# Pictoral Tour of Various Electronic Scrap Types (Part 1)



## Chumbawamba (Oct 21, 2010)

This is for you wide-eyed Newbies coming here for the first time. I am going to let you in on some not-so-secrets. This will save you time in locating and identifying lower-grade electronic scraps that nonetheless contain gold, and every little bit counts (especially in volume).

Enjoy! (Or else!)

Part I

Many inkjet printers that use plug-in carthridges that have a mylar strip with contacts (sometimes gold plated) that are designed to mate with the following piece:




This is a mylar piece embedded in the carthridge carriage where the connector on the carthridges connects up with the brains of the printer. The connector ribbons for these particular strips were aluminum wire. Below is an example of the type of ribbon connector you'll find in older HP inkjet printers.




This is the end that plugs into the controller board. Each connector is a small strip, about 1/8" high and about 1 1/4" wide. Not much, but like I said, it adds up in quantity.

Here's a board that comes out of some models of Apple's LaserWriter II. Again, not much, but it's nice gold.




Here are scanner elements that come out of higher end scanners that contain a system of lenses and mirrors to get a higher resolution scan. The elements are contained within the scanner carriage assembly. In it you'll also find a small fluorescent lamp (the backlight) with a power supply, a bunch of thin mirrors (haven't done any testing yet to see if they have silver backing), and a nice little lens. All of this can be used for fun projects.




Here's a close-up of one of the elements. You can see the gold plating and, better yet, the gold bonding wires between the external connector contacts and the CCD itself.




More in Part II


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## Chumbawamba (Oct 21, 2010)

Here are various scanning elements from cheaper scanners or fax machines. There is a plating of gold all across the strip. And if you look closely, gold bonding wires as well!




Here's a close-up of the bottom unit. You can see the gold bonding wires coming off of the IC in the center, and if you look carefully you can see the gold bonding wires along the CCD.




Here's a SCSI channel selector switch. You generally find these on the back of old SCSI drives, used for selecting the data channel that the device occupies on the SCSI bus. Bust them open and inside you find some gold plating. Not much, but again, in (gargantuan) quantity, you get your gold.




Here are the two boards that come out of a typical late 1990s era Nokia mobile phone. Lots of pretty gold, yes, but when you think about it, there's only about as much as a couple edge connectors from a 16-bit ISA card have, and you have to go through about 100 times the work to get at it.

Top side:




And bottom:




Keep this in mind: the gold is just a start. The surface mount components likely have some amount of platinum group metals, so keep those for processing when you are more competent.

Continue reading for Part III...


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## bigjohn (Oct 21, 2010)

Awsome post! Every little bit counts.


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## Chumbawamba (Oct 21, 2010)

Part 3: TV Land!

Here's some stuff I've found in televisions. Whoulda thunk!?

This is a mylar ribbon connector found in the inside of a flat-panel LCD TV. It connects between the signal PCBs that surround the LCD screen and the screen itself. Gold plating on either end, much like the end of the inkjet printer mylar ribbon cable.




Now for some real fun. This is the processor board from a DLP (Digital Light Projection) TV, which were amongst the first hi-def HDTV units that came out in the early 2000s, but are now basically obsolete.




And here's the backside: more gold!




And now, the Crown Jewel:




Yep, that's the DLP processor chip. Lots of gold plating, brazing, and bonding wires inside. BTW, that silvery looking rectangle inside? That's where the image originates. Yep. If you could look at the chip while it was working, you could watch TV right from the top of it! The image is then piped and magnified through an incredibly elaborate set of lenses, mirrors, prisms, a beam splitter, a color wheel, and then eventually to the mirror backing the TV set and then the front screen. Technology is simply amazing.

And here's the bottom of the chip: gold contacts!




On to Part IV...


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## gold4mike (Oct 21, 2010)

Kewl! I'm processing 12 of those DLP chips in my lab right now but didn't know what, exactly, they were. I used thermal shock to get rid of the glass then tried my mapp gas torch to get the gold rim off the ceramic. I was unsuccessful and didn't want to alloy the gold with the underlying metal so I put them in nitric. The gold coating is consistent enough that the nitric had no effect.

I'm going to file through the gold in a few places to allow the nitric a path to work and take it from there. I considered A/R but will have much more base metal in solution than gold if I go that route. I'll finish up with A/R to get the gold from the ceramic.

Thanks for telling me what they are.


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## Chumbawamba (Oct 21, 2010)

Part 4

And now for something completely different.

I found these in a specific model of VCR. Unfortunately, I never recorded what VCR's from whence they came.




You would probably need many, many pounds of these to get any appreciable amount of gold, as gold found in cheap consumer goods are often just a light flashing. Just here to show the weird places where gold shows up.

Did I say weird? THIS is weird:




Ok, not so much weird, but why would they expend gold on the PCB of a cheap wall clock? This is from the clock module of one of those analog wall clocks you buy for a couple bucks at Walmart or whatever. Once again, hardy anything, but it's GOLD.

Everyone's seen these: cellular phone SIM chips. About 1mg of gold per...collect 1000 and get a gram 




Along the same lines, here are cable TV converter access cards. Basically the same thing as a cell phone SIM, but with 20 times the useless surface area.




And finally, this is what dreams are made of:




A Sun SPARC processor from a SPARCStation 10 (or something like that). Probably more gold inside...but that's for a different tour.

Enjoy!


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## Chumbawamba (Oct 21, 2010)

gold4mike said:


> Kewl! I'm processing 12 of those DLP chips in my lab right now but didn't know what, exactly, they were. I used thermal shock to get rid of the glass then tried my mapp gas torch to get the gold rim off the ceramic. I was unsuccessful and didn't want to alloy the gold with the underlying metal so I put them in nitric. The gold coating is consistent enough that the nitric had no effect.
> 
> I'm going to file through the gold in a few places to allow the nitric a path to work and take it from there. I considered A/R but will have much more base metal in solution than gold if I go that route. I'll finish up with A/R to get the gold from the ceramic.
> 
> Thanks for telling me what they are.



Quite welcome. I would suggest you review Lazer Steve's process for Pentium Pros:

http://goldrefiningforum.com/phpBB3/viewtopic.php?f=60&t=62&p=52836#p52836

With the exception of the gold pads instead of pins, and the glass lid, they should process similarly.


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## gold4mike (Oct 21, 2010)

Thanks for the pointer - I forgot about that post. I'm doubtful that the H2O2 will make it past the gold to the substrate since the nitric didn't, but I have a quart of 30% H2O2 and a quart of 40% H2O2 so I'll sure give it a try. Sally Beauty Supply is a great source for the stronger peroxide.


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## Chumbawamba (Oct 21, 2010)

gold4mike said:


> Thanks for the pointer - I forgot about that post. I'm doubtful that the H2O2 will make it past the gold to the substrate since the nitric didn't, but I have a quart of 30% H2O2 and a quart of 40% H2O2 so I'll sure give it a try. Sally Beauty Supply is a great source for the stronger peroxide.



Please do let us know what you yield from these chips. I figure there's got to be at least a quarter gram with all that surface plating and bonding wires.

I'm surprised you were able to find H2O2 at Sally. I tried my local outlets and they only had the lame peroxide substitute that they started carrying when various states outlawed H2O2 because some yahoos purportedly tried to use it to make a bomb or some such idiotic nonsense. Maybe I'll check again. What brand name did you find it under?


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## Barren Realms 007 (Oct 21, 2010)

Chumbawamba said:


> Part 4
> 
> And finally, this is what dreams are made of:
> 
> ...



You are looking at the majority of the gold in that chip.


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## gold4mike (Oct 21, 2010)

I'll check my H2O2 bottles when I get home and let you know. I'm currently at work, though it's hard to tell from my time spent on the forum. I keep a Firefox tab open all day and check in regularly.


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## goldenchild (Oct 21, 2010)

bigjohn said:


> Every little bit counts.



Yes.


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## philddreamer (Oct 21, 2010)

gold4mike wrote:
"Sally Beauty Supply is a great source for the stronger peroxide."

Very true, I got mine there a few weeks ago, SALON CARE /40. I paid $5.00 for a quart.There's lower & higher numbers, up to 60 @ Sally's. Other suppliers up to 80, but It doesn't mean % of peroxide. That's just a number that tells you different levels of strength, & for sure, its more then 3% peroxide. At least, that's what I was told when we posted on peroxide subject a couple of months ago. 

Mind you, they call it developer.


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## hemicuda (Oct 21, 2010)

Chumbawumba, can others add to your thread? Just thought I would ask.... 
And by the way that should really get 'em off to a great start of what to look for.As it spreads like wild fire from this point!..LOL.

Regards,Keith.


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## Chumbawamba (Oct 21, 2010)

hemicuda said:


> Chumbawumba, can others add to your thread?



Sure! Please post away!


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## gotthebug2 (Oct 22, 2010)

Chumbawamba;
Look under the little black dot (Cheap clock photo) you will probably find a gift. I have found tiny gold circuits under those in the past.


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## dodge.tom3 (Apr 19, 2011)

Old 1951 Rca's have any gold or do pre 60 Tv's in general have any gold


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## joem (Sep 22, 2011)

Not sure where to post this but. As I get more flat screen tv's I do sell them by the pound to my recycler but now I pull the bases from them and most times contain a couple of big chunks of aluminum.


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## goldsilverpro (Sep 22, 2011)

I know that some of the old RCA tuners had a lot of gold on them. Pull one apart. If it's one of the ones I'm thinking of, it's obvious.


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## Shaul (Sep 24, 2011)

I've often found with those TV access-type cards (and similar), that you can bend back a corner where the plastic meets the chip, insert a thin knife blade underneath and pop off the chip intact. The card can then be thrown away. The same might well work for sim cards.

Shaul


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## jmharris (Sep 5, 2012)

Hey everyone. I'm pretty new to this forum/ website and think everyone's info is extremly helpful. I have recently just ordered my HCl, Nitric Acid, and SMB for trying to recover gold plated items. I have recieved Hoke's book from this website aswell, and have read about 200 pages and then re read the same 200 pages. I think im ready to give this a little try. I have posted flyers in stores, and even put an ad in the local paper for anyone wanting to get rid of there old computers.

I do have a few questions, if thats alright?

1. Would you expect anything out of this printer, which I will post the pic?

2. What is the best computers to try and refine gold plating from? 
ex. household cpu towers, or should i go bigger , say try and find larger telecom style things?

Thanks everyone for any info that you have for me,

Jeremiah


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## Sodbuster (Oct 12, 2012)

goldsilverpro said:


> I know that some of the old RCA tuners had a lot of gold on them. Pull one apart. If it's one of the ones I'm thinking of, it's obvious.



Poking around an old abandon barnyard property, I came across an old portable (black & white ?) TV that had been smashed just laying their with it's innards exposed. 
So I grabbed the circuit board and when breaking down the tuner I found this little phenolic resin board.
I have no idea what make or model TV, but it was the old style tuner before remote controls. You had to get off the couch and turn that big knob, thump thump thump.
Not much here, you would need a truckload of tuners to make a BB, a semi truckload.

Ray

PS: Thanks Chumbawamba for a great post


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## leelandbullock (Oct 13, 2012)

TELEVISONS newer lcd types. dont waste time on the whole tv. cut only the lcd montior boards out they contain 98% of the gold on any LCD tv. the monitor board is ususally on the top of the tv take a few screws out bust it open rip board out. saves abut a hours work.


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## GoldmanM (Mar 8, 2013)

Something from me.


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## GoldmanM (Mar 8, 2013)

And more.


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## GoldmanM (Mar 8, 2013)

And so on.


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## GoldmanM (Mar 8, 2013)

:roll:


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## GoldmanM (Mar 8, 2013)

For now this, i will upload more.
Thanks for watching.


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## kdaddy (Mar 8, 2013)

Goldman, would you tell us where the items came from? I think thats what the OP was trying to do, otherwise the pic's are useless and just clutter the thread.


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## GOLDbuyerCA (Mar 8, 2013)

*I disagree *kdaddy ,,, *[/GoldmanMb] is showing some pics, of scrap type. The items came from Your Big City surplus, end of line product, obsolete items, that contain gold. GoldManMb, 
has them in hand, rather clear photos, some lesser, some more. it does take effort to sort them all, " buy sell , selvage " but the switches, are more valuable to Hobby builders, "yes, 
there are a few left " Now a simple test, which pile would you rather have ? pic. :> in this example, original equal value parts, with plate, those with tin, , Audio builders, like the Au plated
parts. the difference, about 90 cents, the parts go for tops a buck each, the shiny ones. Thanks GoldmanMb, for your pics, , i think this thread, can hold some more good photos, PS, 
i am having fun, now, more time to play, , this is part time, spare time for me, i have read the posts here for several years, just getting a little more active with the pics. Cheers all.*


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## FrugalRefiner (Mar 8, 2013)

Pictures are great when they serve a purpose. But keep in mind that they require storage space on the servers and consume bandwidth every time a member checks the thread, leading to higher costs to maintain this forum. 

Dave


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## kdaddy (Mar 9, 2013)

GOLDbuyerCA said:


> *I disagree *kdaddy ,,, *[/GoldmanMb] is showing some pics, of scrap type. The items came from Your Big City surplus, end of line product, obsolete items, that contain gold. GoldManMb,
> has them in hand, rather clear photos, some lesser, some more. it does take effort to sort them all, " buy sell , selvage " but the switches, are more valuable to Hobby builders, "yes,
> there are a few left " Now a simple test, which pile would you rather have ? pic. :> in this example, original equal value parts, with plate, those with tin, , Audio builders, like the Au plated
> parts. the difference, about 90 cents, the parts go for tops a buck each, the shiny ones. Thanks GoldmanMb, for your pics, , i think this thread, can hold some more good photos, PS,
> i am having fun, now, more time to play, , this is part time, spare time for me, i have read the posts here for several years, just getting a little more active with the pics. Cheers all.*


*

Disagree all you want, you can go to Google images and see random pic's of escrap till your eyes bleed. Everyone else is describing the items or where they came from until you and the other guy started posting random pics without descriptions. You could post 200Gigs of photos of scrap without describing anything but how would that help anyone? I'm just saying, if you are too lazy to describe the photos or say where the items came from, you are not doing anyone any favors.*


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## kane333 (Mar 9, 2013)

These come from 3Com 4400 series switches. I'd like to find the cable that attaches to them but haven't yet.


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## kane333 (Mar 9, 2013)

FrugalRefiner said:


> Pictures are great when they serve a purpose. But keep in mind that they require storage space on the servers and consume bandwidth every time a member checks the thread, leading to higher costs to maintain this forum.
> 
> Dave




I'm thinking most pics aren't stored on GRF servers or else {img}{/img} wouldn't require a link to the pics location elsewhere on the web, such as photobucket, where I keep all my pics.


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## FrugalRefiner (Mar 9, 2013)

kane,

I believe you're right. When you link to pictures stored elsewhere using the {img}{/img} tags, it doesn't require server space for GRF. But with the exception of the images you just linked to, all of the other pictures in this thread are attachments, not links. I believe those images reside on the GRF server space.

Each method has its pros and cons. Linking to images stored elsewhere saves GRF server space, but if the image host disappears, or if the account is closed in the future, the images disappear from the forum. You'll see plenty of examples of that throughout the forum. Images posted as attachments require GRF server space, but they are permanent unless deleted by the original poster or a Moderator or Noxx.

Like I said, pictures are great when they serve a purpose. 

Dave


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## DarkspARCS (Jun 11, 2013)

Satelite WGT board (Found inside LNB gun as well as wall mounted connection terminals)




Glass Digital Displays (Found in Recievers, Stereos, Boom Boxes, etc.)




Whats so special about these? Platinum! Platinum components as well as embedded platinum circuitry, found on its back side


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## macfixer01 (Jun 11, 2013)

This is a nice effort but ultimately will be a waste of time implemented as photo attachments. There are so many old/(not really that old) posts here already where the pictures are just gone for no reason I can imagine? If someone had the time and resources, the pictures in this thread should really be collected periodically into a pdf file.


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## kdaddy (Jun 16, 2013)

Darksparks,

I'm curious about your claim that LCD displays have platinum circuitry and components.
I have never heard that before and would like to know more about it.
Could you please provide some more info.

Thank You


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## Grelko (Nov 3, 2015)

Another "bump" of an old thread, but there is good information in here.

If I would have known about the glass displays having platinum in them about a month ago (if this is accurate?). Except I never seem to find this information until after I take things to the scrapyard. Atleast I know now.


So far, it looks like all of the flat screen TVs out there "old/new", seem to have the mylar ribbons in them. Normally they will look something like these. The green and gold/copper colored ones are usually attached between a circuitboard and the screen itself. (based off a random assortment of atleast 75+, LCD, LED, Plasma, DLP, Projection screens, plus some computer monitors.




Alot of the time, they look gold plated just at the very ends, sometimes copper, silver "or tin?", and the rest of the ribbon seems to be copper or aluminum. The white ribbon is usually silver colored, but I've found some gold ends. The white ones are also found in many other items like printers, scanners, cd players, DVD/VCRs etc. Also, on the back of some of the green ones where the numbers are, it looks like a small silicon "glass" chip, but I'm not sure if it would contain any PMs though.

Edit - Where the small silicon chip is on the green ones, between the glue and the chip there are MANY tiny wires connected to it, all the way around, that look to be gold plated. Probably atleast 100+, like bonding wires for an IC chip. Really small, maybe 1/6mm. Don't just peel the chip out though, you should cut around it, or you can miss alot of the tiny wires. Also, sometimes the green ones have 2 chips.



I'm trying to figure out what the best way to process these ribbons would be? "without nitric"

Clip off the ends, then straight into AP like ram fingers, or HCL/CL, or even just melt them into a bead (like keyboard mylars)?


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## alchamplin (Nov 5, 2015)

First I would like to say what a great resource this board is! It's great that you all share so much. Regarding the Mylar Strip with gold plating (which I have a lot of from credit card processing machines etc.) do you process the gold with chemicals like gold plated metal? Or is there a buyer for the mylar strips as they are?

Thanks,
Alan


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## Grelko (Nov 5, 2015)

alchamplin said:


> First I would like to say what a great resource this board is! It's great that you all share so much. Regarding the Mylar Strip with gold plating (which I have a lot of from credit card processing machines etc.) do you process the gold with chemicals like gold plated metal? Or is there a buyer for the mylar strips as they are?
> 
> Thanks,
> Alan



I'm not sure who buys them, but someone on here should be able to help you.

After cutting the plated ends off, I was actually thinking about incinerating the plastic/glue, then processing them like I would with ram fingers. Basically burn, rinse, and toss them into AP.


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