Does it apear to look like gold fingers and board? 80's HP..

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hedrick84

Member
Joined
Jan 20, 2014
Messages
12
Location
Kansas City, MO
I came across some really old medical equipment at a flea market that had been sitting around for 20+ years. I snagged it up with some simple bartering.

I attempted to attach a couple of pictures of one of the boards I have.. I have about 150+ of these boards. HP is branded all over these boards.
Questions:
1.) Does it appear to be gold fingers & gold a gold bus on the PCB?
2.) having at least 150 of this style of boards would you recommend this is a good start for gold refining? For personal Educational purposes (not to get rich)

Thanks in Advance!
 

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Those are some very nice boards! Hp is definitely one of the companies who gold plated entire boards as I have seen quite a few with fingers and all the traces where gold plated as well. Those boards need to be depopulated and then look up the AP process. That should get you started and of course always practice proper safety

Tyler
 
moose7802 said:
Those are some very nice boards! Hp is definitely one of the companies who gold plated entire boards as I have seen quite a few with fingers and all the traces where gold plated as well. Those boards need to be depopulated and then look up the AP process. That should get you started and of course always practice proper safety

Tyler
Thank you so much for the prompt reply Tyler.
My wife thought I was crazy filling our garage up with this "junk". I am very excited to hear your good news!!!

I had assumed without opening the equipment up that it would have a lot of goodies inside means it was old medical equipment. Figured worst case the aluminum that housed it all would be worth my time.

AP process??

Also, I noticed silver.. Do you off hand see anything I should be make sure I pay attention to on these boards pictured? I know the gold fingers, pins, ect.
I will post more pictures this evening of everything I have :)
 
Them are some pretty neat boards you have there, maybe collectable? I would do some research on them to see if they are. As far as a good start on refining, I would suggest the experiments in Ms. Hokes book, along with reading the material contained.
I believe that once you have read that enough and completed the experiments enough to understand the chemical reactions then you should start a small scale experiment of refining, maybe not starting with the vintage boards.
I know you said you are not looking for the monetary value, but the educational value, which is I think is awesome. Saying that thought you could possibly talk to another board member who would exchange those boards for a cleaner, more beginner type of material, such as pins or fingers. Maybe someone who knows how to refine all of the metals instead of just cutting the fingers. If that does not sounds good, sell them on eBay and use the funds to buy some simpler material.
Good luck!
CJ
 
Those boards appear to me to have all traces gold plated so once you depopulated them you will have to remove the clear solder mask that is sometimes on those boards and soak the whole boards. It doesn't appear that just the fingers have gold it looks to me like the rest of the Cu leads are plated as well. You can test that with a drop of HNO3.

Tyler
 
I find that when those boards are depolutated, they are good beginner stuff - it's one point of view. Regarding the solder mask, I would give it a try if it can be dissolved with nail polisher, - I just read today, that this could be used for 35+ years ago.

The TO-5 transistors may contain enough gold to process them if you have half a pound or more, so don't throw them away. The relais contain silver contacts, maybe even alloyed with palladium. (both may contain toxic elements like Be and Cd too, so just save them, until you know, what to do - better: what not to do :lol: )

I think I see some tantalum perl capacitors, too.

The silver coloured capacitors in the last picture are eye catchers, - could you make a better photo of those?
 
Take a good look at the transistors, maybe crush one so you open the can, look for gold plating on the bottom and/or inside. Also take a look at the contact on the relays. They'll probably have silver or gold buttons on them.

You have a very good find there!!
 
Here are some more pictures.. as i had promised.
Some more shots of the boards as well as some other things I still have yet to open up.

I have tons of these boards, these are just a few from just one machine. Good Stuff? :)
 

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jimdoc said:
Do you know what type of equipment, or the purpose of it was it was?

Jim
actually yes..
This particular one was from an old medical ECG machine.
Was in a wooden particle board box casing..inside was full of aluminum racks.. inside the aluminum racks was these boards.
 
I scrapped a Grass ECG machine years ago, that was one heavy piece of equipment.
It had about a dozen large very strong magnets inside.
If you got probes with it, they may have platinum tips.

Jim
 
cmiller92 said:
Them are some pretty neat boards you have there, maybe collectable? I would do some research on them to see if they are. As far as a good start on refining, I would suggest the experiments in Ms. Hokes book, along with reading the material contained.
I believe that once you have read that enough and completed the experiments enough to understand the chemical reactions then you should start a small scale experiment of refining, maybe not starting with the vintage boards.
I know you said you are not looking for the monetary value, but the educational value, which is I think is awesome. Saying that thought you could possibly talk to another board member who would exchange those boards for a cleaner, more beginner type of material, such as pins or fingers. Maybe someone who knows how to refine all of the metals instead of just cutting the fingers. If that does not sounds good, sell them on eBay and use the funds to buy some simpler material.
Good luck!
CJ

I had thought to myself, before I posted on here, these boards MAY have a collector value, however after researching for 6+ hours on a few of these boards.. I have turned up no info as far as similar boards to even being able to place a value on them.. so I knew I would not getting pushed around for any reason (not everyone are honest people) . Knowing it wasnt easy to find info on them, I figured I had some rare pieces here. So I said forget it.. I originally got this equipment to experiment and educate myself on the whole refining process..from start to finish. I am going to stick with my guns and completely strip every last part on these things and start educating myself and possibly my kids too. Once I feel I have a good grasp on the whole process from start to finish.

I really enjoy EVERYBODY and Their feedback :)
 
jimdoc said:
I scrapped a Grass ECG machine years ago, that was one heavy piece of equipment.
It had about a dozen large very strong magnets inside.
If you got probes with it, they may have platinum tips.

Jim

no magnets in the entire machine nor probes.

I know nothing about ECG.. However this thing had a bunch of knobs all over it,a nd some sort of printer..? But I cant seem to figure out where the paper went in for it to print on..or ink.. now that I am thinking about it, maybe it wasnt a printer at all, maybe that part of the machine held the old school 5" floppy disk...hrmmm
 
hedrick84 said:
I had thought to myself, before I posted on here, these boards MAY have a collector value, however after researching for 6+ hours on a few of these boards.. I have turned up no info as far as similar boards to even being able to place a value on them.. so I knew I would not getting pushed around for any reason (not everyone are honest people) . Knowing it wasnt easy to find info on them, I figured I had some rare pieces here. So I said forget it.. I originally got this equipment to experiment and educate myself on the whole refining process..from start to finish. I am going to stick with my guns and completely strip every last part on these things and start educating myself and possibly my kids too. Once I feel I have a good grasp on the whole process from start to finish.

I have seen a lack of our more experienced refiners refer you to any materials for education or safety, but being in the military the saying is “Safety is everyone’s responsibility”. So I will say that you need to read about the processes that can be found in the tutorials section. You REALLY need to read the safety section, and it might be good to leave the kids out of the refining hobby. I’m pretty sure I have read from forum members post that he quit refining for a while because a neighbors kid got into his chemical closet, spilt HNO3 on his skin, and lost a lot of it (his skin). Maybe this was Geo’s story?

Refining is a fun hobby, but can be dangerous. Read a lot before you try anything and after you have absorbed all the knowledge try small experiments, because undoubtedly you will be the next “I have a mess, how do I recover my valuables?”

I do not say this to be mean, I have been reading for nearly a year and still have not tried any processing. (Not easy when you are in Afghanistan)
 
If anyone comes across one like I pictured, be careful of the magnets.
If they pinch your fingers, you won't forget it.

Jim
 

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