Printable View
99.9 % is easy to get in the UK and is way cheaper than 99.999 %. Here in the UK atm silver is very highly priced. When we did a electrode test of UK 99.9 Silver we saw the same thing happen in a matter of hours were as the 99.999% it didn't happen we just got oxidisation ...
I have the pulse modding conversion kit for the HK and its perfect and relay well priced (saved me buying another one). So im defo happy with that.
Or take it to just about any jeweller, they'll almost certainly have a simple testing kit for precious metals; I'm not at work so I can't tell you which acid(s) are in it... but if memory serves it only really tests up to and including stirling (925/1000) the quickest test I can think of actually is to attack it with a gas flame (propane/butane/mains-gas) and if it oxidises (turns black) it's not pure silver if it doesn't, it is.
But even if it is pure silver it could be a case of copper plating onto the silver; we (jewellers) have to keep our pickle (acidic cleaning solution for removing surface oxidation and fire-stain) meticulously free of contaminants, iron participially, otherwise the copper oxide which has been leached from the surface of the silver (stirling silver, that is, as it's the copper which oxidises not the silver) and turned into copper sulphate, is plated onto the silver. So it could be that something is in your loop that shouldn't be.
Though your picture looks much more patchy than the accidental copper plating I've seen, though there the pickle was quite well on it's way (blue tinted due to the copper sulphate) and hot (50-70C) so plated pretty thoroughly.
The bit that didn't melt turned black in patches with butane.
Um... yea don't get it that hot :p
Do the black patches wipe off with a cloth (could be soot) or are they pretty permanent (like a layer of copper oxide) and are the melted bits still silver-ish/white-ish?
When the soot's wiped off it's still black underneath although the melted blob is still silver coloured.
Paradoxical... By the blob being silver coloured it sounds like fine silver; by the un-melted section being blackened it sounds like a silver/copper alloy (be it stirling, american-coin-silver, or whatever.)
...but then again, that could be exactly right... The deposited copper oxidised on the un-melted portion, and on the ortion that melted the copper content was so low that it didn't cause surface oxidation.
My bet, you've got something that's roughly fine silver (999/1000 or above) and it was a reaction between the copper sulphate bioside, and any copper in solution due to an acidic etching from your loop; causing deposition on your silver.
I won't disagree with you as you know more about it than me. Also I've been thinking that there would be loads of other people complaining about this if it were common. I add 5 drops of PT Nuke (Petra's) into 5 litres of Deionised as I've always done when I buy it. I put this particular coil into the loop when I put the res in. Prior to that I was still using the same mix of PT Nuke to water and a kill coil which still looked normal when I removed it. I planned on putting the old one into the next container of deionised when I bought it so it would have time to start working and not have to bother with the PT Nuke in future.
The Kryos has been in the loop since March, the EK copper blocks since January and the fittings for about a year and as I say the old kill coil was fine.
Both Pulse Modding coils and IandH coils use .999 (99.9%) silver going on the product descriptions written by IandH and Pulse Modding, no doubt confirmed by the silver suppliers.
I believe some people may be confusing .999 silver as 99.999% which its not. .99999 would be 99.999%. Even I had to read that 3 times to make sure it was right!
Asura seems to have nailed it, the silver is acting as a deposition piece for the copper atoms in the loop. These could be stripped from the block/res/copper suphate solution used and would happen with any silver coil used. The more silver placed the loop the less the copper deposits would be visible, then I would say its more a matter of time before they are visible depending on the surface area to cover?
Sounds like deposition plating to me as well, and the torch test would have shown like that as you said if the copper that was on the coil happened to melt in with the silver.
It's just over a month now since this happened. I cleaned and put the kill coil into the res and filled it with water from the same batch I'd used for the loop and just left it. There's no trace of copper deposits on it after this time so no real idea what caused this in the first place.
I like to say thanks to Mick at Mayhem Dyes who kindly sent me 3 silver kill coils just as he was about to go on holiday.
Very interesting thread.
Agreed!!! It gets so frustrating. Thank god there are still a select few out there that work diligently to maintain their quality.Quote:
Originally Posted by Petra
asura took the word out of my mouth. I'm a not a jeweler but know some stuff about chemistry, medicine teaches a lot of stuff you won't need for treating humans, so I too would say it's the deposit originating from that copper-sulphate solution you're using as a biocide. Must be you put a bit more of it in the loop or it has higher concentration of it... Manufacturing mistake or something... Dunno...