# My first time - need help



## Duke Ardelis (Apr 17, 2010)

Greetings all, i joined the forum maybe a week ago, and since than i have been gathering information on gold refining, and now I'll be trying it for the first time.
I have some questions, so i will post the pictures and ask the questions.

This is a pic of aprox half of my current stash, not much but i just started, I hope it will grow...



1. My first question is what do you do with the flatpacks after you take them off the PCBs? What is in them, and how do you process them?

2.I watched Steve's "solder mask removal" video, and i wonder can i use the same method to remove the mask of an entire motherboard? As you can see on the pic below the whole MB is yellow, is this gold plating underneath? or will i be wasting my time with this? What is usually done with MB's, and other PCBs?



3. I also have some cell phones, and i see gold on them. My question is do I remove the solder mask first, and than do the process as with the fingers, or what?
Here's the pic of one of the cells.



4.What is the best way to remove the pins? I have a few MB with a lot of pin connectors, but the are heavily coated in plastic, do i just break them down, and pull the pins out, or can the plastic be removed faster and easier? I have put a pic below for better understanding. 



5.And the question what Steve's DVD will cover most of this? I have seen four DVD's on Steve's site, I'm guessing "AP" and the "GSP official" but i don't know of the contents of each, and i can barley afford one of them at the time, so please suggest witch one would be best for a beginner starting his way.

If I haven't asked something you think is important, if you have some advice please share it with me, please point me to a topic i might have missed since there are tons of posts here. I wish to learn so i beg you share your knowledge with me.

I will most probably have more questions after i get a few answers.

Thank you all in advance,

I wish you all, and my self lots of gold bars. :lol:


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## glorycloud (Apr 18, 2010)

Friend, here is my suggestion. Snap the gold fingers off what you have
and put them in can or a baggie and save them up until you have a pound
of them. Then try the AP method on them and if you follow Steve's video's
you should end up with 2 or so grams of gold depending of the quality
of the fingers that you removed.

Sell the rest of the stuff if you can locally. You should be able to get
$2.50+ per pound for the motherboards and the riser cards and maybe
$1.00 or so a pound for the boards w/o the fingers. Get a little cash
for what you have and focus on the stuff that is easier to process
and refine. After you have had some success with the AP method,
then try a more advanced method to process and refine more
difficult escrap items like processors and cell phone scrap. 

Start small and go big later if you have some success and you can 
do it safely!! A word to the wise is usually sufficient! 8)


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## Duke Ardelis (Apr 18, 2010)

Thx glorycloud.

I will start with the fingers, and the pins. I can not sell them because I live in Croatia, Europe, and in my country you can give it to the companies that refine electronic waste, but they will not pay for it, but rather take it off your hands for no cost.

I however do not plan on giving them the material, so i will learn to refine it little by little, i have time since this is a hobby more than a full time job.

Thx again.


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## samuel-a (Apr 18, 2010)

duke, with big quantity of sorted boards they will pay, i assure you, but it's have to be 500 Kilos or more.


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## rfd298 (Apr 19, 2010)

glorycloud said:


> Friend, here is my suggestion. Snap the gold fingers off what you have
> and put them in can or a baggie and save them up until you have a pound
> of them. Then try the AP method on them and if you follow Steve's video's
> you should end up with 2 or so grams of gold depending of the quality
> ...



*I totally agree!*

I saved for a whole year before I even attempted to do basic AP using Steve's video. Save fingers in 600 gram bags. I thought I was going to recycle everything. You will soon learn what to keep and what to sell. Trust me it will add up before you know it. Sell the rest. It will pay for your AP experimentation plus chemicals and safety gear.

Best Wishes!


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## Juan Manuel Arcos Frank (Apr 20, 2010)

Duke Ardelis:

You must have hundreds of those items in the pictures.

Try to get the microprocessors because they content the highest amount of gold.I do not see microprocessors in your motherboards,where are they?

Nazdravlje

Manuel


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## viktor1984 (May 3, 2010)

so everyone what is the answer to the question #2 becuase im also wondering the same thing

2.I watched Steve's "solder mask removal" video, and i wonder can i use the same method to remove the mask of an entire motherboard? As you can see on the pic below the whole MB is yellow, is this gold plating underneath? or will i be wasting my time with this? What is usually done with MB's, and other PCBs?


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## lazersteve (May 4, 2010)

Scratch off a small area of the mask, underneath you will likely see copper. Don't waste your time stripping the mask from the boards.

Steve


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