# Some microwave telecom and some laser parts



## darshevo (Aug 24, 2010)

I have been collecting a little too long and now its time for me to process out some of my scrap. I have bought a couple pretty large lots. 1 was parts from a mid 90's laser etching system and the other is a large lot of microwave telecom stuff. 

Before I get too crazy either with keeping or tossing this stuff in the circuit board bin I figured I would get the experts opinion. 

This one is from the laser stuff. Are these pins worth screwing with? The full connector is probably about 4 inches wide. 







The sockets themselves have gold plated contacts where the IC slides in (the IC's themselves did not) Also, does anythign else on there look like it might interesting?






Here is another 'anything interesting picture' this is out of the radio/telecom stuff. Anything there look promising save for the fingers?






Much like the earlier connectors, is it worth while to remove these for a future processing? How about the solder? Any chance of a silver content?






This one I am guessing is actually brass due to the amount of it that would be plated without need. A little hard to tell in the pic, but its a standard radio antenna outlet like would be used on a CB. 







I suspect I will have quite a few more pieces to get an opinion on as I get into this stuff. It amounted 20 plus pallets of gear

Thanks for taking a look!

-Lance


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## glorycloud (Aug 24, 2010)

I have taken the heat gun to some older looking sockets and connectors when
they "look" like nice quality buttery colored gold. Try a sample lot and see
what you yields are and see if you want to do the same.

That's a lot of work for 20 pallets of stuff!! Time to cherry pick the
pile and move on amigo???!!?? 8)


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## darshevo (Aug 25, 2010)

That's my usual plan A Glory. I get a large lot in, high grade and then pass along what's left. I'll have more time to tear into it on Monday - may find some interesting stuff in the control cabinets.

-Lance


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## g_axelsson (Aug 27, 2010)

darshevo said:


> I have been collecting a little too long and now its time for me to process out some of my scrap. I have bought a couple pretty large lots. 1 was parts from a mid 90's laser etching system and the other is a large lot of microwave telecom stuff.
> 
> Before I get too crazy either with keeping or tossing this stuff in the circuit board bin I figured I would get the experts opinion.
> 
> This one is from the laser stuff. Are these pins worth screwing with? The full connector is probably about 4 inches wide.


I usually collect these. It's standard thickness on the plating so they are just as good as any pin headers.



darshevo said:


> The sockets themselves have gold plated contacts where the IC slides in (the IC's themselves did not) Also, does anythign else on there look like it might interesting?


The sockets only contains a tiny gold plated spring. In the beginning I collected these but nowadays I let them stay on the board. Very easy to remove with a hot air gun if you decide to go after them.



darshevo said:


> Here is another 'anything interesting picture' this is out of the radio/telecom stuff. Anything there look promising save for the fingers?


Not that could see. There could be some small amounts of gold in the dip switch. (light blue multi switch).



darshevo said:


> Much like the earlier connectors, is it worth while to remove these for a future processing? How about the solder? Any chance of a silver content?


This is the good stuff. Large contact area, folded back and often plated on both sides. Remove it by heating the solder with a hot air gun. I would keep this.
Silver in solder is a new development with the RoHS directive, only common in electronics from 2006 and newer



darshevo said:


> This one I am guessing is actually brass due to the amount of it that would be plated without need. A little hard to tell in the pic, but its a standard radio antenna outlet like would be used on a CB.


Gold plated brass. A lot of radio equipment is actually gold plated even if it does seem unnecessary. Radio waves travel on the surface of metals so small oxide surfaces could affect the signal. Therefore a good ground is needed and a lot of it is gold plated. The thickness of the base metals makes it impractical to recover unless you are using a deplating cell.



darshevo said:


> I suspect I will have quite a few more pieces to get an opinion on as I get into this stuff. It amounted 20 plus pallets of gear
> 
> Thanks for taking a look!
> 
> -Lance



My pleasure! 8) 

With 20 pallets of gear it's more of a decision on how much time to put into this. Go for the easy quick parts, sort out iron, copper and aluminium and resell it.

/Göran


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