# Is this gold?



## lyndonbrad99 (Apr 10, 2013)

Hi folks!

I'm relatively new to this forum but must say you guys have an enormous amount of knowledge that I am just sucking up like a vortex. I'm not a refiner...yet...but mostly an escrapper. I recently landed a huge hoard of Net Vista P4's, CRT's, flat screens, modems, etc. My two car garage is literally stacked full of this stuff and I am having a grand ole time scrappin it. My problem is there are some things I've never scrapped before like modems, network gear, certain cables and patch cords. I'm hoping you guys can help me identify the PM's in these things. I really appreciate all the info and help you can give. Thanks a ton!


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## g_axelsson (Apr 11, 2013)

Picture 1, "blue transistors" : No transistors, they are capacitors (see the C32 and C33 printed in the silk screen beside them). No gold.

Picture 2, "yellow transistor" : No transistor, it is a metal oxide varistor (see the MOV1 printed in the silk screen beside it). No gold.

Picture 3, USB cables have gold plated contact surfaces. Probably only plated on one side and only the exposed part.

Picture 4, RJ45 contacts have gold plated contacts. Some have only gold on the edge of the contact element, some are plated on the sides too.

Göran


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## lyndonbrad99 (Apr 11, 2013)

Thanks! So the contacts on the cables might be worth holding onto. Sorry about the order of the pics as they posted backwards. As for the capacitors I'm wondering if these are the ones that have Tantalum; I realize they have no gold so prob should have been on a different thread but I tossed em in there. A very knowledgeable escrapper said I should take these off all my boards but I can't find a resource that identifies every little chip and "icitor" on the boards. Thanks for your help tho as I can now put to rest the cable end question.


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## Geo (Apr 11, 2013)

this has a little info.

http://wn.com/tantalum_capacitor


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## yar (Apr 11, 2013)

Lyndon check out the wanted section there is a thread for tantalum caps that etack posted that has pictures of them. As far as the connectors, for a majority of computer wires the rule I follow is that gold will connect to gold. If the wire plugs into a gold connector then the end should have gold as well. Ide and sata all have gold plating on the pins. You will also find gold plated pins in telephone wire connectors and the jacks that they plug into. Plating is very thin but it is gold. I am an ewaste guy also looking to eventually refine my own materials. Keep reading and keep absorbing. Good luck.


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## kane333 (Apr 11, 2013)

4th pic I believe is a Cat 5 connector and yes the contacts are gold plated but it will take thousands of them to make any kind of weight. Once the wire is crimped, though, the contacts are difficult to extract. I'm on mobile right now. When I get to work, I'll post a pic of what they look like.


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## kane333 (Apr 11, 2013)

The contacts for the Cat 5E connectors are usually entirely gold plated but small.












I had acquired over 5000 of these connectors. I still have a bag of 1000 untouched and uncrimped. When they're new and uncrimped, the contacts can be popped out very easily with a small screwdriver. Once crimped, though, they are a pain to extract. But don't let that discourage you from saving them and extracting the gold plated contacts. Every little bit helps. I didn't take exact notes of yield, but I believe it takes 1000 of these connectors to make about 2oz of gold plated contacts.


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## lyndonbrad99 (Apr 11, 2013)

Thanks for the thread Yar. It appears my "knowledgeable escrapper" has the wrong info but that thread has valuable info I can use as I tear these down. Kane - thanks for the pics. Seems like the best I can do is just snip these off and save them. I attempted to "open" one with a bigger hammer and all I created was a flat piece of plastic with the pins embedded further lol. It was a learning experiment. Thanks guys I'm sure I will have more "help me" posts as I go along cause knowledge always seems to create more questions.


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## kane333 (Apr 11, 2013)

If you want to learn about Escrapping, try Scrap Metal Forum under the Electronics Recycling section.


http://www.scrapmetalforum.com/electronics-recycling/


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## Smack (Apr 11, 2013)

If you want to process those, don't pull the gold plated contacts out, just cut them off right behind the contacts with a pair of end cutters like this one http://www.service.kleintools.com/Tool/PRD/Category/End-Cutting%20Pliers%20PLIERS-SPECIAL-ENDCUTTING and then incinerate and go from there.


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## gold4mike (Apr 16, 2013)

Also use the search term "gate cutter". I bought a dozen off eBay for a good price. They're made for cutting plastic rather than metal but they dull slowly if only cutting copper wire with them.


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## macfixer01 (Apr 16, 2013)

Smack said:


> If you want to process those, don't pull the gold plated contacts out, just cut them off right behind the contacts with a pair of end cutters like this one http://www.service.kleintools.com/Tool/PRD/Category/End-Cutting%20Pliers%20PLIERS-SPECIAL-ENDCUTTING and then incinerate and go from there.




End Cutters are one of my favorite tools and Harbor Freight sells several different sizes of End Cutters at a good price. I use them for all sorts of things, like breaking off edge fingers from boards, cracking open black DIP IC's to check for gold, separating the ceramic layers of EPROMs, Removing chips from a board by grabbing across them and giving a quick twist, and breaking off wire-wrap circuit boards along a row of pins to release them.

macfixer01


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## gold4mike (Apr 23, 2013)

Thanks macfixer01 for that tidbit. I have a couple of hundred pounds of wire wrap pin boards and was thinking of cutting the pins off one by one on both sides of the board. 

Breaking it off at a row should allow them to be plucked easily and I won't lose the part that goes through the hole that way.

Great idea :idea:


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