i never have a day like this

[jrmycooke]

I saw a piece of equipment the other day that looked like a tricked out Haas mini tool room CNC and asked the engineer if they were printing and cutting their own circuit boards to which he replied " how do you know what that is" ( a code welder doesn't know that kinda stuff ). I briefly described my e waste hobby and he took me over to the waste area and pointed to a bucket that said gold scrap and said have at it.
I thanked him for his generosity and poked his brain about what they do and was grateful to be able to see first hand how a copper blank and theyre proprietary technology gets plated and etched all in house. I'm very curious about these particular yields, I know there is an industry standard for electronics, but XYZ company had the cut outs of these particular components destined for .............. vertical acceleration, that doesn't come back ; )

 

[joem]

Sounds like an oportunity to share profits and keep a regular supply of plated items. Great find.

 

[jrmycooke]

I would like to think the same, however, he either felt sympathy for me, or he was totaly dumbfounded how I am able to do what we do because I'm sure there's more than one person here that knows what kind of facility I was in and knows that stuff is cradle to grave and must be accounted for. I consider it a one time gift and the more I think about it , I don't think I would allow myself to be confronted with that again for "fear of the man".............

 

[AztekShine]

I wouldn't sweat it. If he gave it to you it's On his head, not yours. I'd run with that ball all the way to the mine!

 

[nickvc]

Looking at the scrap I'd say he and you are quite safe, they look to me to be stamping scrap and the actual components aren't there! A quick call suggesting a split on recovery of the gold might bear fruit as the real high tech bits are missing, they probably go for destruction before anything else happens to them, well I hope so :shock:

 

[jrmycooke]

I've started running this material and used the standard 2:1 a/p solution. Visually this material was no different than running anything other than copper as the base. Of all the times that I have given trimmed fingers a " bath" , never have I seen an aggressive reaction to copper and gold in hcl/peroxide. Immediately it fizzed and gave of a white fume which I covered quickly but not enough to build up pressure. When check shortly thereafter, it appeared saturated withouth any more reaction even when agitated. My chemical reactions to previous plated runs have always been gentle and controled. At one point, I thought that it was going to get away from.me.
Any thoughts members?

 

[Barren Realms 007]

There is the possability that you are dealing with a larger surface area in relation to the weight of material than you are use to processing. There is the possability that your gold plating is real thin alowing easy access of the AP solution to the base metals There is the possability that the reaction you were seeing is your gold dissolving into the solution and then cementing out on the copper.

 

[goldenchild]

My idea is to run this material through a H2SO4 cell. The AP process is not well suited for this type of material. How much of it have you put in AP?

 

[jrmycooke]

Two pieces. One of the cut out sheets, and the strip at twelve o clock. After two days, I have a few visible foils, but otherwise the gold nor the copper appears to have changed at all.
Contrary to the photographs, every piece is composed of layers ( laminated ) consisting of ten identical duplicate pieces with a poly type substrate between them.The photo shows what I was only able to separate by hand. I'm perplexed by the result but can only assume that there may have been other material present from the "propriety bonding" matrix which appeared to be of a poly type, yet the "proprietary bonding" shows no reaction when presented to A/P solution by itself.

Please advise.

 

[qst42know]

Are these Teflon laminated boards?

I would suggest incineration except for Incinerating Teflon is very dangerous.

 

[jrmycooke]

This is one half of a whole board that has been leaching for 18 days. I'm now wondering what the parameters are for outer space grade hardware are or if these were rejects because they were over plated.
As suggested above, when I run the rest of this material I will incinerate first. Further inspection of the boards revealed fine gold wires inside of the board. This material was a treat to run. I was able to pull my rewards off of it with a pair of tweezers in nice long strips.

 

[jrmycooke]

Sweet sweet sweet.

 

[jrmycooke]

Can't wait for the next run.