depopulating cell phone boards

[Geo]

thank you Marcel.good ideas and worth investigating. sand stuck to the board really doesnt matter, its the sand that gets mixed in with the very small components that is a nuisance. trying to separate the sand from the tiny SMD's. i suppose this may not be an issue since they are processed with nitric acid.

 

[BJL1984]

I know this may sound a little odd, But a good idea for a heat resistant material for the sand bag might be an asbestos blanket like a plumber would use to protect combustible materials close to where he has to solder a pipe, never tried it in a sand bag capacity, but i have used them at work and put a mapp gass torch right to it and it only blackens a little bit, not sure how common they are new asthe one i keep in my tool kit is about 40 years old, but if you cant find one made from asbestos, I am sure there is an enviromentaly safe alternative on the marke fo the same purpose cant hurt to go to your local plumbing supply house and ask

 

[etack]

thank you Marcel.good ideas and worth investigating. sand stuck to the board really doesnt matter, its the sand that gets mixed in with the very small components that is a nuisance. trying to separate the sand from the tiny SMD's. i suppose this may not be an issue since they are processed with nitric acid.

Try wool it wont burn at that temp but will brown and get brittle over time.

Use thin pieces like from suits this will allow the heat to pass through it and do its job if its to thick you will waist heat.


And at the end of the day it can be burnt with open flame.

Eric

 

[butcher]

What about a thin layer of ceramic fiber wool (furnace fiber glass wool), it will burn to glass flux.

 

[Auggie]

Place them on top a high temperature sheet of glass (like for in front of fireplaces) and heat up the glass with a flame(?)

 

[Geo]

i tried a bag made of fiberglass cloth used in auto body repair. it seemed to work ok, but i had to turn the heat up higher than if i had just used sand.

 

[butcher]

Hmm I wonder how Noxx's Teflon coated electric skillet would do, but we better not scratch it.

 

[BJL1984]

Teflon Pedistal Kinda like a porclian throne, sorry bad joke but i couldnt help my self

 

[glondor]

I don't think an electric skillet will get hot enough. The 2 I use only get to the 380- 400 degree range F as checked with a laser thermometer. I know when I did a bunch of Nortel aluminum gold plated rf shields, the pans were barely adequate to soften the glue between the block and circuit board. The board comes off and it is plated on the back, as well the block is plated on that side. 2 extra GP surfaces if you separate the pieces. Heat was the solution, but the pans were not quite hot enough at 400 degrees. No components were desoldered, as there was not enough heat.

 

[chevyman_76]

Hello all,

Currently I'm very new to all this and learning through all that you guys have on this forum which is quite extensive (GOOD STUFF). Please pardon my questions as I said I'm new to this.

Right now I'm doing mostly Computer Boards and would like to know if in the picture above the PLC boards to the right is that gold lines on the board as I thought it was just the connectors on boards that were gold bearing (plated).

Geo, Question for you and sugestion as well.

Great videos Geo, they help a great deal. I do have a couple of questions, just for clarification, because I have not done any of the processes.

1. In the 55 Gallon drum, is that where you processed the boards?
2. You said it was Copper Chloride, is that the AP process?

Thanks in advance.

1. yes. there was two five gallon buckets level full of boards. the drum was the only way to process them all at the same time.
2. yes. AP is the general term for the process. the peroxide is just to dissolve the first small bit of copper in the hcl. hcl alone does not like to dissolve copper.copper chloride will dissolve (etch) copper rather quickly when in the presence of free oxygen. thats why we bubble air through the solution.

1. Is that all cell phone and PLC computer cards? Can you do mother boards too?
2. You refer to AP (?) what is this? If you are mixing Hydrogen Peroxide and Hydrocloric Acid what are the ratio's per gallon you were using in your video? What and where do you find Copper Cloride, and at which point do you use it, after incenderating the remainders of the scraps (why do you do this if it is just scrap).

OK now with the tip for your furnace. Being a industrial boiler operator there is some things you can use to retain heat and prevent burning out the side of the furnace. In boilers there is what is called refractory to prevent burning out of the metal around the burner. This refactory can be found as plaster to coat the interior of your furnace to prevent burn out. Also placing those ceramic tiles you buy for distributing heat in a BBQ for even cooking can be placed around your furnace to presurve more heat consumption and reduce fuel required.

Hope that last bit helps.
I'm currently depopullating PLC Boards, Cell Phones and Mother Boards to process and want to get my ducks lined up in a row
Chevyman_76

 

[Geo]

1. just cell phone boards. kind of disappointing yield on those too.

2. AP is acid/peroxide. it is covered in many places on the board. it can be used to dissolve base metal to liberate gold foils from boards or pins.look here to become acquainted.https://www.google.com/url?sa=t&rct=j&q=&esrc=s&source=web&cd=2&cad=rja&ved=0CFIQFjAB&url=http%3A%2F%2Fgoldrefiningforum.com%2F~goldrefi%2FphpBB3%2Fviewtopic.php%3Ff%3D52%26t%3D12914&ei=wMvlUP2FOJKy9gSZx4HgAQ&usg=AFQjCNHwWq2fZ-EAkhgbj8QvWMucEdGz3g&bvm=bv.1355534169,d.eWU

copper chloride is created during the process. creating and maintaining copper chloride takes some practice but it can dissolve an amazing amount of copper in its useful lifetime.

the gold on the board (gold plated traces) is only about a third of the gold in a cellphone. the components hold the other two thirds. they need to be incinerated and milled or crushed to get to the gold hidden inside.

 

[damezbullion]

Just a quick one, can i use this process to depopulate my memory/ram borads? same things isnt solder on components, i dont even know why im asking but just making it clear, would this also eliminate some use of a hlc leach before (ap)? cheers

 

[Geo]

Just a quick one, can i use this process to depopulate my memory/ram borads? same things isnt solder on components, i dont even know why im asking but just making it clear, would this also eliminate some use of a hlc leach before (ap)? cheers

yes, it can work for any printed circuit board. the sand bath will not remove all the solder but it does remove all that will shake loose when its melted.if tin in your AP concerns you then you should do the hcl bath anyway but honestly, after you remove the components and all the loose solder the small amount of tin left will oxidize in the AP solution in a short amount of time anyway. i dont believe it will hurt to put a little tin in the AP as long as you know how to deal with tin oxide when the need arises.

 

[rewalston]

i dont believe it will hurt to put a little tin in the AP as long as you know how to deal with tin oxide when the need arises.

Jeff can you explain how you would deal with the tin oxide? I've been reading the whole board but I think I might have missed dealing with tin oxide.

Rusty

 

[damezbullion]

Just a quick one, can i use this process to depopulate my memory/ram borads? same things isnt solder on components, i dont even know why im asking but just making it clear, would this also eliminate some use of a hlc leach before (ap)? cheers

yes, it can work for any printed circuit board. the sand bath will not remove all the solder but it does remove all that will shake loose when its melted.if tin in your AP concerns you then you should do the hcl bath anyway but honestly, after you remove the components and all the loose solder the small amount of tin left will oxidize in the AP solution in a short amount of time anyway. i dont believe it will hurt to put a little tin in the AP as long as you know how to deal with tin oxide when the need arises.

i found out the hlc wont be such a pain after all, so ill put it all in a bucket and leave it a few hours, i dont really wanna mess around with tin, and no im not to clued up for it, i learnt how to drop silver out of an (ar), so if i just eliminate all the solder first, the im basically working with clean golden fingers and ill just proceed with my ap, and might even process the flatpacks.
today i bought 500 ram sticks, 9 kg so roughly 18 lb, i paid a whack of £175 including delivery, also by tommorow i shall have 6 ceramic Pentium pro ( holy Grail ) and 3 kg of cpu 51 of them are ceramaics ranging from m11 and Pentium dx,
so befor long i will start my story topic on the procceses throught this with pics hopefully, iv put around £500 into this project including materials tho im off to buy them tommorow, your going to be tutor geo from ram sticks to buttons

i will follow ideeditdoes tutorial to process all my ceramic cpu, the nitric way it seemed a solid way, my ram sticks i will hlc leach followed by lazers steve finger foil tutorioul, ( poot man ar ) also might have a crack at the fltpacks( but i have no furnice ), also will have some fibre cpu which i think i will follow same route as my ram sticks ( hlc leach then ap/pins seperatly)then i will refine everything together.

im not sure but i got a feeling i could get a ounce out this i tried to dumb down my expected gold recover but it still seemed high, i know i should pull at least 6 g from my pentium, plus i have another 50 ceramics at 0.1g each thats still 5g plus all the fibre cpue green and black up to 3kg, and 9kg of ram sticks, i should get at least a gram a lb or 2g kg thats 18g in total ?

 

[Geo]

i dont believe it will hurt to put a little tin in the AP as long as you know how to deal with tin oxide when the need arises.

Jeff can you explain how you would deal with the tin oxide? I've been reading the whole board but I think I might have missed dealing with tin oxide.

Rusty

if you reuse the AP solution long enough,the tin that is introduced basically converts to stannous chloride in AP.in the presence of oxygen, stannous chloride converts to tin oxide.this collects as a white powder in the solution and mixes with the other powders and foils.after the foils and powders are collected, it should all be incinerated.this helps drive off the extra oxygen atom in the tin and making it soluble in hcl again.after incinerating, give all the material a hcl bath and heat.this will remove the tin from the material for further refining.

 

[rewalston]

i dont believe it will hurt to put a little tin in the AP as long as you know how to deal with tin oxide when the need arises.

Jeff can you explain how you would deal with the tin oxide? I've been reading the whole board but I think I might have missed dealing with tin oxide.

Rusty

if you reuse the AP solution long enough,the tin that is introduced basically converts to stannous chloride in AP.in the presence of oxygen, stannous chloride converts to tin oxide.this collects as a white powder in the solution and mixes with the other powders and foils.after the foils and powders are collected, it should all be incinerated.this helps drive off the extra oxygen atom in the tin and making it soluble in hcl again.after incinerating, give all the material a hcl bath and heat.this will remove the tin from the material for further refining.

OH DUH :lol: I remember that, boy do I feel foolish

Rusty

 

[damezbullion]

i dont believe it will hurt to put a little tin in the AP as long as you know how to deal with tin oxide when the need arises.

Jeff can you explain how you would deal with the tin oxide? I've been reading the whole board but I think I might have missed dealing with tin oxide.

Rusty

if you reuse the AP solution long enough,the tin that is introduced basically converts to stannous chloride in AP.in the presence of oxygen, stannous chloride converts to tin oxide.this collects as a white powder in the solution and mixes with the other powders and foils.after the foils and powders are collected, it should all be incinerated.this helps drive off the extra oxygen atom in the tin and making it soluble in hcl again.after incinerating, give all the material a hcl bath and heat.this will remove the tin from the material for further refining.

OH DUH :lol: I remember that, boy do I feel foolish

Rusty

so am i right in believing if i collected the tin oxide, can washed and used as stannouse? simly?

 

[Geo]

i wouldnt.when making and using test solution or standard test solution, you should use the most pure components that you can acquire. the cost of the new material is nothing compared to the assurance that what you are testing with and against is what it is suppose to be. using scrap material to make test solution is not a good idea because there will be other metals and contamination that may throw off the test or change the results causing more harm than good.

 

[damezbullion]

i wouldnt.when making and using test solution or standard test solution, you should use the most pure components that you can acquire. the cost of the new material is nothing compared to the assurance that what you are testing with and against is what it is suppose to be. using scrap material to make test solution is not a good idea because there will be other metals and contamination that may throw off the test or change the results causing more harm than good.

thankyou good point i only ask as stannous seems expensive, but doesn't cost as much as my precious metals lol

and what about the hlc is tin all that dissolves, if so and precipitates can i reuse my hlc or is no good?