# Is this gold covered???



## PERO (Jan 4, 2015)

I have some old riboon cables and i pull this pins out,Is this gold covered or just brass? 
Tnx Peter


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## kjavanb123 (Jan 4, 2015)

Hi,

I believe they are gold plated. I was using cyanide to leach them in the past. If you have acid you can test one to be sure.

Regards
Kevin


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## Anonymous (Jan 4, 2015)

Sounds like the OP doesn't even know the product he has Kevin let alone processes, so is mentioning cyanide appropriate at this point?


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## kurtak (Jan 4, 2015)

spaceships said:


> Sounds like the OP doesn't even know the product he has Kevin let alone processes, so is mentioning cyanide appropriate at this point?



And he has been a member since Oct. 8 - 2013 :?: 

Kurt


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## PERO (Jan 4, 2015)

kurtak said:


> spaceships said:
> 
> 
> > Sounds like the OP doesn't even know the product he has Kevin let alone processes, so is mentioning cyanide appropriate at this point?
> ...


Hey guys,i am a part time scraper and i dont refine,i just scrap parts and sell them to local buyer like motherbords,rams etc...now i have a car trunk of old computer cables with this pins and im interseted to pull them out insted off selling them with cables.Is it worth it? 
Happy new year all and thx


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## JHS (Jan 4, 2015)

PERO,
I'm sure you could sell them on EBAY,or offer them here on the forum.
john


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## g_axelsson (Jan 4, 2015)

It's hard to tell without testing.

One way to get a hint of if it's gold and how thick is to take a few pieces and put them in acid. If it is brass then the zinc on the surface should be dissolved and the color turn towards copper red.
If it is gold plated then it should resist the acid a lot better.

I have collected material like that but I haven't processed it yet so I have no numbers on yields.

Göran


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## canedane (Jan 4, 2015)

There are gold in all the pins, the old are full plated ,the newer generation is only plated in the tip.
Do not waist your time to collect the pins, they are low grade, i will guess there is from 0,2 to 0,5 g gold in one kilo of this pins.
In the long winter nights here i cut the ends of the cable,then i have copper wires readdy for sale and the connector ends can be sold to scrap compagnyes.
Here is a link to a German scrap dealer.http://badenschrott.de/e-schrott-ankaufspreise/ they pay 1.6 euro for a kilo.
Henrik


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## PERO (Jan 4, 2015)

canedane said:


> There are gold in all the pins, the old are full plated ,the newer generation is only plated in the tip.
> Do not waist your time to collect the pins, they are low grade, i will guess there is from 0,2 to 0,5 g gold in one kilo of this pins.
> In the long winter nights here i cut the ends of the cable,then i have copper wires readdy for sale and the connector ends can be sold to scrap compagnyes.
> Here is a link to a German scrap dealer.http://badenschrott.de/e-schrott-ankaufspreise/ they pay 1.6 euro for a kilo.
> Henrik


Tnx Henrik great link, i have 33kg already striped connectors from cable and they are only old ones like on the photo.Its a eazy job pull them out.The new ones that are only thin caped i dont pull out and sell them as they are.
So even old ones are not bother to pull out?
Tnx again Henrik for link and u maybe know buyer like this closer to Austrija?Im from Slovenia and looking to min distance to sell scrap when i open my scrap company next month.
chears


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## Smack (Jan 4, 2015)

What's the difference between tnx and thx? I couldn't find any definition on these words.


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## necromancer (Jan 4, 2015)

PERO said:


> canedane said:
> 
> 
> > There are gold in all the pins, the old are full plated ,the newer generation is only plated in the tip.
> ...




in your profile there is a place to put your location.

by putting your from "Slovenia" you will not get suggestions to sell in the U.K, USA, Australia....... (unless you ask)


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## Geo (Jan 4, 2015)

The pins are more than likely gold plated. The strips are more than likely polished brass or very lightly flash plated. The pins that the tips are plated only are more like 0.01g per pound. 100 pounds per gram of gold.


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## silversaddle1 (Jan 4, 2015)

If these pins are from ribbon cable connectors (and I'm pretty sure they are) I'd say they must be an older connector. Been a long time since I've sse fully plated pins in those type connectors. I think the yields may surprise some. 

I remember pulling some of these pins from 70's era 3M ribbon wire connectors and they had great color to them. I sold them by the pound on ebay and did real well.

Anytime I come across old ribbon wire I check as they are pretty easy to pull once you get the knack of it.


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## jungle_Dave (Jan 4, 2015)

They look like the old ones to me, if I were you I would do a quick test, given the quantity you have.
Why make someone else rich off your hard work?
Lots of people here to help you if you study,

Best of luck


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## shmandi (Jan 5, 2015)

Considering the shape of pins and those strips that come in middle for grounding, I think that connectors are not that old. They come from 80 wire IDE cables, where every second wire is grounded by those strips. Older cables were 40 wire and had different shape of pins.
I think that pins are just polisher brass or something similar. As many always say; first think of the reason for gold plating. No one wastes gold, where it has no use. And I belive that on those grounding strips there is just no use for gold on whole surface.
Pins on quality IDE connectors have goldplated tips. Colour can be quite deep on older. Have seen few connectors that had fully plated pins. But have also seen many that are whole yellow colour including grounding strips. But taking closer look you can see that colour doesnt seem like gold. It has som greenish tone to it.And if you break them, there is same colour metal inside.
I am attaching one photo, where can be clearly seen which pins are gold plated and which not.
But however, best to be sure is to test pins for gold.


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## silversaddle1 (Jan 5, 2015)

While not an expert on plating, I thought pins were plated with nickel before gold. If that's true then any part of the pin that is not gold plated would be silver. Seems brass would be a poor choice for this type of connection without some type of plating on it.


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## PERO (Jan 5, 2015)

Hi,i tested one in a local gold shop and its not gold covered they say,but didnt have much time to test different pins(they are diferent shapes and fells some of them are much harder material than others wich are quite soft) at the moment i give up on pulling them out and im gona just separate them from cable.
Are only gold tiped pins worth pulling out? I have around 200 kg of those.
I have a stock of video conectors too and gona have some fun with them over winter days.
Thanks for help guys 
Peter


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## shmandi (Jan 5, 2015)

silversaddle1 said:


> While not an expert on plating, I thought pins were plated with nickel before gold. If that's true then any part of the pin that is not gold plated would be silver. Seems brass would be a poor choice for this type of connection without some type of plating on it.



I am not sure if there is any kind of plating or not. But I took one of those pins and remove half of thicknes with sand paper. You can see result on below photo. Material inside is the same colour. Picture was taken under stereoscope with 20x magnification.


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## silversaddle1 (Jan 5, 2015)

Would these connectors be for power and not data? That would sure explain everything.


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## shmandi (Jan 5, 2015)

That is from IDE and sometimes floppy ribbon cables. So they are from data not power.


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## PERO (Jan 7, 2015)

To end this discusion  They are NOT gold pladet,at least most of them,i tested them in the acid.Only gold plated are those wich posted on photo Shmandi few posts above.
Tnx for your time and help
Peter


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## Barren Realms 007 (Jan 7, 2015)

PERO said:


> To end this discusion  They are NOT gold pladet,at least most of them,i tested them in the acid.Only gold plated are those wich posted on photo Shmandi few posts above.
> Tnx for your time and help
> Peter



If the gold migrated and mixed in with the base metals as has been suggested, the gold will not show up as flakes but as a black powder similar to what you get when you deplate gold with a sulphuric deplating cell. If you have any sediment from your test you might want to dissolve it with some HCL and Bleach and test it for gold. But my guess from looking at the picture you posted of the pin you scraped the surface on is that they are only brass pin's.


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