I just recently started desilvering my fixer using a 2 1/2 gal plastic bucket and and plain steel wool pads. I pour my spent fixer in the bucket then throw a steel wool pad in the bucket and put a lid on it. After about a half-gallon or so, I decant the liquid on the top and leave the sludge on the bottom to dry out. After it drys I put it in the trash. Is this an adequate method for desilvering fixer?

-- Brian Jefferis (jefferis@erols.com), February 04, 1999

Answers

>After it drys I put it in the trash. Is this an adequate method for desilvering fixer? Brian we have 5gal pots here and toss a teaspoon of zinc granules in when it gets full. This is perhaps _slightly_ more "adequate". I've heard others use the steel wool. Back in the days of the Hunt nightmare there was some electrical "silver magnet?" and I wish I would have picked one up. You end up with some close-to pure silver. Why trash the sed

-- Larry Welker (lwelker@turbont.net), April 12, 1999.

Porter's (www.porters.com) has an electrical silver remover setup for about $35. When "full" you change the cartridge (replacement about $15) and ship the "full" one to the manufacturer. They recover the silver and send you a check for value of the silver minus a processing fee.

The cartridge holds something like 30 troy ounces of silver, so at even $5 per troy ounce there is over $150 of silver in a cartridge.

-- Terry Carraway (TCarraway@compuserve.com), May 13, 1999.