Secret Formula??

Wishbone

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Jan 5, 2014
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I saw a small bottle of "Gold Drop" on line for $8.00. It is suppose to break the surface tension and help gold sink, not float. Apparently they don't list the ingredients on the bottle (or so I was told), like it's some sort of Area 51 secret or something. These people aren't just squirting "Jet Dry" into smaller bottles and selling it...are they??
 

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Wishbone

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lol...your right, no ones talking. The formula is probably locked away with the Cadbury secret.
 

SusanMN

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Does gold ever float? Didn't know that.
 

bigfoot1

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dawn dishwashing detergent.what a ripoff !!! :occasion14:
 

hvacker

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Does gold ever float? Didn't know that.


It does when it's very fine dust and the water is hard. A lot is lost panning in streams because stream minerals harden the water.
Dawn breaks the surface tension allowing the gold to get caught if lucky.
Soap makes water wetter.
 

Jason in Enid

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I saw a small bottle of "Gold Drop" on line for $8.00. It is suppose to break the surface tension and help gold sink, not float. Apparently they don't list the ingredients on the bottle (or so I was told), like it's some sort of Area 51 secret or something. These people aren't just squirting "Jet Dry" into smaller bottles and selling it...are they??

Yes, thats exactly what they are doing.
 

watercolor

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Has anyone ever tried Kodak Photo-Flo 200?
I used it when processing B&W film (back in the day) and it broke the surface tension of the final rinse water so it wouldn't leave any spots on the film when it dried.

As far as I know, it's still available from B&H Photo for about $8.00 per 16-oz bottle.
 

Jason in Enid

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It does when it's very fine dust and the water is hard. A lot is lost panning in streams because stream minerals harden the water.
Dawn breaks the surface tension allowing the gold to get caught if lucky.
Soap makes water wetter.

It doesn't even have to be dust. You can float flakes of gold. It has to do with one of the properties of gold; it is hydrophobic. That means water doesn't like to adhere to gold, so if air can get around the gold it likes to sit on top of the surface tension of the water. Thats where surfactants like "jet dry" helps.
 

Dr. Syn

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Feb 15, 2011
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Dawn can do most anything from washing ducks to making gold sink. I've tried others but nothing's that good.
JetDry isn't bad though.

Dawn works wonders too if you are spraying for weeds. Plants tend to have a oil or waxy nature that repels water. And as such so too the weed killer it carries.
Couple drops of Dawn and the spray sticks like glue. Bye Bye weeds.
 

Jason in Enid

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You have to be more careful with soap because it will create suds and foam which can also suspend gold. Thats why products like jet-dry are popular, they dont foam as much as soaps, but if you over do it, they will. You only need a few drops in a typical recirculatory system.
 

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Wishbone

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You have to be more careful with soap because it will create suds and foam which can also suspend gold. Thats why products like jet-dry are popular, they dont foam as much as soaps, but if you over do it, they will. You only need a few drops in a typical recirculatory system.

So true Jason. Also being thrifty with your soap makes it last longer. One miner I know mixes his in a plant misting bottle first, so it goes into his system already diluted. He says 1 bottle of soap/jet dry lasts forever.
 

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