# Fast & Cheap finger removal tool(Beginners)



## drozhenbane (May 3, 2012)

Hello all,

I have been reading these forums for well over a year now and I felt it was time that I be part of the community. Now that the complete newbie in me has been laid to rest. First off I want to say thank you, to all active members who continue to work with new people to further the community. You all are really a great group of people and am very thankful for all your hard work/dedication. That being said on to my post...

When I first started the obvious issue was... Well I was broke, the economy blows and a guy needs anything that might give him an edge. With a little luck, a guy could possibly earn a few extra dollars and just maybe turn it into a full time job. I am sure anyone interested in this, is most likely in a similar situation. One of the biggest hurdles I had starting up was equipment and the inability to afford anything. So I had dig deep into my redneck roots and through much trial and error found a way to make it work. I wont be posting all the (at times borderline insane) ideas I tried. I will however share something that has helped me a great deal. It's not fancy, no way sophisticated and so simple I cant believe it took me so long to think of it. 
Materials:
1 chunk of wood(in this case a 2x4 framing stud fragment)
1 Hand saw
about 5 minutes of your day

How to acquire:
You could of course have a 2x4 laying around(likely), and if you don't... go find one! If you are really hard up, go find a construction project going on somewhere. Chances are almost 100% that they have a 2x4 chunk in the garbage that you could easily ask for and get for free. As an added bonus, they will also have the saw to cut it with too. Double win! You could also of course just go buy a 2x4...

Step 1:
With your newly acquired block of wood(in my case an 18 inch chunk), saw a relatively straight line in the wood. The key part is to make that cut "Across The Grain", the reason for this is because a "With The Grain Cut" is structurally weak and will splinter easily. The depth of the cut, needs to match the width of finger you want to process(I have found a 1/2 inch cut works really nice over-all), but you can make multiple cuts to accommodate multiple sizes. They can even be made on the same chunk of wood, but I suggest a minimum of 3 inches between each cut(to prevent it from splintering).






Step 2:
Insert the desired PCB into the cut line of the board, until it fits snug in the slot.





Step 3:
Using your hand(I suggest using gloves), grip the PCB and bend it until it snaps(Up or down doesn't really matter).





Step 4:
Grab PCB and reverse bend the direction(it will snap off cleanly) leaving the gold behind and the PCB is ready for further refining.





Step 5:
Refine it... 





Even if you get started just salvaging the fingers, with little too no money involved, you can still work your way up to more cash flow. I have not covered refining or recovery of the gold for a reason. If the best you can do, is to take old computers, that people give to you free, and strip fingers to be sold to someone else. Well its something isn't it? MY suggestion to you(if you have the room), is to store as much as you can, until you can process the rest. Work within your means, and outsource what you have too. This journey is a learning process, and it is up to you, to determine how far you go. Best of luck to you all.


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## jmdlcar (May 3, 2012)

Hi, How many fingers did you break off to get 3.8 grams or how many grams of grams of fingers did you start with? Thanks Jack


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## butcher (May 3, 2012)

Thanks for the trick, and sharing it, you explained that very well, nice pretty pile of foils on the scale.


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## Palladium (May 3, 2012)

I to enjoyed that post. Thanks!


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## nickvc (May 3, 2012)

Simple, efficient and cheap. I like it 8)


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## glondor (May 3, 2012)

Very Creative in a simple way. Good post.


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## drozhenbane (May 3, 2012)

_Hi, How many fingers did you break off to get 3.8 grams or how many grams of grams of fingers did you start with? Thanks Jack_

Thats not 3.8 grams, I had my scale set on grains. That was a small batch I had done Sunday evening for a friend of mine. He had around 35 Memory sticks, so I refined them for him. He is going through a real tough time these days, so the gold I did that night went to buying some groceries for his family.


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## joem (May 3, 2012)

You have got to get your friend scrapping more.
Pm sent


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## glorycloud (May 4, 2012)

Hmmm. Nice time saver there, especially if you can get a rhythm
going and drop the de-fingered card into a bin on one side and catch
the fingers on the other side somehow.

I have used my industrial strength pliers for years and it takes two
or three breaks to get the fingers off. With this method, it looks
like they would all come off at once. Love it! 8)


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## drozhenbane (May 4, 2012)

Getting into a rhythm with this method is really easy. Especially if you are listening to ACDC Love me for the money LMAO! :lol: 

This is actually the first stage of my refining process. I place all the PCB cards in a large storage tub (to my left), sit in my recliner, place an empty tub (to my right), load up netflix, directv, or pandora, cradle the 2x4 under my arm for support and go to town on the boards. 
*Grab a fresh board
*Snap it off
*Toss spent board into empty tote for further refining
*Slide fingers into collection tray on my desk

It is a slick process, but hard to describe with words! If you could see my work area, it would make total sense. My non chemical work area is in my basement, I have a large desk, a recliner in front of it, a 42 inch HDTV jacked right into a tower PC, with directv on the other HDMI port. So it doesn't matter if I want to watch the game(Have NFL Sunday Ticket), catch up on my favorite series(Whole home DVR), watch netflix, or browse the internet, it is all there at my fingertips. It is amazing when you scrap electronics, just how many cool ways you re-use alot of the scrap you have access too! That isn't meant to be a bragging post of all the "Conveniences" I have access too, I worked for every ounce of it but I did take advantage of the scrap I had on hand to achieve it. The 42 inch LED TV, was a victim of a Wii remote gone wild, guy just gave me the TV, I replaced the screen for around $200... WIN! The PC I built myself, with custom parts. The desk I built myself, with the wood working tools I inherited from my dad(He was a finish carpenter). My fume hood, scrubber, and chemical working area were all made by hand, by myself, again using the tools and materials I had on hand. As for the "splurge" items like directv/nfl ticket/DVR were only affordable due to the proceeds from my gold recovery business.


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## Alkymida (Oct 5, 2012)

Smart thinking and a nice idea. :0)
Thanks for posting it!

Peter


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## Artful (Oct 6, 2012)

Great post, thanks for sharing! I'm a total newbie and find the whole thing fascinating.


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## Irons2 (Oct 6, 2012)

One Caveat. Tiny bits of Fiberglass will go flying all over the place. I worked in a facility that had a machine that snapped boards apart. A lot of the workers that handled the boards suffered eye damage from glass fibers that were flying loose all over the place. I'm still pulling out bits of glass fibers 17 years later. Not fun. I was a diagnostic tech and all I did was checking the boards for faults.


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## patnor1011 (Oct 7, 2012)

And I only found this after I did 20 kilo of cards and 3 kilo of Rams with this:


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## GotTheBug (Oct 20, 2012)

Awesome idea. I think I'll put my bench vise to that very use instead of the large snips I've been using. Love this forum!


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## goldenchild (Oct 20, 2012)

I know this has been mentioned before somewhere on the forum but I think this is still one of the best low tech finger removers(no pun intended). Fast efficient and no fiber glass flying all over the place. You can even do mutiple boards. The 2x4 is super simple and cool 8)


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## larryb (Dec 15, 2012)

Yep, I'm liking this cheap and easy finger removing method you've shared with us here. Look'n for a piece of 2x4 right now.  lb


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## scrappile (Dec 15, 2012)

larryb said:


> Yep, I'm liking this cheap and easy finger removing method you've shared with us here. Look'n for a piece of 2x4 right now.  lb




heatsink in a vise, worked for me the other day,..


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## kadriver (Dec 18, 2012)

jmdlcar said:


> Hi, How many fingers did you break off to get 3.8 grams or how many grams of grams of fingers did you start with? Thanks Jack



Jack:

I processsed 5 pounds of trimmed fingers that I bought on Ebay and it netted me a little over 8 grams of pure gold.

The cost of the fingers was around $500, the gold was worth $400 - a loss of $100.

But I was not doing it for profit, just the experience of processing the fingers. I used lazersteves DVD as a guide and it woked perfectly.

kadriver


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## iamtheman240 (Mar 4, 2013)

Long nosed tin snips works for me, but breaking them looks a bit faster, great idea.


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## Woodworker1997 (Mar 4, 2013)

http://www.trick-tools.com/Beverly_B_2_Throatless_Shear_10_gauge_capacity_B_2_1118#.UTVZ5spZ4lg

Beverly cuts my fingers, very quickly.

Derek


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## ctgresale (Mar 4, 2013)

you can get one at Harbor Freight or on Ebay for about 150.00. 750.00 is way to high for what it's for.


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## chlaurite (Mar 29, 2013)

iamtheman240 said:


> Long nosed tin snips works for me, but breaking them looks a bit faster, great idea.



Seconded. I have a pretty nice bench-vise, and I tend to use it for cards with really long connectors; But for any connector shorter than two full "snips" (one from the left and one from the right), the tin snips do it quicker, cleaner, and with a *lot* less dust.

... That said, I love the idea of using a notched 2x4 instead of my nice vice - Fiberglass dust just _can't_ do the innards of a vice any good, building up over time.


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