# HP circuit board traces - My 1st post



## Anonymous (Apr 21, 2008)

I have some vintage hp circuit boards (1960-70's) that have either gold or gold plated traces on both sides. My goal is to figure out if these boards are worth the effort of refining or selling as gold scrap.

I don't have any experience with gold refining or chemicals (if there is a level below novice, that would be me). I'm mostly an electronics guy.

I think this forum is great and I have found ALOT of interesting stuff but I'm overwhelmed by the plethora of information. So to my questions...

1. I need to figure out what these traces are made out of gold or gold plate. I've scratched the surface and what's below is definetly NOT seem to be copper. Is there a kit or set of chemicals I could use to figure out what these traces are made of? 

2. Once I determine what the traces are made out of, assuming they are plated, how do I measure the plating thickness? If they are solid gold traces, I assume I could just scrape them off and put them on a scale to get a rough idea of the amount pm I'm dealing with, is that reasonable?

3. If I decide to sell these boards as scrap, what is the best way to prep the boards and what is the best way to communicate to potential buyers what I have? I want to be as honest as straightforward as I can and get a fair price.

If someone could point this newbie in the right direction, I'd greatly appreciate it.

-Flavio


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## Platdigger (Apr 21, 2008)

The traces are plated.

This stuff should sell like wild fire on ebay.
Randy


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## Roxx (Apr 21, 2008)

Well I personally have never done this....I am just getting into it too. However there are a series of posts about this question. Just do a search for circuit board yeilds. From what I read I gather the boards your are talking about are old PCI and Motherboards with gold circuits pressed into the silicone. These are gold plated and from what I remember it would take several hundred pounds of circuit boards to produce 1 ounce of pure gold. But do a search to find out for sure.

-roxx


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## Scott2357 (Apr 21, 2008)

Most likely only gold plated on exposed areas after solder mask was applied. Scrape off some solder mask (the green stuff) on a large trace and see if it's gold layer then copper or just copper.


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## Anonymous (Apr 21, 2008)

The are not computer boards they are from milspec equipment. The traces are very wide, old style (not that ultra-thin stuff you get now-a-days) and the gold/goldplated traces are the full length of the trace. 

I tried scraping a trace with a razor blade and it take *several *scrapes to cut through.

But I don't know how thick this stuff is. Compared to modern stuff, like the gold plated fingers on pcb and memory that you can scrape through the gold pretty easily, this stuff seem *ALOT* thicker.

Am I asking in the wrong place in this forum?


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## Anonymous (Apr 21, 2008)

I think I saw someone had posted a picture of a "nice" stripped HP board somewhere in this forum, but I can no longer find where that picture was.

May that person can give me info.


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## Roxx (Apr 21, 2008)

No...you can pretty much get any info you need no matter which forum you post it in...Its still in the afternoon however and to be honest from what I noticed the crowd dosent get talkative around here until after dinner.

-roxx


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## Anonymous (Apr 21, 2008)

I've got 100 or so boards, varying sizes and varying trace density.

My main question is "How do I measure (if it's at all possible) the thickness of the plating?"


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## Chuck_Revised (Apr 21, 2008)

Welcome to the forum!

For information about the thickness of gold plate, go to the Index level, under Sampling / Assaying / Testing, and click on the thread "Gold Plating Thickness". One of our excellent contributors, GoldSilverPro (GSP) provides a lot of information there.

Posting a selection of photos of your scrap will help the more experienced members identify their potential. Some may have processed similar or even the same.

Best of luck and don't forget the search button!


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## scrappile (Nov 29, 2012)

infamousflav said:


> I have some vintage hp circuit boards (1960-70's) that have either gold or gold plated traces on both sides. My goal is to figure out if these boards are worth the effort of refining or selling as gold scrap.
> 
> I don't have any experience with gold refining or chemicals (if there is a level below novice, that would be me). I'm mostly an electronics guy.
> 
> ...


 

When they say , "your question has alraedy been asked" You can bet it has , Almost the same questions that I came here to ask , so Do some looking first 

edited for size of attch


Anyone have experince with these type boards,...??? will get better pictures later, got to go now,..


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## MMFJ (Nov 29, 2012)

There's likely many (many....) posts of similar boards/finds (and, personally, I never get tired of looking at the pics!) - perhaps this one I posted awhile back is one you found.... http://www.goldrefiningforum.com/phpBB3/viewtopic.php?f=34&t=15035&p=151891#p151891

The best way to be honest with a buyer (if you are going to sell the board directly) is to tell what it came from, take great pictures and say you really don't know how much gold is there - oh, honesty really is that simple......

When you go off touting that 'this board has massive solid gold strips' or something you are not only lying (no board ever known to be in standard production has ever been solid gold - they are ALL plated, albeit in various thicknesses - with older boards being known to have a thicker plating). However, as was stated, it takes several boards to make an ounce of gold - sometimes hundreds, certainly several dozen "military spec" would even be needed.

Yes, your boards have gold on them. No, you won't get rich from finding one or two.

Gather, gather and gather - the gold doesn't go away, but also takes quite a bit of gathering to get much. I offer my videos (link below) from about 7 months of gathering - final results are soon to be shown (still getting the final bits refined, etc.), but it is about 3 toz (not a lot by world gold standards, but not a bad take either - when the boards sold paid the rent and all other expenses for that time!).

Enjoy 'Urban Mining', but don't get caught up in the hype of get rich quick - it ain't likely to happen!


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## scrappile (Nov 29, 2012)

MMFJ said:


> There's likely many (many....) posts of similar boards/finds (and, personally, I never get tired of looking at the pics!) - perhaps this one I posted awhile back is one you found.... http://www.goldrefiningforum.com/phpBB3/viewtopic.php?f=34&t=15035&p=151891#p151891
> 
> The best way to be honest with a buyer (if you are going to sell the board directly) is to tell what it came from, take great pictures and say you really don't know how much gold is there - oh, honesty really is that simple......
> 
> ...





Thanks for links, that was a five year old post from Flavio, just thought it was funny been reading before asking which is kind of hard to do,  

I got .57 toz gold and 3.5 toz of silver from a batch of cards I sent in net switches and some mil things , thinking that should clean me out of boards, ended up with way too much stuff from Gov Liquidation, then found a 312 frequency meter 333a distorstion some john fluke stuff and like you said gathering up, about 15 cards from the 333a, also have a bunch of cannon plugs to get together. number one trying to get my place straightened up, learning from You guys about what to hang onto, later comes sorting questions. again thanks for info, 

Keith


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## MMFJ (Nov 29, 2012)

Keith,

With the type stuff you are showing and describing, you have really hit on a nice load - wish they could all be like that! :shock: 

You are on the right track - don't get in a hurry to 'get rich' and you are going to be very happily rewarded, I think. 

What I always did with the vintage stuff is to set it into one pile while processing out all the scrap metal I could (removing all the cases, screws and such, of course, many will tell you to get heavy into sorting that as well - I use a magnet for ferrous and non-ferrous then do what I can to separate the aluminum from the stainless, copper, etc. but I don't get crazy about it - time reward for money is not very good, but again that is my way of doing things....) - looking for things that might resell as usable product (not much of it in vintage land, but still a quick search online is not a bad idea....)

Once you have gone through your lot, you should have a nice pile of these kinds of cards. You can sell them as-is or further sift/sort to get the best bits of gold and have them refined (there are a couple people on this forum I'd recommend - and some I wouldn't!). Going to the refining step, you have to decide who will do the work of removing and sorting through the components - and, yes, who will be paid for that work (you or the refiner). To me, I'd just as soon do what I do best and continue to gather units and boards and let the refiner do most of the other bits (and get a bigger piece of the 'take' for the work - I have no problem with that - we are both in the 'win' mode....). You need to arrange with them just what level of work and split - that's all.

Note that many of the parts you have on those boards are easy to remove and have little/no value (mostly caps, but some of them contain silver and/or other precious materials - do some research on the forum for pictures and details). Removing these (ususally a good set of cutters and a few minutes) will reduce the weight (saving on shipping) and lessen the work for the refiner (which means you get the 'pay' for that) - both are worthy reasons to clip off a lot of the 'bulk'. But, be sure to look for gold plated bits throughout on your boards - transistors often have gold plated legs as well as tops or those 'hidden' bottom plates. 

Have tons of fun on sorting through and should you get tired of sorting it all, I'm happy to pay shipping anytime!


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## scrappile (Nov 29, 2012)

MMFJ said:


> Keith,
> 
> With the type stuff you are showing and describing, you have really hit on a nice load - wish they could all be like that! :shock:
> 
> ...




Yeah not in a hurry , these have been here since about 2006, was buying rackmount cases, to use otherwise, muliplexers and logic anylzers in some , plus won a lot of EUC lots , Warner Robbins was filling Tri-walls , had no reason to buy just did. got my two scissor lifts for $500 , tents and more. Already had 300 plus pounds of alum from fronts and kepts some for projects. Had a good split with a guy I met while picking up, e listed on his e-bay ,i shipped from Alabama ---worth 50/50 to me not to deal with e-bay. when I do get to that stage , it's great that I can study what to do to the boards right here. then decide .

anything that looks gold is in a bucket, on webflis the 26 contact one says .026 grains , troy per contact, 18000 is an oz,... :wink: 




Talk to you later,


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## macfixer01 (Nov 30, 2012)

infamousflav said:


> The are not computer boards they are from milspec equipment. The traces are very wide, old style (not that ultra-thin stuff you get now-a-days) and the gold/goldplated traces are the full length of the trace.
> 
> I tried scraping a trace with a razor blade and it take *several *scrapes to cut through.
> 
> ...




Just an observation but I've had several lots of HP test equipment boards with gold plated traces over the years. It confounds me that identical looking boards of similar age (based off the component date codes) appear to have really variable plating quality. I can only assume they were made for HP by different vendors? Several years ago before I found this forum, I used to actually peel the fingers and gold plated traces off of the boards. Fingers were usually not a problem, and from some boards the traces also peeled beautifully with the gold plating intact. From other boards the gold plating was apparently so thin that the flexing caused the gold to all flake off as a fine powder, and left the nickel layer exposed. So anyway older board age doesn't necessarily mean thicker gold plating when it comes to those traces.

macfixer01


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