Hello - seeking advice!

[kurtak]

also what’s going on with this forum - not one of you guys have just encouraged me to learn how to process this stuff myself.

I will "try" to address this for you but likely not until this weekend as I work a regular day job during the week

Kurt

 

[Martijn]

also what’s going on with this forum - not one of you guys have just encouraged me to learn how to process this stuff myself.

I run a 3000 plants operations from clone to to harvest- built out complex air moving systems to accommodate fluctuating moisture content in drying product, developed novel pest management controls and feeding programs that involved new to me substrates - I’m familiar with cation exchanges and molecular biology In terms of resource exchange in the rhizosphere - soil structure analysis - lots of stuff - not thru and truly educated but mostly self taught and successful enough to know I’m not an idiot / where’s the spirit here ?

Well, you've just recently joined us and new members often come up with wild plans to recover the lesser valuable metals that will surely make them loose money and tons of time. Not to speak of the possible polluting effect if done in a wrong way.

Chemically and theoretically it is interesting, but to keep it cost effective, is very hard. impossible? maybe not. But for a beginning refiner or scrapper, extremely hard imo.

There you go: challenge is set. Prove me wrong and rub it in my face once you do I'll give you all the credit you deserve if so. Promised.

It sure will give you a lot of understanding of effectiveness of different processes.

To processs cherry picked high yield parts and still make a profit from e-waste is challenging enough on itself, but also fun if you're not really in it for the money. Then fine tune and go for the profitable parts. Sell the rest.

You're about to dive in a rabbit hole, that I consider far more complicated than running a clone to harvest operation, with my limited knowledge of plants. No offense to your profession meant, but it's a different game I think.

 

[4metals]

also what’s going on with this forum - not one of you guys have just encouraged me to learn how to process this stuff myself.

As a matter of fact the issue is addressed on this forum quite thoroughly. However in this thread it has not been pointed out specifically. A lot of our members are much better informed than I as to what the precious metal value, or as Jon pointed out, the total metal value of circuits are. As hobbyists, many members seek to maximize their income potential and apparently, in this case, the boards are worth more as whole boards so that is what you were advised.

To appeal to the technical side of the OP these are totally within your skill set to recover the lions share of the values but that process comes at a cost. A lot of members are content to feed on the low hanging fruit and recover the exposed gold plating. Others will go another step and shred or granulate the boards to again maximize the simple extraction methods they choose.

Unfortunately when a circuit is designed, no consideration is given to recovery after the circuit has exhausted it's useful life. Gold and other PM's are tucked away in layers that defy exposure with normal shredding. As a result the real refiner, looking to maximize returns, would choose smelting. Often they will granulate and blend and sample to get a better feel for the content before sending it out to a smelter but, in the end, the refiner that performs the actual smelting benefits the most.

If you are prepared to set yourself up to shred, pyrolyze, smelt and electrolytically refine the copper and then process the values in the slimes, then you are one of the few here who can do that. We have addressed the process here and it is discussed in the Library section in detail. But going from having never refined to the level of processing required to successfully smelt on the scale you are suggesting is a big jump. And the investment for that scale of processing is considerable, or as @Martijn put it, are you prepared to go down that rabbit hole?

 

[GoIdman]

He’s buying a shredder and throwing all the boards in and then sifting out the components on a shaker table - atleast that’s what he’s told me.
I understand how much time it takes. I just spent 2 months 7 days a week 8 hrs a day loading / organizing / researching / compartmentalizing the most valuable pieces / posting packaging fielding questions looking for answers on different forums etc etc. I understand work. I farm. That’s a 24/7 job in the on season - you’re always behind cause there’s more to do than can be done by one person. I have no problem making sure the other parties benefit in my dealings - I am just so so so new to the whole idea of escrapping - and this is a very unique lot - it’s like being thrown in the deep end. And im extremely aware that for every one good person out there looking for a deal there’s 4 more behind him looking for a steal - I just want to make sure I understand what I have before I shake hands on it /
iWhether anyone wants to admit it or not - I am prime pickings for someone to come up on - a total rookie sitting on the stash of an 87 year old’s hoarde of govt auctions and “right place right times” during an era that a lot of people dream about being active in…I don’t know - just trying to make sure I do everything I can to understand what I’m about to let go of. No harm in that

Please don`t take this the wrong way....I didn`t question your determination or knowledge, or skill as that matter....

As I said....You have very good material... it means very valuable...but all in its own category....to even consider making an assumption upon what that amount will yield you....you have to organize every bit of material, parts, ic, capacitors...and so on , then sample each type of material separately....then you can make a pretty accurate assumption of the whole lot.

If you have done that, you already know what the whole lot is worth (in gold), then you can decide to recover it yourself or take to a smelter or sell it as it is....until that, the yield is just a guess, nothing more....

E-scrap can be defying, since the same type of component on the same board next to each other but from different manufacturers will already yield you different amounts....how can you estimate that? This happens also with the same manufacturer but different production years.

Its a tricky business....I`we learned it the hard way....

Whatever you decide to do with it....we will help you on the way....but be prepared to invest in your and your surroundings safety.....that is the most important thing before starting anything...

Be safe,

Pete

 

[strangehour]

The spirit is, that it may be easier and more economically sound to sell most of the items.
Processing this amount of material comprises a substantial investment and if there is no more material coming in,
it might not be viable to go that route.

We can certainly help you to study the processing end of things too.
But be warned it is a long and windy road.

That makes sense.i forget that you all seem to have developed a sense of responsibility and pragmatism perhaps related to your time spent refining - seeking efficiency -
I appreciate the local attitudes here it is refreshing to talk to people who aren’t eager to fill my head with potentially bad ideas - or said another way .. to talk to folks that can counter my ideas with experience - I appreciate it

I shook hands on the lot today. To give you an idea of exactly what was there - I managed to bump him up in price and he’s still giddy as a school kid - my big hang up now is that while he was in the storage unit he didn’t even dig through the totes. There’s 25 totes in there filled with a wide rangenof stuff and he didn’t dig through even one of them ! It’s burning my eyes - what did he see in there that made him agree to a price increase without even double checking that the bottoms of the totes weren’t filled with my dirty socks?
….it’ll keep me up all night

I did get a number that I’m happy with tho. And he’s happy to of course.

Btw - has anyone ever heard of a vintage component made of solid gold? Not plated - but solid all the way through

 

[strangehour]

Please don`t take this the wrong way....I didn`t question your determination or knowledge, or skill as that matter....

As I said....You have very good material... it means very valuable...but all in its own category....to even consider making an assumption upon what that amount will yield you....you have to organize every bit of material, parts, ic, capacitors...and so on , then sample each type of material separately....then you can make a pretty accurate assumption of the whole lot.

If you have done that, you already know what the whole lot is worth (in gold), then you can decide to recover it yourself or take to a smelter or sell it as it is....until that, the yield is just a guess, nothing more....

E-scrap can be defying, since the same type of component on the same board next to each other but from different manufacturers will already yield you different amounts....how can you estimate that? This happens also with the same manufacturer but different production years.

Its a tricky business....I`we learned it the hard way....

Whatever you decide to do with it....we will help you on the way....but be prepared to invest in your and your surroundings safety.....that is the most important thing before starting anything...

Be safe,

Pete

Very good points - thank you for writing that out - I forget that tolerances amongst components exist for a reason.

I did manage to keep a good amount of the boards for some hobby refining - I have become curious. Of course once I prove to myself that I actually can do it I might just cry for having sold the boards off so maybe I won’t learn. lol

 

[strangehour]

Lightning just struck twice.

 

[Devildog]

I have quite a few of them separated out if you are interested. Cheers

it certainly is worth more - that’s why I’m getting the offer from a refiner. He too believes it’s worth atleast double the amount I’m asking or else why would he even bother - my hang up is that it might be worth more than double.

That's a beautiful mess to have there lol

 

[Devildog]

Lightning just struck twice.

Shoooooot. Nailed it!

 

[adam mizer]

Lightning just struck twice.

You are apparently in a pretty good area to be able to collect this stuff.
If a profit is happening, thats a good thing.
Kudo's to you.

 

[anarxi]

Lightning just struck twice.

did you meet another radio engineer grandfather?

 

[strangehour]

did you meet another radio engineer grandfather?

Unfortunately didn’t get a chance to meet the old man - 92 yrs old and didn’t care too much about talking to weirdos showing up to cart off his gear.

Some more photos
Try and guess which one is my favorite -

 

[strangehour]

Well you wont guess right cause I Forgot to post my favorite. lol

 

[GoIdman]

Unfortunately didn’t get a chance to meet the old man - 92 yrs old and didn’t care too much about talking to weirdos showing up to cart off his gear.

Some more photos
Try and guess which one is my favorite -

Lots of lab equimpment, signal generators, oscilloscopes, multimeters, power supplies, .....probably from an institute lab or hmm maybe analog TV station or radio station, best guess its equipment from the 70's-80's, good stuff to work with....beware of CRT tubes..

nice find, try them out, if something is working and i bet 60-70 % of that stuff works at the first try.... it is hightly collectable between electronics entusiasts, amator radio entusiasts, etc., with quite high prices...

Do your research before selling or processing anything.

Pete

 

[anachronism]

also what’s going on with this forum - not one of you guys have just encouraged me to learn how to process this stuff myself.

I run a 3000 plants operations from clone to to harvest- built out complex air moving systems to accommodate fluctuating moisture content in drying product, developed novel pest management controls and feeding programs that involved new to me substrates - I’m familiar with cation exchanges and molecular biology In terms of resource exchange in the rhizosphere - soil structure analysis - lots of stuff - not thru and truly educated but mostly self taught and successful enough to know I’m not an idiot / where’s the spirit here ?

I just got back from a business trip and saw this. I'll bite.

As Kurt alluded in a previous post I deal with a lot of boards. The tried and tested adage here is pick your battles. There are certain items that can/should be recovered yourself but those need to be cherry picked, and cherry picked ruthlessly.

To your initial point about encouraging you to recover yourself. That would not be the best advice at your stage of experience for a couple of reasons:

1. You don't know what you're looking for.
2. You don't know how to recover it.
3. You'll do exactly what I and most people did when we started out and make a complete pig's ear of it and lose a load of the money you thought you'd get from the PMs without even getting the copper value (which I mentioned in a previous post.)

You're human, and I for one don't think you're an idiot either. This isn't putting you down in any way it's pointing out straightforward facts and since you're in business I hope you'll appreciate that. So as a suggestion, if you fancy it I'd cherry pick some of the relatively straightforward stuff and learn the processes around those. And sell the rest in whatever manner suits you best.

You mentioned in a previous post that this was likely to be a one off so it's an awfully long journey to take in order to deal with a one off.

That's my considered response to your points, I hope you'll take it in the way it's intended, which is common sense.

And that's why I for one would not be recommending that you process these yourself.

 

[adam mizer]

My suggestion is to list and try to sell each single piece.
Even not working can be a sale. (other guys looking for parts or a certain plug in).
I used to get loads of this stuff many years ago from contractor auctions of equipment when some of our aerospace moved overseas.
Filled several double garages up, mine and several buddies.

I loved the stuff because I tinkered on repairing it.
Some items I got in each auction lot a single piece sold paid for the whole pallet of stuff.
Even did some teardown of large items on airstrip where I picked them up.

Items that did not sell were tore down, took lots of time.
Separated all components and put in 55 gallon drums.
Actually this is what started me refining because after tear down there was a considerable amount of gold plated material.
This took me a few years to actually get to the refining stage.

Sold the stuff mostly on ebay back in the day and made profit for me and my partner.
Today I believe there is more profit to be made from what you are showing.
There are many collectors out there that want to rebuild their non-working old equipment or need a certain plug in, or the whole piece.

As said by Goldman I believe there is a lot of working items.
Also there is much more profit to be had from a working item than to collect parts to refine.
List and sell first.
Tear down later.

 

[strangehour]

I just got back from a business trip and saw this. I'll bite.

As Kurt alluded in a previous post I deal with a lot of boards. The tried and tested adage here is pick your battles. There are certain items that can/should be recovered yourself but those need to be cherry picked, and cherry picked ruthlessly.

To your initial point about encouraging you to recover yourself. That would not be the best advice at your stage of experience for a couple of reasons:

1. You don't know what you're looking for.
2. You don't know how to recover it.
3. You'll do exactly what I and most people did when we started out and make a complete pig's ear of it and lose a load of the money you thought you'd get from the PMs without even getting the copper value (which I mentioned in a previous post.)

You're human, and I for one don't think you're an idiot either. This isn't putting you down in any way it's pointing out straightforward facts and since you're in business I hope you'll appreciate that. So as a suggestion, if you fancy it I'd cherry pick some of the relatively straightforward stuff and learn the processes around those. And sell the rest in whatever manner suits you best.

You mentioned in a previous post that this was likely to be a one off so it's an awfully long journey to take in order to deal with a one off.

That's my considered response to your points, I hope you'll take it in the way it's intended, which is common sense.

And that's why I for one would not be recommending that you process these yourself.

Yes - I decided to listen to you all and made the sale to someone more set up to process and refine. He’s very excited about it and I’m excited to get a nice pay day for the 3 months of hauling organizing and cleaning. I kept a few things but I really want the buyer to do well. In all honesty what actually happened was I got approached by a chip collector who bought just a few things for a good amount of money - which helped soothe my mind about making sure I got paid what I should - a blessing -
All in all I took your guys advice and I feel good about things - so job well done to you all - seems to be that sitting around and talking about a subject tends to make you smarter about that subject and able to hand out advice when someone needs it - who woulda thunk?

 

[strangehour]

My suggestion is to list and try to sell each single piece.
Even not working can be a sale. (other guys looking for parts or a certain plug in).
I used to get loads of this stuff many years ago from contractor auctions of equipment when some of our aerospace moved overseas.
Filled several double garages up, mine and several buddies.

I loved the stuff because I tinkered on repairing it.
Some items I got in each auction lot a single piece sold paid for the whole pallet of stuff.
Even did some teardown of large items on airstrip where I picked them up.

Items that did not sell were tore down, took lots of time.
Separated all components and put in 55 gallon drums.
Actually this is what started me refining because after tear down there was a considerable amount of gold plated material.
This took me a few years to actually get to the refining stage.

Sold the stuff mostly on ebay back in the day and made profit for me and my partner.
Today I believe there is more profit to be made from what you are showing.
There are many collectors out there that want to rebuild their non-working old equipment or need a certain plug in, or the whole piece.

As said by Goldman I believe there is a lot of working items.
Also there is much more profit to be had from a working item than to collect parts to refine.
List and sell first.
Tear down later.

I hear ya / I will deff do just that. I did throw the entire lot up on eBay just for kicks - no bites on it - price is maybe too close to the pain point - or I’m aiming for too narrow of a market - either way I’m sure I’ll end up doing exactly as you describe / I went back there today and found massive printers in the barn out back.
I know this is a refining forum and not a tech forum but has anyone ever seen these? Two Ibm printers (first thought they were computers was more excited) can’t find any info on them at all
Models 5210
And
3287 (number 2 of 2)

 

[kurtak]

Sorry I have not got back to this

I shook hands on the lot today. I managed to bump him up in price

Awesome & good to hear

Earlier in this discussion you told us that you were originally offered $7,000 for the lot - which IMO was a "fair" offer (maybe not "great" but fair)

So - if you don't mind could you share with us what the "bump up" was or are you going leave us hanging ?

Kurt

 

[adam mizer]

I hear ya / I will deff do just that. I did throw the entire lot up on eBay just for kicks - no bites on it - price is maybe too close to the pain point - or I’m aiming for too narrow of a market - either way I’m sure I’ll end up doing exactly as you describe / I went back there today and found massive printers in the barn out back.
I know this is a refining forum and not a tech forum but has anyone ever seen these? Two Ibm printers (first thought they were computers was more excited) can’t find any info on them at all
Models 5210
And
3287 (number 2 of 2)

These do not seem too interesting (to me).
1980's business type printers.
Found this: https://collections.museumsvictoria.com.au/items/1364923
Maybe some old circuit boards inside.
Plastic and steel carcass, time consuming tear down.