Fixer Recovery - Stainless Steel Wool vs Iron Wool

[horacekenneth]

If I'm just throwing steel wool into a bucket of fixer will it matter if it is stainless steel?
I'm searching Home Depot right now and I can't find any information on whether the pads are stainless or not. How could I tell?

[Gerald C Koch]

In order for the steel wool to displace silver from the spent fixer it must react with the silver ions in solution. Stainless steel is NOT reactive and will not work.

[horacekenneth]

Gerald do you know if stainless steel wool will be specified as stainless steel wool? I was hoping to purchase a bag of steel wool from Home Depot but I can't tell if it is stainless or not.

[jnanian]

check the chromium content,
if it is 10% + it is stainless.
if it doesn't say on the sleeve,
ask the manager or front desk
they have spec sheets.

[boswald]

Just leave one out wet on a plastic lid you don't want. Look at it in a day or two. If it rusts, you're good to go(not with that one).

[Worker 11811]

Get a Silver Magnet. Worth every penny.

At the current price of silver, if you reclaim only a few gallons of spent fixer, you'll recover the expense of the device. Everything above that will be icing on the cake.

By the time the collection device is full of silver, your investment will be repaid many times over.

The thing costs less than $50.00 US.

[jim appleyard]

Get a Silver Magnet. Worth every penny.

At the current price of silver, if you reclaim only a few gallons of spent fixer, you'll recover the expense of the device. Everything above that will be icing on the cake.

By the time the collection device is full of silver, your investment will be repaid many times over.

The thing costs less than $50.00 US.

OK, where to get one?

[Ian Grant]

OK, where to get one?

From jnanian.

Just to clarify steel wool is used in silver recovery but it's not Stainless steel, I worked as technical advisor for a company that used to do the recovery in Europe for all the manufacturers (Agfa, Fuji, Ilford, Kentmere, Kodak etc) and sell or fit systems in many labs.

Ian

[Worker 11811]

Everything you ever wanted to know about a Silver Magnet but were afraid to ask:
http://www.apug.org/forums/forum146/...ry-device.html

The Silver Magnet is a straightforward device.
It's a plastic box, about the size of a pencil box, with holes in the top and sides. There are two electrodes inside and a wire exits one end of the box.

Pour your exhausted fixer into an old bucket. I use a 5 gal. plastic bucket.
Submerge your Silver Magnet in the bucket of fixer. Plug the wire into the specially designed "wall wart" transformer and plug it into an electric outlet.

After several days, the silver in the solution will be attracted to the electrode inside the box. When you have gotten most of the silver out, unplug the device, rinse it with water and put it away for next time.

Dispose of the desilvered fixer in an appropriate manner.

Repeat this process every time you have used fixer to dispose of.
After a several uses, the box will be filled with metallic silver.
Pack it up in the envelope provided and send it in. The company mails you a check.

Use some of the money to order a new collection box. You don't need to buy another "wall wart" transformer. You keep it and keep reusing it.

Use some of what's left over to buy a case of beer.

The rest of the money can go toward film.
If you think about it, that film is essentially free.

[sly]

I tried steel wool in the fix, and ended with a bucket of nasty rusty sludge. Got a silver magnet last year. Much better.