that gold is unreactive to hydrochloric acid & all other unmixed mineral acids.

As I am sure you know, gold can be dissolved in Aqua Regia (mixture of conc. nitric and hydrochloric acids), but I am certain that it cannot be dissolved by just hydrochloric acid, nor other mineral acids for that matter.... can you explain?

Also, I understand how to electroplate gold, but how were you able to form gold leaf? I can think of ways to get metallic gold from gold present in a solution, but not in the form of gold leaf!! I'd be very interested to know how you did that.

I suspect that NO gold dissolved in the hydrochloric acid(therefore no 'bunch of auric chloride') and I suspect that the gold leaf you found is the gold from the contacts of each SIM card, that has been freed from the simcard by the acid dissolving the metal underneath the thin layer of gold in each contact, allowing the extremely thin gold layer to float away.

With no auric chloride, the only gold is these flakes - I don't understand how you could use these minute flakes of gold to electroplate....without first dissolving them in Aqua Regia or the old cyanide method - and both would be impractical with the amount of gold on 100 SIM cards, especially at home.

With respect, this just doesn't make sense to me, but I'm happy to be proved wrong.

...Mark