# I'm gonna coin a new refining term. Pin Tapping



## silversaddle1 (Feb 5, 2017)

So yesterday I told the wife I was just going to take a "me" day out in the shop and just do something that I like to do. Well as many of you here know, I like to harvest gold pins from backplane type boards. So I went out and went to work and had at it. I cranked some Led Zeppelin and Pink Floyd up on the audio system and went to work. In the time that a guy could have watched a couple pro football games I was able to collect these pins! 18.5 pounds of them!!! They are kind of bulky so they tend to take up a lot of room. So I had to tamp them down as I was filling the jars (I know, glass jars!). When my wife walked by the shop to feed the horses, she said she could hear me in there "tap, tap, tapping" away on the pins, thus the term "pin tapping". Pin tapping is the art of using nothing more than a small hammer, a heat gun (sometimes) and a pair of cutters to remove the pins from a board. It's simple to do once you master the hammer work, learn the "feel and sound" of the pins, and how to do different types of pins. I've been doing this for about 20 years now and my wife says I should make some videos and share the ideas. Maybe. But until then, enjoy the pics!


----------



## silversaddle1 (Feb 5, 2017)

Please note that can of Busch Lite has since been utilized in it's proper manner! A pic of the 3 tools I used on these boards.

Note that there are still some connectors on the boards. Those pins are not fully plated so I don't mess with them.

This method works best on friction fit pins but can be used on soldered pins as well, but way tougher to remove.


----------



## aga (Feb 5, 2017)

Man ! You must be very dedicated !

That is some _serious_ Pin Tappin' !


----------



## silversaddle1 (Feb 5, 2017)

Once you figure out the method and the tricks, you can cruz thru each board pretty quick.


----------



## Topher_osAUrus (Feb 5, 2017)

Thats a thing of beauty!

And I have the exact heatgun you show in your pictures. It is a beast!


----------



## silversaddle1 (Feb 5, 2017)

Topher_osAUrus said:


> Thats a thing of beauty!
> 
> And I have the exact heatgun you show in your pictures. It is a beast!



I love that gun! I bought it at a auction for $1.00 some years back. It will set paper on fire!


----------



## Topher_osAUrus (Feb 5, 2017)

You got a steal of a deal!

I spent 5 on mine at a garage sale, and I love it... I use it to dry out my powders, it works wonders.

...and if you keep removing all those pins, you may be able to start your own mint and make a coin, boldly emblazoned with your coined term. :wink:


----------



## kernels (Feb 6, 2017)

Hi Silversaddle, slightly off topic . . . but . . . what do you do with all those pins ? Do you do a cyanide leach, or sulfuric cell ? I have a bit of a collection starting, but I've tried acids and it doesn't seem to do much more than create a lot of waste for a small amount of gold.


----------



## kernels (Feb 6, 2017)

Also . . . a short video showing how you do your magic tapping would be amazing, I've tried an air hammer and multi-tool, but still don't really have the knack for pins.


----------



## gold4mike (Feb 6, 2017)

I buy those same gate cutters from IMS. They make cutting wire and pins a breeze - as long as you don't try to cut steel with 'em.

After fighting with pins I bent over by being over zealous with the tack hammer I took a piece of 1/4" X 6" aluminum bar stock and drilled a hole in each end with a large enough diameter to fit over a pin, but small enough to not have much wiggle room. The hole in one end is roughly 1/16" deep and the one in the other is roughly 1/4" deep. That makes it work for various length pins.

You can set the bar over the pin, hold it as straight as you can, and tap it with the hammer with much less likeliness of bending the pin. It also makes it less likely that you'll accidently hit the pin next to the one you're trying to remove with the hammer.

LOVE those old backplane boards with the fully plated friction fit pins!

Very nice pile you accumulated in a short time.


----------



## nickton (Aug 4, 2018)

where did you find those boards?


----------



## silversaddle1 (Aug 4, 2018)

Old telecomm rack mounted gear. We get that type of stuff all the time.


----------



## Palladium (Aug 4, 2018)

The pin whisper!


----------

