Bluebloomer
Well-known member
I've been depopulating some 100+ motherboards with an air hammer. Bought a new powerfull compressor to do so, and I depopulate in 3 steps; first I take of the low grade pins like PCI and Memory slots, collect it in a bin and then I move on the full plated IDE pins and some of the big chips, and lastly I remove the MLCC's, flatpacks and Ta caps with a chisel by hand.
Works realy well despite the extra work, but this way I don't have to sort as much, and much less waste.
However, after air hammering off the PCI and Memory slots pins I'end up with a lot of powder mixed in with the pins. I think it is mostly Tin but i could also be crushed MLCC's and some of the gold plating.
I think here is some value in the 'dust' mixed up with the pins, but since I want to recover the gold with the sulfuric acid cell I need to separate the powder from the pins but so far I can't find a good way to do so without having to pluck 100's of pins out from the dust.
The dust is not very welcome in the sulfuric acid cell, so does anybody have an idea or technique to separate the pins from the dust ?
The finest steel sieve I can find still allows PCI pins to fall thru if I shake the sieve. Even a magnet still takes on way too much fines when I release the pins.
Works realy well despite the extra work, but this way I don't have to sort as much, and much less waste.
However, after air hammering off the PCI and Memory slots pins I'end up with a lot of powder mixed in with the pins. I think it is mostly Tin but i could also be crushed MLCC's and some of the gold plating.
I think here is some value in the 'dust' mixed up with the pins, but since I want to recover the gold with the sulfuric acid cell I need to separate the powder from the pins but so far I can't find a good way to do so without having to pluck 100's of pins out from the dust.
The dust is not very welcome in the sulfuric acid cell, so does anybody have an idea or technique to separate the pins from the dust ?
The finest steel sieve I can find still allows PCI pins to fall thru if I shake the sieve. Even a magnet still takes on way too much fines when I release the pins.