kuma
Well-known member
Hello all , how are tricks?
I hope all is well! :mrgreen:
As I mentioned in an erlier post today , over the Christmas and New Year period I had a go at recovering some gold wires from inside I.C.'s using Patnor's pyrolyzation and crushing method.
This seemed well suited to me as it's more of a mechanical process than a chemical one.
As most regular readers might know , I live in a flat / maisonette with my girlfriend and three children , and therefore the storing and using of chemicals are currently out of the question for me.
Still , having said that , just about all of what I did with these chips was done outside and well away from any houses.
At times I used saftey equipment including dust mask and goggles , for the crushing and grinding of pyrolyzed material to dust , and oven gloves and tongs , for the handling and the *shuffling about* of my red hot pan and the contents within.
Heres a breakdown of what I did , how I did it , and how ( I feel ) it went ;
I started with 500 grams , or a little over 1.1lb , of mixed I.C.'s. These were from daughter and motherboards , and all types of other boards from things like printers and scanners , LCD monitors , and from inside all different types of drives.
This 500 grams did not include any CPU's , RAM chips , or North / South Bridge flatpacks , just the square black types with the connecting wires on all four sides , and ranging in size from just a few millimeters across to about maybe 35 - 40 mm across.
You can click on the images to enlarge.
http://tinyurl.com/7rynq3d
To pyrolyze , I used the lid from the top of an old P.C. with a couple of bricks in the back to help retain heat and filled it with 6kg of coal.
The coal that I used was said on the bag to be mixed with peat , and the theory was that you set light to the corners of the bag holding the coal and this would be sufficient to get it going.
Fail! :lol:
I had to rush home to get some change and go to the shop to buy a box of fire-lighters. By the time I had got them and made my way back up the hill it was already quickly getting dark and was starting to spit rain , but not heavily enough to put me off , so I carried on with my mission.
The firelighters worked a treat ( probably the best 60 pence that I've ever spent! ) , and in no time I had the coals burning and glowing nicely.
Once the flames had died down somewhat and the metal tray for the I.C.'s was starting to glow I placed them inside and watched as they smoked a bit and went lighter and lighter in colour until they were mostly a nice shade of grey.
I'm thinking that the I.C.'s were in the coals for around two hours or so , give or take.
When I removed the tray holding them it was glowing a real nice warm red colour , and after a couple of shakes of the pan to see the colour of the chips through I decided that I thought they were looking good , and as it was now dark and still raining slightly I thought enough was enough and made my way home.
I feel that now is a good time to point out that I had carried a large bottle of water with me and when I was finished I tipped the still hot coals out onto wet mud ( from the rain ) and poured the water over them making sure that they were well doused and out before I left.
I also made sure that I removed any rubbish when I left.
The computer lid cooled fairly quickly on it's own , and once I was done clearing up there was still enough heat in the bricks to keep my back warm through my rucksack on the way home , bonus! :lol:
http://tinyurl.com/6ty4vef
The next day , I started to focus on trying to grind and crush the now pyrolyzed I.C.'s to as fine a dust as I could. For this I used a Pestle and Mortar.
I felt that this was working out quiet well for me , and my material started to look a lot like it should. 8)
http://tinyurl.com/7q2ve4g
Once my powder seemed like it was all crushed and ground down to that "baby powder" like consistency , I passed the material through a fairly fine sieve over my large pan.
This left me with the expected larger pieces of left over metal and some smaller pieces of I.C.'s that hadn't fully pyrolyzed.
This has been placed in a jar and will be kept and added to over time untill I have enough to warrant another round of pyrolyzation followed by chemical treatment to further clean up the material.
Once I had sieved all of the fine powder into my pan , I ran a magnet from a hard drive through it to remove some more of the magnetic material and this was placed in the jar with the other metalic bit's that had already been removed.
From my large pan , I spooned the material into my smaller "finishing" pan , carefully panning it into a plastic washing up bowl ( bought especialy for this purpose when I bought my pan set early last year , so it is clean and unscratched and will never be used for dishes ).
I kept up this careful cycle until the water washing off of the material into the bowl was clear enough so I could clearly see how my material was moving and behaving in my pan.
To help see the action in my pan even better , and once I was sure that any values had settled , I poured off most all of the wash water in the washing up bowl and replaced it with clean water.
Once this settled again , after five minutes or so , I carried on washing my material in the small pan , spooning in more every so often.
After a short while , I started to notice that in the bottom of my pan there were lots very small black pieces that could be hiding any potential values from me.
On closer inspection , it became apparent to me that this must have been pieces of I.C.'s that hadn't been fully pyrolyzed , and even though I could pan it out , it took a slightly more aggresive panning action.
Eventualy , I managed to pan it down to a concentrate , and even though it was a really nice feeling seeing colour in my pan , I must admit that I was slightly disappointed with how little I was seeing , especialy with the amount of I.C.'s that I had started with! :shock:
http://tinyurl.com/6p8235j
As I'm not too sure of space limits *per post* , I will finish off in another.
All the very best for now ,
Chris :mrgreen:
I hope all is well! :mrgreen:
As I mentioned in an erlier post today , over the Christmas and New Year period I had a go at recovering some gold wires from inside I.C.'s using Patnor's pyrolyzation and crushing method.
This seemed well suited to me as it's more of a mechanical process than a chemical one.
As most regular readers might know , I live in a flat / maisonette with my girlfriend and three children , and therefore the storing and using of chemicals are currently out of the question for me.
Still , having said that , just about all of what I did with these chips was done outside and well away from any houses.
At times I used saftey equipment including dust mask and goggles , for the crushing and grinding of pyrolyzed material to dust , and oven gloves and tongs , for the handling and the *shuffling about* of my red hot pan and the contents within.
Heres a breakdown of what I did , how I did it , and how ( I feel ) it went ;
I started with 500 grams , or a little over 1.1lb , of mixed I.C.'s. These were from daughter and motherboards , and all types of other boards from things like printers and scanners , LCD monitors , and from inside all different types of drives.
This 500 grams did not include any CPU's , RAM chips , or North / South Bridge flatpacks , just the square black types with the connecting wires on all four sides , and ranging in size from just a few millimeters across to about maybe 35 - 40 mm across.
You can click on the images to enlarge.
http://tinyurl.com/7rynq3d
To pyrolyze , I used the lid from the top of an old P.C. with a couple of bricks in the back to help retain heat and filled it with 6kg of coal.
The coal that I used was said on the bag to be mixed with peat , and the theory was that you set light to the corners of the bag holding the coal and this would be sufficient to get it going.
Fail! :lol:
I had to rush home to get some change and go to the shop to buy a box of fire-lighters. By the time I had got them and made my way back up the hill it was already quickly getting dark and was starting to spit rain , but not heavily enough to put me off , so I carried on with my mission.
The firelighters worked a treat ( probably the best 60 pence that I've ever spent! ) , and in no time I had the coals burning and glowing nicely.
Once the flames had died down somewhat and the metal tray for the I.C.'s was starting to glow I placed them inside and watched as they smoked a bit and went lighter and lighter in colour until they were mostly a nice shade of grey.
I'm thinking that the I.C.'s were in the coals for around two hours or so , give or take.
When I removed the tray holding them it was glowing a real nice warm red colour , and after a couple of shakes of the pan to see the colour of the chips through I decided that I thought they were looking good , and as it was now dark and still raining slightly I thought enough was enough and made my way home.
I feel that now is a good time to point out that I had carried a large bottle of water with me and when I was finished I tipped the still hot coals out onto wet mud ( from the rain ) and poured the water over them making sure that they were well doused and out before I left.
I also made sure that I removed any rubbish when I left.
The computer lid cooled fairly quickly on it's own , and once I was done clearing up there was still enough heat in the bricks to keep my back warm through my rucksack on the way home , bonus! :lol:
http://tinyurl.com/6ty4vef
The next day , I started to focus on trying to grind and crush the now pyrolyzed I.C.'s to as fine a dust as I could. For this I used a Pestle and Mortar.
I felt that this was working out quiet well for me , and my material started to look a lot like it should. 8)
http://tinyurl.com/7q2ve4g
Once my powder seemed like it was all crushed and ground down to that "baby powder" like consistency , I passed the material through a fairly fine sieve over my large pan.
This left me with the expected larger pieces of left over metal and some smaller pieces of I.C.'s that hadn't fully pyrolyzed.
This has been placed in a jar and will be kept and added to over time untill I have enough to warrant another round of pyrolyzation followed by chemical treatment to further clean up the material.
Once I had sieved all of the fine powder into my pan , I ran a magnet from a hard drive through it to remove some more of the magnetic material and this was placed in the jar with the other metalic bit's that had already been removed.
From my large pan , I spooned the material into my smaller "finishing" pan , carefully panning it into a plastic washing up bowl ( bought especialy for this purpose when I bought my pan set early last year , so it is clean and unscratched and will never be used for dishes ).
I kept up this careful cycle until the water washing off of the material into the bowl was clear enough so I could clearly see how my material was moving and behaving in my pan.
To help see the action in my pan even better , and once I was sure that any values had settled , I poured off most all of the wash water in the washing up bowl and replaced it with clean water.
Once this settled again , after five minutes or so , I carried on washing my material in the small pan , spooning in more every so often.
After a short while , I started to notice that in the bottom of my pan there were lots very small black pieces that could be hiding any potential values from me.
On closer inspection , it became apparent to me that this must have been pieces of I.C.'s that hadn't been fully pyrolyzed , and even though I could pan it out , it took a slightly more aggresive panning action.
Eventualy , I managed to pan it down to a concentrate , and even though it was a really nice feeling seeing colour in my pan , I must admit that I was slightly disappointed with how little I was seeing , especialy with the amount of I.C.'s that I had started with! :shock:
http://tinyurl.com/6p8235j
As I'm not too sure of space limits *per post* , I will finish off in another.
All the very best for now ,
Chris :mrgreen:
