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Thread: Silver Maintenance

  1. #1
    Foamer
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    Oct 2010
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    South Dakota
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    Silver Maintenance

    Since it quit raining and got hot (90s F) I decided it was time to sun my silver. I poured it all in a heavy glass jar I got at Walmart and set it in the sun on my front porch for three days. I left the top open but covered with one of my wife's sheer hose. (She didn't miss it.) This did two things. First, it allowed the ether to evaporate as it boils at 94 F. It also allowed a lot of the alcohol to evaporate. Second thing it did was react with the introduced impurities and caused them to turn black and drop to the bottom. After three days it was looking pretty murky. Time to filter it.

    I do this outside and not in the house since I don't have a place to work with something so messy. I worked at a glass top table and placed a large plastic tray on that. It was deep enough to easily hold all the 1.5L of silver solution if it were to spill. I had a 1000ml beaker, 500ml graduated cylinder, hydrometer, medium sized funnel, coffee filters, a supply of paper towels, and an empty plastic sack to put the used paper towels and filters in. I always wear gloves when messing with silver nitrate and also eye protection any time I have the silver out of the tank. I took the metal fasteners off the big jar and carefully filtered the solution into the 1,000ml beaker. I poured the rest through the filter into the 500ml graduate and measured the specific gravity. It looked to be about 107.00, which is good enough. I will add some more distilled water when I start using the 8x10 tank again, to fill the level back up. This should drop the SG down slightly. I ended up filtering the solution three times because the first and second filtering was still catching crud. The third came out clean. I decided to go back to using my 5x7 tank while waiting for my new 8x10 holder to come. The 5x7 tank is easier to handle and fits in my cooler bag with the blue ice. I filled the 5x7 Lund tank and put the rest of the silver solution in the 8x10 tank to safely store it. I didn't mess with checking the pH as I think it's most likely fine.

    Using a garden hose I carefully rinsed everything off that had silver on it, and then rinsed the big glass jar, beaker, and cylinder out with distilled water so there would be no deposits left on them. Took off the gloves and threw them in the sack, tied up the sack and threw it in the trash. Photos below.

    1. Silver solution after sunning for three days. Murky!
    2. My set up for maintenance.
    3. Filtering
    4. Hydrometer in tap water: 1.000 means neutral, which is what it should be reading.
    Attached Thumbnails Attached Thumbnails Silver1.jpg   Silver2.jpg   Silver8.jpg   Silver3.jpg  
    In contento ed allegria
    Notte e di vogliam passar!

  2. #2
    Foamer
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    Oct 2010
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    South Dakota
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    Re: Silver Maintenance

    More photos.

    5. First filtering
    6. Second filtering
    7. Hydrometer reading 107.00--close enough.
    8. Cleaning cylinder with tap water. The water turns blue and shows the water is not pure. Never add tap water to your silver bath!


    Kent in SD
    Attached Thumbnails Attached Thumbnails Silver4.jpg   Silver6.jpg   Silver5.jpg   Silver7.jpg  
    In contento ed allegria
    Notte e di vogliam passar!

  3. #3

    Join Date
    Sep 2007
    Location
    AZ
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    4,431

    Re: Silver Maintenance

    Have you noticed yet that when you top off your silver bath, with distilled water, it will still create a black, murky mess? You will.

  4. #4
    Foamer
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    Re: Silver Maintenance

    Quote Originally Posted by goamules View Post
    Have you noticed yet that when you top off your silver bath, with distilled water, it will still create a black, murky mess? You will.
    No. Have done it several times and haven't seen it. I do filter about every 50 plates or so.


    Kent in SD
    In contento ed allegria
    Notte e di vogliam passar!

  5. #5

    Join Date
    Jun 2017
    Location
    West Coast
    Posts
    2,132

    Re: Silver Maintenance

    Quote Originally Posted by goamules View Post
    Have you noticed yet that when you top off your silver bath, with distilled water, it will still create a black, murky mess? You will.
    Garrett, are you talking about adding distilled water before maintenance, or after? I've seen it BEFORE maintenance, but not after.

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