Archived posting to the Leica Users Group, 1999/03/07
[Author Prev] [Author Next] [Thread Prev] [Thread Next] [Author Index] [Topic Index] [Home] [Search]George, silver's so cheap right now, that you'd have to go through a lot of fixer to make recovery pay for itself. However, there's the environmental angle to consider too. I extract silver this way: I buy the finest-grade steel wool I can find, and, if it's not sold as oil-free, I tear off maybe 1/4 of a pad, wash it in hot detergent, stuff it in a funnel, and run my spent fixer through it a few times. What's left, I dry, and eventually, will probably take to a local photo lab, to be tossed in with their own reclaimed silver. Looks mostly like a blackish sludge and steel wool. Alternately, you can probably take a couple of copper sheets hook them up to a spare 12V battery, and directly extract metallic silver onto the plates, but you will want some means of circulating the fixer over them. Jeff - -----Original Message----- From: George Huczek <ghuczek@sk.sympatico.ca> >At what point does it become economically feasible to investigate silver >recovery techniques? My total volume of used fixer for print and paper >developing only amounts to a few gallons a year. With this small amount, >is silver recovery even worth considering? >