# depopulating ram



## kronix (Apr 30, 2012)

Hey everyone. 

I wanted to make a thread showing how i now depopulate my ram sticks after fingers have been removed. I apologize if this has been covered before, but i couldnt find it on the site. after hours of slicing and prying the tabs on the ram chips with a carpet knife and a few close calls with my fingers i decided to try a different approach. 

i break each stick in half to fit into my jar and cover in hcl for a couple days, then strain and rinse the chips when they have all fallen off.

again i apologize if this has benn covered i just want to save others the time i wasted manually removing these chips.


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## philddreamer (Apr 30, 2012)

Hi Kronix!

If you would like to speed the process, you can also try heating a skillet and placing the ram sticks on it. When the solder melts, tap the sticks & the chips fall right off. You can do several pounds per hour. 

Just a thought.

Take care!

Phil


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## kronix (Apr 30, 2012)

Hey phil, i am working with limited space as i dont have a workshop and can only do it outside. If i move to a bigger place i will try your method as it is probably faster . thanks for the advice. 

Ian


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## stevem4323 (Apr 30, 2012)

hi guys excuse my ignorance once you have removed the small chips then what process do you use on them !!!!
steve


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## maynman1751 (Apr 30, 2012)

http://goldrefiningforum.com/phpBB3/viewtopic.php?f=38&t=12631


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## stevem4323 (Apr 30, 2012)

excellent ...sometimes just to much information to take in ...i get tons of this stuff and really want to give it a go so i need as much advise as i can get
cheers


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## philddreamer (Apr 30, 2012)

Patnor also has a good series of posts:
http://goldrefiningforum.com/phpBB3/viewtopic.php?f=52&t=11827&hilit=black+chips

Search also for Samuel-a and some other members.

Phil


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## maynman1751 (Apr 30, 2012)

philddreamer said:


> Patnor also has a good series of posts:
> http://goldrefiningforum.com/phpBB3/viewtopic.php?f=52&t=11827&hilit=black+chips
> 
> Search also for Samuel-a and some other members.
> ...



Thanks Phil! That is actually the post I wanted to reference. :mrgreen:


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## kurt (May 2, 2012)

When I first started doing this I used the heat them up & bang them off method – then I realized that the chips still needed to be treated with HCL to remove the tin so now I just put them in a 5 gallon bucket with HCL (black bucket in the sun helps warm the HCL to speed the process) & it depopulates them along with getting rid of the tin all in one step.

Kurt


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## nickvc (May 2, 2012)

Steve I'm just down the road from you as you know, if you want help or I can give you advice just come round and I'll help if I can, I'm no expert on e scrap but can point you in the right directions to get you started.


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## stevem4323 (May 2, 2012)

hi nic ...yes thanks i will making a visit your way very soon after 12 months of reading all these posts its about time i put things into practice we get tons of ram ,processors boards etc so i would be mad not to have a go myself instead of lining someone elses pockets 
see you soon 
steve


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## kronix (May 3, 2012)

Yeah i used a carpet knife for a while, it was too dangerous and time consuming. i made this thread so others would find the info easily and save their fingers from being cut like mine. I also just wanted to contribute something to this great forum lol.


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## maynman1751 (May 3, 2012)

Thanks Kronix, that's an excellent way of dealing with the chips and the solder at the same time....Kurt too! :mrgreen:


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## bswartzwelder (May 4, 2012)

I just bought a heat gun from Northern Tool. It was about $19.99 (I think). Took several boards and clamped them into a vise one at a time with the foils facing me. Using the heat gun on the high setting, I started heating up the backside of the circuit boards while clamping on any component of interest from the other side. In just a few seconds, the components started coming off. I even removed the long connectors that other circuit boards plug into. It was amazing how fast this was. I have used a propane torch previously, but it did substantial damage to the circuit board. Not really a problem if you don't want to save the board. For about $20 plus shipping, I cannot praise this system too much. Anyone else who has tried it, let us know what you think of this system.


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## stevem4323 (May 4, 2012)

i too have just bought a heat gun just to run a few experiments in depopulating boards and ram ....with very good results 
a good buy at only £27


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## kurt (May 5, 2012)

First let me say there is certainly nothing wrong with using the heat them up & bang them off method of depopulating ram (&/or other boards) I have used this method my self & when I did if it was winter I would put then on top of the wood stove in the shop & in the summer I used a counter top pancake griddle bought from a second hand store for $8 & yes you can depopulate a lot of boards in a few hours using this method. I couldn’t even say how many lbs of boards I have depopulated using this method but its been a lot – several hundred pounds & would guess.

However – that said – there are several reasons that I have gone to using HCL for depopulating RAM & other small boards. First is that using the heat them up method requires my full time attention to get the depopulating done & the chips still need to go to HCL treatment to remove the tin from the solder. 

By putting the RAM directly in HCL it does both – it removes the tin & depopulates them at the same time & it does not require my attention while doing so. Put them in a bucket – ad the HCL & go work on something else while the acid does the work for me.

Also – heating them up gets all the chips to come off – but it does not get all the ceramic caps &/or the tiny resistors (that contain silver/palladium) off. They tend to cling to the board – where as depopulating with HCL gets all the caps & resistors to come off with the chips.

I made a solar heat collector out of a 3/16 inch thick piece of flat iron (scrap) & the 3 sided sheet metal top of a “large” scrap microwave. Mount the microwave top to the flat iron so you have a flat iron bottom with 3 side walls. Paint it all with black auto body undercoating to make it chemical resistant & use a black bucket. This sitting out in the sun heats up the HCL real nice & will depopulate several pounds of ram in 2 – 3 hours (depending on batch size & solar conditions of the day) & you should get several batches from the same HCL before it is saturated with tin.

Most of the work is being done by the acid while you do something else.

The undercoating comes in spray cans (at the auto parts store) just like spay paint cans.

The solar heat collector works well for any process that calls for warming your acid - dissolving silver - recovering foils from pin or fingers etc.

Kurt


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