# Numb Hand



## punkymunk (Jun 9, 2016)

After cutting the fingers off of 400 memory sticks this evening... my hand is numb as can be. I'm sure to feel the soreness tomorrow lol. I used cutting snips but if anyone has any suggestions to other methods that would be easier I'd love to hear them! This batch came out to 19.6oz (1lb 3.6oz) but is a mix of SD-RAM, DDR, DDR2 and a few DDR3 sticks. Not a bad haul if you ask me  I just hope to have a couple grams or better of gold later on when processed via air bubbler & 2-3 times through the auric chloride process. Would a safe estimation be that 320 stick (on average) would = 1lb of fingers?


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## mls26cwru (Jun 9, 2016)

http://www.amazon.com/dp/B0039ZAASK/ref=pd_lpo_sbs_dp_ss_1?pf_rd_p=1944687502&pf_rd_s=lpo-top-stripe-1&pf_rd_t=201&pf_rd_i=B00KLMDSR4&pf_rd_m=ATVPDKIKX0DER&pf_rd_r=19CRW0NRZZB21PC2T0HJ

i do not have any affiliation with them, but it is the type of sheer that I have... cuts PCB like paper... clean and fast.

***To the moderators: if linking this violates any forum rules, please notify me and remove the link***


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## jason_recliner (Jun 9, 2016)

Don't forget, there's gold in them thar chips too!


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## Topher_osAUrus (Jun 9, 2016)

I sometimes use a heavy duty paper cutter like i had to use back in grade school as teachers aide.

But, that cutter that was linked, looks awesome. I want.

And yes... What are you doing with the rest of the ram sticks?


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## punkymunk (Jun 9, 2016)

mls26cwru said:


> http://www.amazon.com/dp/B0039ZAASK/ref=pd_lpo_sbs_dp_ss_1?pf_rd_p=1944687502&pf_rd_s=lpo-top-stripe-1&pf_rd_t=201&pf_rd_i=B00KLMDSR4&pf_rd_m=ATVPDKIKX0DER&pf_rd_r=19CRW0NRZZB21PC2T0HJ
> 
> i do not have any affiliation with them, but it is the type of sheer that I have... cuts PCB like paper... clean and fast.
> 
> ***To the moderators: if linking this violates any forum rules, please notify me and remove the link***



That looks like it should do the trick thanks! Given the cost for it, I will add it to my wish list since I don't think I'll be needing it for a few months or so until I build up another batch of RAM sticks to cut lol



Topher_osAUrus said:


> I sometimes use a heavy duty paper cutter like i had to use back in grade school as teachers aide.<br abp="620"><br abp="621">But, that cutter that was linked, looks awesome. I want.<br abp="622"><br abp="623">And yes... What are you doing with the rest of the ram sticks?



I actually thought about that a little ways back but after researching I found that most say it'll dull out relatively quick so I passed on it. Maybe I ought to revisit the idea. 

I'm not tossing away the trimmed RAM sticks by no means. I'm going to add them to my others that I have been hoarding until I feel safe to practice with necessary chemicals to remove the chips. Then I'll find a way that works for me to incinerate them. Half or more of the stick have more gold plating/flashing on them that wasn't on the fingers part, so once cleaned I will put them into the air bubbler & HCL. I may try the air hammer technique to de-populate but given how small and narrow the sticks are, I don't know how efficient I will be at that. Hot sand bath hasn't been my friend when attempted. If I remember correctly... GEO would just put the sticks in whole and collect/separate later but I don't know near enough on how to avoid and remove certain base metals from the HCL so I could get to the PMs un-contaminated. But that is probably the process I will take once I feel ready to start attempting it.


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## jason_recliner (Jun 9, 2016)

> If I remember correctly... GEO would just put the sticks in whole and collect/separate later but I don't know near enough on how to avoid and remove certain base metals from the HCL so I could get to the PMs un-contaminated. But that is probably the process I will take once I feel ready to start attempting it.


Straight HCl will dissolve the solder and the chips will fall off. If you leave it long enough you will dissolve the legs too, as per Geo's method. You have already manually removed the majority of the foils but there might be just a few more to collect, if you have time and inclination to chase every last one.

Note that you can't actually remove base metals from HCl. You can only replace them with more reactive metals. This is how copper cements (precipitates, or forces out) gold, and tin cements copper. If you only dissolve base metals, by not adding too much (or maybe any) oxidiser, your gold is untouched and remains a solid, as foils.

So don't make the mistake of adding pre-loved, green, CuCl2 "starter" leach and fresh HCl to dissolve solder. With all the tin/lead involved, much or all the copper will cement out as pink dust. Cu will eventually re-dissolve, but if you're going to do this repeatedly then it's better to keep some HCl/Sn/Pb solution dedicated to the chip removal task, until it's full. This way you won't ever need to run it through a stock pot (because it will never hold precious metals).


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## Smack (Jun 10, 2016)

Be careful bud, you could end up with nerve damage from that type of repetitive action.


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## nickvc (Jun 10, 2016)

My advice cut them as you collect them or do them once a month, that way it's not such a task or pain and simple hand tools will be fine on the smaller quantity so cheap in the long too as you do not need power tools. The other advantage is that you can start the processing and only move onto refining when you have a decent quantity to do.


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## Wingedcloud (Jun 12, 2016)

To answer your estimate question, i recently got 17,4 kg of RAM sticks, from which I got 1420g of fingers. From these I got a 4g small nugget of gold.

Winged


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