# Gentlemen; Typewriters.



## Kenshiro (Nov 5, 2011)

Circuitry in old electronic typewriters.
Gold content worth it for b.s. hobbyist in collecting phase of scheme? 
Let me know if you please. Especially if you have taken a look at these fairly basic looking machines personally.


----------



## Kenshiro (Nov 5, 2011)

Actually gentlemen- fooey on the typewriter. I took a look inside after finally finding a google picture. In the meantime- found a free flatscreen. SO- Any success finding gold fingers etc in these t.v.'s?


----------



## joem (Nov 5, 2011)

Kenshiro said:


> Actually gentlemen- fooey on the typewriter. I took a look inside after finally finding a google picture. In the meantime- found a free flatscreen. SO- Any success finding gold fingers etc in these t.v.'s?


Yes, there are video boards, sound boards, and power boards, I keep them all as high quality


----------



## tlcarrig (Nov 5, 2011)

it depends on what kind of typewriter/word processor you are talking about. I repaired typewriters for 40 years before retiring in 2006. I haven't seen any that I would waste my time on. If you want to go after the copper then have at it but as far as connectors and chips, IMHO just not worth it.


----------



## Kenshiro (Nov 5, 2011)

tlcarrig said:


> it depends on what kind of typewriter/word processor you are talking about. I repaired typewriters for 40 years before retiring in 2006. I haven't seen any that I would waste my time on. If you want to go after the copper then have at it but as far as connectors and chips, IMHO just not worth it.




Thanks Joem. I've already decided against this pickup, but if I had not your post would have done it. The trick is to always keep an eye open  . I am hopefully going to snag an lcd with missing pixels. There may be some parts that can be sold for a bit more than can be refined. I don't know. I'm woefully new at all of this. I would rather have the gold content- though perhaps parts sales can be used to buy gold stock. Who knows?


----------



## joem (Nov 5, 2011)

Kenshiro said:


> tlcarrig said:
> 
> 
> > it depends on what kind of typewriter/word processor you are talking about. I repaired typewriters for 40 years before retiring in 2006. I haven't seen any that I would waste my time on. If you want to go after the copper then have at it but as far as connectors and chips, IMHO just not worth it.
> ...



My first trick is find a buyer for all then my second trick is to take the good with the bad and sell the bad.
Then sell the good for more.
I guess the saying works;
"It's all good"
Oh and flat sceen monitors have a thin board with plenty of visible gold.


----------



## Claudie (Nov 5, 2011)

There is a difference between "Flat Panel" and "Flat Screen" monitors. It pays to know the difference. :|


----------



## joem (Nov 5, 2011)

Claudie said:


> There is a difference between "Flat Panel" and "Flat Screen" monitors. It pays to know the difference. :|



Your right there. But from my point of veiw flat panels are thinner ( a few inches) and only weight about 10 pounds without the base (which is usually a nice chunk of aluminum) and have a nice thin board with very visible gold. A Flat screen is a tube tv or monitor with a flat glass front but are quite heavy and give me good pound per price weight at my electronics scrapper.
Both come to me for free and even now I charge a $10 service charge if I have to go into a basement, bedroom, or any other part of the house other than at/in the front door or garage. 
So both are good for me as is a good heavy typewriter. ( just keeping on thread)


----------



## Claudie (Nov 6, 2011)

Here in the states it costs around $0.40 per pound + freight to get rid of CRTs. :|


----------



## Kenshiro (Nov 6, 2011)

It's just a lovely flat T.V. 52''inches. From what I have taken apart in terms of laptops- I am excited to see what is inside this T.V.

I will be checking the forum; But I do have a question. I broke apart a rectangle and black chip from the back of a ram- having seen pictures of processors here and assuming I would see a bit of gold. The little square tab of metal inside looked as though it was copper however. 

mad.jpg

Can I assume there is no gold in these circa windows2000 ram stick chips? Or is there plating that can be removed?


----------



## Claudie (Nov 6, 2011)

If it is a 52" flat panel TV there are some pretty nice boards in there along with quite a bit of AL. I wouldn't assume there is no Gold without testing. Most IC packages have some Gold content. Don't throw it away until you find out. I have gotten rid of a lot of things that I later found out I should have kept.


----------



## kuma (Nov 7, 2011)

Kenshiro said:


> It's just a lovely flat T.V. 52''inches. From what I have taken apart in terms of laptops- I am excited to see what is inside this T.V.
> 
> I will be checking the forum; But I do have a question. I broke apart a rectangle and black chip from the back of a ram- having seen pictures of processors here and assuming I would see a bit of gold. The little square tab of metal inside looked as though it was copper however.
> 
> ...



Hi Kenshiro , how are things ?
There is gold inside those chips , but rather than being obvious to the eye like the plating on the finger connector , it is in the form of tiny wires. 
They are so small that your best bet of even seeing them would be to look through a magnifying glass , or better still a small microscope (unless my eyes are getting as bad as my ears!).
Heres a link to a magnified image of microscopic gold wire inside a chip ; http://tinyurl.com/6f722q5
Save them up and you'll squeeze somthing from them chips! 8) 
I hope that can be of use to you ,
All the best and kind regards ,
Chris


----------



## Claudie (Nov 7, 2011)

What was the magnification of that package in that photo?


----------



## Kenshiro (Nov 8, 2011)

kuma said:


> Kenshiro said:
> 
> 
> > It's just a lovely flat T.V. 52''inches. From what I have taken apart in terms of laptops- I am excited to see what is inside this T.V.
> ...




You have buoyed my spirit for these chips! I hope I did not compromise the gold from the brutish extraction on this 1 chip. Perhaps it's best to use the tin can on coals method to extract the gold from these pieces- I heard that it produces little smoke and no fire


----------



## Kenshiro (Nov 8, 2011)

I have come into 4 towers and an undisclosed amount of E-scrap. I will keep you updated and post pictures of my e-scrap hoard once I have the towers broken down. If anyone here has a decent eye for appraisal- look into this thread tomorrow and I will try to provide detailed pics of the different kinds of scrap I have pulled together.


----------



## Kenshiro (Nov 8, 2011)

kuma said:


> ; http://tinyurl.com/6f722q5




I never would have guessed it! Thanks for the great pic Kuma!!


----------



## Kenshiro (Nov 8, 2011)

Claudie said:


> What was the magnification of that package in that photo?




Not terribley great. For the amount of space I am limited to- I need to focus only on PM packed packages, so I will be passing on this typewriter. The T.V. gentleman never replied to me, so that's not going to happen, which is fine. Opportunities are everywhere.


----------



## Claudie (Nov 8, 2011)

I have been collecting and selling scrap since I was a small boy. I can remember picking up old Copper pipes, Aluminum cooking pans, and other such items from the "junk ditches" around the countryside and having my dad take me across town to sell them, hoping to get enough money to go to the movies. There is money to be made on nearly anything if you take the time to sort it. If you only want the IC packages, then just save them up, but sort the other items into small lots to take to the scrap yard. Every little bit helps. Even if you have stripped the circuit board of all the chips, it still has a value, so don't just throw it away. Keep reading and keep learning, this is one of a few hobbies that can actually pay for itself.


----------



## Kenshiro (Nov 8, 2011)

Claudie said:


> I have been collecting and selling scrap since I was a small boy. I can remember picking up old Copper pipes, Aluminum cooking pans, and other such items from the "junk ditches" around the countryside and having my dad take me across town to sell them, hoping to get enough money to go to the movies. There is money to be made on nearly anything if you take the time to sort it. If you only want the IC packages, then just save them up, but sort the other items into small lots to take to the scrap yard. Every little bit helps. Even if you have stripped the circuit board of all the chips, it still has a value, so don't just throw it away. Keep reading and keep learning, this is one of a few hobbies that can actually pay for itself.




The money that you were using back then was made of more valuable alloys than they are today. I try to find copper... but aside from the free t.v.'s everyone is trying to get rid of- copper is hard to find in my city. Once my license situation is sorted out- I will hopefully be taking advantage of the free appliances I see around. Not driving is unpleasant.


----------



## Kenshiro (Nov 8, 2011)

Hoard update. 

Oh my goodness. I have found my e-scrap source. This computer place I went to gave me 6 towers. White plastic- from what I gathered mostly running windows 2000. Old ibm chips with a plastic housing+fan assembley. A green board with what looks like a hell of a lot of gold in the circuit itself- though it could just be some very nice to look at copper. I will be taking a good picture of that particular board when I upload the pictures. I will take a picture of all mother boards- finger chip- processor finger chips- ram- CPU components, such as hard drives and anything through floppy drives. 

There are a few computers left that I am welcome to. I will pick them up next week. I saved the people at the shop 75$ in hauling fee's and now I have more of that stuff that reached 1800$/oz earlier today. 

Still don't know if I'm planning to refine or selling the scrap. I think trying to refine a good amount of it in carefully regulated and prepared batches would be an interesting experience- and it would be nice to have something of definite value to remember the experience by. I will be crawling through this forums archives and reading hokes useful lit.- if there are any terrific links that you can share I would appreciate them.


----------



## kuma (Nov 9, 2011)

Hello everybody!
How are things today ? I hope all is well!



Claudie said:


> What was the magnification of that package in that photo?



Hi Claudie! It would have been somewhere between 30x and 40x magnification. 
I take these pictures by very carefully and patiently holding the lens of my girlfriends pink camera over the top of my kids Natural History Museum microscope , it takes a while and a fair few shots to get the right one , but it's always worth it eventualy! :mrgreen: 



Kenshiro said:


> I never would have guessed it! Thanks for the great pic Kuma!!



No worries chief! I first read about these wires here , but when I actualy started breaking into them and seeing them with my eyes , that changed the ball game! 8) 
All the best everyone , and kind regards ,
Chris


----------



## macfixer01 (Dec 8, 2011)

kuma said:


> Hello everybody!
> How are things today ? I hope all is well!
> 
> 
> ...




Chris,
I've thought of buying one of those low-end USB microscopes for capturing pictures of small objects. I wanted to mention though besides my current Nikon camera I still have an older 3MP HP camera with few bells and whistles. There were several sellers on Ebay offering separate macro lenses for a variety of brands that just screw into the hot-shoe for mounting then sit in front of the built-in lens. You focus it using the LCD display by manually moving the camera closer or further from the object. For a cheap solution it actually worked pretty well. Of course that just gets you close-up, not so much magnification. Just a thought...

macfixer01


----------



## kuma (Dec 9, 2011)

Hello all , how are tricks today?
I hope all is well!



macfixer01 said:


> Chris,
> I've thought of buying one of those low-end USB microscopes for capturing pictures of small objects. I wanted to mention though besides my current Nikon camera I still have an older 3MP HP camera with few bells and whistles. There were several sellers on Ebay offering separate macro lenses for a variety of brands that just screw into the hot-shoe for mounting then sit in front of the built-in lens. You focus it using the LCD display by manually moving the camera closer or further from the object. For a cheap solution it actually worked pretty well. Of course that just gets you close-up, not so much magnification. Just a thought...
> 
> macfixer01



I've seen the USB microscopes , they look pretty neat. There's one in a catalouge that gets sent to me all the time , I'm just not sure if I'd use it enough to warrant buying one.
On the flip side though the thought of hopping up from 40x to 200x magnification , and instantly having the image on screen , is appealing to me!

http://tinyurl.com/c8fc5p3

A macro lense isn't something that I'd considered , but it sounds like another option that would make my life easier when trying to get better close-ups , I'll have a look at these.
Thanks for the advice Macfixer! :mrgreen: 
All the best and kind regards ,
Chris


----------

