# Scrap with gold under solder mask, incl. photos



## marlyn (Jul 6, 2016)

Hi refining friends, 
my wife and doughter has not been home last 2 days, so I had opportunity to do some experiments :lol: 

I took different boards to test, if there is gold under solder mask, using lye technique described by lazersteve in his videos.

Here are my results from batch I've tested, including photos: 
- HDD boards - no gold plating (GP) under solder mask (SM)
- TV cards - no GP under SM
- graphics cards - no GP under SM 
- network cards - no GP under SM
- sound cards - no GP under SM (except Sound Blaster)
- mobile phones - no GP under SM (except 2 types - please help to identify)
- notebook touch pad - GP found under SM
- other boards - GP found under SM in PCI extending board for USB

*Feel free to extend this list with your knowledge about gold plating under SM, in best case, including photos *


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## marlyn (Jul 6, 2016)

Gold plated Sound Blaster (I think it was 5.1)


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## marlyn (Jul 6, 2016)

Gold plating under PCI extending USB board (quite a surprise).


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## marlyn (Jul 6, 2016)

Gold plating under Touchpad.


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## marlyn (Jul 6, 2016)

Mobile phone - plese help me identify phone name (I had only board).


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## marlyn (Jul 6, 2016)

Other cell phone - might be Nokia 6310 - if somebody can confirm it, would be nice


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## marlyn (Jul 6, 2016)

And cards I have tested with negative result for gold plating under solder mask (open image to see high res. picture). Sorry for the quality, that's maximum my phone camera does.


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## Luis (Jul 6, 2016)

Hi what is that technique for removing the green mask I have several pounds of cellphone boards to unmask. I was about to sell them but if I easily can remove the mask then I put them in AP.


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## necromancer (Jul 6, 2016)

Luis said:


> Hi what is that technique for removing the green mask I have several pounds of cellphone boards to unmask. I was about to sell them but if I easily can remove the mask then I put them in AP.



this technique is described by the original poster, they tell you the name of the technique, and who has the tutorial. ""lye technique described by lazersteve in his videos""

this is the URL to lazersteve's website http://goldrecovery.us/
follow the links to his video tutorials.


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## patnor1011 (Jul 7, 2016)

What did you use to treat touchpad first to remove glue or did you put it straight to lye?


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## johnny309 (Jul 7, 2016)

patnor1011 said:


> What did you use to treat touchpad first to remove glue or did you put it straight to lye?




I often use acetone(industrial grade)....but even that use as nail polish remover will work.


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## marlyn (Jul 10, 2016)

patnor1011 said:


> What did you use to treat touchpad first to remove glue or did you put it straight to lye?



I put it straight into lye. It took little bit longer to get through the surface (about 10 minutes) and little help of iron brush was necessary. It is generally a helpful tool in this process.


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## kernels (Jul 17, 2016)

I would be very interested to hear your yield from these types of boards, I once processed a few gold plated telecoms boards (gold flash) and the yield was terrible, hardly worth the effort to remove the solder mask.


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## Shaul (Jul 31, 2016)

Most Medical electronics are gold plated, even the small stuff, like Glucometers and Digital Thermometers.


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## Grelko (Aug 1, 2016)

Shaul said:


> Most Medical electronics are gold plated, even the small stuff, like Glucometers and Digital Thermometers.



I'm not sure of the brand, but I've come across a few gold plated boards in older tread mills, baby swings (the ones that rock and play music), and found a couple calculators with gold traces.


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## UncleBenBen (Aug 1, 2016)

Shaul said:


> Most Medical electronics are gold plated, even the small stuff, like Glucometers and Digital Thermometers.



Yep, got to love the medical stuff. Sometimes there isn't even any solder mask to deal with. Like these from temporary pace maker controllers I found recently.


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## Tndavid (Sep 4, 2016)

I have a bunch of the touch pads from laptops. After you peel off the cover to reveal the gold. Do they have a descent yield?


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