Ewaste /HD recievers

[Geo]

the top and bottom picture looks like the same board top/bottom view. those will go with motherboards i believe. the boards with the slider switches looks like they have gold plated trace under the solder mask, if they do, remove the switches and they will be high grade.the blue boards would be the same but only if they have gold plated traces.

 

[MMFJ]

You can get a hundred different boards and get dozens of different ideas as to what quality they are (to me, much of the stuff you are showing would go in the 'peripheral' board box and be sold to boardsort or others (about 70% of the non-pc parts seem to end up there for us).

The whole thing boils down to - who is the next person to touch them? i.e., if you are going to sell them, you should be talking to your BUYER to get ideas of what they say they are. If you are going to process them (which I don't recommend at this stage until you learn a LOT more), then you need to read on the forum how to remove the components and begin separating them for the various processing steps.

With millions of different boards, you just have to 'guesstimate' a lot of them and sometimes call it 'good' - to me, taking several minutes to determine if it is worth an extra $.10 is just not time best spent.

 

[CBentre]

the first four pictures would be considered high grade boards. the power supply boards are low grade green boards and the last one is mid grade telecom.

So do the low grade green boards get put in with the psu's that are out of the cases? Probably not because some of those are green one side an off white on the other.
Also, the network board blue board 2nd picture. I thought that would be considered a telecoms board but wasn't 100% sure of it. Thanks for your help

Another question regarding power supplies, while yes I know that there are different prices for them. Very low btw, but do sever psu's have a different price because of the plated ends?

 

[CBentre]

You can get a hundred different boards and get dozens of different ideas as to what quality they are (to me, much of the stuff you are showing would go in the 'peripheral' board box and be sold to boardsort or others (about 70% of the non-pc parts seem to end up there for us).

The whole thing boils down to - who is the next person to touch them? i.e., if you are going to sell them, you should be talking to your BUYER to get ideas of what they say they are. If you are going to process them (which I don't recommend at this stage until you learn a LOT more), then you need to read on the forum how to remove the components and begin separating them for the various processing steps.

With millions of different boards, you just have to 'guesstimate' a lot of them and sometimes call it 'good' - to me, taking several minutes to determine if it is worth an extra $.10 is just not time best spent.

Understandable but to me this would be considered time well spent for research and development to do this as a business, If you always just give the other guy your stuff not knowing what to expect from them then you are more likely going to be taken advantage of and lose out. I am looking at this as a long term profession,something that I can depend on to remove myself from my current position. I have a 5 year old boy, a wife, a mortgage as well as other bills and not willing to jeopardise everything I have to haveit ripped away from me in an instance. So yeah I don't mean to be rude but I personally have a lot at stake here so every bit of knowledge that I can obtain will help me to not lose what I have worked so hard for. Thanks for the comment.

 

[CBentre]

the top and bottom picture looks like the same board top/bottom view. those will go with motherboards i believe. the boards with the slider switches looks like they have gold plated trace under the solder mask, if they do, remove the switches and they will be high grade.the blue boards would be the same but only if they have gold plated traces.

OK Geo so I scratched the surface and it reveled a copper base on both green and blue boards, without a test kit I am going to be guessing that the gold trace is just that. One thing of interest is that when I pulled the slider off it reviled a silver colour connector. I tested it with a magnet and it sticks, would silver plating over steel be common practice?

 

[Geo]

not unheard of, but not very likely. i dont think the piece of metal in the picture is the contact, it looks like the base of the switch. the contacts will be small, perhaps little more than a film on the plastic body with a carbon underlay. maybe even a small rod wrapped in tiny copper wire like a kind of rheostat. if you scratched some solder mask off and it looks like copper, then its most likely copper. you can actually mistake copper for gold but you will never mistake gold for copper.

and of coarse i do agree with MMFJ, you should be sure to get your actual prices from the buyer before you commit to a sale. value of any material is relevant to the seller and the buyer.what you are willing to sell it for and what they are willing to pay for it. prices can differ from one material to the next and believe it or not, from one seller to another seller. loyalty is rewarded to an extent that buyers will pay the highest prices to sellers that constantly sell them all the material they get and not pick through to remove the easily processed material and sell them whats left.

getting an education about the ins and outs of the markets and material is always a plus. feel free to post and ask as many questions as you feel you need, to get a handle on things.

 

[CBentre]

not unheard of, but not very likely. i dont think the piece of metal in the picture is the contact, it looks like the base of the switch. the contacts will be small, perhaps little more than a film on the plastic body with a carbon underlay. maybe even a small rod wrapped in tiny copper wire like a kind of rheostat. if you scratched some solder mask off and it looks like copper, then its most likely copper. you can actually mistake copper for gold but you will never mistake gold for copper.

and of coarse i do agree with MMFJ, you should be sure to get your actual prices from the buyer before you commit to a sale. value of any material is relevant to the seller and the buyer.what you are willing to sell it for and what they are willing to pay for it. prices can differ from one material to the next and believe it or not, from one seller to another seller. loyalty is rewarded to an extent that buyers will pay the highest prices to sellers that constantly sell them all the material they get and not pick through to remove the easily processed material and sell them whats left.

getting an education about the ins and outs of the markets and material is always a plus. feel free to post and ask as many questions as you feel you need, to get a handle on things.

I couldn't agree with you more on this topic, this is one of the reasons why I am so persistent on having a handle on the sorting of things. To most people that I have encountered in life this far they don't or do not want to be bothered with the small things. But I have seen first hand on how businesses rise and fall because they didn't pay attention. There has also been kingdoms and emperors through out history who have fallen because of this as well. Another sign of this could be the economy around the world today. Thank you for the boost of confidence in what I am doing.

 

[MMFJ]

this is one of the reasons why I am so persistent on having a handle on the sorting of things

The point is - all this "sorting" is fine, but without knowing WHERE it is going or WHY you are "sorting" this or that for any particular purpose is an exercise in futility at best.

You seem to be wanting help from those with more experience, but that experience comes from what we have spent endless hours in going through the same thing that you must go through yourself - and one of the hardest lessons in life to face (which is why most people fail...) - you must understand where the 'end' is (in this case, determining if you will sell this stuff or process it is step 1)..... If selling (any particular piece), then you need to know (step 2) who you are selling it to and what THEY will call it - has almost nothing to do with what you think or what others think or do with the pieces they get that are similar (other than if you don't like their answer, then you are back at step 1 again, or at least step 2, where you are looking for a different buyer....)

A wise man once stated "Start with the end in mind" - perhaps you know that, but nothing has been communicated in your messages of your direction/intent (other than your 'rant' about "I am looking at this as a long term profession,something that I can depend on to remove myself from my current position... and not willing to jeopardise everything I have to haveit ripped away from me in an instance...help me to not lose what I have worked so hard for" - loads of strong words when the total dollar amount of all the pictures you have shown is only about $20 - if that is "everything I have" for you, then there is a much more serious problem). We all make at least a good portion of our income from this and I have seen nothing from anyone that can/would "rip away in an instant" anything from a person that approaches any of this sanely - and with little/no emotion (which ALWAYS causes the problems in financial matters)........

You have asked for some quality grades on these boards/material, but by whose standards are you quoting/asking (oh, that would be your potential buyers, huh....)? I quoted where/how I find my terms/names for the board quality (we use boardsort.com as a 'standard', as do many on this board - even other buyers) and it is simple enough to learn from there directly, just like I did (and many others). There are some that I do business with that prefer to have just three levels of boards ('low population', 'medium populated' and 'highly populated' - all referring to the ratio of chips to board size).

If you are using someone else's standard of grading material and that is what you are asking opinions on, then you need to quote it so everyone can help you grade your items against the standard you are expecting to use. But, then, if you are going from any sort of set standard (like one you get from a BUYER.....), you already know what they would be called, wouldn't you..... :?:

It boils down to a simple thing - you will continue to be frustrated and lose not only money, but the help you so desperately appear to feel you need if you continue down the path of entitlement (which is certainly where it seems to be going, from what I've seen - both here and in the many questions you've sent me via YouTube).

Learn from this - until you know where you are going, it really matters little what road you take - right now, or ever. Once you figure that out, you will have answers come to you in droves, simply because you already know where you are going with things (for instance, on that power supply with the nice gold fingers - we snap those fingers and put the rest of it in a 'breakage' box - the tiny bit of copper, etc. in there takes more time than we can afford to put toward it as there are other things that will pay a lot more during that time {yes, I have mouths to feed as well and I prefer to feed them well, which takes money and focusing on doing what pays the most for the time spent).

For each and every card, there will always be a question of "wouldn't that better fit in that box", but the reality is, the per pound rates (at least from boardsort and everyone else I know of) are so minimal on any one board that any MISTAKE you make on any given board is about a $.05 one. Oh, yes, I'm sure you want to argue that those nickels stack up, but until/unless you are prepared to discuss the value of TIME LOST in worrying about it (which even for a $10 worker is only a few seconds - add it up!.....), I really don't want to hear about it.

This will be my last post on this topic (or you sending me more messages via YouTube) as it appears the type of help I'm trying to give isn't welcomed. I know there is something else I can do with my time that will be more productive and appreciated.

 

[CBentre]

.removed

 

[vyper]

From what I've read both of you have legitimate points. But "cant we all just get along" :lol:
As far as the psu's go I would go with snapping off the fingers cutting wires etc. and putting the psu's whole in the "motor's" bin to go to the scrapyard. Check with the scrapyard though to make sure they accept them as motors. Mine does.

Happy Hunting!

 

[CBentre]

From what I've read both of you have legitimate points. But "cant we all just get along" :lol:
As far as the psu's go I would go with snapping off the fingers cutting wires etc. and putting the psu's whole in the "motor's" bin to go to the scrapyard. Check with the scrapyard though to make sure they accept them as motors. Mine does.

Happy Hunting!

Now was that hard,thanks one less thing I need to worrie about.lol

 

[Geo]

breakage is very low grade scrap in whatever category its in. if you deal with many thousands of pounds in a month, of coarse you cant spend the amount of time needed to strip all the components. if you do this in lots and want to get every bit of profit from your material that you can.

psu's can be broken down. my wife does it to make extra money for herself from the scrap i get. she will take the case off and use a chisel and hammer to remove the heat sinks and transformers. the cases and the heat sinks are old sheet aluminum and the transformers are the carbon ferrite type, these she breaks with a hammer and the copper coil falls right off. people will argue that at $0.25 a pound for the transformer as is gets better money than the $3.00+ she gets for number 2 copper, because your selling the ferrite for $0.25 a pound. this i can tell you without a doubt in my mind on the subject, transformers of any size from an inch to several feet across, the copper to steel ratio will be 25% copper and 75% iron. if you have 100 pounds of transformers and sell them for $0.25 per pound, you get $25.00. if you get the copper from 100 pounds of transformers at 25% is 25 pounds at $3.00 per pound, thats $75.00. tripled your money by cleaning them, that my argument.

 

[CBentre]

breakage is very low grade scrap in whatever category its in. if you deal with many thousands of pounds in a month, of coarse you cant spend the amount of time needed to strip all the components. if you do this in lots and want to get every bit of profit from your material that you can.

psu's can be broken down. my wife does it to make extra money for herself from the scrap i get. she will take the case off and use a chisel and hammer to remove the heat sinks and transformers. the cases and the heat sinks are old sheet aluminum and the transformers are the carbon ferrite type, these she breaks with a hammer and the copper coil falls right off. people will argue that at $0.25 a pound for the transformer as is gets better money than the $3.00+ she gets for number 2 copper, because your selling the ferrite for $0.25 a pound. this i can tell you without a doubt in my mind on the subject, transformers of any size from an inch to several feet across, the copper to steel ratio will be 25% copper and 75% iron. if you have 100 pounds of transformers and sell them for $0.25 per pound, you get $25.00. if you get the copper from 100 pounds of transformers at 25% is 25 pounds at $3.00 per pound, thats $75.00. tripled your money by cleaning them, that my argument.

Hey Geo, that is an excellent point and kind of what I was getting at. All I'm trying to do is maximize profits, my time means nothing at this point. When the time comes that I feel a need to push things out the door because I need the money then I will. But if I have stuff that can be further processed and I can gain from it then I will. Thanks for the support.

 

[bswartzwelder]

I have taken apart quite a few cell phones and in a very small percentage of them, I have found screws which I believe to be gold plated. My reasoning is this: the screws go through the circuit board and the area around the screw holes is not only plated on both sides, but also plated through the hole. In these areas, usually there are several pieces of metal being clamped together with gold plating on one board touching gold plating on the other board. Seems logical to use gold plated screws to keep the connection points from corroding or oxidizing. Just my .02 worth.

 

[CBentre]

I have taken apart quite a few cell phones and in a very small percentage of them, I have found screws which I believe to be gold plated. My reasoning is this: the screws go through the circuit board and the area around the screw holes is not only plated on both sides, but also plated through the hole. In these areas, usually there are several pieces of metal being clamped together with gold plating on one board touching gold plating on the other board. Seems logical to use gold plated screws to keep the connection points from corroding or oxidizing. Just my .02 worth.

You know I had thought the same as you, a lot of times I would come accross screws that were gold/brass in color in computers so I just held onto them just in case. with out a test kit you will really never know. Thanks for the comment.

 

[bswartzwelder]

What's really crazy, is that tonight as I was disassembling a batch of phones, I came across an area on one phone. It was where the flip phone flips open and closed (essentially the hinge area). There was a small contact connecting to the circuit board on one side of the flip. The other end of this contact rubbed up against one end of a pin on the hinge area. The other side of the hinge area pin was resting against another gold plated connector. Two gold plated connectors very bright and shiny. Then I took the hinge thingy apart and the pin which runs through it is also a pretty bright gold color. It is held in place by a "C" clip. I could not believe my eyes. The "C" clip is bright and shiny and gold in color. First "C" clip I've ever seen that appear to be gold plated. I may just have to hang onto that one.

 

[Smack]

As you get more and more scrap to process, you will find your methods and the extent you can dismantle the scrap will change according to how much time you have to process it and still keep up.

 

[bswartzwelder]

I know what you mean. Right now, I'm taking all the phones down to the last piece of plastic or hardware. In almost all the flip phones, there is at least 1 tiny magnet which I've been keeping. Don't know what for, but some day they have a use and I will be ready to give them a whole new life. Since I'm doing this as a hobby and any money I can recover is secondary, the time spent is not an issue. If I decide the money is lucrative enough, I may end up in more of a hurry and pass over the things which aren't on the monmey making agenda. I just enjoy the whole operation and will be using it to occupy time once I'm retired in a week or two.

 

[CBentre]

OK so I was reading up on another forum today and someone quoted that the heat sinks on the CPU were actually 70% nickel and 30% copper that got me wondering. If that statement holds true then the p4 chips would work out like this. 19g as a whole at $7.50lb today's boardsort prices
= 0.044092x7.50
=$0.33069

The actual weight of metal is 14g and 5g for the gold/fiber
today nickel was at $7.51lb
copper was at $3.32
70% of 14g is 9.8g which =0.021605lbs x $7.51 = $0.16225355
30% of 14 is 4.2g which =0.009259 x $3.32 = $0.03073988
Total metal =$ 0.19299343
So theoretically we are only getting $0.13769657 for the 5g of gold fiber?
Yeah you can tell I'm bored

 

[CBentre]

OK so I have two chips that I can't seem to find pricing on anywhere and was wondering if anyone here has incountered them in there travels? Also what type of value should I be looking at for these. Thanks for the help in advance.