Topher_osAUrus said:
1. No, escrap I gave up on personally, but I get very limited time to recover/refine, so when I do I usually run goldfilled or karat scrap. Not that it isn't worth it, escrap can be *VERY* lucrative, but -you have to know what its worth. And that can be a difficult assessment when you are just beginning.
2. I, again personally, wouldn't buy it as scrap, unless it was a fair price. And to figure that out, I would use GSP's and/or catfish's method for estimating the value of gold plating.
3. Probably AP, set 'n forget, maybe nitric->ar if i was an impatient man
4. There's less gold than I wanted.
5. Study study study, especially if you are venturing into the escrap side of this. Some stuff is just better to cherry pick and send off, or save and send it all out after proper sorting(very important) to a refiner that will pay you decent. Kurtak has a lot of good (recent) posts in reference to that.
Again, welcome to the forum, there is a lifetime of study here for you, should you choose to. But, whether you run escrap or karat or whatever, you have to know value of your material, else you will get burned. Trust me on that one, it's a hard lesson to learn.
Thank you very much for such an informative reply! I agree there probably isn't much per board, but with enough of them I'm sure a tiny nugget could be achieved, depending of course if it's flashing or plating.
There's definitely a ton to learn, I've been researching obsessively, that's for sure. I printed the revised version of Hoke's book from here on the forum, and have started reading that, I've watched a ton of YouTube, etc., and eventually found this forum in my researching... I have been slowly building a collection, I did a small test run just to feel it out first hand, knowing I wouldn't do well, but it showed me a lot personally.
Now all of my collection is sorted, pins with pins, fingers with fingers, cpu's with cpu's, etc. My aluminum and Copper is nice and neat, and ic chips and monolithic capacitors sorted....
I've collected all of my chemicals, including what I need to make my own nitric, awaiting a melting dish/crucibles in the mail, going to order some beakers/equipment. Going to build a good work area in the garage with strong fume hood, etc.
I'm not going to do another run until I do a lot more reading of Hoke's book, and reading/interacting here on the forum. I have a lot of green fiber chips coming, I plan to use my current collection to learn from before I touch the cpu chips, as I don't want to mess up any possible yield.
I've researched yields as much as I can, and based on averages, I feel like I have a basic understanding of what should be on what parts... only personal experience will truly tell though, as I see many people have different results, and skill levels. I see this as a hobby/potential business, and I am going to research like crazy first, it's how I am, I get obsessive and one track minded... golf for example, I got addicted and studied like a banshee, practiced etc... I'm a 3rd season golfer who averages under 100. Lol. Shot an 86 twice this year, planning to break 80 next year, which is almost unheard of. lol.
So I've latched on to this e-scrap thing, I've always loved taking things apart, having a ton of fun! lol.