Carl-- I'll take a swing at your questions point-by-point...and welcome critique from others.
1) The more silver surface submerged, the greater the efficiency. (Make sure the coins are on perfectly parallel planes). If efficiency is desired, I perceive some awkwardness in your configuration: Your clips are attached to the coins themselves (If I understand correctly), yet the clips must remain dry or become involved in the electrolysis (dangerous), so part of the silver rounds must peek above the upper plexiglass surface. To immerse as much of the coin as possible, the water must be full up to the lid, but without wetting the clips. The slot in the plexiglass may not actually constitute a seal, but if it did, the part of the coin occupying the thickness of the lid would still be 'wasted.' To resolve this dilemma, I'd completely submerge the coins by dangling them from silver wires (or a silver anode wire and a stainless steel cathode wire). The alligator clips can then be isolated from the water both by distance (lowering the water level) and a better seal (drilling holes to exactly match the wire gauges). This would be easier to construct than cutting slots with a Dremmel tool, and many materials would suffice for lid marterial. This allow the water level to be below the brim of the pot. Of course, this would obviate contact between the plexiglass and the product, but that is of no concern, chemically. The advantage would lie in total colloidalization of the .9999 coins, and ease of handling the pot without spilling part of your CS batch. 2) Listers have reported that temperatures over 120F are counter-productive. 3) Is a ScothBrite CLOTH different than the green PAD? Some polishing cloths contain a corrosive acid, and leave an oily residue that coats the metal to prevent tarnishing (oxidation)--bad! However, I see no distict advantage in cleaning the electrodes at all during the process (I incorporate constant stirring). IMO, even the abrasive pads only serve to waste silver. 4) One controversial point about coffee filters regards white paper's contaning dioxins, etc. while brown paper might actually be DYED that way as a deceptive marketing practice. My objection to paper filters is that they are uneccesarily slow conpared to a womens' nylon "knee-high" stocking stretched over the top of a jar. Because agglomeration agglomerates, this technique seems to expeditiously remove all visible residues. --Russ ----- Original Message ----- From: Carl George To: Silver List Sent: Sunday, March 24, 2002 12:34 PM Subject: CS>Questions on my procedure for making CS Hello, listers; I would just like to run my procedure for making CS over you, and see if you can see anything I am doing wrong. I have got a lot of my friends taking CS. I am making it for them, and giving it to them. So now, instead of just making it for myself, I am making it for myself and about 9 other people. The CS generator I had bought was very good when I was just making it for myself, but when I started providing it for my friends, I had to come up with another way of making it in volume. This is what I came up with: I bought a GE 4 quart slow cooker. Using the lid as a template, I cut that lid shape out of 1/8’’ plexiglass. In middle of the plexiglass, about 1 1/2’’ apart, I cut two holes, large enough for 2 Canadian Maple Leaf Dollars (.9999 silver) to go into. I made the holes just large enough so that part of the Maple Leaf dollar could stick up, but all of the dollar could not be pulled up through it. Then I got a AC-DC converter (from 120 v. ac to 24 volts dc); cut the end off of it, and attached two alligator clips to it thence to the coins. I also put a bubbler in the side of the lid. Every three hours, I try to clean the Maple Leaf dollars. After about 6 hours, I stop the process, and strain the CS through a coffee filter ( first, I run a glass full of distilled water through the coffee filter). Normally, I get a reading of about 15 ppm with a Hanna tester, which after agglomeration is about 10-12 ppm. It is always clear. Doing it this way, I can make about a gallon of clear, 10-12 ppm CS every 6 hours. Specifically, my questions are: (1). Is the plexiglass material sufficient to serve as a lid to the CS ( will the CS react with plexiglass? So far as I can tell, it does not, but I want to make sure. Once the temperature gets high enough, the plexiglass will warp, but what Iam worried about is could the CS react with the plexiglass causing compounds that I should not be drinking.) (2). Is the temperature too high. When I turn the crock pot on warm, it keeps the temperature at about 140 degrees F. Is that too high? (3). I clean the silver dollars first with a kleenex , and then brush it with a detail brush, and then wipe it with a Scot Brite cloth. The first time, I even cleaned the silver dollars by dunking them into a silver jewelry cleaner, and then cleaning them in the above manner. Is this method of cleaning OK? The dollars look very shiny when I do. (4). Filterring. I read in some of the archives, that there might be a possibility of some kind of contaminants coming through the coffee filter. How big a danger would this be? I always have some "crud" in the bottom of the crock pot, or some what appears to be silver stuff floating . I feel that I have to filter it someway. I am relatively new to making CS, and I just want to make sure that what I am doing is not going to produce some compound that is harmful to my body. Thanking you in advance. Carl
