Cut through the trees

[rfoster001]

Thanks for the solid advice. I understand that you all have research and been at this for awhile, that is why I'm asking these questions, so I know what to and what not to ask. Thanks for all the advice.

 

[trashmaster]

Hi rfoster;

Here is some numbers for you , But you have to do the math...

Pci, sound ,video and such cards should produce 2g. trimed finger board per card.(this is total card materialweight)
This is only an estiment ,,;;; all card s are different.
Each lb. of card material should produce around 2g. of gold .

The average has run from 15 lb to 16 lb of clean cut fingers to give you 1oz of GOLD.(everyone says different , I say 15.5lb)

So do the math and come back and tell us .????

1.How many pci boards( sound, video, phone modem) cards does it take to recover 1oz of GOLD???????


2. It should take around 4-7 pci cards to make a LB..We will go with 6 cards perlb. for this ,,,,
SO how many cards will it take for you to recover 1oz. of gold .????


If I give you the the amounts , You will learn NOTHING .this way I can hope that you learn something.

 

[jlipson]

I have several PCB that came off mainframe servers, the boards were installed in the center of the servers. Board dimensions as 50Cm X 43 approx. These boards do not have any processors or chips but there are 36 sets of 120 golden pins on each board, totaling to 4320 golden pins. The board itself weighs 5lbs. I have been offered $3.5 and $4.5 per lb by two different outlets. I can sell 50 of my boards to the yards that is paying me $4.5/lb. That would be a little over $1,100 quick money.

I would like to know if I should do that or explore other options with those tiny golden pins, I would have a total of 216,000 of those golden pins. Does anyone know if the golden pins had any PM and how much can be extracted from 216,000 pins? What would be the best way to break those pins off the board, I imagine, there would still be a lot of material left on the board after I take the pins off.

This is my first post here and I came across this website like an hour ago. So you can very well imagine, I do not know much about what is involved in extracting PM from these boards... is it worth the effort? Please let me know if anyone has any idea about these pins. I can also send the photos if you prefer. Thanks.

 

[jimdoc]

I have several PCB that came off mainframe servers, the boards were installed in the center of the servers. Board dimensions as 50Cm X 43 approx. These boards do not have any processors or chips but there are 36 sets of 120 golden pins on each board, totaling to 4320 golden pins. The board itself weighs 5lbs. I have been offered $3.5 and $4.5 per lb by two different outlets. I can sell 50 of my boards to the yards that is paying me $4.5/lb. That would be a little over $1,100 quick money.

I would like to know if I should do that or explore other options with those tiny golden pins, I would have a total of 216,000 of those golden pins. Does anyone know if the golden pins had any PM and how much can be extracted from 216,000 pins? What would be the best way to break those pins off the board, I imagine, there would still be a lot of material left on the board after I take the pins off.

This is my first post here and I came across this website like an hour ago. So you can very well imagine, I do not know much about what is involved in extracting PM from these boards... is it worth the effort? Please let me know if anyone has any idea about these pins. I can also send the photos if you prefer. Thanks.

Study the forum a little bit. No one can really answer what you should do, except for you. You may be better off selling the boards as is. If you decide to process anything yourself you must read about safety and all you will need to do it right.
Pictures may help others give you an idea of the value for the boards.

Jim

 

[macfixer01]

I have several PCB that came off mainframe servers, the boards were installed in the center of the servers. Board dimensions as 50Cm X 43 approx. These boards do not have any processors or chips but there are 36 sets of 120 golden pins on each board, totaling to 4320 golden pins. The board itself weighs 5lbs. I have been offered $3.5 and $4.5 per lb by two different outlets. I can sell 50 of my boards to the yards that is paying me $4.5/lb. That would be a little over $1,100 quick money.

I would like to know if I should do that or explore other options with those tiny golden pins, I would have a total of 216,000 of those golden pins. Does anyone know if the golden pins had any PM and how much can be extracted from 216,000 pins? What would be the best way to break those pins off the board, I imagine, there would still be a lot of material left on the board after I take the pins off.

This is my first post here and I came across this website like an hour ago. So you can very well imagine, I do not know much about what is involved in extracting PM from these boards... is it worth the effort? Please let me know if anyone has any idea about these pins. I can also send the photos if you prefer. Thanks.

For future reference, posting some pictures would go a long way toward helping us give better advice. The pins could contain a lot of gold, or maybe not as much as you might hope. To some extent it depends on when the boards were made, since it's generally agreed that plating thicknesses used have been steadily decreasing since the mid 1970's. It depends more-so on the size and shape of the pins, the percentage of coverage, and the thickness of the plating, all of which are unknowns at this point. Since you currently aren't ready to recover them yourself then you may be better off to take the known quantity of cash if it provides you with a decent profit? Were those offers from local buyers, or were you expected to pay for shipping to receive that amount? If you're in no hurry to get rid of them you might consider waiting until you acquire the knowledge to process them yourself, or to try selling them on Ebay for more than you've been offered so far.

A couple things to consider: The kind of boards I believe you're talking about are generally very thick and a significant portion of the weight may not be pins but instead the board itself and whatever copper it contains. You also didn't mention whether the pins are free-standing or if there is useless plastic shell weight also. You asked about breaking off the pins. That would be very wasteful if the portion of the pins going through the board are also gold plated. Unless you can see solder flowed where the pins meet the board surface, then they may only be press-fit into the board and capable of being pulled out? To equal the $1100 offer each pin would need to yield about 0.51 cents worth of gold. That may not seem like a lot, but gold can be plated mighty thinly.

Sounds like a nice find though, good luck!

macfixer01

 

[philddreamer]

Some pic's would surely help. What you have sounds similar to what I just picked up a couple of weeks ago.
12 boards weighing a total of 45 pounds. I plucked 10lb. - 5 oz of pins. One pound of pins yielded 2.5g of gold.

We also picked some "aluminum" boards with lots of small pins. A pound of these yielded 4g.; we think we'll end up with about 15 pounds of pins off these.
The pins on the left are from the small boards; the ones on the right from the "aluminum" boards. ( I was told when a bought them that they were 7xxx series
3/8th of an inch thick aluminum, but a corner broke of, and it's compressed fiber glass with multiple layers of copper.

Phil

 

[jlipson]

Thanks everyone for great feedback. I sure should have sent the photos, did not even see that I could attached them here. Attached please find three photos, two (front and back) of the board that I talked about in my earlier post and the one more photo of the board that came of one server.
I am tempted to explore my options and not take it to the $1,100 guy. Please let me know what you think after looking at the photos. Cheers!

 

[philddreamer]

Jl, if you don't have any expirience recovering PM's from e-scrap, IMHO, you should sell the material. The work is tedious & messy, though the reward is good.

If you want to know how much gold is in the pins, you don't count the pins; you pull the pins, weigh a pound, process it & find the yield per pound.
You keep track of how many boards it took to get that one pound of pins, & guesstimate how many more pounds you will most likely harvest from the number of boards you have; multiply the "total pounds guesstimate" x the yield of the first pound = total gold expected to be recovered.

For the type of boards you have, (with pins on one side), I recommend an air chisel. (For pins that go thru, Pluck them!) Like I said, it's tedious & will get messy. You need some space to harvest these boards. Running thru acids is another challange, plus the amount of waste left over. You better know how to dispose properly of your waste.

I think, for now, you should check around & find the highest bidder & sell the material. Then, go buy some more! 8)

Take care!
Phil

 

[MMFJ]

Jl, if you don't have any expirience recovering PM's from e-scrap, IMHO, you should sell the material.

I think, for now, you should check around & find the highest bidder & sell the material. Then, go buy some more!

May I also suggest the same!

Just starting out, if you work at it a bit, you will find a LOT of material - much more than even some of the very experienced refiners can process as quick as you can find it. Understand that and you will not 'love' this (very nice, by the way) find so much - there will always be more......

Take Phil's (and others) advice here - plan to sell this lot (you might wait a few days as gold is going up at the moment...) for the best price you can get. Hey, a grand is nothing to sneeze at! You can take that cash and put it into some already-refined gold if you like (cutting out the delay, middlemen, processing, danger, etc. - yes, it is the way I do it all the time!). With that amount of cash, I'd go pick up a few grams (maybe a 10g bar or two) and a few silver rounds - maybe even some "junk silver" coins - all of which are 'safety' investments and most likely why you are starting into this hobby anyway. if what you are in it for is the money, well, then, that answer is already staring you in the face! If what you truly want is the knowledge of refining, then by all means, refine, but take it SLOW and read the forum!

That's why not one person here can give you an answer - you first have to know which direction you want to go, then you can begin to look for more answers to direct you down that path.

Good luck, have fun and be SAFE!

 

[martyn111]

The other possibility is you could ask a member of the forum if they would be able to process the material for you on a toll agreement, as a number of members do provide this service for each other.

So you now have three options
1 Sell to the highest payer
2 Have it refined for a % of yield
3 Learn the process needed to process it yourself along with safety, waste disposal etc.

 

[MMFJ]

The other possibility is you could ask a member of the forum if they would be able to process the material for you on a toll agreement, as a number of members do provide this service for each other.

So you now have three options
1 Sell to the highest payer
2 Have it refined for a % of yield
3 Learn the process needed to process it yourself along with safety, waste disposal etc.

good point, and it brought to mind one other thing.

If you are not in a mad rush to move these to get your money back (which it seems you are not), then put them in this forum's 'Sell or Trade' section (be sure to include pictures, size/weight details of the boards, etc.) Say in the ad that you are looking for cash and/or percent of refining offers. You will get responses, though remember that not everyone reads the forum every day, so take a week to get the serious ones in there and then decide your best course.

Mostly, just have fun with it! I tell folks all the time that have situations like this "YOU have the 'cookie'! Let the hungry ones come out and fight over it, then you (calmly) decide just which one will get it!"

 

[jlipson]

Thanks guys, I really do appreciate the great feedback that you provided me. Aah, by the way some of the boards have pins on both side and the guy wants to pay $5.25 per lb for those. The reason I have been wanting to explore other options is that these boards have nothing but pins and it did not seem too complicated to pull them. I managed to break one of the plastic casing and pull them out from one section.

You all are right, I may not be quite ready to process them myself yet but how about taking the golden pins to a refinery? Does anyone know of a reputable refinery in or around Georgia? What is typical range of the yield of PM for every lb of golden pins? I am in the process of figuring out how many pins would make a pound so I know my total weight.

I realize that there is so much involved in what we are trying to do here, it is probably more complicated with the motherboards and the other types of boards with ICs and other components on them. Since these boards did not have all that I thought it would be somewhat easier project. What do you think?

I managed to scoop up a little over a ton of motherboards, memory cards and other cards. These all come from rack servers, some from even super computers with cooling fans and 5 ft. radiators. I have gotten rid of all the bulky steel and the radiators, do you think it is worth taking all this to a refinery or take it to a e-scrapper? I have an offer for the servers $0.40 per pounds as long as they are intact minus the hard drives and the memory. This offer is for server that are not bigger than 4u, I think if they bigger then there is too much steel in them. Do we have someone here from the Atlanta area? Cheers

P.S. sending some photos of the pins that I pulled out.

 

[Anonymous]

We have a member that lives very close to atlanta and purchases a lot of material like what you have.His name is Don (Globalrg1) and his email address is [email protected] .Or you can send him a private message through the forum here http://goldrefiningforum.com/phpBB3/memberlist.php?mode=viewprofile&u=10437
I have dealt with him several times and have always had good results.

 

[Geo]

its not a requirement by no means, but if you can make a deal with a fellow board member, that would be great. we are all here to help one another. of coarse you should get the best deal you can. there is still a very large mining community in north Georgia and assay offices in each county.refineries are plentiful as well. if i were you, i would take mic's suggestion under advisement but would still shop around if for nothing else than to get a feel for what the going rates are.

 

[jlipson]

Thanks MIC and Geo, I must say this is the most helpful and cordial forum I have ever come across since the advent of forums. You feedback is greatly appreciated.

 

[glorycloud]

GRFU - well said Joe, well said.

May all who pass through her doors be as generous in their giving
back to the forum as to all that was so freely given to them. And to
those who stop by to browse and crassly demand a complete and
thorough education in all things pertaining to gold and precious
metal processing and refining: You will always reap what you have
sown and in direct measure to what you have given, may it be
given back to you.

 

[jlipson]

Thanks again guys for all your feedback couple of weeks ago. Per your suggestion I decided not to fool with the boards and I managed to sell them all to a local outlet. I think I got a fair price and am happy about it.

My other project has been to collect the memory sticks and the processors. I should have a little over 500 processors in next three to four weeks. Most of them are the green fiber processor with tiny pins, I am afraid I would not have many Pentium Pros or the older processors. Since these are a lot different form those bulky boards and the space is not going to be an issue, should I try to fool with them myself or just sell these off to someone who does this on a regular basis?

Would it be worth the effort and money to buy some tools and create my own little lab? Has anyone compared the chemical process vs smelting process?

Cheers!

 

[Anonymous]

I think I got a fair price and am happy about it.

As long as you feel it was a fair deal,and you are happy,then we are all happy as well.
You thanked us earlier for our hospitality,and you are very welcome.But you need to understand something,we generally treat people a certain way based on their attitude,and the way the represent themselves when they come here.That is why you were treated with respect,and courtesy.Some others are not so lucky....lol...I am glad you took the deal for the money bud.You will figure this out soon enough.

 

[MMFJ]

we generally treat people a certain way based on their attitude,and the way the represent themselves when they come here.That is why you were treated with respect,and courtesy.Some others are not so lucky

AMEN - and, pass the biscuits! Well, that's what we always say when we agree, agree, agree and agree with something.......

"Entitlement Tim" and his buddies can't seem to figure that out.

I am happy to see you sold the stuff for some cash. Now, get out there and turn that into some more stuff, then more and - well, you get the idea..... (for instance, today, I turned a bit of cash over - grabbed some of the coolest processors I've ever seen - had heard of them, but not seen......

I paid 'heavily' for these, but the guy told me he has about ONE HUNDRED FIFTY of them and in order to get the next load, I would have to 'step up'.....
Paid $15 EACH for them - but, that's OK as I know where to sell them for near double that....)

Of course, I also bought a huge load of other cards, processors and RAM from him - a total payout to him of $270, all of which I know will turn me a profit of about $300 (ALWAYS look to at LEAST double your money or you will go broke!)

That may sound like a lot to you and it did to me about 6 months ago, but I took the little bits I was making and just kept turning it back into the business and now a $300 buy isn't scary at all (in fact, I look forward to the day I can do about 10 of those in one day!!! 8)

Be sure to keep us posted on your successes - I know there are more than just me on the forum that love to hear about them!

 

[jlipson]

Hi All, I took a couple of pounds (1025 grams to be exact) of bag full of mixed processors to a gold recycler this morning. He says he will let me know by mid next week the quantity of gold in it and /or the value. I will be happy to share the outcome once I learn more. so stay tuned.

The only concern I had was that he only works with gold and silver, still trying to figure out if there are other metals in these processors that may be of some adequate value.

Cheers!