How to remove gold plating from a silver ring at home

Since ancient times, gold has always had the highest value. This precious metal acts not only as a guarantor of currency, but also as various types of jewelry that show the status of its owner.

That is why gold rings, chains, earrings, bracelets, etc. are the most luxurious and desirable gift. However, not many people think that gold can be used to create technology, in particular radio components.

This article will introduce you to such interesting information and answer the question: how to extract gold from radio components?

How to remove gold plating from silver yourself?

Gilding is a gold coating on a silver product, which is performed in two ways: fire gilding and electrolysis.
Fire gilding was banned back in the 19th century because the process released mercury vapor, which led to blindness. Modern gilding is done using electrolysis, and in order for a product to be considered gold-plated, it must be covered with a layer of gold of at least 385 and a coating thickness of at least 2.5 microns. Professional jewelers use grinding, acid, and other procedures to remove gold plating. If you want to do it yourself, you can resort to less effective at-home methods using gentle hand cleaning with certain cleaners and polishes.

1. You will need a fine-grained sandpaper or a brush with natural bristles. Rub the item vigorously to remove the gold plating. If necessary, apply a paste of baking soda and water to the sandpaper or brush to increase abrasiveness. Depending on how uneven the surface of the piece is, this process can take a long time, but as a result, gold may still remain in the folds and depressions.

2. If there are very small irregularities, also rub them with a toothbrush. Carefully remove any grains of gold plating remaining in the corners with a needle. Be careful because the needle may scratch the silver underneath the gold, which will require professional repairs from a jeweler.

3. To restore the shine of the silver that was under the gold plating, polish it with a polishing paste such as Tripoli and a felt cloth. Although silver is harder than gold, the process of removing the gold plating will leave scratches and possibly nicks. Polishing pastes vary, so it's best to consult a jeweler before you begin polishing. Polishing too hard can also leave scratches. It's best to start with a medium-strength polish.

4. When finished polishing, rub the piece with red polish and a soft cloth to restore the shine and shine of the silver. Be patient and rub thoroughly.

5. Finally, buff your silver piece with a soft cloth and a good quality silver polish. If after this you do not like the appearance of the item, you will have to take it to the jeweler to complete the procedure.

— Instead of baking soda, you can use metal polish, especially if the gold plating is very thin. Commercial polishes usually leave the silver in better condition and help restore its shine.

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How to add shine and remove blackness

Sometimes cupronickel knives and forks lose their former shine and begin to turn black. This is a common drawback of cupronickel alloy. The cause of color loss is most often high humidity. The following methods will help:

Cleaning with soda. Baking soda is turned into a paste and rubbed onto cutlery. Then they are washed and dried, and if necessary, the procedure is repeated again.
Using ammonia. The devices are wiped with ammonia and rubbed until shiny with a dry cloth.
Cleaning with chalk. Chalk and laundry soap shavings are mixed with a liter of water so that a saturated composition is obtained. Cupronickel is placed there and cleaned. After the procedure, everything is rinsed and dried.
Eggshells will help remove old stains. The shells of two eggs are mixed with a liter of water and boiled. The devices are immersed in the hot solution for 20 minutes, and upon removal, they are rinsed and dried.
Potato decoction is good for getting rid of blackness. The products are dipped into boiling potato broth for at least a quarter of an hour and then taken out. Rinse everything with clean water and rub until shiny.
Garlic peel. It is added to boiling water and boiled. Cupronickel silver spoons and forks are placed there, which, when removed after a quarter of an hour, begin to shine.
Cleaning with food foil. An original and effective method. A sheet of foil is placed at the bottom of the aluminum container, and the cutlery is laid out on it. Pour a baking soda solution over everything and boil. During this time, a reaction occurs, as a result of which the foil picks up contaminants. Upon removal, everything is washed under the tap and rubbed. The products will shine. Such cleaning with foil cannot be carried out with gold and silver plating, as the reaction will inevitably damage it.

Cleaning cupronickel is a simple task that requires a minimum of effort and money. The above cleaning methods are effective and safe. They guarantee high-quality care and long service life of cupronickel cutlery.

Service life of gilding on products

Not only women, but also men love gold jewelry. But not everyone can afford to purchase a product made of pure gold. For such people, there are other jewelry that is less expensive. They are made of silver, but the gilding used for coating makes the product visually similar to gold.

If such jewelry is not examined in detail, it can easily be mistaken for real gold. A counterfeit can only be detected by cutting or using special chemical reagents. This is convenient for clients, but is it worth saving without knowing how long such decoration will last and whether it will lose its appearance over time?

Gold-plated products are in great demand due to their affordable price and visual resemblance to real gold. But if the wearing rules are not followed, the gilding can quickly wear out and will have to be restored.

Gold plated item

The service life of gilding directly depends on the owner - on how he will wear his jewelry and monitor its condition. There are several simple rules, the observance of which will allow you to preserve the gilding on jewelry for a long period of time:

You should not sleep with gold-plated items on; before going to bed, it is better to remove them and put them in a box or on the nightstand.
During physical labor, it is better to remove gold-plated jewelry. When interacting with sweat, the gilding is destroyed.
There is no need to wear gold-plated jewelry on your hands when working with chemical elements. These are not necessarily aggressive substances used by chemists. Simple washing or washing dishes using special products has a detrimental effect on gold plating.
It is also recommended to remove gold-plated rings when working with soil in the garden or with various materials that can scratch the top layer of the product. It must be remembered that gold-plated objects scratch faster than gold ones, and this is clearly visible on them.
It is important to properly clean products when necessary. There are many methods that can be used at home. For example, soak it in beer for half an hour, and then rinse thoroughly in water. You can dilute detergent and ammonia in water and keep the jewelry in this solution. But it is important not to overexpose it, because ammonia corrodes the gold, and it is better to use it only if it is heavily soiled.

If these rules are followed, a gold-plated product can serve for many years without changing its appearance. It is better to wear it only when you are going to visit or receive guests. The rest of the time it is better to store it in a box.

But the service life of gilding also depends on the standard of the metal that is used for it. In Russia, a sample of 999 or 750 is used for this, less often 585. This is a fairly high sample that allows it to be preserved on the product for a long time. Foreign jewelry is covered with less high-grade material, so it lasts less.

Methods for removing gold plating

There are several ways to remove gold plating from the desired item. It is important to understand that if we remove an unnecessary layer from a piece of jewelry, trying to bring it back to its divine form, we can do this at home. But if high-quality processing is necessary, it is better to trust an experienced specialist.

The purpose of removing the gold plating is also important. Some people remove the gold plating from radio components to get the remainder of the gold. This process is simple, but does not provide much profit. Gold obtained by this method is not suitable for sale. It can only be used for soldering damaged products. And to obtain it you need to have a lot of parts and expensive reagents.

Professional methods

Experienced specialists have all the necessary equipment for electrochemical cleaning. They know how to remove gold plating from silver using an electrolyte, which is a 7% solution of potassium cyanide and distilled water. A copper plate is used as a cathode.

Electrolytic fluid is required to remove gold plating.

The product is placed in a bath of electrolytic liquid, into which a copper plate is inserted. Then a voltage of 3.5 volts is applied, under the influence of which a chemical reaction occurs. As a bath, you can use a jar tightly closed with a lid. It must not be opened, otherwise you may get poisoned by the hydrogen sulfide vapors released.

When the product is processed, it is removed and washed thoroughly. If there is still gilding on the silver jewelry, it can be removed with a brush. When using this method, it is important not to overexpose the product. If it is exposed to reagents for a long time, its appearance may deteriorate. It is also important to take care of your own health. It is useful to wear a mask on your face and rubber gloves on your hands.

Methods for removing gold plating at home

You can remove gold plating from silver using chemicals. Most often, the so-called “royal vodka” is used for this. The method allows you to remove gilding without harming the base material from which the product is made. When working, you must use protective equipment.

The following steps need to be taken:

First of all, you need to cover with a protective layer those places in the product where the gilding has worn off and the silver is visible. To do this, use a special substance in the form of a paste.
If the product contains elements from other materials, they should be disassembled and only the gold-plated parts should be selected.
Prepare a porcelain cup.
Make “royal vodka”. To do this, you need to mix concentrated acids - nitric and hydrochloric in a ratio of 1:3. It must be prepared immediately before use, because its properties are weakened during storage.
Place the product in a cup and fill it with the resulting reagent.
Heat the cup, but do not bring to a boil.
A spot of silver chloride will begin to appear on the surface of the liquid, which is a signal that it is time to interrupt the process. At this time you need to remove the decoration.
Rinse the product with ammonia.
If there is any gilding left, clean it with a brush.

This method can be used at home. But in order to carry out high-quality cleaning of gilding, you need to have experience working with such items. A beginner can easily ruin the product. Therefore, if you are not sure of the successful completion of the case, it is better to turn to a professional.

The nuances of removing gold plating from radio components

It's no secret that some radio components are plated with pure gold, which is why they are so expensive. This fact prompts many lovers of easy money to separate the precious metal from other materials.

But there are methods that can be applied at home with minimal cost. To extract gold from gold-plated radio components, you can use tools that many have at hand. To do this you need to prepare:

Electrolyte used in 200-300ml batteries.
Ammonium, potassium or sodium nitrate, which is used as a fertilizer in agriculture - 100g.
A container with a lid, possibly plastic.
Gold-plated radio component, weighing 70-100g.

The electrolyte can be used to remove gold plating.
The electrolyte and saltpeter are mixed in a container. Normally, the solution should become cold. The part is placed in the solution, and the container with it in a water bath is brought to a boil. It must be closed with a lid in which a small hole has been previously made so that steam can escape. When the reaction begins, remove the container to a cool place for half an hour. Then a little water is added to the solution, after which it is filtered. The gold remains on the filter.

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Wine alcohol

This method helps to quickly get rid of greenish stains that can appear on gold-plated silver items. Let's consider the procedure.

Add 1 tsp to a liter of warm water. soap (you can rub the bar on a fine grater or just take liquid).
Add ammonia to the resulting soapy liquid - 6 drops.
Mix the resulting solution.
Immerse the products in it for half an hour.
Rinse the silver.

The final stage is to polish the gilding with a suede cloth.

Silver cannot be kept in solution for longer than prescribed; this will not make it cleaner, and the gilding layer may peel off.

This substance helps to quickly and effortlessly remove stains from a gold-plated item without spoiling it. How to proceed?

Soak a sponge in alcohol.
Rub the product until completely clean.

Finally, you can also use a piece of suede, then the products will shine like new.

Take 1 tbsp. l. Vaseline, chalk, water and pre-grated laundry soap.
Using a soft cloth, gold-plated products are carefully coated with this composition. You can’t rub it, you just need to apply the product to the surface.
Wait 10 minutes.
Rinse the items and rub them with suede.

If you strictly follow the recommendations, the method is completely safe. The chalk must be thoroughly crushed to a powdery state.

Chemical method

This method involves removing gold using aqua regia. This is a very delicate operation and the process boils down to removing the gilding from silver without damaging the underlying metal. Therefore, with this method, the parts of the coin on which the silver shines through must first be covered with asphalt.

Important! All coins must be cleaned to a shine before processing.

The instructions for this method boil down to the following steps:

Place the heated coin in a porcelain cup with aqua regia.
Heat the cup with the coin in a sand bath (not to a boil). With this treatment, the gilding will begin to slowly come off.
As soon as dark spots of formed silver chloride begin to appear, remove the coins.
Rinse the products thoroughly in water.
Briefly immerse coins in ammonia solution (to remove silver chloride deposits).
Remove any remaining gilding using a brush.

What hazards do chemical reactions and processes entail?

Naturally, you need to understand that any work with acids can have serious consequences.

For example, working with aqua regia, or rather the refining process where metals are dissolved, takes about six hours.

In this case, a strong release of nitric oxide occurs.

Therefore, in no case should such work be carried out in closed lighting; the windows must be open so that fresh air has a constant opportunity to enter the room.

One breath of poisoned air with oxides can cause a sudden and painful death, since doctors simply do not have time to provide first aid.

Basic Rules

To properly clean gold-plated silver and not cause harm to it, you must adhere to the following rules.

Chalk and tooth powder, of course, can remove dirt, but they will scratch the surface of the product itself, so they cannot be used.
For work, you cannot use products intended for cleaning both gold and silver.
If the dirt is not severe, a piece of suede cloth will help get rid of it. It will also allow you to polish the cleaned jewelry and give it shine.
Some gold-plated chains have clasps made of base metal, so they may rust if exposed to water. This is why the part of the jewelry with the clasp is not immersed in an aqueous solution.

The first stage of cleaning gold-plated silver is degreasing the contamination, for which the surface should be wiped with ethyl alcohol (pure) or vinegar diluted with water (2 tablespoons per glass).

If the contamination is minor, a soap solution is the easiest and most convenient way to return silver to its former glory. Mix 2 tsp in a liter of water. grated soap, after which the jewelry is immersed in the liquid. They must be gently rubbed with a sponge, then rinsed.

Cleaning Rules

A gold-plated item is different from silver or gold, so the methods used for them are absolutely not suitable. Gold plating is very easy to ruin. The first stage of cleaning is the removal of surface dirt - dust, stains, grease. To do this, it is enough to treat the surface with alcohol or turpentine.

Gold plating is soft, so it is not recommended to use strong mechanical impact, as there is a risk of damage to the surface. Suede fabric is excellent for care; it adds shine to products and removes stains. To clean a gold-plated watch, sometimes it is enough to treat it with suede. If you need to clean gold-plated silverware, remove any grease from it first.

Before processing, perform the following steps:

Take a clean, dry cloth and wipe the gold with it. Flannel, suede and wool are perfect for this.
Then remove surface dirt.

Electrochemical method

During electrical processing, the coin is placed in an electrolytic bath (as an anode). The cathode in this case is a copper plate. The electrolyte is prepared from a 7% solution of potassium cyanide in distilled water. After processing, the coins must be removed from the bath, rinsed under running water, and the remaining gilding must be removed with a brush.

Important! As in the first method, so in the second, only part of the gilding will be removed.

To remove gold plating at home you need to purchase:

teourea (from a microcircuit store);
electrolyte for batteries;
power supply with variable polarity and voltage;
distilled water.

To process a coin, follow these steps:

Prepare electrolyte in the proportions specified for this operation.
Prepare a glass jar with a tight-fitting lid.
Place a coin on the anode.
Make the cathode from stainless steel (or titanium).
Apply a voltage of 3.5-4 V.

Important! The jar must be tightly covered, since hydrogen sulfide will be released during processing, and it is harmful to health.

Javel water and protein

Another effective remedy to help clean gold-plated items. Javel water can be purchased in specialized stores or marked as “White”. The sequence of actions is as follows:

beat 1 egg white - with a fork, whisk or mixer;
add 1.5 tbsp to it. l. "Whiteness" or Javel water;
Place the decoration into the resulting thick mixture;
gently rub the product with a sponge;
rinse.

You should work with gloves to avoid damaging the skin of your hands.

This is one of the simplest and safest ways to update the appearance of gold plating and remove minor stains. Rub the decoration or cutlery with onions, leave for an hour and a half, then rinse and wipe.

You can simply place the product that needs cleaning in onion pulp, which is easy to prepare: pass the vegetable through a meat grinder or blender.

This method will not help get rid of stubborn stains, but will return the product's shine and lightly clean the metal.

200 ml of water is poured into the pan.
Add 1 tsp. salt.
The solution is placed on gas and heated.
Products are immersed in it, brought to a boil and boiled for 15 minutes.

Prevention and care rules

The gold plating wears off over time. Constant use leads to a gradual thinning of the spray layer. By following some recommendations you can extend the service life. Rules for caring for gold-plated products:

Regularly polish cutlery and decorations using a suede cloth.
Minimize contact with water, perfume and body creams.
Place each product separately, so that they do not touch each other. After each use of jewelry, put it back in place. Distribute each decoration into separate suede bags, and cutlery into special boxes.

Clean regularly, regardless of whether the product has lost its attractive appearance or not.

Cutlery made of cupronickel, as well as silver, is found in almost every home. So I, while cleaning out my parents’ closets, came across a small box with teaspoons made of cupronickel with gold plating. But after lying unnecessarily for thirty years, they acquired a very deplorable appearance.

In search of information on how to clean cupronickel spoons, I looked through a lot of different sites and found many fairly simple ways to eliminate this terrible coating on spoons. In practice, I decided to try several cleaning options using simple home remedies as an experiment.

To begin with, I tried to simply wash the spoons using my usual dishwashing detergent, but this, of course, had no effect on the plaque.

So we'll experiment. 1 way. Cover the bottom of a stainless (or enamel) container with foil and place spoons. Pour in 60 g of soda ash and 40 g of salt.

Fill with hot water so that the objects are completely covered with it. Place the container on the stove and boil for 15 minutes over low heat (so that the signs of boiling are barely noticeable). The spoons begin to lighten right before our eyes.

We rinse them with clean water to remove traces of soda and salt, and wipe them dry with a soft cloth. There was no trace left of the black spots.

This cleaning method is not recommended if nickel silver items have gold plating. But I still took the risk. The gilding has become somewhat lighter, but this is not a problem.

Method 2. Apply a little toothpaste to a cotton pad (you can also use powder) and rub the nickel silver spoon, of course, with a little effort. And the spoons sparkled again with their original shine. What an effect!

3 way. Pour a liter of water into a saucepan, put it on fire, throw in the crushed shells of two eggs (raw) and 30 g of salt.

As soon as the water boils, we place cupronickel spoons in it, boil for literally two minutes, and... all efforts were in vain. The spoons have not changed at all.

Method 4 is intended specifically for nickel silver with gilding. Wet a ball of cotton wool with apple cider vinegar (you can also use egg white, turpentine or wine vinegar) and rub the spoon with it thoroughly. Alas! Again no positive result. I even tried to soak the spoon in a pure vinegar solution for several minutes, but to no avail.

5 way. Grate the peeled potato tuber on a fine grater and dip cupronickel spoons into the pulp.

Perhaps this cleaning method is the safest, since there is no need to rub or boil, much less use chemicals. Only natural ingredients. True, there is no sense in it either. All the blackness remained in place.

Here are 5 ways I've tried to clean cupronickel silver cutlery. What I liked most was the option using toothpaste. It was with this that I cleaned all the spoons that took part (to no avail) in other experiments. The paste instantly removes all the blackness.

Removing gilding from other objects

If you want to set up a gold mining business at home, we will offer you several options for removing precious metal from the coating of various objects.

Sometimes it is necessary to remove a layer of expensive metal from various gold-plated objects and get back valuable material.

Important! Gold can be mined from microcircuits, transistors, connectors and other radio components, and even SIM cards.

Why is gold used to coat radio components, and not silver, because from the point of view of electrical conductivity, silver metal has lower electrical resistivity? The fact is that silver undergoes oxidation over time. Gold has inert properties, which means it does not oxidize when interacting with atmospheric air and does not enter into a chemical reaction with other elements of the periodic system.

Important! Gold is used in the manufacture of electrical contacts, as it is considered more reliable and durable.

Extraction of gold from radio components using an oxidizing agent

The etching method (chemical) is based on the inertness of gold. Precious metal can only react with halogens when heated. Therefore, to dissolve gold, a very strong metal oxidizing agent is needed. This is what “Royal Vodka” is.

Preparing “Royal Vodka”

“Royal vodka” can be prepared at home.
To do this you need: You need to take them in a volume ratio of 1 to 3. “Royal vodka” has a strong smell of chlorine and nitrogen dioxide. The self-prepared liquid is colorless, but soon turns orange. When concentrated acids interact, a mixture of highly active products is formed, which make “Royal Vodka” one of the most powerful oxidizing agents.

Important! It is better to prepare the mixture immediately before using it, since during storage, aqua regia decomposes to form gaseous products. In addition, during storage the product loses its oxidizing abilities.

The principle of operation of the product

The etching process is as follows: the gold-plated elements of radio components are eaten away by acid. As a result, all metals except inert gold will dissolve in the acid. The precious metal will simply float in the acid solution in the form of a thin gold foil, and to collect it you must carefully filter the solution through a cloth.

Important! You cannot use medical gauze for filtering, as it has large holes.

Removing the gilding

Extract gold as follows:

Carefully separate the gold-plated elements from all the others. For example, remove the contacts from the connectors, and cut off the metal caps with wire cutters and remove them. Remember that procurement of raw materials is a rather labor-intensive process.
Prepare a container made of glass, stone or porcelain.
Now you should prepare “Royal Vodka”. Mix hydrochloric and nitric acids. We obtain a strong oxidizing agent - nitrosyl chloride, which reacts with gold.
Pour the prepared mixture into a container.
Throw the part into nitrosyl chloride, wait a bit. Now you should have what is called “chlorine gold”.
To isolate pure gold, you need to add sodium sulfide (sodium sulfide) to the resulting solution.
The end result will be gold, which still needs to be collected. To do this, separate the damaged radio components from the test tube with gold.
Filter the resulting yellow precious metal powder from the rest of the solution using a thick cloth.
Wash, dry, and melt the resulting dust into a gold bar.

Important! Obtaining gold by this method has one drawback - the precious metal is mined with losses, as well as with an admixture of other elements, so the resulting gold must be further purified.

Obtaining gilding using “Royal Vodka”

A solution is prepared from nitric and hydrochloric acid in a ratio of 1:3 in a glass, porcelain or stone container. The resulting oxidizing agent, nitrosyl chloride, should be prepared shortly before use.

Radio components are placed into the prepared mixture, then sodium sulfide is added to the solution. Parts damaged by acid must be removed from the container, and the separated gold must be collected using a fabric filter and dried.

It is possible to benefit only if you have a large number of radio components and a sufficient supply of acids.
It is easier and more convenient to sell existing parts to licensed companies and immediately receive cash for it, because There are criminal penalties for selling illegally mined gold. ◄ Back to news

Lemon acid

It’s easy to prepare a composition that helps clean homemade gold-plated silver items.

Pour ½ liter of water into an enamel pan.
Add a packet of citric acid (15 g) to it.
Place the container on the fire and bring to a boil.
Place decorations in boiling liquid.
Boil them for 15-20 minutes.

Next, the products must be cooled and rinsed. This method is suitable for cleaning tarnished jewelry and gold-plated cutlery.

We extract gold using electrolysis

For this method you will need:

container made of heat-resistant glass or porcelain;
50 g of potassium cyanide;
1 liter of distilled water;
iron or silver plates are used as a cathode.

Proceed as follows:

Hang the cleaned gold-plated objects on the positive electrode (anode).
Dip into the bath with the prepared solution.
Turn on DC voltage between 12 and 15 V.

Important! At a voltage of 12-15 volts, gold will form a film on the cathode. At a higher level - in the form of a sponge.

Important! Good results can be obtained if you use concentrated sulfuric acid as an electrolyte and a lead plate for the cathode. The voltage should be 3-4 V.

Compared to the chemical method, the electrolytic method of removing gold plating is simpler and more effective, since it produces a larger amount of gold removed.

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In the USSR, the entire watch industry produced large quantities of wristwatches with yellow cases. But not everyone knew that the case was gold-plated. Over time, the mechanisms have already broken down, but thrifty people feel sorry for throwing them away, so they lie in some vase or box, collecting dust.

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The content of the article:

Perhaps you also have a watch with an amazing Soviet-made mechanism lying around at home.

How to collect watches from the population?

There is one effective way to collect gold-plated watches from the population, which does not require any special expenses. It should be noted that people carry them in such quantities that every watchmaker would envy. In a city with a population of 200-250 thousand inhabitants, one point is capable of collecting more than 200 yellow cases per day.

At any market there is a stall selling small goods made in China. The product can be different: headphones, bicycle parts, calendars in the Geek Porno style, etc. It is necessary to reach an agreement with the owner of the outlet, explaining to him all the benefits of your joint cooperation. In order for the retail outlet to turn into a collection point at the same time, it is necessary to make a bright sign that attracts attention: “Exchange of old watches.” Make small pockets in the same sign where you can place leaflets containing the requirements.

Benefit for the stall owner

1. The sign “Exchange of old watches” attracts the attention of the consumer audience (many become curious about what kind of exchange this is).

2. The owner of a small trading stall attracts new customers who, most likely, would not have bought anything from him if they were not interested in the possibility of exchanging old, out-of-order mechanisms for new ones or another item (thus he will increase sales).

3. It will not be difficult for the seller to give instructions and explanations for the exchange.

People bring watches, if they meet the requirements, then they exchange them for a new product, and we subsequently buy them from the seller at a price of $0.5 to $1. The seller must provide 2 samples - 1 gold-plated case and 1 yellow case that does not have gold in its coating (made in China). In the second case, we refuse the exchange, citing the fact that they are not suitable.

Technological process of gold extraction

People should not be told that the case is gold-plated, but those who know probably understand that the thickness of the coating is small and they are not of particular value. From the case of a men's watch comes 1 gram of 850 gold. Almost any jeweler can buy gold of this standard at a price of $10 per gram.

As for the technological process of extracting precious metal, the following materials and equipment will be needed:

• plastic basin;

• a small saucepan made of heat-resistant glass;

As you can see, the equipment is quite simple and inexpensive. The cases must be processed not one piece at a time, but in batches of 200-300 pieces. It takes about 4 hours to process this amount. Acid consumption is 3-4 liters. The extracted gold is of high purity - 850.

Let's make an economic calculation for this enterprise: Costs: costs for purchasing a batch of 200 cases. x0.5$ = 100$; purchase of 3 liters of acid x $1.5 = $4.5. Total: $100 + $4.5 = $104.5. Income: 200 pcs. / 4 things. = 50 g gold; 50 g x $10 = $500; $500 – $104.5 = $395.5 – your net profit per week. Read more profitable small business ideas here.

Pros and cons of the gold mining business

Pros:

1. This business does not require large amounts of time, with the exception of the time to organize a collection point, make a sign, place an advertisement, and then collect the collected watches from the retail outlet only once a week. There is an opportunity not to leave your main job, but to use this business as an additional source of income.

2. High business profitability with low financial costs.

3. The technology for extracting gold is simple and therefore accessible to everyone.

4. There are no problems with the sale of the finished product.

5. After processing, the mechanisms remain intact and unharmed, which can later be sold to watchmakers.

Minuses:

1. Breathing nitric acid fumes is harmful, but this can be avoided if you follow proper safety precautions.

What can be used to clean such products?

Since gold-plated jewelry is quite vulnerable, the cleaning process should be approached with special care. Not all means can be used in this case. The following will be safe: