I put in a load of clad to clean yesterday in the early afternoon. I started it out and ran it for four hours with a few drops of dish soap and about a tablespoon of borax in with the gravel and water.
After four hours, I opened up the drum and washed out the dirty red-brownish water and bubbles from the soap, rinsed out the gravel and added the same dish soap and borax along with about a
teaspoon of clear ammonia to try to speed things along, since there was not a lot of progress evident in the cleaning.
This morning, I opened up the drum after running all night and the bubbles in the drum were a sky blue color and the water had a definite blue cast to it. The coins are 3/4 clean and mostly pretty bright.
I am wondering what the blue color is from. There must be some chemical reaction going on. I thought borax was nonreactive. There was no gas pressure in the drum when I opened it.
Any Chemists out there with information to share?
After four hours, I opened up the drum and washed out the dirty red-brownish water and bubbles from the soap, rinsed out the gravel and added the same dish soap and borax along with about a
teaspoon of clear ammonia to try to speed things along, since there was not a lot of progress evident in the cleaning.
This morning, I opened up the drum after running all night and the bubbles in the drum were a sky blue color and the water had a definite blue cast to it. The coins are 3/4 clean and mostly pretty bright.
I am wondering what the blue color is from. There must be some chemical reaction going on. I thought borax was nonreactive. There was no gas pressure in the drum when I opened it.
Any Chemists out there with information to share?
