crushing CPU'S

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S

steeranoff

Well-known member
Joined
Dec 10, 2008
Messages
59
Location
waco texas
Is there an inexpensive method for crushing CPU
ceramics? Somehow I was under the impression
that a couple blows witha hammer to open them
up would do, now I'm reading that they have to
be crushed or ground to a powder.
thanks,
steve
 
they sell ore crushers on ebay, think they call them thumb crusher. I crush stuff with a 4 inch iron pipe cap, and a 6inch pipe nipple filled with lead and capped with a 3/4 iron cap.
just my homemade version of a mortar and pestle.

I think 12 mess would be ok, just take longer for the acids to get into the fine wire holes.

Jim
 
You do not need to crush the ceramics to get the majority of the gold.Just take off the plates exposing the processor and the attached wires then process as normal.When finished,rinse the ceramics and store them in a sealed container(5 gallon bucket with a tight lid would be fine),until you can aquire a method of crushing them.Currently I have about 100 pounds of ceramic,and about 30 pounds of fiberglass cpu bases saved for crushing.
Johnny
 
does all CPU's contain gold wires inside?
Click to expand...
Almost all ceramic cpus contain gold wires within the ceramic.And of course some IC's,eproms,flatpacks,BIOS's and various other components.Not too many fiberglass cpu's contain gold within the base,but the recovery cost is next to nothing for them if you have a pulveriser(grinder,ball mill...etc) so I keep them for that reason.
Johnny
 
i'd better start digging them out of the trash pail...
Click to expand...
Thats what my life consisted of when I started :mrgreen: .
I made a comment a couple years ago on here about if I had all the gold that I'd thrown away I'd be rich. :shock:
Johnny
 
I've broken several apart and yet to find gold wires anywhere, I am sure they are there but just wondering if anyone knew exactly where or the best the way to find them? Thanks again...
 
The ceramic is poured over the wires,in essence encapsulating them.Plus they are as small in diameter as the wires connected directly to the processor.
Johnny
 
http://www.goldrefiningforum.com/phpBB3/viewtopic.php?f=37&t=6396&p=56431&hilit=miles#p56431

GSP wrote

Do they make gold bonding wire as small as 2.5 microns (.0001")? Not that I know of. I have heard that most that is used is either 12.5 microns (.0005") or 25 microns (.001").
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wire_bonding

If my quicky math is right (please correct me if I'm wrong), an inch of 25 micron gold wire would weigh about .00025 grams and an inch of 12.5 micron wire about .000062 grams. Or, one cm of 25 micron wire = about .0001 g and one cm of 12.5 micron wire = about .000024 g.

A 40 lead IC with 40, 1/4" long, 25 micron bonding wires would contain about .0025 grams of gold (in bonding wires only) = about $.088. If the wires were 12.5 microns, the value would be about $.022.

A troy oz of 25 micron gold wire is about 2 miles long and a troy oz of 12.5 micron wire is about 8 miles long.
Click to expand...
 
The ceramic is poured over the wires,in essence encapsulating them.Plus they are as small in diameter as the wires connected directly to the processor.
Johnny
Click to expand...

Not true, if it's the gold wires you're talking about.
 
How so chris.I know for a fact some manufacturers "pour" the liquid ceramic over the wires once they have are in position.I am sure there are other methods out there,but that is in fact one method that had been used at one time.If you know what the current method is I would like to know.It may help in the recovery process later.
But honestly after reading the potential Au content "inside" the cpu,I am considering throwing mine out or seeing if steve wants them.
Johnny
 
I've done the same thing. I bust them up with a hammer and recover what i can and just throw the rest in a bucket for later. I have about a 1/2 5 gallon bucket of just pieces.
 

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