# What is the best method to remove all components from the board?



## Francois (Sep 12, 2021)

Hello.

I have several boards with small transistors and capacitors on them.
What's the best way to remove all the parts from the board in one go? Disassembling components manually is laborious and time-consuming. The solder is unusual and very refractory. Melts at very high temperatures.
Can this solder be dissolved in some kind of solution or are there other ways to remove all the components in one fell swoop?
I will be grateful for any advice you give me.

Thanks!


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## nickvc (Sep 12, 2021)

Not all components are value bearing so may well not be worth the time or effort to remove, many solders are tin based so HCl will dissolve them.


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## Francois (Sep 12, 2021)

nickvc said:


> Not all components are value bearing so may well not be worth the time or effort to remove, many solders are tin based so HCl will dissolve them.



Thank you!)

https://goldrefiningforum.com/phpBB3/viewtopic.php?f=33&t=22951&start=450#p308091


According to various sources, these transistors have from 1 to 3 grams of precious metal per kilo. And there are also SMD capacitors on the boards, which also cost money. 
But I need to remove all the components from the board at once, otherwise there is no point in doing it.


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## Martijn (Sep 12, 2021)

Scraping off everything with a big chisel or heat tumbling will get the boards clean in one go. 

But will leave you with a bunch of unsorted worthless components to either sort trough (with a magnifying glass & pain in the neck... been there) or treat everything together, which is a waste of time, fuel or acids. The transitors are a tiny part of such a lot. With lots of solder. 
It's like mixing your little bit of high grade ore with large parts of dirt and rocks. 

What is your goal with these transistors? And the rest? Scrap and sell or recover the values? 

I get the valuable parts from a board with some different sized sharp chisels and pliers. And first go for the legged chips with a knife. Then with chisel or heatgun for the other ones. Separate possible tantalum from possible Pd/Ag components, then go for the pins and the plated fingers. And sell the rest as low grade boards. 
You can't really mix mlcc's and other capacitors in with these transistors. Its best to treat different components separately. 

It takes a long long long time to collect one kilo of transitors. And we're talking clean transitors without heavy solder on the legs. With dirty ones, expect to double that weight to get the same yield. 
I throw them in with small chips to incinerate. 

Martijn.


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## Francois (Sep 12, 2021)

Thanks for the advice, Martijn!

I want to clear the board of components all at once. Separately the transistors and separately the capacitors. Then use a special flush to dissolve the solder without touching the component housings. There is information that the solder contains a lot of silver.
Then I want to separate the silver from the flush, if the silver is there.
After that I want to recycle the transistors separately and the large chips separately. I want to sell the capacitors without recycling them.

I have several of the same devices, and I want to completely recycle one device. Then I will know if it makes sense to recycle the other devices. And I want to know how much money can be made on one device. Or maybe it's easier not to recycle anything at all) We have a lot of these devices in production. Each device has many different boards. I would have to disassemble the devices to sell as boards. Or recycle the boards myself.


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## Francois (Sep 13, 2021)

Martijn said:


> It's like mixing your little bit of high grade ore with large parts of dirt and rocks.






The transistors and capacitors in the picture are larger than the SMD resistors. I can wash the solder off all the components. And choose a sieve with a certain mesh size and sift the small elements through it.
It would be nice if the transistors would stick to the magnet


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## Francois (Sep 13, 2021)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KwsLeQyVVlA


and

https://youtu.be/4MtHZ6hSWbE?t=69


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## Martijn (Sep 13, 2021)

I assume your special flush is HCL? 
Please share. That's what this forum is all about. How much will you need to rinse the solder off one kilo of transitors? Will that be only transitors or still mixed with tiny coils, resistors, diodes and capacitors you will be flushing? 

Nice vid's. It sure helps sort things by size. 

Not much profit to be made with e-waste in small size operations if you're only going for the precious metals. Equipment, consumables, labor, transport, etc. 
This gets shipped out or sent to big refiners where it all gets shredded, sorted, burnt and smelted and goes through big copper cells. 
Pick the easy and valuable parts and sell the rest. Pd is scarce in newer mlcc's as i've been told. 
You will at some point have to accept that some gold or pm's will be lost or you'll end up chasing traces of ppm's. Some things are just not profitable. 

And more SMD components are magnetic. Some mlcc's e.g. 
Not trying to discourage you, just my view of things. I could be wrong. These transistors and the gold content per item is discussed in the 'my specific results of ic's' if I'm correct. Do the math and make a decision if it's worth it for you. 

How much boards do you have to process anyway?


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## Francois (Sep 13, 2021)

> I assume your special flush is HCL?



25 milliliters of nitric acid with a density of 1.35, urea nitrate, citric acid and 100 milliliters of water.
This is enough for 150-200 grams of transistors. But this depends on the amount of solder on the transistors.

All acid waste will be collected in a container and sent to a chemical waste disposal plant.


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## Francois (Sep 13, 2021)

> Not much profit to be made with e-waste in small size operations if you're only going for the precious metals. Equipment, consumables, labor, transport, etc.
> This gets shipped out or sent to big refiners where it all gets shredded, sorted, burnt and smelted and goes through big copper cells.
> Pick the easy and valuable parts and sell the rest. Pd is scarce in newer mlcc's as i've been told.
> You will at some point have to accept that some gold or pm's will be lost or you'll end up chasing traces of ppm's. Some things are just not profitable.



I do it more for fun and as a hobby. I don't count on a lot of money :wink: 

I have equipment in my company that needs to be recycled soon. I thought what would happen if I recycled everything myself. Especially, this equipment has brought me a profit, helped me make my first money. So I really like this equipment  And maybe it can please me again and bring me more money. And maybe I will earn more money from my own recycling than from the recycling of specialized companies  

And I also like to learn something new and design something new  
In this case, it opens up a huge scope for experimentation.

Also, "winter is coming!"  

We'll have to do something interesting and exciting)

For example, I think about how to better remove chips and electronic parts from boards. I like the idea shown in the video in the post above.
But today I also learned about infrared furnaces and am thinking about how to make a furnace based on infrared heaters to dissolve solder on boards :wink: 

Also some of my relatives have a lot of physical strength and free time) If disassembled equipment can give a normal profit, then let them buy this equipment from other people and make money from it. It's better than taking credit money :lol:


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## Francois (Sep 13, 2021)

> These transistors and the gold content per item is discussed in the 'my specific results of ic's' if I'm correct. Do the math and make a decision if it's worth it for you.



Thanks for the advice, little by little I read these topics on the forum)

The thing is that the equipment is quite specific and the chips there are rare. In ordinary equipment such chips are not common.
But the fact is that there are a lot of chips in the equipment. And there are large and small and medium chips. And so there is hope)


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## Francois (Sep 13, 2021)

> How much boards do you have to process anyway?



Each device has from 6 to 10 kilo boards. And I have several of these devices. And other companies periodically sell such devices inexpensively or just give them away in exchange for self-delivery.


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## Martijn (Sep 13, 2021)

That all sounds very interesting! And like you have a good source of materials. 
Never heard of that leach before, but if it works and it's safe, great! 
You have some studying to do if hydrometalurgy is new for you. Do you have any experience with it?
Gather the material and start with clean cut gold plated contact fingers like on RAM sticks. Study the acid peroxide AKA the AP process. 
And study safety and dealing with waste. 
These processes create toxic solutions and gases. Live long enough to enjoy the gold. 

Martijn.


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## Francois (Sep 13, 2021)

Martijn said:


> That all sounds very interesting! And like you have a good source of materials.
> Never heard of that leach before, but if it works and it's safe, great!
> You have some studying to do if hydrometalurgy is new for you. Do you have any experience with it?
> Gather the material and start with clean cut gold plated contact fingers like on RAM sticks. Study the acid peroxide AKA the AP process.
> ...



There is a source of materials) But what is included in these materials, it remains to be seen).

Safety always comes first for me. So I try to choose products that contain as few chemicals as possible. Although I can buy any acids and other chemicals and cheap enough and dissolve the plastic chip cases.
But I will try to burn the plastic by pyrolysis. Maybe I'll buy a small metal melting furnace to do this and burn the cases and all the chip exhausts without oxygen access.
Then maybe I'll make an analog of a ball mill.
As for gold extraction and precipitation of precious metals, it is easier to use the chemical method. I want to compare the efficiency of chemical and metallurgical methods of precious metal extraction on the same identical material. But I have confidence that the chemical methods are more efficient and the loss of gold there is minimal. In addition, in the chemical method there is an opportunity to redo the work again, if something did not work out right  

Getting gold is not my main goal. For me, the main goal is to get the maximum result in the processing and to gain new knowledge with minimal consequences for nature and the experimenter  

To make money is my main business, and this is more of a hobby, which will give an opportunity to take a break from work and gain new knowledge and enjoyment from experimentation :wink:


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## Francois (Sep 13, 2021)

I'm starting to really like this forum :wink: 

The people on the forum are very wise and kind, it seems to me! And their goal is not to find more material for free, process it quickly and get easy money. Such freeloaders I do not really like, as well as the forums where they communicate...

And on this forum, people care first and foremost about your health and the health of those around you, help you with advice, and then everything else. And such an educated and kind company of wise and kind people I like very much and I hope that in time I will be able to become a part of it  

*I would like to say thank you to the one who was able to organize this forum and the forum members!*


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## Martijn (Sep 14, 2021)

With that attitude I believe you will become a great refiner and addition to this forum! 

The 'dissolve the plastic chip cases' is a really dangerous process. Be extremely carefull. 
It's a lot safer to pyrolyze with a good afterburner and incinerate. Hot H2SO4 is no joke!! One drop of water and you'll have hot sulphuric flying through your workshop. 
You'll be scarred for life or worse. 
When you have a plan, and before you're about to gather acids and materials, discuss it here to see if its ok to proceed. 
Have fun!


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## Francois (Sep 14, 2021)

Martijn said:


> With that attitude I believe you will become a great refiner and addition to this forum!
> 
> The 'dissolve the plastic chip cases' is a really dangerous process. Be extremely carefull.
> It's a lot safer to pyrolyze with a good afterburner and incinerate. Hot H2SO4 is no joke!! One drop of water and you'll have hot sulphuric flying through your workshop.
> ...



Thanks)

The first item of the plan is to remove all the components from the boards)
Second point of the plan - to make or buy a good small pyrolysis unit)

On all items I will consult with experts on the forum)


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