# What is this material (old)?



## GoldUser (May 16, 2022)

Hey,
I found someone selling those "boards" (he says they are from the 70s).
Has anyone seen those before? I cant really imagine what they were/are used for?

Edit: I would appreciate some estimates on yield or any information about it.

David


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## Martijn (May 16, 2022)

Maybe dummies to bypass empty card slots. Or extention cards to fit smaller cards in the same rack.


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## 608rogerm (May 16, 2022)

Martijn said:


> Maybe dummies to bypass empty card slots. Or extention cards to fit smaller cards in the same rack.


Sometimes used with ribbon cable's on communications equipment.
The old HP çards would have had gold plating on the whole card. Those look a little lower grade. Yeild will be roughly the same as trimmed finger's.


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## GoldUser (May 16, 2022)

608rogerm said:


> Sometimes used with ribbon cable's on communications equipment.
> The old HP çards would have had gold plating on the whole card. Those look a little lower grade. Yeild will be roughly the same as trimmed finger's.


Do u mean yeald per lb (uncut)?


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## GoldUser (May 16, 2022)

The seller also offered me those boards. They are aerospace boards which are like 40 50 years old. I dont have experience with those kind of things has someone seen those before? And if, can u label whats on that board.
David


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## 608rogerm (May 16, 2022)

GoldUser said:


> Do u mean yeald per lb (uncut)?


You'll have to cut the fingers off. The rest is just copper. Yeild will be based on weight of the fingers pr. Lb.


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## GoldUser (May 16, 2022)

608rogerm said:


> You'll have to cut the fingers off. The rest is just copper. Yeild will be based on weight of the fingers pr. Lb.


Thanks a lot. But is it good quality plating? It look like it for me. Quality wise.


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## 608rogerm (May 16, 2022)

GoldUser said:


> The seller also offered me those boards. They are aerospace boards which are like 40 50 years old. I dont have experience with those kind of things has someone seen those before? And if, can u label whats on that board.
> David


They are definitely high grade boards. I see gold, silver, palladium, rhodium, tantalum, ect....
IF the price is right, I would definitely buy them.
I would suggest a WHOLE LOT of research before trying to process them.


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## GoldUser (May 16, 2022)

608rogerm said:


> They are definitely high grade boards. I see gold, silver, palladium, rhodium, tantalum, ect....
> IF the price is right, I would definitely buy them.
> I would suggest a WHOLE LOT of research before trying to process them.


I do just refine gold. I was just wondering if those gold processors (with lucas aerospace on it) are worth the pm. I would sell the rest or store for the future.
Where do you see Rhodium? I dont want to handle those ptg metals. Just that i dont get something in my solution i dont know of.

Edit: Is there maby a guide on here especially on 70s pcb's or old military grade ones (some to refer)?

David


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## 608rogerm (May 16, 2022)

GoldUser said:


> I do just refine gold. I was just wondering if those gold processors (with lucas aerospace on it) are worth the pm. I would sell the rest or store for the future.
> Where do you see Rhodium? I dont want to handle those ptg metals. Just that i dont get something in my solution i dont know of.
> 
> Edit: Is there maby a guide on here especially on 70s pcb's or old military grade ones (some to refer)?
> ...


I was generalizing. You'll find a lot of PM's in the capacitors worth more than gold. 
It's accumulative.
Once you remove the processors and pins, you have a low grade board. 
Personally, I would depopulate the whole board. 
Sort, collect, and sell anything you don't want to process.(once you have enough collected)
If all you want to do is the processors, run a search on processors.
The fact that your asking where I see rhodium tells me that you don't have the experience necessary to be doing this.
I don't mean to be rude, but you are dealing with EXTREMELY toxic chemicals and fumes that could kill you...or your dog...or one of your family members.
There is a wealth of information on this forum. If you go down 20 or 30 dead ends searching for that information, I garrentee you will learn something! ( I hope ).
PLEASE be safe and happy hunting.


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## GoldUser (May 16, 2022)

608rogerm said:


> I was generalizing. You'll find a lot of PM's in the capacitors worth more than gold.
> It's accumulative.
> Once you remove the processors and pins, you have a low grade board.
> Personally, I would depopulate the whole board.
> ...


I appreciate you pointing out the dangers but that's the reason why I'm asking. I just work with the things I know and I'm confident using. I'm just half a year in this hobby and processed just once before. Now by studying the forum and looking into the chemistry behind it I really have respect for this work after seeing those sketchy YouTube videos at the beginning. I don't use nitric/sulfuric acid (and won't until I know enough about it) and operate with PPE outdoors with including respirators (as safety precaution). Please be free to criticize my setup 
I really do want to learn to refine silver, tantalum, platinum, etc. but that still takes me a lot of time. I just got this offered and didn't want to miss a deal. 
David


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## 608rogerm (May 16, 2022)

GoldUser said:


> I appreciate you pointing out the dangers but that's the reason why I'm asking. I just work with the things I know and I'm confident using. I'm just half a year in this hobby and processed just once before. Now by studying the forum and looking into the chemistry behind it I really have respect for this work after seeing those sketchy YouTube videos at the beginning. I don't use nitric/sulfuric acid (and won't until I know enough about it) and operate with PPE outdoors with including respirators (as safety precaution). Please be free to criticize my setup
> I really do want to learn to refine silver, tantalum, platinum, etc. but that still takes me a lot of time. I just got this offered and didn't want to miss a deal.
> David


Those "processors" will probably be processed the same as a CPU. Try running a search for that process.
They probably contain several types of PM's, which would require variable chemicals to process.
Most of the capacitors on those boards have more value once separated than selling off as low grade. There's a catagory for"sheared flush" boards.(copper content)
Again, IF the price is right, I would buy them and sit on them until your ready to proceed.
We're living in a crazy world right now, and I think it's a good investment... just my opinion!


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## eaglekeeper (May 16, 2022)

Those processors *may* have collector value far beyond gold value. Run those parts numbers on eBay and see if any have sold in the past. You can remove them (carefully) from the board with a cheap heat gun.


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## GoldUser (May 17, 2022)

eaglekeeper said:


> Those processors *may* have collector value far beyond gold value. Run those parts numbers on eBay and see if any have sold in the past. You can remove them (carefully) from the board with a cheap heat gun.


Thanks you hear that far to less here


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## orvi (May 17, 2022)

Finger quality looks to be good, but gold is probably only in the finger part. You need to scratch under the mask to see if gold plating goes under it. But I doubt it.

To the board picture you posted, I see chips which will have a collector value. Overall the board look to be high quality one, chips probably contain appreciable gold, but I would try to sell them as they are, if possible. Also there is a good looking connector, altough old connectors like this one, but from late-Soviet manufacture contain little gold.
Other components like transistors will be worth something, also I see decent number of black plastic tantalums. Yellow-brown things are probably caps, but it is unclear if these are plastic coated MLCCs or foil. Also small glass components can be MLCCs encased in glass. Not much weight, but it all adds up.


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## BlackLabel (May 17, 2022)

Hi David,

The blank cards are easy to process.
It looks like, there is gold plating just at one edge, the other edge looks silver (at least on one of the cards). If so, then these cards are supposed to be unfinished riser cards.
There should be a slot connector on the opposite side of the gold fingers.
These cards are for repair and/or alignment.
For example:
You can put these cards into a computer mainboard's card slot and plug a sound card into the riser cards slot. Now you have access to all parts of the sound card because it stands outside the computer's housing but it's still connected.

I know such riser cards from computers (ISA- and PCI-slots), from very old video recorders and from industrial card frames.

About the aerospace boards:
They are looking great!
Depending on the price the seller asks for, I'd take them. I guess, they should hold 0.2 to 0.5 grams gold each (hard to estimate).
I'd buy them for 10 to 15 Euro/each.
From the photo, it seems, the boards are transparent coated. If you are trying to recover the PMs, you have to get rid of the coating first (burning or dissolving in NaOH).

Depending on how much boards you're offered, it could be a very good deal.

If you can get a larger amount of these boards, I'd like to purchase one or two from you (depending on the price). Please send me a PM.

Best regards.


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## GoldUser (May 18, 2022)

BlackLabel said:


> Hi David,
> 
> The blank cards are easy to process.
> It looks like, there is gold plating just at one edge, the other edge looks silver (at least on one of the cards). If so, then these cards are supposed to be unfinished riser cards.
> ...


He has around 20 peaces and want 20€ per peace. I think I can get it down to 15. I ordered some of the risers and 2 boards to check them out. If they arrive I can post more detail here. 
Of course I can send you one.
David


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## Hombressino (May 20, 2022)

GoldUser said:


> He has around 20 peaces and want 20€ per peace. I think I can get it down to 15. I ordered some of the risers and 2 boards to check them out. If they arrive I can post more detail here.
> Of course I can send you one.
> David


15€ a piece seems crazy high to me. How much you expect to extract from one piece? Do you calculate with selling some parts (e.g. chips) instead of process it?


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## GoldUser (May 20, 2022)

Hombressino said:


> 15€ a piece seems crazy high to me. How much you expect to extract from one piece? Do you calculate with selling some parts (e.g. chips) instead of process it?


I'm a programmer and just do this for the fascination and fun. I thought it would be cool to process those to learn about some old electronics and maybe get some input for this forum. I bought 200 risers and 3 of those boards to check out. What would you estimate of how much and what PM's there are in the boards?


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## Hombressino (May 20, 2022)

GoldUser said:


> I'm a programmer and just do this for the fascination and fun. I thought it would be cool to process those to learn about some old electronics and maybe get some input for this forum. I bought 200 risers and 3 of those boards to check out. What would you estimate of how much and what PM's there are in the boards?


Well, for trimmed fingers from boards (not RAM sticks but cards like ISA, PCI, AGP, ...) purchase price in scrap metal yards is between 100 - 300 € per kg. How much does one finger weigh? 10 grams? Two fingers per board. 50 boards = 1 kg of trimmed fingers. So, max. price per board should be no more than 6 € (seems still very expensive to me but I calculate optimistically - not advisable, just for purpose of this calculation). 

If you want to learn the process and want to "invest" into gaining your skills, have enough money... why not.

I stick with someone's wise advice here on the forum long time ago: _"Don't overpay scrap. You will raise its prices in future purchases." _


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## MicheleM (May 20, 2022)

608rogerm said:


> I was generalizing. You'll find a lot of PM's in the capacitors worth more than gold.
> It's accumulative.
> Once you remove the processors and pins, you have a low grade board.
> Personally, I would depopulate the whole board.
> ...


I see silver , Gold, Palladium, Tantalum, Ecc ecc. But I do not see any Rhodium either. No contact points, the black items look resistors,no reed relay, where is it?


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## Geo (May 22, 2022)

Bridge connector cards. To add another set of slot connectors to a mother motherboard. Upgrades may not fit on the board because the design packed everything in the case too closely. The bridge would connect another small board with a single slot on the bottom of the board with four or five empty slots on top of the board. Upgrades. In my experience, the gold thickness is the same from one end to the other if all the traces are gold plated.


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## GoldUser (Jun 21, 2022)

Quick update:
I bought 200 peaces of those old riser cards wich gave me 800g of fingers.
My yield was 2g but had has some impurities and other stuff in it. The fingers had a 20% of the total weight- More than it looks first.
David


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