I true and heart felt thank you to everyone on the board for all the help and guidance you have so freely given to me as well as all the others.
I have come across about 20 pounds of bare (no components installed) gold plated circuit boards. They were supposed to be cell phone boards, but not a single one of them was. They all have a solder mask coating. I also have about 7 or 8 pounds of used cell phone boards which are populated with parts.
On all boards with components, I am depopulating them with a heat gun from Northern Tool. It was inexpensive (about $20.00), but does a great job (faster with less damage to the boards) when compared to the propane torches I had been using.
The integrated circuits will either be crushed in my ball mill (if I ever get it finished), or else incinerated. Can you incinerate these things in a kiln? I own a Paragon kiln which will heat to around 2300 degrees Fahrenheit. I alsoo have a small forge built from an old 20 pound propane tank and lined with firebricks. It is difficult to regulate the temperature on, but I have place 1/4 inch thick by 3 or 4 inch wide steel plates over the top of it and in a matter of minutes, they are glowing a bright red to orange color. I woulld not want to use it since it gets so hot, I could literally see values going up in the almost smokeless heat wave from the top. Either way, the values will be processes with ACl with follow up processing in AR or possibly ACl to get the purity as high as possible.
For the borads, I will remove the solder mask, then process in AP. Once values have been recovered from the boards, the values will also be processed with AR or ACl to raise the purity.
Some items like the tiny connectors on the cell phones and the flexible conductors which connect into them will get the incineration process. I never really thought much of that process until after having read Harold V's comments.
The pins from the circuit boards are divided into two classes. Those with solder on them will go into a warm HCl bath to remove the solder, then into the electrolytic cell. Those without solder (like from the ends of hard drive cables) will go directly into the electrolytic cell. From there, I'm not sure if their purity will be high enough to melt into ingots or if they will need further purification. Will cross that bridge when I get to it.
Again, thanks to Harold V and ALL the moderators who have made this board into the forum and knowledge base it truly is. I simply cannot thank you guys and all the other non moderators enough for the knowledge, skills, ideas, and sometimes funny information you have provided.
I am sad to say that I purchased two Shor kits and used one only to lose all the values which had been in there. Since that time, I have found this forum and have been taking in as much knowledge as possible. This includes readin, re reading, and re re readhing Hoke's fine book. If I had found this forum first, it may have saved me well over $1000 in lost values. I hope to retire from my present position at the end of June, get one or both knees replaced, and then pursue this hobby and some other interests full time.
