Stripping Sn/Pb solder from pins

Or, melt the entire pin off the connector. The melting point of pure gold is over 1000 C! That is REALLY hot. White hot, and you can't be near it without singing the hair off your arms, using dark goggles, etc.

But, a small pot of gold would probably be worth several thousand $ at the very least. One Troy ounce is a tiny little bead.

Jon

That said, you might be able to rub on some amalgam...

Don't forget to stick it in the oven for a little while so it doesn't outgas mercury in the final setting ;-)

Tim

If you think all that is fun, read this and the comments to continue the fun. "How Not to Do It: Tertiary Butyllithium"

I had my share of that fun with Lithium Aluminum Hydride. I was a novice chemical researcher, the only undergrad in the summer research program, so a wise and kindly grad student offered to chisel off a chunk of the concrete-like mass for me, and set it all on fire with the second blow. We just closed the fume hood door and enjoyed the bright red fireworks display. jsw

remember seeing that blog long time ago

this one is a really interesting read

-Lasse

I always hated it when my professors would refer to a hydrogen ion as a "proton". Sure that's all it is, a naked proton, but there is a world of difference in terms of how it is considered. The LHC isn't trying to etch glass or any other chemically mediated reaction. Likewise etching circuit boards doesn't really demand the calculations performed when setting up a particle accelerator. Very different worlds... so why make it sound like they are merged significantly by using the nuclear term "proton" instead of calling it a hydrogen ion. All the other atoms are just clumps of protons and neutrons too, but we refer to their ions as... well, ions.

I'd be interested to know how you finally solve this.

Sure, Tom.. it may be one of those things where I make my best recommendations on how to do a top quality job and it ends up being done differently for other reasons. There's a lot of $$ at stake. Caswell has a gold brush plating setup for a quite reasonable price, but everything involves some risk.