# What is and isn't worth scrapping off circuit boards?



## punkymunk (May 16, 2016)

I'm still accumilating and going through my escrap collection that I started collecting from nearly a year ago, but in my depopulating of various circuit boards, I have often wondered about if there are any values in other components not seemingly referrenced on forums and websites (that I been able to tell thus far anyways). I know to collect and sort (some before air-hammer chiseling)... 

C - Tantalum Capasitors (Yellow/Black/Orange rectangular & various colored ceramic ball-type)
C - MLCC

R - MLCR (resistor) - silver yes? Any Pt or Pd or Au? But what about the very thin, almost flat type?
L - MLCI (inductor) - silver yes? Any Pt or Pd or Au?

X and Y - Crystal Oscillators (the metal casing ones... but not sure about the other black/white plastic casing types)

U - IC Chips

Copper coils of varying sorts (I think most are also called inductors)

Cable inputs & sockets for gold plated items (VGA, DVI, SATA, USB, PRINTER, SERIAL, CPU, PCI, etc...)

... and anything that appears to have gold plating, like IDE pins, should be collected and sorted. 

But what about the other components? 

C - Capasitors (the tall cyclinder type)... I know some/most are aluminum somehow but I have read that some can be Tantalum. Is there a way to tell or not worth collecting and sorting?

K - Unicorn fart colored rectangle plastic looking relays (Ok... I think I might have answered this myself. Some have copper & silver within and others appear to have a lead type metal within called SSR {solid state relay} but I'm not certain as to the latter)

Q - Transistors

BR - Bridge Rectifiers

R - Resistors (the oblong cermaic type with color bands and a wire going in one end and out the other)

D - Diodes
Z - Zener Diodes (looks similar to some resistors and regular diodes with a pin going in one end and out the other)

F - Fuse??? (looks like those very flat silvery looking types of SMB resistors but have a F instead of a R on the boards)
F - Fuse??? (SMB rectangle with white center and either silver or gold plated looking square ends)

... and anything else I haven't come across yet or overlooked but to be on the lookout for?

I do understand some people's outlook towards this as what is and isn't profitable vs. time involved and may toss out/ignore certain components deemed not worth their time but my main inquiry is... does any of the above I asked about have any precious metals to the point that they're sellable to refiners or maybe hoard until further down the road when I'm ready to recover/refine myself? I don't want to call myself a rifiner yet since I have yet to learn enough about the multitude of chemical processes, much less attempted any process. I am however about ready to try my first hand at processing GP fingers and similar GP boards that has no solder or components on them via the air bubbler technique and Muriatic Acid. I have a little over 2 pounds of fingers thus far with an estimated 3 more pounds to cut off of boards I currently have. Sorry... I got side tracked there for a moment. Kinda anxious about trying that out. But anyways... I do know there are escrap recyle centers that pay for scrap circuit boards, even with some depopulation, but there aren't any in my area and the cost for me to ship to them places, like boardsort, appears that it would probably cost more in s/h than what I'd get paid for the boards themselves. So I just thought I'd try to see if maybe there are other components that most seem to ignore when trying to "instruct" on the web and then toss the left over boards in with my scrap steel recycling. Sorry for being so lengthy but any insight would be appreciated.


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## acpeacemaker (May 16, 2016)

punkymunk said:


> K - Unicorn fart colored


I don't know if this was a translation issue or in relation to one thats rainbow colored but , made me laugh for the day. :lol:


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## punkymunk (May 16, 2016)

acpeacemaker said:


> punkymunk said:
> 
> 
> > K - Unicorn fart colored
> ...



My colorful attempt at humor towards the wide array of colors used for those components lol


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## Topher_osAUrus (May 16, 2016)

:lol: 

I think.the unicorn fart/rsinbow colored ones are old tantalum capacitors, their colored stripes indicate the spec's

I could be wrong, probably am.. Cant stop laughing, that made my day


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## GREENER (Oct 27, 2021)

youtube -> 999 Dusan, he has good insights on acceptable components and how they look like.


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## Qetuo135 (Oct 27, 2021)

HMMMM


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## Cap1 (May 1, 2022)

punkymunk said:


> I'm still accumilating and going through my escrap collection that I started collecting from nearly a year ago, but in my depopulating of various circuit boards, I have often wondered about if there are any values in other components not seemingly referrenced on forums and websites (that I been able to tell thus far anyways). I know to collect and sort (some before air-hammer chiseling)...
> 
> C - Tantalum Capasitors (Yellow/Black/Orange rectangular & various colored ceramic ball-type)
> C - MLCC
> ...


Hi punkymunk, you raised a good question about the other stuff. I have been collecting the header pins off of circuit boards that were not gold plated. I'm thinking that they are; tin, nickel, and maybe silver but I'd like someone to tell me if there is any silver in the non-gold header pins. Also; cable end connector pins that are not gold, flat ribbon cables ends that are not gold. I am hoping that some may have trace silver rather than selling them for scrap cables. I'd love any comments.


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