# Please help ID pm's in another hammond organ



## war_child (Dec 16, 2021)

Hello again all. I just scrapped out a Hammond organ and I'm hoping to get some help identifying any components containing pm's. I saw the last posting about Hammond organs in the other topic list. I'm hoping this organ has some Pd like his did. I read, in an external link, that most of the Pd is in older organs that have only black and white buttons and switches. Mine, unfortunately, has the colored flippers and switches, but it looks alot like the organ pics from the other discussion.


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## war_child (Dec 16, 2021)

This thing was quite a beast and I'm glad it was outdoors instead of trying to get it out of a basement. It had more than 20 circuit boards with dozens of finger connections. Unfortunately, there was no gold there. All the fingers and tracings look tinned. I was hoping it was silver, but I think silver would have tarnished more and more unevenly. I wouldn't mind hearing that I'm wrong from someone who knows. 

I don't know what the devise in picture #4 is, but it looked golden to me. Turns out the stuff in the middle is just deteriorated foam tape.
I'm not familiar with the blue "footballs" (or rugby ball, depending on where you are from) in picture #5.
I'm hoping the blue "drops" in pictures #6&7 are some fat, juicy tantalum caps!
....Anyone see anything special in pictures #8 9& 10? 
Anyway, I almost gave up hope of finding gold till the very last board pictures #11 & 12.
Lastly, a stack of large, old i.c. chips plucked out of the dry sockets. Hopefully not full of fat aluminum bonding wires. I will check.


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## war_child (Dec 16, 2021)

I was also wondering if anyone can identify any other items containing pm's on these boards. I have saved some of the picture lists of things like tantalum caps, and mlcc's and such, but I have to find my bookmarked topics to revisit them. Also, any other forum links to comprehensive picture lists you may be willing to share would be appreciated.

Thank you and Merry Christmas all!


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## Yggdrasil (Dec 16, 2021)

These old organs has a lot of interesting things in them. 
Ta caps, Mlccs, relays, switches and what not.
Most of the Pd though are in the"Bus bars under the tangents and foot pedals.
I removed all components to bare boards and sorted them. Just in case.

Regards Per-Ove


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## snail (Dec 16, 2021)

Hammonds of that era don’t have much in the way of precious metals in them.
The keyboard contacts have those fine wires spot welded to them at contact points. They are either gold plated or palladium. Same for the foot petals.

On the circuit boards there are usually a small percentage of the transistors that have gold plating on the legs and internals. Not much value, but I learned in my years in the scrap industry segregate and save. It will pay off someday as the pile grows to a point worth dealing with.

You probably have more value in the aluminum and insulated wire. Just got $0.53/pound for low grade insulated copper wire.

The key to value is if the organ uses a tone wheel. I have found very few of those models with gold plated key contacts. The rest were palladium.


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## war_child (Dec 16, 2021)

Hi guys & thanks for the responses. I noticed there _was_ a large wheel inside the organ. It was around 12" in diameter and maybe 5-6" thick. It seemed to be made out of styrofoam, and it had a wedge or something cut out of it. It was rigged to a motor with a short cord loop. I believe it was located inside the black plywood box seen in the picture of the back of the organ, at the top of the page.

Please excuse my ignorance, but I'm not sure what the bus bar or tangents are, exactly. I looked around the keys and pedals and found some short, fine wires under the long yellowish bar. I am wondering if these small wires are Pd. I will post a few pictures. I don't know if I can test it myself. I do not have any nitric, but I do have muriatic, bleach and hydrogen peroxide, if that helps at all.

Yes, lots of base metals! Maby 50lbs of steel. Not much aluminum, less than 10lbs of nice extrusions. -But all that copper wire! That thing looked like it had 2-3 wire harnesses out of old Buicks! I'm currently going through the switches and buttons in search of silver and anything else interesting. I will probably post a few pictures and a couple more questions when I come back to check for responses.


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## Yggdrasil (Dec 17, 2021)

The styrofoam wheel are the Leslie speaker.
Some of them gets good prices on Ebay.


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## war_child (Dec 18, 2021)

A speaker, eh? No kidding. I would probably have never guessed. It was attached via pulley to the motor in one of the pics I'm posting right now. I sure did find a lot of switches with many contacts. Some are more noticeable than others. I will assume these are all silver, and sort them accordingly, unless I find out differently. The dials appear to have a little gold inside. I see two tiny bumps on the knob piece of one of them, possibly contacts as well. The small, oblong metal components with two holes and a flat round top are quite robust. I haven't cracked one open yet. They have 2 legs with no gold plating.

Some of the switches did not have obvious contact points. In two of the pictures the switch contains flat metal internal pieces. Do you think they are silver plated? I think so because I found them in a switch & they have a dull, uneven, tarnished look to them. I'm also wondering if the long rods inside the black box are silver plated. All the flat parts and rods that I suspect may be silver plated are non-magnetic. 


Yggdrasil said:


> The styrofoam wheel are the Leslie speaker.
> Some of them gets good prices on Ebay.


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## Yggdrasil (Dec 18, 2021)

war_child said:


> A speaker, eh? No kidding. I would probably have never guessed. It was attached via pulley to the motor in one of the pics I'm posting right now. I sure did find a lot of switches with many contacts. Some are more noticeable than others. I will assume these are all silver, and sort them accordingly, unless I find out differently. The dials appear to have a little gold inside. I see two tiny bumps on the knob piece of one of them, possibly contacts as well. The small, oblong metal components with two holes and a flat round top are quite robust. I haven't cracked one open yet. They have 2 legs with no gold plating.
> 
> Some of the switches did not have obvious contact points. In two of the pictures the switch contains flat metal internal pieces. Do you think they are silver plated? I think so because I found them in a switch & they have a dull, uneven, tarnished look to them. I'm also wondering if the long rods inside the black box are silver plated. All the flat parts and rods that I suspect may be silver plated are non-magnetic.


When ever you see a thin piece of metal soldered to copper or white metal conectors. Assume it is pm.
I just snip them off and dissolve the base metal in ap.


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## kurtak (Dec 18, 2021)

First post - picture 6 --- the circuit board - at the bottom of the circuit board the is a row of capacitors (silver "colored") --- they "might" be the silver/tantalum type capacitors

same with post 3 - picture 2 

IF (the big IF) they are the silver/tantalum type capacitors the casing is silver so you can test them with nitric (nitric dissolves silver but does not dissolve aluminum)

Also - you can go to this thread to help with identifying tantalum capacitors (including the silver/tantalum type)


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## kurtak (Dec 18, 2021)

Also - the epoxy IC chips should have gold bond wires in them

Kurt


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## galenrog (Dec 18, 2021)

A working Leslie speaker can fetch from $25 to over $500, depending on model and condition. If separately housed, with original audio amps, occasionally over $1000. Audiophiles are very serious buyers. 

Time for more coffee.


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## war_child (Dec 18, 2021)

Very interesting. I see that I am going to have to get acquainted with Ebay and reselling any reusable stuff from my scrap hauls. $25-$500 seems a bit much to just leave out there in that wet field. This time I'll just tell myself it was junk or broken. I will hold on to these boards until I can test and confirm the components. 

Again, I thank you all for your help
mike


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## kurtak (Dec 19, 2021)

Forgot to post the link to tantalum capacitors yesterday









Tantalum Capacitor Scrap Purchasing -- International


Tantalum Capacitor Scrap Purchasing -- International We purchase all types of Tantalum Capacitors Scrap Epoxy/Ceramic Capacitors - $24.45/Lb SMD Capacitors -- $24/Lb Hermetic Capacitors - $23.65/Lb Wet Tantalum Capacitors - $50/Lb Ag/Ta Capacitors - $75/Lb We purchase all quantities small and...




goldrefiningforum.com


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## Helian (Dec 19, 2021)

You can strip the copper bus bars of their palladium wire with dilute nitric. The copper will dissolve and the Pd wires come free. Watch carefully though. If all the copper dissolves, the Pd starts going into solution. The other types of bus bars appear to passivate or are very resistant to nitric, and the Pd will simply dissolve if you try the same procedure with them. Of course, if you're good at working with Pd, that's not a problem. Wires on the resistant bars can be loosened with HCl over several days, but I've never left them in long enough to loosen them completely.


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## Ohiogoldfever (Dec 19, 2021)

On the back of the keyed sections you will see large rectangular boxes. Lots of screws holding them together. They can be a real pain but once you have them open you’ll find these series of contacts. 

You will also notice silver contacts on some of the sliding switches. The ones that slide in and out.


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## war_child (Dec 20, 2021)

Thank you kurtak. I was looking for that particular link on tantalum capacitors. I have it bookmarked, but I don't currently know how to access my bookmarked links. I'll investigate that more. I have bookmarked a few more posts also. Most of them are threads with pics of mlcc's and tantalum caps for quicker identification. No doubt it will be a handy function, once I learn how to use it.

Thanks for the tips Helian. I have never worked with palladium, or even nitric acid yet. I have been playing the _long game_ with learning to refine, so to speak. I have been collecting waste electronics for about two years now and have only done a few chemistry experiments. I may try to dissolve the copper with AP, or soak in HLC as you have suggested. I spend most of my E-waste time depopulating, sorting and storing components for later processing. I've been reading, watching, and learning this whole time. When I feel I have a good, working knowledge of the chemical processes, and I'm confident in my safety procedures and waste mitigation, I will start dissolving more stuff 

Among my next experiments will be an attempt to make stannous chloride to test for gold. I have a couple grams of dirty gold powder from ram finger foils, so when I make stannous I'll have something to test it on.

Hello Ohiogoldfever! Thanks for your reply. Wow, look at all those contacts! The organ I dismantled didn't have nearly that many. The contacts do look very similar though, just less of them. The sliding switches I have found look almost the same as yours. I'm guessing the silver from just those would make a cool little button to hold, but I'll probably wait until I have enough silver to pour a nice bar. The box that held the slider switches also contained the other contact point. If it was like mine, there was long rods running down the entire box, for the sliders to contact. They are non-magnetic. Should I save the rods? I don't know, but I suspect they might be silver coated.

Thank you members for the outpouring of help and knowledge.
mike


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