How should I proceed to process these CPU sockets?

[soforeal46]

Hi Everyone!

I've been a little MIA, but just got a hold on some of these CPU sockets. How do you guys think I should proceed in recovering and refining these?

Things I do not want to use is Nitric acid and Aqua Regia.

Can I just toss these in a beaker with HCL then heat up on a hot plate and hope the pins will fall off the sockets?

Your help is much appreciated. I hope you guys are all doing well!

 

[texan]

I had a bunch of those...I took a pair of wire cutters to them while I watched the tube for several nights. The "plastic" or whatever is very brittle and if you crack in between a line of the pins several of them can drop out at once. I put them in AP for about a month with some of my other small plated items and it worked like a charm....just don't get in a hurry.

Texan

 

[soforeal46]

I just tried to cut them with a wire cutter, the black plastic is rather hard to get through and trying to break it is not possible. If I let it simmer in a bucket of HCL for a few weeks, will the pins fall out?

 

[Geo]

put one in AP, plastic and all. see whether the plastic breaks down in the hcl. if it holds up without dissolving into goo, run a whole batch through AP process plastic and all. the base metal in the pins should be copper based since pins do not enter into the CPU package. you could try a magnet to see if they are magnetic. if they are magnetic, straight hcl will work, but it will take some time and heat. if they are magnetic, the solution will turn black when its saturated and will stop working. just replace the solution if it does and proceed.

 

[Marcel]

This is the same material as the ICs (black flatpacks as they are called here) is made of - glass filled epoxy.
But the grade of glass - filling is lower, so they usually melt when heated too much, not suited for incineration.
What you can do is heat them with a heatgun from the bottom side, they use some screwdriver or knive and press the contacts through (from the thinner side!)
But after all it is non-metallic and as stated before you can also simply put them in AP. This will only require a larger vessel than individual pins.
I once processed around 30 of them in a bucket - the yield was low.
But they come in different platings, so the yield could be as high just like the CPU pins.

 

[goldpete]

why dont you want to use nitric ?
if you soaked these in nitric , the gold will seperate for you . then you can discard the liquid or put it aside for later refining and put the contents you have filtered into AR to disolve the gold , and finnish the process till you have gold powder ready to melt

 

[Geo]

AP is re-usable while nitric acid is consumed when dissolving copper. its a matter of economics. if time isnt a factor, AP is a more efficient choice. if time is a factor then the more expensive nitric dissolution can be used. removing the pins from the plastic and using a stripping cell would be my second choice behind AP, again because it is re-usable. nitric acid would be my last choice.