# PCI socket recovery



## mlcharlestonsc (Jan 23, 2015)

Pulling pins is to slow! The wife said we need a faster recovery!! The solution a ball mill great idea... Yà right all it does is mash the sockets flat. Need better idea. My night job is maintenance tech. At a plastics factory. Plastic is plastic, incineration is no option to chostic and pollutive to the ecology. Problem solved plastic gets brittle when it gets cold, contain your excitement here it comes... Let's just throw them Lil bugger's into the FREEZER!!!!! Dudes it works great, put in ball mill and pound away. Nice little chips with free PM tabs waiting to be harvested with a magnet. Give it a shot see what y'all think. The wife is ready and willing to help! She said nice way to get rid of frustration got to agree with that. Sure speeds up processing. Next I may try dry ice (-109 f) should be even more brittle. Need protective gloves to handle for safety reasons. Give it a shot see if you like. Then post results.


----------



## Pantherlikher (Jan 23, 2015)

Interesting concept...

Instead of a ball mill.. just freeze and tap tap with a hammer n chisel to completely depopulate without much effort.

Wonder how it'd work on memory sticks...
Gonna have to goto the tundra in the freezer next to me to find out...

B.S.


----------



## necromancer (Jan 23, 2015)

works for me.

http://goldrefiningforum.com/~goldrefi/phpBB3/viewtopic.php?f=38&t=19193&p=194263&hilit=+deep+freeze#p194263

http://goldrefiningforum.com/~goldrefi/phpBB3/viewtopic.php?f=34&t=20158&p=206185&hilit=+freezer#p206185


----------



## MarcoP (Jan 24, 2015)

I'll have to try it soon! I've already filled up a bucket with plastic connectors and I was looking for an easy way to recovery pins, this seems to be the one.


----------



## MarcoP (Sep 26, 2015)

Just an update, it didn't work for me. Not cold enough? I've used a sample of different types of plastics but no luck at this time.

Marco


----------



## Grelko (Sep 26, 2015)

MarcoP said:


> Just an update, it didn't work for me. Not cold enough? I've used a sample of different types of plastics but no luck at this time.
> 
> Marco



What about getting it wet first, then freezing them? The water could get in there and expand when it turns to ice, and possibly crack them open also?


----------



## jason_recliner (Sep 26, 2015)

I like the way you think, but unfortunately it would have to be a sealed system for that to work. Still-forming ice will conform to its plastic moulding. If this were not the case, your regular plastic ice cube trays would crack.


----------



## Grelko (Sep 26, 2015)

jason_recliner said:


> I like the way you think, but unfortunately it would have to be a sealed system for that to work. Still-forming ice will conform to its plastic moulding. If this were not the case, your regular plastic ice cube trays would crack.



I thought about that also, but I was thinking how holes in the road are made. The water gets in there, freezes and cracks it a little, but there's also the pressure/vibrations from the vehicles going over it, breaking off small pieces. I'll have to play around with this idea and see what I can come up with.


----------



## bswartzwelder (Sep 27, 2015)

I believe I read on the forum where someone put them in a container filled with dry ice and then they broke up easily.


----------



## kurtak (Sep 27, 2015)

I know everyone is not set up to do this - but if you are then this is the only way to go

1) incinerate pins in there plastic housing
2) mill in ball mill
3) wash ash/carbon off
4) dry
5)use pins for collector metal when smelting IC ash &/or SMDs
6)run dore bar as anode in copper cell --- use copper nitrate from cementing silver for electrolyte - anode can be as low as 70% copper - copper sheet as starting cathode

Note; - Ag & Pd will co-deposit at cathode as well as end up in electrolyte 

7) use dirty cathode copper to cement Ag & Pd from electrolyte as well as cementing stock pot &/or "dirty" silver (like contact points)
(8) process slimes for Au, PGMs & Ag

Kurt


----------



## MarcoP (Sep 27, 2015)

Kurt, that sounds like a plan. It will somewhat screw up yields data but costs and wastes are reduced to its minimum.
I thought copper cells would only run with copper sulfate, but I see I was wrong.

Grelko, I did try with water too, let them also soak in water for a day so it could penetrate better but apart some fortunate crack nothing special happened. I also tried to smash the whole ice block but not avail and seriously, too much work.

Marco


----------



## Grelko (Sep 27, 2015)

If the PCI sockets are the long rectangle ones from a motherboard.

I usually break off the little tabs on the back of the board "works without breaking tabs also", take a pair of pliers, start from 1 side working your way across and fold the socket towards the board so that 1 side of the pins pops out, then take side cutters, go under 1 of the sides, pry it up, other side, pry it up and the entire plastic socket should come right off. Then I can chisel the pins off the board or just pull them off after that.

I'll try to get pictures up to show exactly what I mean.


----------



## Grelko (Sep 27, 2015)

I've tried cutting the entire connectors off of the board, but it takes forever to pull the pins out, it's easier just to take the plastic off instead.

Side cutters, pliers, paint scraper



Going after the white socket at the bottom



Grab the side of the socket with pliers, bend a little, and work your way across the top, or do 1 side, then the other, so the entire socket is bent down towards the board. You'll hear a row of pins pop out of the plastic.



Take side cutters, go under 1 side and bend upwards to release pins on that side. Do the same with the other side.



The connector comes off very easily once you pry up the other side.



Total time is around 10 seconds per socket or less.

There are a couple types "usually black or brown" that will break apart when you try to bend them down, but this works for most.


----------



## Grelko (Sep 27, 2015)

This process works for alot of the different types also.









Edit - Everywhere I look, on this or other forums, everyone is cutting off the entire connector and pulling the pins out, or melting the plastic etc. If by the very off chance, I happen to be the only 1 that does it this way, I'm glad that I uploaded it to this site.


----------



## Shark (Sep 28, 2015)

Grelko

I do it much the same way as you do. It has been the quickest way for me. Once I have the plastic out of the way I use tin snips and cut only the plated ends from them. If you run them in copper (II) chloride you only process the needed part. (The gold plated part) On the memory pins I lay one finger length ways of the pins across the top of them and cut them off the board with a very sharp wood chisel using hand power only, no need for a hammer. This keeps the majority of them from flying all over the place. It sounds complicated but it is really pretty easy to catch onto with a little practice.


----------



## kurtak (Sep 28, 2015)

Shark said:


> Grelko
> 
> I do it much the same way as you do. It has been the quickest way for me. Once I have the plastic out of the way I use tin snips and cut only the plated ends from them.



Yes - I have harvested a good many pins from boards this way back when I first started out & was still wet chem processing them & for sockets that will give up there pins with this method (not all sockets will give up the pins this way) it beats harvesting the socket "with" the pins & then hand pulling the pins

Freezing them & beating with a hammer to shatter the plastic does not work ether - IF - the plastic socket shatters with a hammer after freezing - then it will also shatter "with out" freezing - that's because the plastic its self is a brittle type plastic & will shatter whether you freeze it or not

Also - floating the plastic off with salt water does not work - some plastic "might" float off - but only some - most will not

These (freezing & salt water floating) are rumors that get started by someone that read about it being "suggested as an idea" - not by someone that has tried it. 

For sockets that wont give up there pins by pulling the socket while pins are still on the board - as Harold would say --- incineration is you friend !

You can still wet chem process them after milling & washing the ash/carbon off - you wont loose any gold by incinerating & milling !

Kurt


----------



## MarcoP (Sep 28, 2015)

Grelko said:


> Edit - Everywhere I look, on this or other forums, everyone is cutting off the entire connector and pulling the pins out, or melting the plastic etc. If by the very off chance, I happen to be the only 1 that does it this way, I'm glad that I uploaded it to this site.



There are many ways to pull them a part easily enough but rj45, IDE and such are little different and needs quicker ways. Moreover the most active members, running them self large operations, handle tons on escrap and if they had to pull low yield pins out by hand they wouldn't have gone so far. I could use vice grips and pull'em all out in a couple of seconds, like a crazy dentist and no need to change tools.

More or less at the same time two things happened: understand those pins are too low yield, and being able to buy motherboards, cherry pick and resell at exactly same price and those sockets aren't cherries.

Marco


----------



## Grelko (Sep 28, 2015)

MarcoP said:


> There are many ways to pull them a part easily enough but rj45, IDE and such are little different and needs quicker ways. Moreover the most active members, running them self large operations, handle tons on escrap and if they had to pull low yield pins out by hand they wouldn't have gone so far. I could use vice grips and pull'em all out in a couple of seconds, like a crazy dentist and no need to change tools.
> 
> More or less at the same time two things happened: understand those pins are too low yield, and being able to buy motherboards, cherry pick and resell at exactly same price and those sockets aren't cherries.
> 
> Marco



The crazy dentist part got me laughing, thanks for that :lol: 

The way I showed seemed fastest to me, I was just sharing the idea with people that don't have much material, so they can get their pins off pretty easily if they were having trouble. I'm only going through about 300-400 pounds, but I'm completely depopulating the boards. I know there's many faster ways to do that.

For me, this is a hobby, so even the low yield materials slowly add up, but for a refinery that has access to tons of materials frequently, this definately isn't one of the fastest techniques to use. Running them through a mill, cell, or incineration would be alot better for that.

I was wondering if anyone ever tried using high frequency sound waves, or even very loud bass etc, to shred boards? I've seen bass breaking cars apart at SPL "sound pressure level" contests, so why not a circuit board? Basically it would run like an enclosed shaker table or mill. I always have so many ideas running through my head.


----------



## kurtak (Sep 28, 2015)

MarcoP said:


> Kurt, that sounds like a plan. It will somewhat screw up yields data but costs and wastes are reduced to its minimum.
> I thought copper cells would only run with copper sulfate, but I see I was wrong.
> 
> Marco



When processing my own stuff I stopped worrying about "yield data" a long time ago --- I have been at this long enough now that I have a good ball park idea of what should come out based on what went in --- its now about volume & efficient speed - I don't throw anything out till the batch/process is done - if it is plus or minus "a bit" of the expected but still in the ball park then its done - if its not in the expected ball park I know how & were to go back & look for what got missed & then how to deal with it - if its for a customer - that's another story - things are then done so I can account to the customer at the end if need be

As far as the copper cell goes any copper saturated (acidic) solution will work - it could be copper saturated AR - but then you would most likely part gold from the anode to the cathode as well

If your goal is to purify copper then yes copper sulfate is what you want for electrolyte - also if you want all your PMs in the slime then copper sulfate & you want your anode to be up around 95 - 98% copper (you want the high copper content anode to prevent electrolyte corruption & co-depositing in this case - which is purifying copper)

That's not my case - I am not trying to purify copper - my goal is to part base metal from gold & reduce the amount of wet chem waste in the process 

So I don't care if metal other then copper goes to the cathode - in fact I want it to --- also I don't care if my electrolyte gets corrupted due to low copper content in the anode because I am using a waste/by product (copper nitrate from cementing silver) as my electrolyte

And I don't care if PMs other then gold end up in the electrolyte &/or at the cathode (Like Pd & Ag) because anything in the electrolyte can be cemented out & the "dirty" cathode copper can be used for cementing this & values from other solutions which recovers any values in the cathode copper as well

So - it becomes a "circuit" process - wherein you are using the by product from one process to preform a task in another process & thereby reducing your wet chem waste by a significant amount

A 70% copper anode run this way will reduce to about 11 - 15% of slimes (which will still contain some base metals) so you have reduced the amount of metals that need "fresh" chem treatment by 85 - 89% --- & you have lost no values --- you have just changed the way you go about recovering them

If you want to reduce the waste created by wet chem processing you have to start with incineration/milling & smelting & then figure out the "by product" - "task preforming" process to make it a processing "circuit"

It is of course more detailed then explained here - but it works --- a bigger furnace/incinerator & ball mill (cement mixer) are two of the best investment I made

Kurt


----------



## kurtak (Sep 28, 2015)

MarcoP said:


> More or less at the same time two things happened: understand those pins are too low yield, and being able to buy motherboards, cherry pick and resell at exactly same price and those sockets aren't cherries.
> 
> Marco



:shock: That's just not right &/or honest --- if you take ANYTHING of value off the board you have de-valued the board & you need to tell your board buy so & then work out a fair price for them as de-valued boards (they will still buy them - just pay less) after all they are buying them for the value that is "supposed" to be on them(like they pay more for cards with the fingers then with out fingers)

How would you like it if someone sold you a gaylord of mother boards that had all the BGAs pulled off (you looked - saw mother boards & bought them) then after he left with your money - you go to pull the BGAs --- AND FOUND NONE --- I would be mad as hell :!: :!: :!: 

Doing such is not just bad business - ITs WRONG :!: :!: :!: 

Kurt


----------



## g_axelsson (Sep 28, 2015)

I wouldn't call that dishonest. It might be that you know the material better than the other company and can profit on your knowledge.

Dishonest is if I lie about the scrap and claiming that it is unprocessed. If the buyer have the opportunity to examine the material and offer a price based on what they see then I don't feel it is wrong to cherrypick it first. Buyers that can't judge the material often pays lower to compensate but that creates a situation where someone with good knowledge can find a niche to make a profit.
Is removing CPU:s and memory to cherrypick?

For example where I live there are two scrap dealers, one paying 25 cents a kilo and the other one 50 cents, even for motherboards. The low prices is because they have no idea of what they buy and I have seen loads of complete hard drives among the circuit boards.
If I can compete with the scrap dealers and buy from their customers at 50 cents a kilo, cherry pick the good stuff (currently just storing it) and then sell the low grade cards to the company that pays the best then my scrap is basically free, just takes time to sort. They inspect and weigh the material when I get there and I'm paid close to power supply prices for everything I bring in. I don't feel I'm dishonest or that I have an obligation to educate them. They still earn money.

Usually though, I offer 20% more than the scrap dealers on general cards and decent prices on ram and CPU:s just so I get loyal suppliers. At least that's the plan as I don't have the volumes yet.

Göran


----------



## MarcoP (Sep 28, 2015)

Kurt, I knew someone would say something about it. But I've got also prices for fully depopulated boards. I buy them cheap and the buyer knows exactly what I give him. I could have a better price for the untouched board but I've opted to go this way as his price match what I paid for.

Nothing dishonest here, the first time I took fully depopulated boards I told him "if you can give me something for those, good; otherwise I'll give them to you for free". He gave me a price for those and agreed I'll be back with a couple of samples to price. I did so and went with 3 samples, entire, ICs missing, ICs and all pins missing. The lot with only ICs missing was the price I was looking for. Old motherboards are almost fully depopulated and separated from the rest and he still pay me something for it.

I also wanted to add that when I brought in PCI cards with no fingers he gave me a price higher then the same cards with fingers. Off course I let him note the mistake, he smiled and thanked me. But it was obvious from his look that he was testing me. I want to be in business for a long time and the last thing I want to be called is crook. My name precede me here and no money are going to make it dirt.

Oh, at the beginning he used to hold the cards for a day so he could check them all and pay me the day after, last load I got paid straight away. I think this mean something.

Marco

Edit: spelling


----------



## g_axelsson (Sep 28, 2015)

That is a much better deal than I have. I brought in a couple of hundred kilos of boards once and was told that I would only get half of what I got before because the guy that normally handled my lots had quit and they didn't know what they were buying.
That was after selling cards to them for several years. :evil: 

On the other hand it makes it easy to compete with them and get my hands on good material at a very cheap price but still be the one that pays the best. :mrgreen: 

Sorry for the topic drift...

Göran


----------



## MarcoP (Sep 28, 2015)

Yeah, I feel I have a great deal and the last thing I want is to compete with them as they are the only one giving me this deal. I instead started buying from others and it was easy to buy RAM and CPU from then as they had been getting very low prices for those. Honestly I still pay lot less then what I should, but it's 3-5 times more then what they used to get making them extremely happy, this way I ensured the business with PCI cards and motherboards too. Plus I start getting early tips on other materials, and if I wasn't interested, if I was able to pull a better price then what they have, off course I would get something out of it and I did, in money or material.

Since I was a young kid I used to help my dad at the farm and at his almonds industry, I know how to move money around, I know how to cheat and I know how to be honest. Since now my knowledge on cheating have been used to defend my self, just like a sysadmin should know something about hacking, to defend him self.

From RAMs, with time and patience, I was able to pull out 1GB and 2GB working modules soon to be memtested and sold locally and or eBay for an added income. So far, I think in about 80 pounds of RAMs, I was able to pull 40 good sticks, at ~€10 each sounds like a jackpot to me.


----------



## kurtak (Sep 28, 2015)

OK - now I understand - we are taking two very different things here 

I was talking about buying boards based on there value/type "for there value/type" --- de-valuing them - then reselling them for there full value/type

Goran - believe me - when you are handling "large volumes" of boards - you don't have time to inspect every board to see if values are stripped off - you go through them to be sure they have been sorted to there right category &/or (if they are mixed) sort them to there right category for payment

you guys are taking about buying them "under value" (because you can - & nothing wrong with that) cherry picking - & then selling "under" (original) value - which is actually closer to there value after cherry picking

I actually do both --- I have clients that know their boards & value & bring them well sorted - they get paid according --- other clients don't know a brown board from a telcom board (no matter how much you try to teach them) & bring them ALL mixed - I do a "quick" three way sort - brown - low green & high green - they get paid according - 10 cents - 75 cents & $1.50 

Sorry for the confusion - my bad  

Kurt


----------



## g_axelsson (Sep 28, 2015)

No worries! 8) 

Right now I'm in the beginning of going through all the CPU:s I bought in the spring. So far I've found at least four that will bring in $50 or more each. About 10 of the PPro will go in the range of $30-$40 just because they are rare.

How about that for cherry picking? :mrgreen: 

I've learned a lot about CPU collecting and their community over the last week. It takes a lot time and I have to clean the CPU:s up to present them but in the end I can save a few rare ones while making some more money and don't have to mess with chemicals.
A tip, there is something called SSpecs on many intel CPU:s, if you find a rare one it can bring in some serious money. And that also goes for pinless and fiber cpu:s that we usually think is close to junk. I've seen some pentium chip go for $100 each so I hope I'll find some of those...

Then when I'm left with common CPU:s and broken ones I'll send them to the acid bath. :twisted: 

Göran


----------



## MarcoP (Sep 28, 2015)

Kurt, as a buyer your self your reaction was fully justified. It's all good.

Göran, thanks for the tip. Will do some homework even if most, if not all, CPU pins are already bent as I buy them in buckets.

Marco


----------



## Anonymous (Sep 28, 2015)

You're making me cry Goran. 8) 8)


----------



## patnor1011 (Sep 28, 2015)

What is that sspec?


----------



## g_axelsson (Sep 28, 2015)

It is a stepping number and tells you which die or masks were used to build that chip. If you look at a 486 or more modern one you will often find a code starting with S, for example SX835 which is the code for one of the Pentium chips with the famous FDIV bug.

If you find one with a Q-code then it is a pre-production or engineer sample and those are always sought after.

Question : How do you get a gram of gold from a Pentium Pro?
Answer : Sell it to a collector for $30 and buy gold with the money!

:mrgreen: 

Göran


----------



## Anonymous (Sep 28, 2015)

Goran don't open up that old chestnut mate 8) 8)


----------



## Grelko (Sep 28, 2015)

kurtak said:


> I actually do both --- I have clients that know their boards & value & bring them well sorted - they get paid according --- other clients don't know a brown board from a telcom board (no matter how much you try to teach them) & bring them ALL mixed - I do a "quick" three way sort - brown - low green & high green - they get paid according - 10 cents - 75 cents & $1.50
> Kurt



If I could get prices like that from selling boards around here, I probably wouldn't try to process them myself.

Unless I feel like driving about two hours to Boardsort, the couple places in my area pay around 6 cents brown, 40 cents low green, 80 cents high green. That's one of the reasons I'm learning to do this myself. Then again, these places mainly deal with "scrap metal" and not many circuit boards. Sometimes I'll take brown boards to them because they start taking up space after a while.


----------

