Idea's Wanted.

[DNIndustry]

I fell into a unique situation. My partner and I are testing the waters on offering mid/high grade computer boards & processors as source materials. The value we would add is pre processing the materials. I am looking to see if their is interest and any suggestions.
We currently sell with 10,000 lbs of boards per month but the material is available to provide 15x that amount.
Keep in mind that by pre-processing I mean remove capacitors,heatshinks, etc. and compressing them to a certain particlate size. NOT-PRE_PICKING! (Cherry picking)
To build confidence I am working with to get testing done on average yields, based on a specific recipe of board types. We would stick to this recipe there by giving us confidence in what we sold, and to the buyer who know what to expect. The numbers will be provided to customers.

Right now I am mainly looking for suggestions regarding structuring, organization of the final products. This is mainly a service the mid to small guy who doesnt have the capacity to store, finance, or operate this type of service, but needs material to make it work. This is to make money, but the idea is also to give the little guy a fighting chance. This could remove a lot of cost and time. I know everything is relative but we would be offering standardized mixes of materials to process that have been cleaned and are ground to a small usable size. Then shiped to you in chemical drums (all ready for leaching) or vaccum sealed bags.
To keep with the theme of where I started this thread, I am also looking for what materials do people want to see.

This is not a sales pitch.
Id like to know what would be the optimal parameters.
Please contribute, dont flame. I think this is a pretty cool idea.
-Donovan

 

[silversaddle1]

There was a guy a while back on e-bay that was doing what you speak of. He was pulverizing PCB's and selling the remains in 10 pound lots. He was calling it "urban ore". Don't see him listing anymore so maybe the market was not there.

 

[Anonymous]

DNI
what is the smallest quantity you are going to offer?
Also, I think some like me, would prefer the boards not crushed.

 

[DNIndustry]

I guess that is another option.
I can offer materials immediately if people are interested and do not require the materials compressed.

I think there is about 2000 lbs of mid to high grade boards that just came in
100+ lbs of processors (havent sorted yet fiber/ceramic)
Shoot me a PM if interested.
Ill post something in the appropriate section shortly, Dont want to polute.

As far as sizes. I am testing costs of getting materials to a 200 mesh size all the way to 2" chunks. Ill find a happy medium. The nice part is that at the smaller size the density will go up. Meaning shipping is easy. I havent done the math specifically but a well sealed plastic bag that fits in the larger flat rate post office box could weigh 50 lbs+. I know the hazard concern may be an issue with the post office, but if we are depopulating batts & caps prior, it still should be ship safe.
We may do a sample pack.