haveagojoe
Well-known member
- Joined
- Aug 1, 2014
- Messages
- 70
Hi folks, I'm back on the forum after many years out..
I am trying to process about 20 laptop trackpad pcbs with gold tracing. They had some kind of sticky glue substance over the gold so I decided to incinerate them to get rid of it. I put them in an old soup can in a wood fire which I fanned by hand to get it nice and hot.
When I removed the boards after incineration there was no gold colour left, the remaining traces look grey.
Is it possible that the gold was evaporated and burned off in the fire leaving only copper behind? I have placed them in copper chloride solution ("AP") and am waiting to see if the traces dissolve. They haven't yet, and some seem to be coming off the boards as I would expect gold foils to do, but I'm concerned that the gold colour is no longer present, only dull grey.
Any thoughts?
I am trying to process about 20 laptop trackpad pcbs with gold tracing. They had some kind of sticky glue substance over the gold so I decided to incinerate them to get rid of it. I put them in an old soup can in a wood fire which I fanned by hand to get it nice and hot.
When I removed the boards after incineration there was no gold colour left, the remaining traces look grey.
Is it possible that the gold was evaporated and burned off in the fire leaving only copper behind? I have placed them in copper chloride solution ("AP") and am waiting to see if the traces dissolve. They haven't yet, and some seem to be coming off the boards as I would expect gold foils to do, but I'm concerned that the gold colour is no longer present, only dull grey.
Any thoughts?
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