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, In a word, no. I designed all of the computer controlled silver recovery equipment for both IMG Photo Products and PCSE (Photo Chem Systems & Engineering). The amount of solution required to recover a detectable amount, is in the 20, 40, 60, 80 gallon range, depending upon the amount of clear areas on your neg's and prints. The steel wool canisters will go rotten before enough silver is recovered to be detectable. Rotary plating equipment costs more than the amount of silver you would retrieve in 20 years. I have a very small plating unit and it was never worthwhile to use it. It just takes a lot of solution to recover real silver. Some of it sulfides or otherwise doesn't properly plate out, some doesn't exchange (steel wool), so unless you have a commercial lab, mini lab, x-ray processing machine, etc..., producing a considerable volume of fixer or bleach-fix, it's not worth thinking about. And you won't find a refiner that will deal with minuscule amounts, so recovering the silver from the plating cathode or steel wool bucket is impossible. Unless you know someone in the business. You could ask these questions of Drew Refinery in Berkeley, if they are still there. Jim At 01:23 PM 3/7/99 -0600, you wrote: >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? >