Silver Magnet Silver Recovery Device

[markrewald]

Can you shut the device off and then restart it? I don't have a huge volume of spent fixer so i am wondering what the affects would be to start and stop the device when I obtain more spent fixer.

[jnanian]

Can you shut the device off and then restart it? I don't have a huge volume of spent fixer so i am wondering what the affects would be to start and stop the device when I obtain more spent fixer.

hi

its just a plug in the wall, no on/off switch
i don't think it would harm much if you turn it off
before it is "done". those lucite shoe box storage things
work great as de-silvering containers, and storage containers
after you are done ..

[jnanian]

over the last few years i have had a poll running asking what people do with their spent fixer.
it was what prompted me to becoming a distributer / dealer for the silver magnet.
many years ago i sold similar items ( electrolytic, ion transfer, and evaporation devices ) but they were very expensive, and geared towards
large labs, medical offices and clinics. unlike what i used to sell, the silver magnet is small, affordable ... and pays for itself quickly.

over the last few years i have sold many of them, and with your help have
helped remove some of the silver from the waste stream, and hopefully put a few dollars ( or pounds or euros or ... ) in your pocket.

a week or so ago i started another poll now that it a few years has passed, and it looks like silver recovery has made inroads, that is always great news ....

here are a few entries from the poll-thread that i am re-posting to give people an idea of what the silver magnet is all about ....

I peeled the label off one of my old bottles of Kodafix concentrate, scanned it and keep the file on my hard drive.
When I take a bottle to the hazmat place, I print out that label and stick it on the jug with packing tape. I also print out the MSDS and stick it through the handle of the jug when I drop it off. Haven't had any questions yet. In fact, they seem to think I'm the one being a fussbudget.

Remove the silver from your fixer using a Silver Magnet. It's just a little plastic box with holes in it to let the liquid in. Inside the box are a sheet of metal foil and a long rod shaped electrode. You get a little "wall wart" electrical transformer that connects to a cord coming out of the plastic box. You plug it in, drop it in your fixer bucket and leave it alone for a few days. There are two LEDs on the transformer. A red and a green. At first, the green one lights. After the silver is removed from the liquid, the red light starts to glow. That's how you know you're done. Dump/recycle the desilvered fixer. Wash off the Silver Magnet cell with clear water, dry it and put it away for the next time you want to use it.

The first time I used the Silver Magnet, it took a little over a week to pull all the silver out of 2-1/2 gallons of used fixer. I weighed it before putting it to use. It weighed a hair over 75 grams. When I pulled it out, it weighed almost 100 grams. That's 25 grams or 0.9 ounces of silver I got back. Right now, the price of silver is hovering at around $30 to $32 per ounce. At the rate I'm going, one more use will have paid for the Silver Magnet but the cell won't nearly be full. I think I should be able to get ten uses out of it before it gets full.

When it finally gets full, my Silver Magnet will have paid for itself five times over.

hi randy

some of the lights are a little wonky on the magnets ... i usually tell people when the stuff they plate
starts getting "dark" ( instead of greyish, it is dark-greyish / blackish ) it is time to turn it off
because they are plating other "stuff" not just the silver ... as long as they stick it in a non-metalic container
when they run it they are good to go, a metal container will end up electro-plated silver ...

oh, your magnet will hold around 32troy oz of silver on it, it would have paid for itself 12-13 times over if you let it get real-full

have fun !
(and thanks ! )
john

So, let's round off and say 30 oz. of silver at $30 per.

$900 return on a $50 investment ain't too shabby. Is it?

Yes, I noticed the lights aren't perfect but you can still tell.
When you first connect a clean cell to the wall wart, the red light glows brightly. When you submerge it in the fixer, it is barely aglow.
As the silver gets pulled out of the fixer, the red light gets a bit brighter.

I also watch the color of the silver building up on the plate. It looks like sand. About the color of sand, too.
I pulled mine out when the sand started getting darker.

My darkroom is in the basement. I can look in every so often as I go down to do laundry and stuff. The intensity of the light will give me enough information to know when to go look at the condition of the "sand" inside the cell.

feel free to PM me if you have any questions about the magnet or any other silver recovery questions ( i sell other things too ),
i am usually around and if i don't know the answer/s i will be happy to find out !

john