# CPU pins - my first adventure.



## Damien (Dec 21, 2016)

Well, they have arrived. 
295 CPUs from I believe pentium 3s.
All pinned, heat sinks still on. 

I don't really talk to locals or post on Facebook about gold processing, as I'd like to keep a theft target off my house. So, I am hoping to share this journey with you all, as I would love the interaction and conversation with you all.

My plan:

*edited*
Remove MLCCs (chisel)
Remove heat sinks (sand in a pan)
Use a heat gun to remove pins
*end edit*

*The following will be edited for more detail...*

Process pins in just HCL, cook on a coffee maker hot plate
Stannous test
Filter and repeat
Stannous test
Filter again

Create aqua regia via HCL/Clorox
(This is my hiccup, I don't have nitric or sulphuric to remove lead - I may have to make my own)
Stannous test
Filter
Precipitation with SMB
Stannous test
Filter

Melt and pour.

This is my basic plan. For now I'm going to remove heatsinks, and remove pins, then sort pins/capacitors. I'm not going to start the acids yet, as its very cold now, and I want to do more research first.

I'm open to any learning you can provide, such as thread links to read, general advice, methods, etc. I want this to go right the first time.

I have and am reading Hoke's book, and I've been searching/reading in this forum for days, so please don't think I'm going to attempt this without being ready. 

Sometimes it's just nice to talk with like minded people who are excited and enthusiastic by the prospect of alternative gold mining efforts.

Respect! I've attached the first few photos! I'd love to hear from you all!


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## patnor1011 (Dec 22, 2016)

Propane torch is overkill. You will be better suited with heat gun, all it need to remove pins is like 10 seconds and a tap over container where you collect pins. Sorting out capacitors from pins is a pain and if you opt for doing it after pins are harvested be prepared that your eyes will hurt just few minutes into doing it. It will take hours with this quantity. Better might be to remove capacitors before removing pins. It may be debatable what is better as both methods are time consuming but I just like to remove capacitors by hand with a chisel before I remove pins. 

To remove heatsink I used simple and fast method. No need to try to pry them off I nearly got hernia doing it until I found something easier. Use shallow pan, put 1cm of yellow sand on it and put cpus there laying on heatsink. It goes so fast I was barely able to keep up taking them out and putting in new.


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## Damien (Dec 22, 2016)

patnor1011 said:


> Propane torch is overkill. You will be better suited with heat gun, all it need to remove pins is like 10 seconds and a tap over container where you collect pins. Sorting out capacitors from pins is a pain and if you opt for doing it after pins are harvested be prepared that your eyes will hurt just few minutes into doing it. It will take hours with this quantity. Better might be to remove capacitors before removing pins. It may be debatable what is better as both methods are time consuming but I just like to remove capacitors by hand with a chisel before I remove pins.
> 
> To remove heatsink I used simple and fast method. No need to try to pry them off I nearly got hernia doing it until I found something easier. Use shallow pan, put 1cm of yellow sand on it and put cpus there laying on heatsink. It goes so fast I was barely able to keep up taking them out and putting in new.



Hi Patnor, thank you for your reply! 

At the moment, a propane torch is all I have, I am hoping to make it a quick process as I'm great at repetitive piecework. Lol. 

As for the sorting, I was thinking of trying to get creative, and build a strainer that will allow pins to fall through, but not capacitors. I would have to test to see if it's even possible. Otherwise, I was planning the tweezers pluck.

Removing the capacitors before was also an option, I just wondered if a lot of solder debris would be created that might make a mess when tapping out the pins?

I like your idea for the heat sinks. So I'm clear, you put sand (beach sand?) into a pan, put it on high heat, and used it to heat the heatsinks, and they come off easily? 

Thanks again!


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## shmandi (Dec 22, 2016)

I don't think strainer will work. How will you force pins to stand vertically to fall through holes? And keep in mind that some pins will stick together with melted solder. Use chisel or screw driver to pry capacitors off before going for pins.


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## patnor1011 (Dec 22, 2016)

Yes, hot sand is best. Straining will not work as pins will stick together also pins will have little base so they will be kinda thicker on one side than tiny capacitors. Believe me, removing them prior pins is far easier than using tweezers. I have sorted few kilograms of them so I know what it takes. 
Propane torch will burn plastic CPU body therefore you will have mess on your hands. Heat gun cost less than 10 euro and it is money well spent.
http://www.harborfreight.com/1500-watt-dual-temperature-heat-gun-572-1112-96289.html

If you do not want to buy one then use sand bath for removing pins too. Propane torch will simply not work you will see it yourself. Not to mention that you will certainly manage to burn some of that plastic cpu body and that is one thing I would not want to inhale. That plastic is full of fire retardants and other chemicals so taking torch and flame to it is not a clever choice.


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## patnor1011 (Dec 22, 2016)

Also if you want to make money processing plastic CPU you should consider this:
http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/141558599714?_trksid=p2060353.m1438.l2649&ssPageName=STRK%3AMEBIDX%3AIT

Much better return than processing them.


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## Damien (Dec 22, 2016)

I'll have to find a different gun, that one doesnt seem to ship to canada. No worries, I'll find one.


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## Damien (Dec 22, 2016)

patnor1011 said:


> Also if you want to make money processing plastic CPU you should consider this:
> http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/141558599714?_trksid=p2060353.m1438.l2649&ssPageName=STRK%3AMEBIDX%3AIT
> 
> Much better return than processing them.



I see how money can be made by selling on eBay, and in the future perhaps that's the way I'll go, but for now, I'm really intrigued by the process, and I want to hold a nugget of gold in my hand, be it 2 grams or 10, it's a goal obviously to make money, yes, but I want to learn the process and feel that sense of personal accomplishment. 

For now, even if I pay too much, or lose some money, I'm completely ok with that, I see it as paying for an education in many fields that make me happy. 

I want to take it as far as I can, maybe make a second income, but in the beginning I just want to learn and take it slow, make the small mistakes and learn from them. 

Gold isn't the only thing I'm collecting, going to learn all I can about gold, silver, platinum, palladium, copper, and aluminum. Everything sorted and cleaned, ready for the scrapyard that buys metals. 

call me wierd, but I have a lot of respect for what you guys do!


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## Damien (Dec 27, 2016)

Well!

My hands are sore, but I'm loving it! Ha ha ha.

I took the advice, and have began removing th MLCC's first. I'm using a glove, aluminum bowl, and a flat head screwdriver. I brought it all into the living room while we watched the new movie from the DaVinci code series, Inferno. 

I've gotten through roughly 120 of them, and I have 300+ so I'm not even half way. Now that I'm doing it, I can see why removing the capacitors first was so important, and how a strainer would not have worked. Thank you for the tips! This forum and you the members are an invaluable resource, where/how do I go about donating to this forum?

I really wish my powdered tin would arrive in the mail so I can make some stannous, I've got lots to process now but not starting anything till I have my stannous. In the meantime though, i'm 8laptops, 3 desktops, and 10 motherboards behind in my breakdowns, and have done enough computers now to give me 100+ grams of mixed connector pins, and all the other fun plated stuffs. 

I didn't think being an e-scrapper in a small town of 5000 would produce many electronics, boy was I wrong! I'm swimming in it right now! Better show my wife a nugget soon or she's gonna get mad at my mess! Ha ha ha ha


Hope you all had an amazing Christmas!


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## g_axelsson (Dec 27, 2016)

Damien said:


> This forum and you the members are an invaluable resource, where/how do I go about donating to this forum?


Not easy to find, but here it is:
http://goldrefiningforum.com/donations.html



Damien said:


> I really wish my powdered tin would arrive in the mail so I can make some stannous, I've got lots to process now but not starting anything till I have my stannous.


You can make stannous of about anything made of tin. For example solder scavenged from circuit boards.
Just flatten it out thin and filter off any lead chloride if you use leaded solder. Best is to use pure tin, but it isn't critical.

Göran


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## Damien (Dec 27, 2016)

Just donated $10 USD. Thanks for the link! I'll donate more in the future. 

I appreciate the tip! However I'm going to just wait for the pure tin, so I can be sure as a rookie I'm getting proper readings... not that your tip is better or worse, just that I'll feel better about it.


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## Tndavid (Dec 27, 2016)

Thank you for the donation!!


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## Damien (Dec 28, 2016)

Tndavid said:


> Thank you for the donation!!



No problem! Thank you a proper forum!

Now if you have a miracle cure for blisters, I could continue processing my motherboards. Lol. Time to switch to scraping more of these MLCs from the Great Wall of CPU. 

I'll donate more soon, just recovering a bit from Christmas.


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## everydayisalesson (Dec 28, 2016)

Hey Damien, welcome to the forum. I know right now your brain is just busting with ideas and you cant wait to get started and you know everything will go perfect cause your studying and you have other ideas for this and for that.
Now, stop, breath, what ever process you decide to do. Do only that process and complete it all the way to the end. What I am saying, is complete everything the first time around including waste treatment before starting ANYTHING else.
I studied for three years before starting my first process. I was on vacation so I decided to start a few of them, you know more processes more gold. At the end of the week, I was exhausted. I held a little gold bb and just put everything else in the stock pot. I used up an entire week trying to keep up with everything that was going on, that I didnt get to enjoy what I was doing. This is the first time I have told anyone on the forum because frankly I was embarrassed by what I had done. The only reason I am sharing this with you is cause recovery and refining can be a fun hobby but if you try to do too many things at once, it just becomes another job. And thats if everything goes right. Make sure you have a plan for accidents and spills. I was fortunate enough to not experience either but if I had, it would have made my week even more dreadful than what it was.
Take your time, I really wish I could start that week over cause I didnt get to enjoy it. I have done many things since but only one thing at a time now.
Good luck, read Hokes, read the safety section, and have a plan in place for emergencies.

Mike


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## Damien (Dec 28, 2016)

everydayisalesson said:


> Hey Damien, welcome to the forum. I know right now your brain is just busting with ideas and you cant wait to get started and you know everything will go perfect cause your studying and you have other ideas for this and for that.
> Now, stop, breath, what ever process you decide to do. Do only that process and complete it all the way to the end. What I am saying, is complete everything the first time around including waste treatment before starting ANYTHING else.
> I studied for three years before starting my first process. I was on vacation so I decided to start a few of them, you know more processes more gold. At the end of the week, I was exhausted. I held a little gold bb and just put everything else in the stock pot. I used up an entire week trying to keep up with everything that was going on, that I didnt get to enjoy what I was doing. This is the first time I have told anyone on the forum because frankly I was embarrassed by what I had done. The only reason I am sharing this with you is cause recovery and refining can be a fun hobby but if you try to do too many things at once, it just becomes another job. And thats if everything goes right. Make sure you have a plan for accidents and spills. I was fortunate enough to not experience either but if I had, it would have made my week even more dreadful than what it was.
> Take your time, I really wish I could start that week over cause I didnt get to enjoy it. I have done many things since but only one thing at a time now.
> ...




Thank you incredibly for the advice, I take your advice very seriously, and it is definitely sound advice. I've read in a few places here on the forum about how when you think you're ready, stop and study more. So your advice strengthens that knowledge, and the fact that you've broken your story to the public on my behalf, in my eyes that a big move. I truly respect you for that.

As ansy as I am, I am not ready to process with chemicals. I will be working in my detached garage/outside, so I'm waiting for warmer weather, and in that time I plan to build a good fume hood, kiln, and a "lab" area for making nitric/sulphuric. (Won't do that in a rush either.)

I have slowly been ordering equipment, getting beakers, flasks, graduated cylinders, a distillation set up, powdered tin, crucible, melt dish, mapp torch, and I need to research/set up my waste unit.

The amount of time and blisters I've spent already, I'll be making sure I do it all proper and get a pure nugget safely. I am collecting what I think is a lot of gold for a rookie, and everything is sorted. I am planning a few "test batches" to learn/experience before processing the 300 CPUs, to prevent gold loss on that run. Baby steps, and no step will be taken without a clear view of the next 10 paces. 

I've attached a few photos to show off my rookie collection, the IC chips need further sorting/cleaning, and the other bowl of mixed stuff will also be re-sorted, but meant for incineration so I can get the gold out of those pieces. The vial of MLCCs does not include the ones I've been stripping from the CPUs, and there is about 130 grams of mixed pins in the jar. The jar of ram is still in need of cleaning, and the IC chips from the ram will be processed separate from the mixed bowl. This collection is still growing, as I still have 5 motherboards, 8 laptops and 4 desktops to tear down, with more laptops on the way from my computer repair friend.

Thank you for taking the time to help me!


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## Damien (Dec 28, 2016)

Those gold prices though! Yay! Let's see $1150/Oz!

*edit*
Just a few hours later, and it's almost there! Wow, what a jump, $1148.70, come on $1200!


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## Damien (Dec 29, 2016)

Whew! Finally got all of the capacitors off.
59.48 grams of MLCCS, next is the heatsinks, and I am going to pick up a heat gun tomorrow afternoon for $10, our local Facebook buy and sell works well!

Any guesses how much silver/palladium could be here? 

Anywho, moving on to the heatsinks tomorrow!


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## everydayisalesson (Dec 29, 2016)

Hey Damien,

IF they contain palladium, it will be less than a gram. Silver, could go as high as 6 grams. Getting it out is a whole other ball game. Once you get about a pound, get ahold of one of the PGM experts to toll refine it for you.

Mike


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## Damien (Dec 29, 2016)

patnor1011 said:


> To remove heatsink I used simple and fast method. No need to try to pry them off I nearly got hernia doing it until I found something easier. Use shallow pan, put 1cm of yellow sand on it and put cpus there laying on heatsink. It goes so fast I was barely able to keep up taking them out and putting in new.



Well, it's a new day! 

Today I got me heat gun, and I also went down to the beach to get some sand. I got home and sifted the sand to get out the rocks, it's now fine sand with some tiny rocks. (Used a metal kitchen sifter.)

Any further tips before I proceed? I like your tips, now that I see how many tiny capacitors I would have had to sort, I'm sooo glad I followed your advice and removed them first. Seems silly to do it any other way.

I'm excited to do this sand trick! Lol, should finish it today.


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## patnor1011 (Dec 29, 2016)

I tried to use beach sand once but had to throw it away. It was from small shells and was kind of burning, emitting horrible smell. I bought bag of sand from place selling toys for kids. They called it play sand. Yellow, proper stuff. If you check beach sand with magnifying glass or microscope you will see what I talk about. Perhaps smell goes out when whatever burns in that sand get burned out I do not know as I tried it only once and then discarded it. That yellow sand I bought I still do use till today. 
Something like this:
http://www.toplinehassetts.ie/garden-outdoors/outdoor-living/outdoor-play-products/play-sand/n-c/childrens-play-sand-25kg

I do believe it is also called mortar sand and you can get it from any building material suppliers. They sell it by tonne but there should be no problem to ask them for a bucket of it for a $ or two...


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## g_axelsson (Dec 29, 2016)

We all have our own favorite methods. I don't mind removing the lids the mechanical way. I have a really thin knife that easily cuts the glue between the heat spreader and the circuit board, then with a twist the heat spreader breaks off, taking the die with it and sometimes even the center of the board.

The solder used between the heat spreader and the die is as far as I know based on indium and easily dissolved in HCl. The inner surface of the heat spreader is gold plated, where the solder is the gold has dissolved into the solder and can be recovered as a fine slime when the solder is dissolved. The gold still on the heat spreader is best recovered in a sulfuric cell or with cyanide for those with the proper setup.

The pins are easily removed with heat, with HCl dissolving the solder, or my favorite, old copper chloride solution where the copper cements onto the pins and the tin goes into solution. In 5-10 minutes you can just scrape off the pins and discard the boards. Any gold dissolved in the solder ends up in the sludge at the bottom. The rest is just standard, dissolve the base metals, dissolve the gold, filter, precipitate, clean and melt.

Göran


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## Damien (Jan 29, 2017)

Ok ladies and gents. I tried a few things, sand in a pan, heat gun, but in the end I just got a good chisel and gloves, and put some elbow grease into it. It took forever! Very sore hands, shoulders, etc. Blisters, check. Ha ha.

So, I've attached some pics of my nice jar of pins!

I had worked out mathematically how much should be there, using averages found around the web. My equation is likely wrong, but I'm hoping for 13.2g of gold.

I only need 3g of gold from these pins to break even. 

*What are your "educated guesses" as to how much gold is here?* 

Just curious, I'll find out for sure and share once I process the pins. Thanks!


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## FrugalRefiner (Jan 29, 2017)

I'm afraid you will be disappointed.

Dave


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## Damien (Jan 30, 2017)

FrugalRefiner said:


> I'm afraid you will be disappointed.
> 
> Dave



I wouldn't be surprised considering what I've read on this forum.

With no disrespect intended, I feel that there is a lot of "pessimism " when it comes to this hobby.

I'm still going to remain optimistic until I see for myself how much gold is there.

You think I'll have less than 3 grams?


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## Damien (Jan 30, 2017)

When I see the same CPUs selling for $100+ for just 1lb of chips, and I bought 12 lbs for just $160, I'm not sure how I'll end up disappointed.

It was 300 chips, there's over 200 grams of pins, which are supposedly the most generously plated. Even if the gold is only 5% the weight of the pins, that's still 10grams of gold, is it not?

There is roughly 25 chips in a lb.
I've read there should be roughly 1.1 grams of gold per pound of chips. Which, I can then assume that 13.2 grams of gold could be a fair estimate. Even if there's .7 grams in a pound, it's still good, at 8.4 grams.

Does this really sound that off to you?


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## g_axelsson (Jan 30, 2017)

Sounds way off if you do some research.

Doing some googling on the forum gives :
http://goldrefiningforum.com/~goldrefi/phpBB3/viewtopic.php?t=17618 0.006 g/cpu = 0.3g/kg
12 lb is approximately 6 kg so according to this post you should at least get 2g of gold.

If you use a sulfuric cell to get the gold from the lids you can sell the copper afterwards and get some more of your money back.

In the end you might break even on the gold and copper compared to what you paid for the CPU:s, maybe even pay for some of the chemicals. 
As a comparison, boardsort is paying $5 per pound so they are making a profit at $60 for the CPU:s you have. It is hard to beat the professionals in efficiency so they can pay quite good money compared to the total (gold + palladium + copper + silver) value and still make a profit.

You have got an education, if you paid too much for that or not is up to you to decide. If you are going to be disappointed or not is also up to you.

The main lesson is to do the math and research before putting money in a project. Believing a thing doesn't make it true.

Göran


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## Grelko (Jan 30, 2017)

Id have to say, looking at just the heat sinks,

If they're aluminum, then it's probably 7 pounds, say $2.00, but by the off chance they're actually copper, let's say 10 pounds or about $20. Depending what they pay at the scrapyard.

Now, If you add in the 1/2 pound of pins, well they are small pins, so the recovery will be slightly higher, plus a bit of gold on the chips themselves and the MLCCs.

I could see it possibly being sort of close to breaking even. Who knows, you could get lucky on the recovery. 

If anything, you paid some money for the knowledge to learn how to recover and refine gold, which is definately worth it in my opinion.

Edit - added


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## Damien (Jan 30, 2017)

I'm confused.

I've read from multiple sources that green fiber CPUs should have up to 0.05g gold each.

I had 300 in 12lbs.

0.05 x 300= 15

So even if it was 0.03g per CPU, it's still 9 grams.

http://refinementofpreciousmetals.com/Rev_0.7.1.pdf


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## upcyclist (Jan 30, 2017)

Damien said:


> When I see the same CPUs selling for $100+ for just 1lb of chips, and I bought 12 lbs for just $160, I'm not sure how I'll end up disappointed.


But now for economics. What others pay ("I see CPUs selling for ___") and what you paid are not necessarily related to the intrinsic value of the gold contained therein. Perhaps some of the price is driven by the collector value of those chips. Perhaps the price is driven by, as Alan Greenspan called it, "irrational exuberance." Also, don't forget to include your time as an expense. 

Arbitrary numbers: If your first 12 pounds of chips yield $160 worth of gold, and they take you 40 hours to process, that's $4/hr even if they and all your other tools & materials were free. 

Remember that these are plated pins, and that gold plating is measured in microns and microinches. 

I'm not saying you won't make money eventually, just making sure your eyes are open 

Like others have mentioned, whether or not it is "worth it" is something only _you _can decide. Just learning this stuff is great, and I'm guessing that alone will make your purchase worth it if you choose to view it that way.


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## patnor1011 (Jan 31, 2017)

Less than 0.05g per cpu can easily be 0.005g and their claim is still correct. 
Highest price I have seen to be paid for this kind of CPU by refiner (likely middleman) is 30 euro/kilogram. Using simple logic one can expect that there should be at least 30 euro worth of gold in there, might be slightly more.


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## Grelko (Jan 31, 2017)

patnor1011 said:


> Less than 0.05g per cpu can easily be 0.005g and their claim is still correct.
> Highest price I have seen to be paid for this kind of CPU by refiner (likely middleman) is 30 euro/kilogram. Using simple logic one can expect that there should be at least 30 euro worth of gold in there, might be slightly more.



30 euro/kilogram and 12 pounds "5.45 kilo"

5.45 x 30 = 163.5 euro "$175.10"

Plus there might be a bit more. (not including time, tools, etc.)

If there is that much in there, it still really depends on how much YOU can actually get out of it.

Never know until you try. There's always that chance of 0.049/cpu. "less than 0.05"


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