# Deep depopulating - How do YOU do it?



## Fox32 (Feb 15, 2013)

So, hello guys, i just stripped down my last cellphones and i ended up with a lot of bits and pieces that have gold and gold conectors on them like, charging ports, sim ports, speakers etc, they are made from some sort of plastic, my problem is, how to get the gold out? What tehnique do you use? maybe incineration? Thanks! I addeds some pictures too.

Oh yes, the site GoldRecovery.us dosn't appear to work when i insert the Username and password, just saying that information is incorect, and ai copy pasted both...


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## Acid_Bath76 (Feb 15, 2013)

I've taken apart ribbon cable heads to find little plating at best. I recall taking apart a large box full over one weekend when I first started doing this type of stuff. It was like Christmas each time I cracked one open. The juice was not worth the squeeze though. My vote is for incineration, and then a ball mill. I'm sure someone else will throw in their opinion. Check out Noidea's posts. He has some real ingenious ways of getting to the goods without breaking the bank.


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## skippy (Feb 15, 2013)

I was doing some reading and I would advise caution in burning any plastic from any electronic equipment - most every bit of plastic in a computer has brominated fire retardants in them, which when burned turn into some very toxic stuff. There are guidelines that are followed in commercial incineration with regards to temperature of the combustion chamber and retention time to ensure that the polycyclic hydrocarbons, brominated hydrocarbons, dioxins, etc are entirely decomposed. I think some of the pyrolysis retort techniques that have been touted here are good in that they are going to give a much cleaner and controlled burn than, say, throwing something in a fire, but the mere fact that the material is retorted and the exhaust is burned is not a magic bullet. You need the gases to be fully combusted, reach 850C and stay at that temperature for at a bare minimum of one second from what I have read. There's likely going to be volatilized metal halides in the exhaust and maybe particulate metals too that should be scrubbed out, maybe even a significant amount of PMs. Maybe all this is going over board for someone who is going to burn up few pounds of connectors the odd time, but it seems there is more discussion of incineration here than there used to be, especially as it relates to e-scrap and I think we need to keep the issue of hazards and damage in the forefront when and while people are discussing this.

edit I looked a nodiea's retort design again and it's not so bad really. I don't think it would meet the prescribed retention time but if the firebox was taller and insulated it might though. Also provisions for a combustion zone above the retort seems like a good thing to add, as it would help ensure exhaust gases were still reaching an adequete temperature while the retort is still heating up Some sort of scrubber would be nice too.


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## Fox32 (Feb 16, 2013)

I dunno, buliding a klin and retort seems like a lot of work for 10 kg of plastic bits... maybe somone has tryied a diffrent aproapch? i was thinking (for ide adapters and cellphone parts) to grind them and up put in water so the plastic will float, also maybe magnets to get the gold plated metals, but i really have no idea on how to process those thin gold plated foils.


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## Pantherlikher (Feb 16, 2013)

Just a poor man's thoughts...
Put the plastic pieces into and AP into a rock tumbler... Like the kits you buy for kids...Little plastic drum rolling for a week to make rocks shinny...
Open now and again to let fresh O2 in. Give it a few days, Drain and AP again.
Getting rid of as much as possible. Wash then use Hcl and bleachin the tumbler drainning and adding more each day? untill the solution is clear.

It'd take alot of goes to get everything in the tight spots but AP would get most non PMs and bleach would disolve everything else.

I wonder if it'd get everything stuck in the tiny crevases of the plastic holders...

BS.
Time and patience might actually be on our side...


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## ilikesilver (Feb 17, 2013)

hammer


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## Captobvious (Feb 26, 2013)

I vote incinerate, at least those are the plans I have for the 30lb bag of bits from boards/cables/etc that are a pain to pull the pins from by hand. Also note that as long as the heat is high enough and there's enough oxygen (ie cooked in open air/no lid) the vapors shouldn't be an issue.


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## patnor1011 (Feb 26, 2013)

Captobvious said:


> I vote incinerate, at least those are the plans I have for the 30lb bag of bits from boards/cables/etc that are a pain to pull the pins from by hand. Also note that as long as the heat is high enough and there's enough oxygen (ie cooked in open air/no lid) the vapors shouldn't be an issue.



But the smoke will be an issue.


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## Captobvious (Feb 27, 2013)

patnor1011 said:


> Captobvious said:
> 
> 
> > I vote incinerate, at least those are the plans I have for the 30lb bag of bits from boards/cables/etc that are a pain to pull the pins from by hand. Also note that as long as the heat is high enough and there's enough oxygen (ie cooked in open air/no lid) the vapors shouldn't be an issue.
> ...



Not planning on running all 30 lbs at once  but yes it is a concern, however I'm planning on experimenting with a few different ways of incinerating on the cheap once it gets warm enough outside. I also figure I'll do it at night when folks aren't out and about and wouldn't notice the smoke anyway.


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## necromancer (Feb 27, 2013)

Captobvious said:


> patnor1011 said:
> 
> 
> > Captobvious said:
> ...




they will if there windows are open on a nice warm summers night


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## FrugalRefiner (Feb 27, 2013)

Captobvious said:


> I also figure I'll do it at night when folks aren't out and about and wouldn't notice the smoke anyway.


Whether you do it at night or during the day, you'll still dump the same amount of polution into the atmosphere we all share. If you want to incinerate chips, that's fine. But do it responsibly! 

If you don't want to devote the time, effort, and money to refine responsibly, I would encourage you to sell your materials to someone who will and move on to something else to occupy your time. If enough people are found to be handling their refining wastes irresponsibly we can expect further laws and regulations that will make it impossible for any of us to practice this art.

Dave


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## Captobvious (Feb 27, 2013)

FrugalRefiner said:


> Captobvious said:
> 
> 
> > I also figure I'll do it at night when folks aren't out and about and wouldn't notice the smoke anyway.
> ...



Relax guys you'll note I said "EXPERIMENT" this does not mean going whole hog, this means taking a couple of old style memory sockets where it is literally impossible to pull the pins out by hand..... you totally make me sound like a dumba$$ :roll:


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## butcher (Feb 27, 2013)

Wait till you see the toxic gases coming off the burning circuit boards then you too will understand the concerns, also look up what the gases and what they would consist of, and the dangers of burning them, look up the laws concerning burning circuit boards and polluting our air and soil with the toxins produced, then you can see the members were trying to help you not call you dumb, it would only be dumb not to listen to good advise.


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## wrmahaff (Feb 27, 2013)

butcher said:


> Wait till you see the toxic gases coming off the burning circuit boards then you too will understand the concerns, also look up what the gases and what they would consist of, and the dangers of burning them, look up the laws concerning burning circuit boards and polluting our air and soil with the toxins produced, then you can see the members were trying to help you not call you dumb, it would only be dumb not to listen to good advise.



How do the big boys do it? I'm guessing SIPI/EDI etc probably crush/shred the boards, sort and process?


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## Captobvious (Feb 27, 2013)

butcher said:


> Wait till you see the toxic gases coming off the burning circuit boards then you too will understand the concerns, also look up what the gases and what they would consist of, and the dangers of burning them, look up the laws concerning burning circuit boards and polluting our air and soil with the toxins produced, then you can see the members were trying to help you not call you dumb, it would only be dumb not to listen to good advise.



No where in this thread or anywhere on this board or anywhere else for that matter have I EVER condoned or even mentioned open burning of PCB. I said experiment on a few small bits in different ways with different fuel sources in a controlled fashion. This is still in the research phase and that is IT for now!

Ok seriously and I DO understand why you all tend to react this way and with who knows how many people sign up each day, read a few articles, and watch a few videos and think they know everything and do something incredibly STUPID. Allow me to make this PERFECTLY clear, I AM NOT ONE OF THOSE! I know I'm still relatively new here but allow me to assure you I am NOT advocating or recommending tossing a bunch of PCB boards into a fire and walking away, exactly the opposite. I advocate months of research before attempting ANYTHING potentially dangerous to either myself, my family, my neighbors or the environment.

Put simply I am NOT the arch nemesis of Captplanet! (even if he is lame! :lol: )


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## FrugalRefiner (Feb 27, 2013)

Captobvious said:


> No where in this thread or anywhere on this board or anywhere else for that matter have I EVER condoned or even mentioned open burning of PCB. I said experiment on a few small bits in different ways with different fuel sources in a controlled fashion. This is still in the research phase and that is IT for now!
> 
> 
> 
> ...


 Well, actually you did.



> Ok seriously and I DO understand why you all tend to react this way and with who knows how many people sign up each day, read a few articles, and watch a few videos and think they know everything and do something incredibly STUPID. Allow me to make this PERFECTLY clear, I AM NOT ONE OF THOSE! I know I'm still relatively new here but allow me to assure you I am NOT advocating or recommending tossing a bunch of PCB boards into a fire and walking away, exactly the opposite. I advocate months of research before attempting ANYTHING potentially dangerous to either myself, my family, my neighbors or the environment.


Perhaps you aren't one of those who will do something stupid. We can't tell that based on what you posted. The problem is that you posted incorrect and dangerous information. I am mostly concerned for the new member who reads what you posted and decides to give it a try. When you post on this forum, always keep in mind that if you post inaccurate information and someone follows your advice, they could be injured or worse.

Dave


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## Captobvious (Feb 27, 2013)

FrugalRefiner said:


> The problem is that you posted incorrect and dangerous information. I am mostly concerned for the new member who reads what you posted and decides to give it a try. When you post on this forum, always keep in mind that if you post inaccurate information and someone follows your advice, they could be injured or worse.
> 
> Dave



Fair enough, and I'll admit that sometimes the ideas in my head don't exactly translate 100% to a fair description in text. I'll be more careful in my wording in the future and please accept my apologies for the misunderstanding.


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## FrugalRefiner (Feb 28, 2013)

Captain,

No need to apologize, but it's accepted.

Incineration has it's place in what we do. The big boys use it when they process boards, but they do it in very expensive equipment with afterburners to destroy the toxic chemicals that are created and they have to constantly monitor their waste gasses. That's likely beyond the capabilities of most of us.

Notice that Acid_Bath76 mentioned incineration before you did, but he also mentioned checking out Noidea's posts. Deano (Noidea) has written extensively on the subject of pyrolization and incineration. He's provided drawings of his system numerous times and his ideas are the basis of what I have planned for my chips. Search for the term pyrolization by author noidea and be safe.

Dave


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## Captobvious (Feb 28, 2013)

Thanks I'll look it up, but I'll say it again, just as I said before, I was referring to memory/cpu sockets OLD ISA slots, things where you cannot pull the pins out NOT whole/partial/pieces of circuit boards. I'm not trying to pick a fight ok? I'm only trying to clarify.


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## Captobvious (Feb 28, 2013)

Now that that whole kerfuffle is done (please let it be done) For things like the aforementioned items (memory/cpu sockets, expansion slots, etc. How would you process them then in a time expedient manner that don't involve incineration or spending months plucking pins out one at a time with pliers?


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## Snowmeow (Feb 28, 2013)

Pyrolyzing (As done with the flatpack chips by Patnor - http://goldrefiningforum.com/phpBB3/viewtopic.php?f=52&t=11827 ) wouldn't be a solution?


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## Captobvious (Feb 28, 2013)

Snowmeow said:


> Pyrolyzing (As done with the flatpack chips by Patnor - http://goldrefiningforum.com/phpBB3/viewtopic.php?f=52&t=11827 ) wouldn't be a solution?



This is where I got yelled at, I confused Patnor's incinerate process for flatpacks and Deano's Pyrolyzing process for everything else. Unfortunately I'm nowhere near setup for pyrolosis


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## patnor1011 (Feb 28, 2013)

I guess I am guilty of misappropriate use of both terms. 
What we both did is pretty much incineration but Deano's closed burner - that is very close or can be called pyrolysis. 
As a matter of fact there is no pyrolyzing system totally without presence of oxygen so arguing if particular process can be called pyrolysis or not makes no sense. I would say that incineration in closed container with holes for extraction of gases going directly back to fire can be called pyrolysis.


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## patnor1011 (Feb 28, 2013)

Captobvious said:


> Now that that whole kerfuffle is done (please let it be done) For things like the aforementioned items (memory/cpu sockets, expansion slots, etc. How would you process them then in a time expedient manner that don't involve incineration or spending months plucking pins out one at a time with pliers?



If we talk about slots then no, you can't do that easily. If you incinerate them then you just create bigger mess. If you do not want to cut them out one by one then there is another option, it involve some work too.
There is post here where member suggested to cut out portion of board with slots in them. Remove plastic cover and expose pins. Then you need to dip back part where small portion of pins stick out in heated solder to cover all of them. That will make them all to be connected like and can be used in sulfuric cell.
There is no easy and quick way to deal with pins apart from option to either sell whole boards to middle man or accumulate big quantity and send off to copper smelter to refine it for you.
Time expedient manner - with pins it is difficult. Reverse electroplating do not involve high costs but takes a lot of time to be completed properly. AP again low cost a lot of time and I mean A LOT of it. HNO3 - bit more costly than previous 2 (depend on how much it cost you in your part of world) and involve some time too in addition of creating a lot more of waste than previous two.
Home, hobby recovery and refining from electronics is just what it is. A nice hobby, not a way to get rich quick. When you factor in all costs and time involved you will see what I am talking about.


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## patnor1011 (Feb 28, 2013)

Snowmeow said:


> Pyrolyzing (As done with the flatpack chips by Patnor - http://goldrefiningforum.com/phpBB3/viewtopic.php?f=52&t=11827 ) wouldn't be a solution?



I would not suggest or approve that. 
Let me explain.
I was told few times and found out it to be true. Do not lose sight of your gold. If you do have fingers you use AP to see foils getting lose. Easy to filter, clean, move around - you always see your gold, even at later stage as AuCl3 you see it nice yellow or orange.
Same with pins, you see them losing color in cell, foils in AP, Nitric...
If you incinerate plastic sockets with pins inside you will get blobs of metals and "something", ugly looking ash you must know very well what you are doing and be careful at every step not to lose anything. Second thing is that if incinerating you are going to lose a lot of values in smoke unless you can do it in some controlled environment where you can catch and scrub smoke produced.

*edited spelling


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## Captobvious (Feb 28, 2013)

patnor1011 said:


> Captobvious said:
> 
> 
> > Now that that whole kerfuffle is done (please let it be done) For things like the aforementioned items (memory/cpu sockets, expansion slots, etc. How would you process them then in a time expedient manner that don't involve incineration or spending months plucking pins out one at a time with pliers?
> ...



Thanks for the info Pat, I generally pull the slots off the boards before removing the pins but unfortunately some of the slots either dont want to come off, or they break and can't get a clean removal... this accounts for maybe 15% of my mainboards and whatnot, unfortunately that 15% adds up. Maybe when I get bored and it's warmer I'll try and figure out a new method that doesn't involve chemicals or heat to get them to come out and also doesn't involve me spending 6 months plucking pins by hand. Indeed you're right, it is a hobby, and never have I ever expected to get rich off this.... take my wife and kids on vacation definite goal to be sure.


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## ilikesilver (Mar 9, 2013)

i say take a large metal coffee can or small metal trash can, throw them all in. Take a large slug hammer, you know the ones they use for breaking up rock or concrete and bash them up. that should break up all that plastic to the point were they will come out on there own, and then pull the loose ones out of the little bits of plastic left.


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## Captobvious (Mar 10, 2013)

ilikesilver said:


> i say take a large metal coffee can or small metal trash can, throw them all in. Take a large slug hammer, you know the ones they use for breaking up rock or concrete and bash them up. that should break up all that plastic to the point were they will come out on there own, and then pull the loose ones out of the little bits of plastic left.



So in other words....







I can live with that lol


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## old geek (Mar 10, 2013)

For some good info on pylorus check out 'plastic2oil'


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## ilikesilver (Mar 17, 2013)

Captobvious said:


> ilikesilver said:
> 
> 
> > i say take a large metal coffee can or small metal trash can, throw them all in. Take a large slug hammer, you know the ones they use for breaking up rock or concrete and bash them up. that should break up all that plastic to the point were they will come out on there own, and then pull the loose ones out of the little bits of plastic left.
> ...




gotta like the hulk!!


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## chlaurite (Mar 17, 2013)

FWIW, I have a pretty decent answer to the original question.

To remove the pins (antipins?) from female IDE and serial/parallel cables, use a 1/16th" flat-head screwdriver, with at least a half-inch long shaft staying at or below 1/16th" (if you can find one with a shaft very slightly smaller than the tip, it makes it _much_ easier). Once the connector's back/top is off, just poke the screwdriver straight in through the holes (try not to twist, that just makes a mess inside the pin), and the pin will pop right out the back and fall on the table/floor/lap. You can do a pair of 40-pin connectors in under a minute once you get the hang of it.

As for getting the back/top off first... For the IDE connectors, slip the blade of the screwdriver into the small holes on each side (narrow side) near the board-side of the connector and slip it up toward the top of the connector. The whole side clip will crumble with no effort required, and you often don't even need to bother with both sides, one is enough. For D-shell (serial, parallel, VGA) connectors, they often have two vertical slots on the front, just to the right and left of the functional portion of the connector. Shove the screwdriver in, and the pin-retaining back pops out. If it doesn't have those slots, I usually just stick it in the dykes and hack the back off - As long as the pins can fall out when you poke them from the front, it will work just fine.


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## Anonymous (Mar 27, 2013)

I know of two different ways to remove the pins from the plastic connectors without chemicals or burning.

!. Use the wire cutters shown below. They will break the connector and pieces will most likely fly everywhere, so make sure to have a catch box or something covering the overhead as you work, and wear safety glasses. Just clip from left to right, and all the pins will come out, or you'll have at least 95% come right out, and you might have to pull the others out. Real simple and easy.










The other way to get the pins out of the connectors is to use a bench grinder. Doing it the same way, from left to right, you can remove all the pins in a matter of seconds. Make sure to use a box or make a containment unit because the pins WILL fly everywhere, and you'll also have some plastic dust. If you do it inside, it's best to have a humidifier on before starting so that way the air will be moist and humid, and the dust will quickly drop to the floor instead of floating around in the air. Other than that, just do it outside.

Either method you choose, you can strip lbs of connectors in less than an hour, or at least you can do them all in one day and not have to take days to do.

Kevin


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## Smack (Mar 27, 2013)

Testerman, I use those same pliers on IDE ribbon connectors to get the pins out but you don't need to cut the plastic, use them to pull the pins out, both rows at the same time about 8 to 10 pins at a time. Just don't squeeze real hard. These are about the easiest pins to pull. I only do these once a year and while I watch football usually but for the most part there is not much gold there. Out of the black , blue and gray, the gray are the best and sometimes the whole pin is plated.


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## Anonymous (Mar 27, 2013)

Smack said:


> Testerman, I use those same pliers on IDE ribbon connectors to get the pins out but you don't need to cut the plastic, use them to pull the pins out, both rows at the same time about 8 to 10 pins at a time. Just don't squeeze real hard. These are about the easiest pins to pull. I only do these once a year and while I watch football usually but for the most part there is not much gold there. Out of the black , blue and gray, the gray are the best and sometimes the whole pin is plated.


I never thought of using them like that. I'll have to try that. I have around 30 lbs of different connectors to strip. And you're correct too on those IDE connectors. I took quite a few apart, and there is hardly any gold on them. I believe upto 1/3 of the pins are gold plated, and the remaining portion is stainless steel colored.

I wonder what the yield (gold) is on 1 lb of those pins. But darn *Smack*, I'm going to definitely try that method.

Kevin


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## Anonymous (Mar 28, 2013)

Hey *Smack*, I tried that method of pulling those pins with those cutters and it does work. That really surprises me because since there are two rows and they're so close together, I thought you'd have to grab one row first, which is nearly impossible to do, but I grabbed both rows a bit at a time and it surely does work. Thanks for the tip. That saves me even more time and makes my work even faster. All I need to do now is to wear my work gloves while doing them, so I can get a good grip on the connectors. :shock: 

Kevin


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## gold4mike (Mar 28, 2013)

I've been using a little vise to hold them so my left hand doesn't hurt so much but have been thinking about making a foot operated device to clamp and release them much quicker.


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## glondor (Mar 29, 2013)

foot vise http://www.google.ca/imgres?um=1&hl=en&safe=off&sa=N&biw=1745&bih=866&tbm=isch&tbnid=RLgHsUjJaVljmM:&imgrefurl=http://www.practicalmachinist.com/vb/general-archive/t-o-multifunction-vise-foot-pedal-81329/index2.html&docid=T-2gidpLlMag6M&imgurl=http://www.practicalmachinist.com/vb/attachments/f9/21485d1270061102-t-o-multifunction-vise-foot-pedal-t-o.jpg&w=300&h=300&ei=Zx1VUbGbCdbG4APL-oDgAg&zoom=1&ved=1t:3588,r:1,s:0,i:85&iact=rc&dur=5180&page=1&tbnh=163&tbnw=145&start=0&ndsp=35&tx=73&ty=48


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## gold4mike (Mar 29, 2013)

Thanks Mike! 

That's pretty much what I had in mind. I have a few extra vices in my shop and should be able to adapt one using their design as a basic template.


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## bswartzwelder (Apr 28, 2013)

Until today, I've been depopulating boards with a heat gun. They are cheap and easily available from places like Harbor Freight and Northern tool. Today, I bought a 7.5 inch square metal cake pan from Walmart ($0.92) and filled it a little over half way with play sand. Put it on the hot plate and turned it on. In 10 to 20 seconds,the boards get hot enough so that you can either tap them on a solid surface and the parts fall right off, or the components can be scraped off by just running a pocket knife over them. I couldn't believe how easy and fast this was. Saw it first right here on the forum, and as usual, you guys (and gals) are right on target. If you have the heat up too high, you can damage the circuit board. Conversely, if the heat is too low, it takes a lot longer before the parts are ready to fall off.


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## Captobvious (Apr 28, 2013)

bswartzwelder said:


> Until today, I've been depopulating boards with a heat gun. They are cheap and easily available from places like Harbor Freight and Northern tool. Today, I bought a 7.5 inch square metal cake pan from Walmart ($0.92) and filled it a little over half way with play sand. Put it on the hot plate and turned it on. In 10 to 20 seconds,the boards get hot enough so that you can either tap them on a solid surface and the parts fall right off, or the components can be scraped off by just running a pocket knife over them. I couldn't believe how easy and fast this was. Saw it first right here on the forum, and as usual, you guys (and gals) are right on target. If you have the heat up too high, you can damage the circuit board. Conversely, if the heat is too low, it takes a lot longer before the parts are ready to fall off.



Curious, what temps does your hotplate reach? And what kind is it?


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## AndyWilliams (Apr 28, 2013)

Captobvious said:


> bswartzwelder said:
> 
> 
> > Until today, I've been depopulating boards with a heat gun. They are cheap and easily available from places like Harbor Freight and Northern tool. Today, I bought a 7.5 inch square metal cake pan from Walmart ($0.92) and filled it a little over half way with play sand. Put it on the hot plate and turned it on. In 10 to 20 seconds,the boards get hot enough so that you can either tap them on a solid surface and the parts fall right off, or the components can be scraped off by just running a pocket knife over them. I couldn't believe how easy and fast this was. Saw it first right here on the forum, and as usual, you guys (and gals) are right on target. If you have the heat up too high, you can damage the circuit board. Conversely, if the heat is too low, it takes a lot longer before the parts are ready to fall off.
> ...



Yes, Inquiring minds want to know! I have been playing with this over the winter. But the biggest idea in my head is geo's setup, and quite frankly, I don't think I'm that handy!


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## bswartzwelder (Apr 29, 2013)

I have no way of checking the temperature of my el cheapo hotplate. If left in the sand mixe for more than about 30 seconds, the boards themselves will start to turn a dark brown like they've been burned with a torch. By the way, it's a single burner unit from Walmart and I can attest it does a truly fine job for about $20.00.


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## MEANIE (Apr 30, 2013)

Gold4mike check this out .
http://www.ebay.com/itm/SPEEDY-3-Air-Vise-Foot-Pedal-Control-/190789595506#vi-content


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## bswartzwelder (Apr 30, 2013)

I forgot to mention, but in my last batch of AP, I intermixed some circuit boards which never had components installed and a lot of the flexible connector strips like in the second picture at the beginning of this thread. I poured the AP into another bucket through a super large filter and started examining what was left in the bucket. The bucket had been sitting in my back yard bubbling away for over 2 weeks. Anyhow, many of the circuit boards still had some traces of gold left on them. I set the nozzle on my hose to the shower setting and picked up a circuit board. Holding it over the bucket, I gently turned on the water. Almost no pressure was used and the gold washed into the bucket. A little rubbing with my fingers also produced pretty much the same results, except I had to hose the gold off my fingers and into the bucket. It also worked quite well with thos pesky flexible strips. Some of the strips had adhesive on them which turned into a funky stuff resembling gauze. It is VERY time consuming to do it this way, but the alternative would be to not do it and lose the gold. I can honestly say I have never seen so much gold in a filter in my life. Once I have finished the bucket, I'll let you know the weight of the foils collected.


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## grahmdiam (Nov 24, 2013)

Hello, newbie here. I've been thinking about this and could either liquid oxygen or liquid nitrogen be used to freeze the plastic rock solid and then use brute force to smash and shatter the plastic. I don't know if it is feasible or even the logistics of acquiring the stuff, or the expense. Any thoughts?


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## steyr223 (Nov 24, 2013)

From an early age i taught my pitbull 
A. J. To strip the ends of most connectors down to the pins ,she even
Likes to do the metal ones (serial,parallel) but i only let her do the plastic ones

A.j. left alone or at least to herself in a room with over 10lb of ide ends and a little motivating talk/play will strip all the plastic in less then 45 minutes and i dont even have to clean up the plastic except when i pick up the back yard :mrgreen: 

I wish i had pics as A.j. is no longer with me and i dont have a house

Someday i will tell you what another pitbull i had use to do his name was copper :lol: 

Steyr223rob


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## Auggie (Nov 24, 2013)

I once took all the mylar ribbon cables from which I'd already cut out the gold bits (like the ones shown in the second photo at the beginning) and stuffed them all into a largish Dutch oven an covered it with the lid. I then put that in my firepit surrounded by lots of fuel (wood) all around and on top, covering the oven, then set it all aflame. I kept that fire going good and hot for about half an hour. Finally, I lifted the lid to take a peek at what was going on inside the Dutch oven and a brilliant blue and green flame erupted from the pot. The mylar had mostly burned away and the remaining gasses that came off the low/no-oxygen burn burned away once exposed to flame. I put the cover back on and waited another 15 minutes and lifted the lid to get more brilliant blue/green flames, and what was left was a dirty blob of fine copper wires. I plan to melt that down into a copper ingot.


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## steyr223 (Nov 25, 2013)

Question . If u did that on a larger scale
Like say filled the dutch oven up
Would you not get a.back draft when you lifted the lid
Maybe theres another name.,when i was incinerating the way holkes explains(and i understand its not recommended) i llifted the lid and was engulfed in a quick flash of fire.

Could be dangerous to the unprepared 

Steyr223. Rob


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## chlaurite (Nov 27, 2013)

bswartzwelder said:


> I have no way of checking the temperature of my el cheapo hotplate.


Water boils at 100°C
Tin melts at 232°C
Bismuth melts at 272°C
Lead melts at 327°C
Zinc melts at 420°C
Sulfur boils at 445°C
Aluminum melts at 660°C
Zinc boils at 907°C

Unfortunately we have something of a big gap between 445 and 660, but I'd dare to estimate a typical hotplate pushes somewhere between melting lead and zinc with no other load on it. If you take basic steps to insulate it a tad (surround it with bricks, and it doesn't self destruct at that temperature), you _might_ get all the way up to melting aluminum.


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## butcher (Nov 27, 2013)

I have measured my hotplate on high at around 500 degrees Fahrenheit, which is about 260 degrees Celsius, this is the burner itself, then you have heat loss of the pot and material in the pot, acting as a big heat sink and the surrounding air sucking up heat.

My hotplate was made for cooking food, not for melting metals.

I run hotplates almost all the time 24 Hrs 7days a week sometimes months at a time, I have found they will run longer, or the hot plate will last longer without failure of the burner element, if they are not run on high for long periods of time.


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## meatheadmerlin (Nov 28, 2013)

ilikesilver said:


> i say take a large metal coffee can or small metal trash can, throw them all in. Take a large slug hammer, you know the ones they use for breaking up rock or concrete and bash them up. that should break up all that plastic to the point were they will come out on there own, and then pull the loose ones out of the little bits of plastic left.



I've used this method with home and appliance electrical connectors, like switches and sockets, to get the brass out of them. I've found it very effective, but that plastic (bakelite, I believe) is usually very fragile compared to the kinds of plastics used in computers and electronics, which I've found tend to deform when smashed, more often than breaking.

As for ribbon cables, it's still a lot of manual labor, but this is one of the better methods I've seen for hand-pulling the pins.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U2zWr0UPwrw
This youtube poster has many videos on mechanical separation.

He also has this video on RS232 connectors.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9CVdPJsXbnE
This basic idea works for most PC connectors and plug ends with pins, I've found they have similar construction. I use an old pair of garden pruning clippers to cut the soft plastic away from cable-end connectors to get at the assemblies inside. That plastic is the same type of PVC as typical wire insulation on most of the cables I've found. They usually peel off pretty easy once you cut into them enough to find the assembly inside. Of course, once inside, you sometimes encounter a thick soldered shield (VGA plugs especially) that I am still puzzling over a cheap and easy way to deal with.

Anyway you slice it, mechanical or chemical, it's a lot of work to fill your idle time.


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## Geo (Nov 28, 2013)

Rob, almost all material on earth has whats called a "flash point". thats the point where a material is so hot that when its exposed to oxygen, it will oxidize sometimes violently. the more volatile a substance is, the lower the flash point is. the organics in printed circuit boards are very volatile when released by heating. this means that if you heat pcb's in an enclosed space without oxygen and then suddenly expose them by opening the door, it could spontaneously combust without a spark and explode.


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## chlaurite (Dec 5, 2013)

meatheadmerlin said:


> This youtube poster has many videos on mechanical separation.



Wow, I have a new favorite YouTube channel... This guy _rocks_!

Thanks!

/ Though the casual way he handles a CRT yoke... I have to suspect he's personally experienced the joys of 30KV more than a few times. :roll:


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## Shaul (Mar 29, 2017)

Here's how I do it. I use a small electronics-grade diagonal cutter. For ribbon cable connectors, first cut or pull off the ends. Then insert the blades on the two sides of the connector (near the end) and simply pry the connector apart. You may have to do this once or twice depending on how many times the cable is looped back on itself. Oftentimes the cable will come off the pins with a number of the pins still attached, which can then easily be pulled off by hand. The beauty of using a small diagonal cutter is that it's small enough to get in between the rows of pins on a connector and pull them out 4 or 5 at a time. Just use enough pressure to grasp the pins without cutting them off. For RS232 connectors, I use the same cutters, but there's a difference between the Male and Female connectors. With the Male connectors it's often possible to pull the pins straight out the back without having to disassemble the connector. Otherwise and with almost all Female connectors: using a small, thin flat-blade screwdriver or a strong thin spatula, pry the metal connector open, on both sides of the screw hole, insert the diagonal cutter and cut right through the rivet (of the screw hole). The two sides of the metal connector can then be pried open and the plastic insert removed. It is also possible using a regular-sized diagonal cutter to insert it between the screw hole and the connector body and cut there. Even if it's not cut all the way through but just weakened, the end can then be wiggled back and forth for a few seconds until it falls off and the connector pried open and the plastic easily pushed out with finger pressure. Again, simply pry apart the two plastic halves and the pins come out easily with no plastic flying everywhere. In the event that there is solder stuck to the ends of the pins and they don't separate easily from the connector, the diagonal cutter set along the edge of the pins can easily cut through the plastic, freeing the problematic pins. Over the years I've done many hundreds in this way. Once you get the hang of it, it goes quickly and easily enough.


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## haveagojoe (Mar 29, 2017)

I have had reasonable results simply putting these plastic connectors into AP whole. The foils eventually get released and the acid doesn't seem to affect the plastic. I don't wait until all the base metals are dissolved, just until I see a good amount of foils when I give them a stir. I probably don't get every last bit but the yield on these is very low so I don't worry about that. It's certainly not worth burning them or smashing them up unless on a huge scale.


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## haveagojoe (Mar 29, 2017)

Sorry, I should have been more specific, I'm talking about the ones from phones, not the larger ribbon connectors


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## johnny309 (Jan 11, 2018)

Rocket stove(https://www.pinterest.com.au/pin/307863324511898366/)...is great to heat you up in winter....so gather material to process... :idea: Put some dry wood first.


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