# computers



## Gold head (Sep 18, 2011)

Hi i am new here. I am very good at dealing with items that have copper and other metals. I am accomplished
I am ready for gold . I have been saving computers i have about 22. I will start to tear them down 
Question is there really enough gold to make it worth it? The copper AL is also real


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## butcher (Sep 18, 2011)

22 computers will not get you much gold, you would need a very good source of scrap, think truckloads, or pounds of CPU, or memory, and if it is worth getting gold from computers is still up for debate, it is a hobbies for me, I enjoy it, and if I get some gold it just makes it more enjoyable, there is a lot of studying to do to get to where you can recover and refine gold, Hoke's book in the book section would be a must read, then go to post welcoming new members, there is information to get you started, much of your time in the beginning will just be learning. If money was your goal I would tell you forget it, (gas station job would pay better by the hour) if being able to recover gold and refine it to purity then the forum is the place to learn.

Just my opinion


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## Gold head (Sep 19, 2011)

For me it comes down to scraping for $$ . As in getting the most for any item that comes my way. If i find items with hidden copper i will pull it out to receive a decent per pound price on that item. cause i could just sell it whole for .09 per pound. So what i am getting at is this : if i find a computer i can get .09 per pound for it or i can take it a part and sell parts according to higher rates .So if i start to pull out some gold will that exceed the price of .65 per pound for boards memory & cards ? 
Some places pay $6.00 per pound for boards memory & cards but not near me so shipping it for that price makes no sense


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## acpeacemaker (Sep 19, 2011)

I think the interest and the ongoing learning, far exceeds the value of the gold return. 22 computers they won't go far. The values of aluminum, copper scrap steel can be there. But keep in mind a lot of things can be hazardous. So when you find something like a huge transformer with large copper coils. Was it made before or after 77'? Could it possibly have pcb? Just a pointer, know what your taking apart.


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## Gold head (Sep 19, 2011)

Most transformers Don't have PCB S , But regardless keep away from AL canister with oily mix PCB or Not. Working with metal not so healthy any way I guess . I am addicted to the want of metal & i enjoy the sale of it


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## dtectr (Sep 19, 2011)

All things are worth messing with, if your time isn't worth a lot. I've been out of work for 1-1/2 yrs, so my income potential for a given hour is $0, so anything I make is a bonus. If you have to take time away from something with a higher income potential, you have to do the math.

I have separate bins for Aluminum types - cast, extruded, clean & other. Regardless of how small the part is (within reason), it goes into its appropriate bin. Same with types of Copper, memory, pins, etc..

It works for me. Compose the music you march to.
just my dos centavos.


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## Gold head (Sep 19, 2011)

Yes I try to do up the bins , & i have them But i am scattered all the heck too. Which some times leads to very cool surprises I still wonder where my brass heater cores went Must be some place :shock: 
Still lets go back, the time factor of my search for gold is ok , I see it will take lots of mem sticks to = a pound so i have to assume a pound of mem sticks can produce say $10 to $12 in gold


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## Geo (Sep 19, 2011)

there are more PM's in computer scrap than gold, theres of coarse palladium in the MCC's which by weight of total scrap weight will most likely pay more than the gold from total scrap weight. for example if X amount of computers have an ounce of gold and the same amount of computers have 2 ounces of palladium thats kind of like doubling your gold because palladium is usually around half the price of gold. thats not even factoring in the amount of silver and what little PT is in that amount.


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## Gold head (Sep 20, 2011)

This is going to take some learning curb time , What i have on my side is i seem to find computers .I see it will be mentally stimulating to figure out how to pull out the Gold vs Palladium & silver - I like the fact that in the mean time mother boards MEM cards don't take up allot of room to store . I assume if i want I can start by cutting off the conductors that look golden. Processor pins. there might be other parts that i need to learn about. 

What does MCC mean ? Micro chip Core ?
What does PT mean ?

So from what i am gathering the boards which have solder actually have silver 
NOW also i have TV's which i pull - copper & AL, those boards also have tons of solder which i assume has silver 
I thought i read some were lead is a by product of silver, either case instead of tin pile @ .09 which is what i was doing with my boards , I would like to know how to reclaim the solder on the boards I find Many Many TV's along with CRT's in my search for copper. If i know there is hidden silver in those boards, I'd like to reclaim it. Even silver I feel is devalued as of now @ $40 per once. 
---------------------------
Just a note i found recently some sort of kiln with Temp gauge and adjustment up to 2000 deg but it is small i could put some thing as big as a large soup can 1 QT size 
it seems to be made of asbestos with wires impregnated into white asbestos it has a temp gauge.


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## butcher (Sep 23, 2011)

Most solder was lead and tin, some new solder lead was removed and tin may be the major component, really old boards they have used silver in some solder when silver was cheaper, MCC he is talking about the very small capacitors and resistors most as small square as the tip on a pencil SOME of these have Pd (palladium) and possible to have a fraction of other PGM (platinum group metals), Pt (platinum) may be in very very few of them these are layers of metal salts and ceramic to form the capacitor.

some of the capacitors on older circuits boards contained silver, but chasing silver in the solder may cost you more money than you could melt or burn.

Computers or most anything modern uses very limited amounts of precious metals, these manufactures try to scrimp every penny they can, that means if they can save a dime on a computer they may save millions of dollars, so they will scrimp on as many dimes as they can, even as far as common resistors they will redesign a circuit, or use the bare minimum value to save pennies, they may even figure it would last longer (almost forever) if we used a half watt resistor but, we can put in a quarter watt resistor (that will overheat somewhat but will last the consumer for a few years or until a little past warrantee runs out).

to make money from Escrap think tons of old computers and for the small guy think many many hours, my belief is you could make more from selling the computer parts on ebay than trying to recover their values and then also safely dealing with all the waste generated.

Reading the forum and HOKE's book will answer all of your questions and more.

You can squirrel away some precious metals, from this but do not think it will come without work and study,(keep your day job), to me this is similar to mining (a hellasous amount of work and time for very little pay, but dogonit I love doing it).


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## MMFJ (Oct 23, 2011)

In general, I agree with this thread - HOWEVER....

In the last month, we have begun to 'keep' our old computers instead of giving them to the non-profits and/or 'scrap guy' that would come pick them up for free and get all that "junk" out of our way (we buy mixed pallet lots from gov't and other auctions and sell the tech/lab/medical stuff on ebay and other online sites, including our own)

What we found actually amazed us!

It started when the scrap guy told us that he had picked up nearly $500 from just taking the computers, printers and monitors to the yard! He spent about two hours on two loads each and then just took it right over and sold it for poundage - and got nearly $500???

We had to look into this ourselves as that is nothing to sneeze at (certainly if you even have to rent a truck and hire a 'helper' for $70/hr, you can still make a nice dinner and drinks! - btw, no, we aren't looking for helpers at that price..... 

We had been reading this forum and seeing that most feel that working computers 'for a living' is not worth it. Again, I TEND to agree, however....

We started taking the computers apart (what FUN! - certainly nice when one won't open till you take a big hammer after it or just toss it up in the air and let it crash down!!! 8) 

We separated the 'value' stuff, going by the boardsort.com buying guide as well as our local scrap yard in what they buy. We found one that will take any aluminum (all sorts mixed together), copper, 'wire' (non-clean copper) and 'motors' [transformers ok too] as well as the 'tin' - all mixed metal, plastic, etc., so it makes it pretty easy, as well as separated stainless steel (which a lot of the heat sinks in computers actually are). We have stuck with them, though there may be others in town that will pay more if we sorted it out differently.

We found that, for us, shipping to boardsort.com costs about $.82 per pound (high, I know.... - we are working on that), so even though they may take other 'bits', it makes no 'cents' to send it to them, so we take that stuff to the local scrapper.

Sent some pics to Chris at boardsort.com and he helped us learn how to sort the computer boards and such for the most money and we sent our first list and got paid within a few hours - BEFORE we even put the cards in a box!(IMHO, boardsort.com is "THE" place to go to sell computer cards and such - fast service with a smile and pays UP FRONT - every load with them, every time, EXCELLENT) 

We got around $500 for the cards out of just 25 computers, plus over $300 for scrap metal (though there was a bit of other stuff mixed in there from other scrapping we'd done, so perhaps only $250 or so was from the computers) - at any rate, let's say we got $700 from 25 computers AND we kept the processors and ram chips and most of the fingers from the cards (waiting for gold price to go back up, or a 'rainy day'....)

PLUS, as we were pulling them apart, we found a few cards that weren't the 'norm' (LAN/Modem, video, etc.) and looked them up - some of them have quite a bit of value by themselves, so we are offering them online (around $300 total - but gotta get them sold!)

With that, I really can't say that computers are not worth scrapping - even after shipping, we cleared (counting the processors and ram, etc. at today's rate) well over $300 each 'up-front' plus maybe another $200+ in later sale stuff - all for just 5 hours work! Oh, not Donald Trump wages, but not bad either! Certainly something that pays better than sitting around drinking beer (but, then, if you are like me, you'll actually do BOTH at the same time! 

I, for one, am looking forward to getting another load of computers to crap - soon!


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