However, be aware that the fabric will be destroyed in the
reclamation process & you'll have to buy new ones.
And therein is the rub. Those filter bags are not exactly cheap.
Polishing dusts are not high metal content wastes. Typically, a pound
of polishing dusts may have substantially less than an ounce of
actual metal, the rest being the polishing compounds and residue from
the buffs, though of course this can vary wildly depending on how the
machine was used. It takes a fair amount of the dusts to contain
reasonable amounts of metal, especially after considering refining
fees, and even with the current high prices of metals. If you clean
the bags well, I doubt you’d have enough metal remaining in the bags
to justify refining them, if you don’t have other scrap to send in
with them, and also plan to be able to keep using the machine,
meaning you’d need new filters.
I’d suggest being very vigorous with that kick lever to shake loose
as much of the dust as you can, following up with a small shop vac
fitted with a paper filter to catch anything it can find. Vacuum both
sides of the filter cloth bags thoroughly, then reinstall them. That
would be my recomendation. And if polishing wastes is all you’re
refining, wait until you have at least a pound of the dusts before
sending them in, or the refining fees will negate too much of the
value of the recovered metal. Some refiners recommend more like five
pounds, though that may be out of date at this point.
Peter
