# What do you do with these



## Anonymous (Sep 11, 2010)

Any advice on how to remove the gold plated pins from these plugs would be appreciated.


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## jimdoc (Sep 11, 2010)

I usually sell mine as they are,except for the really older and better looking ones.
I have been getting around .65 cents per lb.If you had a way to shred them,or open
them easy they would be worth processing yourself.I think the newer ones aren't 
worth the hassle.My buyer calls them big head connectors,and doesn't look thrilled
to be buying them like he does when he sees boards and memory.

Jim


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## escrap (Sep 11, 2010)

Jimdoc,

How much do you usually generate of these ends. I may be interested in buying them and maybe make it more worth your while.


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## jimdoc (Sep 11, 2010)

Only between about 30 to 100 lbs per year or six months depending how busy it gets,and it has been very slow lately. I think it was about 50lbs I just sold him and that was like six months worth.

Jim


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## escrap (Sep 11, 2010)

Well if you get another load maybe we can figure something out and see if I could buy them from you.


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## silversaddle1 (Sep 12, 2010)

I have damn near a full gaylord of gold bearing ends like that. I was told by our local scrapyard that they will have them processed and return 70% of the gold contained in the connectors. Cyanide leach method I was told. 

What are you paying per pound for these?

Scott


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## Barren Realms 007 (Sep 12, 2010)

silversaddle1 said:


> I have damn near a full gaylord of gold bearing ends like that. I was told by our local scrapyard that they will have them processed and return 70% of the gold contained in the connectors. Cyanide leach method I was told.
> 
> What are you paying per pound for these?
> 
> Scott



If I had that many I might set up a couple of 5 gal buckets with poor mans and run them.


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## qst42know (Sep 12, 2010)

What do these look like after being run through the hammer mill you have for sale?


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## Barren Realms 007 (Sep 12, 2010)

qst42know said:


> What do these look like after being run through the hammer mill you have for sale?



I'm not so sure that hammer mill has run for a while. 8) But I would bet it still works.


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## Anonymous (Sep 12, 2010)

qst42know said:


> What do these look like after being run through the hammer mill you have for sale?



I think that may work, the screen on the small mill would have disintegrated within minutes, I have purchased a much larger mill that will handle the task plus I have a sale for granulated plastic. A landscaper is using recycled plastic instead of sand as an underlay under brick walkways, he tells me that the plastic is preferred as it peculates water better than sand and will not wash out.

By contrast you can see that the Farm King is a toy compared to the larger hammer mill.

I agree cyanide would be ideal, processing these ends would be an open learning process for all of us that have a large quantity of these cable ends if we could have goldsilverpro join this thread with some expert advice on processing low grade scrap using cyanide.

If the more experienced forum members choose to remain silent than so shall I, my thoughts are to shear off as much waste from the plug as possible, run the remaining chunk through the larger mill, incinerate the shredded pulp then mag out the iron from the ash before going to leach.

On another note most of us have come across circuit boards with gold traces under the mask, what we missed is that some or most boards are multi layered with more circuits sandwiched inside that can have gold traces as well. I have personally seen this on some memory boards.



View attachment 2
View attachment 1


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## Chumbawamba (Sep 12, 2010)

Barren Realms 007 said:


> If I had that many I might set up a couple of 5 gal buckets with poor mans and run them.



That sounds like a bad idea as I'd think you would end up with a bunch of base metals in solution, not to mention the fact you'd need to use a LOT of acids to dissolve all that material.

This is a very timely discussion as I was just thinking (again) how I might process the several barrels of data cable ends that I've amassed. I used to just sell them along with the non-gold-plated ends (currently I would get $.25/lbs) but then I realized I was throwing away gold.

I was thinking to just incinerate the whole batch, magnetically separate and then float off the slag, then process what remains, which is hopefully just gold-plated pins. But I like the suggestion of hammer milling them first, as that seems like a better way to go about incineration as it would be easier to burn off the cruft, and a lot of it could be floated off before having to incinerate.

I'm not educated about cyanide leaching but if all it would do is take the gold into solution, and cyanide is relatively cheap (is it?), then that would seem like a fairly ideal solution, as one could skip the milling and incineration and go right to gold recovery. Just throw a bunch of ends in a large trashcan, pour in some CN, and gold!


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## Barren Realms 007 (Sep 12, 2010)

I have a question. I have used a PTO driven New Holland 355 hammermill if my memory is correct, 100-150 BPH. There is a lot of air movement thru these things. How are you going to filter that to keep from loosing values.


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## Anonymous (Sep 12, 2010)

Barren Realms 007 said:


> I have a question. I have used a PTO driven New Holland 355 hammermill if my memory is correct, 100-150 BPH. There is a lot of air movement thru these things. How are you going to filter that to keep from loosing values.



Use a cyclone or recycle the sweeps from the shop floor.


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## Barren Realms 007 (Sep 12, 2010)

Chumbawamba said:


> Barren Realms 007 said:
> 
> 
> > If I had that many I might set up a couple of 5 gal buckets with poor mans and run them.
> ...



I have been considering what to do with the ones I have and I have considered cutting off the excess and incinerating before I run them in poor mans and would probably go that route before I put them in solution. That would remove a lot of the excess material.

I have an uncle that use to work in mainteneace where cynide was produced, he said he could taste it before the alarms went off when a problem occoured. It use to be in the farm chemicals I used. i'm safe around it just not to keen on using it.


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## Barren Realms 007 (Sep 12, 2010)

gustavus said:


> Barren Realms 007 said:
> 
> 
> > I have a question. I have used a PTO driven New Holland 355 hammermill if my memory is correct, 100-150 BPH. There is a lot of air movement thru these things. How are you going to filter that to keep from loosing values.
> ...



The one I used had an 18" cyclone on it and I still had a lot of dust. But I agree with that line of thinking. And maybe a properly sized heppa filter for proper air flow. Say maybe a 4'x4' sq area box face to handle the air flow.


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## Anonymous (Sep 12, 2010)

Barren Realms 007 said:


> gustavus said:
> 
> 
> > Barren Realms 007 said:
> ...



Using a water spray injection would eliminate your dust and keep your values where you want them. Then only necessary when running IC's through the mill the heavier plastics and metal from these cable ends will settle out fast with little or no dust. Which was my experience running the ribbon cable ends.

Simple and cheap thats me.


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## Barren Realms 007 (Sep 12, 2010)

gustavus said:


> Barren Realms 007 said:
> 
> 
> > gustavus said:
> ...



Cool, great info.


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## Chumbawamba (Sep 13, 2010)

How would one lose values anyway? Do loose pins fall or fly out of the unit?


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## Harold_V (Sep 13, 2010)

Chumbawamba said:


> How would one lose values anyway? Do loose pins fall or fly out of the unit?


Any time you abrade gold plated items, there are losses. How you deal with the losses is what makes a difference. Everything must be treated for contained values. 
By the way, that includes incineration. The ash contains a percentage, which is shed by heating. 

Harold


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## EDI Refining (Sep 13, 2010)

I was under the impression these computer metal/plastic plugs male and female are just flash plated (very low yields)..


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## Anonymous (Sep 13, 2010)

P3M said:


> I was under the impression these computer metal/plastic plugs male and female are just flash plated (very low yields)..



Depends on vintage, older plugs and those used in harsh environment such as those used in railway switching gear have much heavier gold plating.

Sample shown below.


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## silversaddle1 (Sep 13, 2010)

P3M said:


> I was under the impression these computer metal/plastic plugs male and female are just flash plated (very low yields)..



That may be true, but the older stuff has good plating. One other thing to consider is I'm talking 1000's of pounds of connectors here.


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## rusty (Oct 1, 2010)

P3M said:


> I was under the impression these computer metal/plastic plugs male and female are just flash plated (very low yields)..



Yea not much to get excited about, most e-scrap is low yield but I'm not about to discard any of it until the gold has been recovered.

Hammer Mill at work.
[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QM9hiQhds0M[/youtube]

Pulp coming from 3/8" screen.


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## qst42know (Oct 1, 2010)

I can see why you geared up. 

I can see stuff flying everywhere in the video. 

Down right explosive. 8)


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## glorycloud (Oct 1, 2010)

Um, what do you do next with your ball milled "stuff" in order to
get the gold? Are you putting all that trash into a dilute nitric acid
solution or are you incinerating it first? And if you are incinerating
it, where pray tell are you doing that??

Just curious.


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## gotthebug2 (Oct 1, 2010)

excellent questions Glorycloud.


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## silversaddle1 (Oct 1, 2010)

Now I wonder if they run these plugs thru a grind/shread operation before the cyanide leach? It would seem to me that the whole plug would retain some solution/values inside the plug. Or is there a way to remove all the solution after the leach?


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## Barren Realms 007 (Oct 1, 2010)

silversaddle1 said:


> Now I wonder if they run these plugs thru a grind/shread operation before the cyanide leach? It would seem to me that the whole plug would retain some solution/values inside the plug. Or is there a way to remove all the solution after the leach?



Wash it out with water!


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## rusty (Oct 1, 2010)

Obviously after spending a couple of hundred dollars for a hammer mill, I had given it some thought as to how I would removed the gold, exposing the values being my first chore. 

I have a couple of ideas floating around in my head on how I wish to process these pins form this point, but would like to hear from some of our more experienced forum members how they would choose to proceed with this project.

I'm estimating that after had sorting, removing anything magnetic and the larger chunks of plastic then incineration there maybe 40 to 50 lbs of gold plated pins varying in vintage from the 1980 up to our present day. The base metals to deal with here are copper with perhaps a bit of lead/tin solder.

So lets hear it.


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## qst42know (Oct 1, 2010)

Any of this plastic float?

A density or buoyancy difference you can take advantage of?

Even if you don't get all the plastic out you should be able to get a significant reduction by some simple means.


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## butcher (Oct 1, 2010)

plastic, maybe use a plexiglass sheet and a wipeing roller to create static electricity, makeing an electrostatic discharge magnet to get plastic (not sure I used proper names for these).


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## rusty (Oct 1, 2010)

Iron and plastic separation no problem, the wife loves to serve her master and has volunteered for the job. now that we have dealt with the unwanted wastes how would you process the pins.

1. Send the concentrates out to a refiner.
2. Use SSN as your leach.
3. Use a weak potassium Cyanide leach passing over a bed of zinc shavings or possibly filtered through activated carbon.
4. Melt into copper anodes then use electrolytic procedure such as copper cell.
5. Remove base metals using dilute nitric acid.
6. Use hot concentrated sulfuric acid


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## goldsilverpro (Oct 1, 2010)

I agree with glorycloud. Now what??


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## rusty (Oct 2, 2010)

goldsilverpro said:


> I agree with glorycloud. Now what??



GSP I'm fully aware that you know how to process these low grade pins but choose to close this thread with your comment. if you would prefer that I leave the forum I would do this in a heart beat - just say the word.

There are other forum members who would like learn by following this thread having similar plugs to process, if you choose not to give solid advice on how to proceed, then leave us in peace and not abuse me with the power you hold over me - moderator.

We all know darn well that you have the knowledge to refine these pins. You have refined or plated every metal known to man. I refuse to be shut down unless you block me from accessing the forum.

I left voluntarily last time for reasons I do not wish to get into here, maybe you can push the exit button for me this time - Chris. I'm tired of having you hijack my threads and find it rude. 

I would have expected a more meaningful reply from you than agreeing with someone else's comment.

If I'm wrong in what I say I will apologize publicly right here on the forum, or maybe we should take a poll does Gill stay or go, I'll bide by the majority vote..


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## Platdigger (Oct 2, 2010)

I know this is not my fight. But I for one think you should show more respect to Chris.
I am sure he meant what he said. And was not trying to "hijack" your thread, or anything of the sort.


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## rusty (Oct 2, 2010)

Platdigger said:


> I know this is not my fight. But I for one think you should show more respect to Chris.
> I am sure he meant what he said. And was not trying to "hijack" your thread, or anything of the sort.



The Pro is asking a novice with little knowledge in the area of refining how to proceed, give me a break. He is capable of giving expert advise on how to process this scrap.

I wonder of he has outlined the procedure in his book of secrets, might be $35.00 well spent on my part.

So what is your Vote, after ten votes we'll count them so make yourself heard on this. Never mind I'll count you as a yes - Gill leaves the forum.


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## silversaddle1 (Oct 2, 2010)

OK guys, zip them back up, it's over. 

We are all on this forum to learn new ideas and ways to refine PM's. Bickering back and forth in a waste of time and space.

No one needs to leave. When ever someone leaves, it's a loss to the whole forum, so let's all stay put.

The question from GSP was "now what do you do with them". That's not a hijack, it's a good question. A question I would have asked myself. It would appear to me the hammermill does a great job busting up the plastic cable ends, but what about the metal ones? You still will have to deal with those, no?

So I'm thinking this might be one of the times where a guy may be better off selling them whole or sending them off to a refiner and have them reclaim the values.


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## goldsilverpro (Oct 2, 2010)

Gill,

I honestly wasn't trying to hijack your thread and I honestly don't know exactly how I would proceed with the chopped up material. If I had that stuff, I would be in the same quandary you are. Thus, my question. 

Probably, I would first try to find a mechanical separation scheme that would ultimately isolate the PMs and the various types of material. That's the cleanest way. There was a large refiner in the Silicon Valley that was doing just that, but I can't remember their name. They chopped up boards and then used all sorts of methods to separate the fractions -density, flotation, magnetic, eddy current, etc., etc. I'm thinking they had a patent but I wouldn't know the keywords to search for it. Also, there's all sorts of separation technology coming out of the recycling industry that is available on the internet. It's all out there, somewhere.

One advantage of chopping the stuff up is that it's now in a form that can be screened (maybe), blended, sampled, and assayed with fair accuracy. When Chinese buyers were hitting every scrap yard, looking for electronics scrap, some big yards chopped it up and sold it to them on assay. I have heard, though, that many US refiners don't want it the chopped up form. This may have changed.


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## Oz (Oct 2, 2010)

I had hoped to post this before GSP replied (I type slowly), but all the same I am leaving my below reply unedited except for this paragraph. Chris was more understanding than I would have been had I had received the reply and accusations you gave to him. Reading below you will/may understand why. 



rusty said:


> The Pro is asking a novice with little knowledge in the area of refining how to proceed, give me a break. He is capable of giving expert advise on how to process this scrap.



This may piss you off Gill but the way I see it is that no one “owes” anyone anything on this forum other than being well mannered and polite with effort put forward to make what they “do” post as accurate and as factual as their ability allows. 

I say this because of the way I read your reply was that you were upset because you felt that GSP “could” have helped you more than he did. I did not understand why you thought he was trying to shut your thread down however as he ended with the question “now what?”, that sounds like an invitation for others suggestions to me, leaving it wide open.

Since no one here is being paid to give advice, it is truly just an act of kindness and generosity that individuals choose to contribute of their hard won knowledge and chose to spend their time here answering members questions and keeping them safe. 

I read this forum in its entirety and choose not to reply to many things for many reasons. Most often it is due to lack of spare time, but I make the effort to try to give back more than I have received. 

Some of the reasons I may not post a reply when I could help are;

1).I feel that if I post a reply to a question, I should only do so if I feel I have the time to follow up with the additional questions that will almost always result.
2).When I know how “I” would handle the material or situation/problem but have concerns as to the capabilities or experience of the individual asking the question to follow my direction safely, I will not reply. If I feel that they can, but I question the general public's ability to do so, I will reply to them privately giving direction. People must remember that a 5 year old can log on the net and think they are a rocket scientist just because they can read it.
3).I make my living doing this, therefore there are some things that I do not wish to put on a public forum. If someone has been a member here for a while and I have had the chance to get to know their character by their posts I will often contact them privately and give them direction and help that I would not wish to put on the internet. I actually write far more off forum than on the forum to members.

Looking back at the main reasons “I” choose not to reply may upset some people. I am willing to hear constructive criticism on that, but prefer it to be by PM so as not to distract or clutter this tread.

Gill, you should understand what I said above, as I have spent considerable time writing you privately as to PGM refining that I have not given on the open forum. 

You have indeed complicated things some by almost trying to get banned from the forum as gustavus, then formally asking to be banned on at least 2 occasions until Noxx finally accommodated you. But then you were immediately back as rusty (rusty was a complete unknown, gustavus was not, perhaps you expected replies as you were used to as a seasoned member, but the rusty name was a newbie). For obvious reasons this causes confusion and trust issues that you may not have anticipated. I personally do not understand the banning/name change thing you did?

My intent here is not to alienate you in the above post, but to point out that you have benefited greatly by being a member here, and all of it you received out of generosity, not an obligation on anyone's part in having to, or in owing you answers.

Your simple solution to GSP's post (even if you felt he was omitting knowledge) would have been to let it pass and see what others had to say, taking it from there.

As a personal side note, this reply has taken 2 hours of my time as I type with one finger. I could have just as easily spent that time helping you or others with actual refining.

In reply to your comment on GSP's book, I cannot tell you what is in it, but one would be a fool not to wish to tap anything he has to say about refining at such a pittance if they have 2 plug nickels to rub together.


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## Anonymous (Oct 2, 2010)

rusty said:


> If I'm wrong in what I say I will apologize publicly right here on the forum, or maybe we should take a poll does Gill stay or go, I'll bide by the majority vote..


I hope I am not overstepping my bounderies here,but gil you started a fight a while back that ended in someone else being banned from the forum.You have stated several times that you were leaving once and for all,and have asked several times to have your account closed for you,and as you stated asked Noxx directly in a PM and publically.You even went as far as deleting COUNTLESS posts that you made,some of which I personally wanted to read when I was building my ball mill.
At this point I don't see where you need to wait for the "Majority Vote".I don't want to start an argument over this,but if you hate this forum(or chris) so much that you want your account shut down,then just simply leave,and leave your account the way it is.You never know if your heart will change in the future,or maybe you just need to get on here for one reason or another.There may be others that do not agree with what chris does,but as harold said,this is not a democracy,it is the Nation of Noxx,if you don't like it,then move to another nation................please.
I find quite a few of your posts abusive and abrasive,and I am just glad they are not directed at me,however I am sure that will change soon.........chris,harold,steve,save me if it does.


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## lazersteve (Oct 2, 2010)

As much as I have been trying to stay out of this, let me put in my two cents.

First and foremost Gill's scrap question:

Gill I would try the suggestions related to floating the plastics away from the metals using water. Another possibility, since you are obviously very handy with tools, would be to construct a vortex type device that separates the lighter plastics from the higher density metals with a sort of water cyclone (I saw this device on one of the science channels or something a few months back) .

I also think the suggestion related to static electricity would be a good test to perform.

Secondly, on the topic of holding back information. As Oz so elegantly stated, no member is required to divulge any or all of his or her knowledge to the members of the forum. Participation in a given topic is purely voluntary and everyone has their own reasons for posting or not. I for one do not post to threads that are already being sufficiently answered by those posting before i reads the thread. I also find myself not posting methods that I use that are experimental or not main stream for many different reasons.

I didn't not interpret GSP's reply as derogatory towards you in any way, in fact he actually agreed with Glorycloud's previous post. I take Chris (GSP) at his word and don't think he is holding back anything from you, especially out of spite. If he is holding back information, it is his choice to do so and I don't see him as any less of a good person for do so if he see's fit.

In my opinion, your reply is reactionary and over exaggerates what I feel Chris was saying. I like having you here and feel you have contributed to the forum. I also feel you should take a deep breath, step back, and try to see beyond your initial reaction to the posts that are being made here by everyone. No one is out to get you.

GSP's book is worth every penny of the $35 he is asking for it.

Steve


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## rusty (Oct 2, 2010)

silversaddle1 said:


> OK guys, zip them back up, it's over.
> 
> It would appear to me the hammermill does a great job busting up the plastic cable ends, but what about the metal ones? You still will have to deal with those, no?
> 
> So I'm thinking this might be one of the times where a guy may be better off selling them whole or sending them off to a refiner and have them reclaim the values.



I agree it's over and we're back in the saddle.

Yes the hammer mill does a great job shredding the plugs, be they plastic or metal. A magnet will make short order of picking out the iron.

The big car shredders use a cyclone to separate the rubber from the tires, interior plastic and upholstery fluff. I would think the science behind it would be in regulating the velocity and volume of air coming into the cyclone.

Since this is a one shot deal for me will not bother to hunt one down, but will leave that idea for those of you that would like to set up on a continuing basis to process scrap such as this.


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## rusty (Oct 2, 2010)

lazersteve said:


> As much as I have been trying to stay out of this, let me put in my two cents.
> 
> First and foremost Gill's scrap question:
> 
> ...



Thanks for your input Steve, if I had a good supply of this material I would run it through the hammer mill, feed the shredded material onto a grizzly to remove oversize material then onto a conveyor fitted with a magnet to remove the iron.

http://www.shieldscompany.com/conveyors_separators.html

The remainder into a vibrating screen deck to classify the remainder.

http://www.mhm.assetweb.com/DRKNOW/APLPAPR.NSF/apweb/82260FA13C2DB28D852566C000557BDA?OpenDocument


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## Harold_V (Oct 2, 2010)

It should be well understood that readers, here, are not free to take shots at other readers. (For the record, my comment is not directed at mic). 

In order to prevent being banned, if someone posts something offensive, do *NOT* escalate. Contact one of the moderators and allow them to handle the problem. We have the option of editing or deleting the offensive post, along with sending a PM advising the individual that his/her performance is not acceptable. If the individual cops an attitude, it takes but a push of a button to have him gone from the forum. 

I hope I speak for administration and other moderators in stating that we expect adult behavior on this forum. If a reader chooses to behave like a junior high child, he can expect to be treated like one. 

Harold


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