# Question about Metals on Motherboard Pins



## grfphil (Jan 9, 2013)

Hi All,

I've been collecting all my scraps and separating them all into small containers so once I get enough I can move to the next step. However i am stumped. I have searched aimlessly with multitudes of key words but no answer. Therefore I come to you all for help in this quest.

If you could tell me what metals are in these specific parts that would be fantastic:

1. PCI Slots?
2. Connectors for Peripherals like audio, video etc...
3. IDE Cables
4. IDE Cable Connectors
5. Serial Communications Headers/ Headers/ connectors in general
6. ATX Power Connectors

I have more, but these are the general ones I'm curious about. I have used magnets so they are either nickel, zinc or silver under those with gold plate.

I guess I am trying to see if there is any silver in them.

Thank you all in advance for your assistance. Again, I have tried to search each part specifically but could not find what they are made from and didn't want to waste any solutions just yet. I'm trying to collect until I have hoards of it separated out.

Phil


----------



## etack (Jan 9, 2013)

They are a copper alloy of some type. Use a cell or AP. nitric will not help you it will only make it more work.



Eric


----------



## Anonymous (Jan 9, 2013)

One thing I found out by dismantling hard drive boards using a heat gun and a bench grinder.

Once I got the pin connectors off of the hard drives, then took my bench grinder to get the pins out of the plastic, the pins became magnetic, making it easy to pick them out from all of the plastic rubble.

I even tested pin connectors with a magnet first..... no magnetism, but after I added friction from the bench grinder to the connector pins, the magnet would pick them up, making the pins magnetic.

Kevin


----------



## Geo (Jan 10, 2013)

Kevin, even gold plated brass pins will be magnetic due to the pure nickel barrier between the brass and the gold.


----------



## Anonymous (Jan 10, 2013)

Geo said:


> Kevin, even gold plated brass pins will be magnetic due to the pure nickel barrier between the brass and the gold.


I can believe that too, even though a magnet doesn't stick to brass. I learned about that when I was a teenager. That was a way to tell if someone was buying a real brass bed. Just take a magnet along with you and if it stuck to it, it wasn't pure brass.

Kevin


----------



## grfphil (Jan 10, 2013)

Hi All,

Truly appreciate your responses. So technically there is zero silver within these pins and only the gold plate is the ferrous metal? Thanks, it's been difficult to find specific information about these parts in other forum posts. I felt it would be best just to ask instead of trying to decipher individual experiences when processing their different batches.


----------



## grfphil (Jan 10, 2013)

testerman said:


> One thing I found out by dismantling hard drive boards using a heat gun and a bench grinder.
> 
> Once I got the pin connectors off of the hard drives, then took my bench grinder to get the pins out of the plastic, the pins became magnetic, making it easy to pick them out from all of the plastic rubble.
> 
> ...



Do you think it could be solder that remained attached to the pins vs just clipping them off? I've found when I clip them they seem not to be magnetic unless I pry them off and a little solder remains. I'm still in the collecting stages, but just my observation.


----------



## etack (Jan 10, 2013)

If you want to know how much gold is on the take some measurements ant put them into Sam's calculator. those look like around 30 micro inches plating thickness but I would put 20-25 so I'm under. then you will see how much gold you are talking about. A 1g BB of gold is about the size of a third of a pencil eraser. http://goldnscrap.com/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=72:gold-plating-calculator&catid=49:calculators&Itemid=66


L*W*H=serface area not saying you didn't know just for someone that reads this how doesn't.
Eric


----------



## grfphil (Jan 10, 2013)

Thanks Stack. 

I like this calculator a lot. 

http://www.csgnetwork.com/aufoilcalc.html


----------



## etack (Jan 10, 2013)

That is for pure gold foil. sams cal. is for the plating only. 30 micro inches is .000030 Of an inch

Eric


----------



## goldsilverpro (Jan 10, 2013)

grfphil said:


> Thanks Stack.
> 
> I like this calculator a lot.
> 
> http://www.csgnetwork.com/aufoilcalc.html



The problem is that it doesn't work. Plug in 1" x 1" x 1". That's one cubic inch. I am 100% positive the answer should be *10.1787 tr.oz.* They say it's *10.1787 grams* and 316.6 tr.oz. It should be reversed, 316.6g and 10.1787 tr.oz. I plugged in some other numbers - same thing. Use their numbers and you're bound to get in trouble.

With thin gold, plating, it works (backwards, as above), but it rounds the answer off too much for me.

If you must use a calculator, stick with Sam's calculator for plating. He knows what he's doing and csgnetwork doesn't - I can't believe they never caught that glaring error.


----------



## Marcel (Jan 10, 2013)

I am just finishing my gold plated pins experiements and I have used :
[*]an AP tank
[*]reverse electroplating (I would rather like to call it the "gold cell"
[*]dilute nitric

Have a look here: 3 Kg of goldplated connectors, deplated over a duration of 2 months in a 20L AP tank:

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LlyGcTznoQA&feature=share&list=UUfLyhY6QoK7lThHYKvxt4gA[/youtube]

No matter how you do it, you always end up zero point something (0,1% - 0,3%, some say a bit more than that)
So if you have the time and you pay close to nothing for the material it´s ok. If not....

Btw: The best way for me was the AP tank. It is cheap and trouble free.

Marcel


----------



## goldsilverpro (Jan 10, 2013)

Marcel,

I also hate the term "reverse electroplating". Never used by any platers or refiners I've ever known. It's a stripper to them, and to me. I've found it difficult to search for gold or silver strippers on the internet. You always seem to end up with something else.

I don't think I could stand waiting 2 months for anything. I'll just use cyanide/peroxide and have pure gold the next day. Very little fumes. Works great. Easily treatable waste.

For certain things and with the right setup (tumbler), the sulfuric stripper works great. Also, it can be used over and over, so there's not much waste.

To me, the best way to handle acid/heavy metals waste is to avoid generating any. That's why I would never use AP for large quantity production - it's great for the newbie, though. For similar reasons, I would never use nitric to just dissolve base metals, unless it's absolutely necessary.


----------



## [email protected] (Jun 23, 2019)

How do i post a question??there is nothing that says post a question only post a reply


----------



## jimdoc (Jun 23, 2019)

[email protected] said:


> How do i post a question??there is nothing that says post a question only post a reply



Ask a question in your reply. Or start another topic.


----------



## galenrog (Jun 23, 2019)

Unless your question adds to the context of this thread, it would be best to start a separate topic in the appropriate section.

Time for more coffee.


----------

