Vaughn wrote:
"Jeff Wisnia" wrote in message
...

Abrasha wrote:
I noticed the pieces of paper in the lathe photos, I take it gold swarf
doesn't get tossed out with the trash. G


No way! Dental labs save all of their vacuum cleaner bags and even roll up
their carpets once a year or so and send all of that stuff to a refiner. They
get back fat checks.

Vaughn





Yeah, I remember at my dad's jewelry plant the "wash sink", at which the
"polishers" rinsed the rouge off jewelry and their hands, sat on top of
and drained into what must have been a 70 gallon wooden "beer barrel"
rigged so that the sludge settled to the bottom like it does in a septic
tank.

Similar to the dental labs you mentioned, someone had to dig out that
awful sludge from the barrel and transfer it into steel drums which got
sent to the refiners.

The "bench men" wore aprons whose bottom corners fastened to hooks on
the underside of their "workstations" so that the precious metal filings
and drill shavings landed on the cloth. When they got up, they
unfastened the aprons and shook the stuff in them into a metal basket
fitted with a cover.

I still remember my dad going into orbit one morning when the regular
night janitor was out and a temp came in who didn't know the routine.
The guy dutifully dumped the contents of that can when it was nearly
full enough to send to the refiners. Why it wasn't marked "Not Trash"
before that happened is beyond me. G

You know, I often wondered how honest the refiners hwere about the
recovery value of what got sent to them. Maybe it was a kinder and
gentler time back then.

Thanks for the mammaries,

Jeff

P.S. Here in Taxachusetts the dentists have to rig the spit sinks at
each of their chairs with filtration systems to trap whatever solids
their patients expectorate, to keep mercury from drilled out amalgam
fillings from ending up in the sewage. Seems a bit of a stretch to me
though. It was probably lobbied for like Hell by the sellers of those
filters.

--
Jeffry Wisnia

(W1BSV + Brass Rat '57 EE)

"Truth exists; only falsehood has to be invented."