Mordern Boards/cpus

[Buzz]

Where abouts in the UK are you Laurence?

Buzz

 

[LaurenceOs]

Hertfordshire, St Albans if you know it., you?

So guys, wheres the pay dirt? this forums called where to find scrap. and i dont really know. What are the best things to look for, im so into this now, its brill

And i dont like buying off the net cos im an impatient person lol i want things now now now, but it seems the internet is the only way. What about SMB where can i find that?

Loz

 

[LaurenceOs]

and just as an observation, we can search long and hard for old stuff, but modern stuff is available all the time, shouldn't we find a decent way to recover pm from modern boards? or is there a way that you guy know?

 

[leavemealone]

laurence if this was really easy and fast,everyone would be doing it.A lot of people on here have recovered and refined as a profession for many years and now simply share their expertise with others.Most of us are just looking to make some extra money on the side,but a few do it on a very large scale.Most of us can't afford to do that,or live in areas where the sanctions are too high to do it on a larger scale.If you can get the material for free that is always best,I get material from virtually everywhere.I have spent countless weeks doing research on when and where to get material as inexpensive as I can(if not free).Most of the time I find many people will just give me their old compters,I probably have over a thousand cases out back.I dont process motherboards,so If I get into a financial bind,I strip about 100 pounds of boards and take them to a friend of mine that pays me for them.Most of the same people that you see on here got me started several years ago and I am a computer freak so research is super easy for me.Plus my best friend and I start the day off talking about what new ideas we've thought of and what new ways can we process faster.I feel sympathetic knowing that the gold bug has hit you so hard,so I emplore you to have patience....at least for just a little while.Information is a tool and if you try to recover or refine too soon you won't have the right tool(knowledge) and you'll be stuck,or worse you can cause a lot of unneccesary headaches for yourself.If you want to start accumulating chemicals that would be a good idea,you can start here http://www.chemistrystore.com/ .The shipping might be a bit much but its a place to start.Of course you can always buy smaller quantities on ebay.
Johnny

 

[Buzz]

Hi Loz,

I'm In Wakefield, West Yorkshire.

I get my Chems from a local Cleaning Supplies company.
There will be something similar in your area, just look in Yellow pages for
Laundry supplies, janatorial supplies etc..

I pay approx £2 litre for 70% Nitric and 32% HCl.
You will find that UK couriers won't carry it so
you will definately need to get it locally.

I've come to a deal with our local WEEE Recycling centre, whereby i will
recover and refine his scrap for a percentage of the gold.
Also, local schools have usually got piles of broken and unwanted
Computers sitting around.
Downside here is, they might want you to take the monitors aswell.
I still use eBay for scrap.
I picked up 25Kg of network cards for 99p a few weeks ago.
He wanted £25 for postage but he allowwd me to send my own courier round to
collect them. Cost me £7.25. You can find the couriers on eBay too.

One peice of advice is to stay under the radar.
Envromental Health are getting twitchy in the UK.
When you start with the acids, start with small amounts until you get used
to the amounts of Fumes that are produced.
A giant toxic red cloud above your house isn't going to help!

I find it a fascinating hobby but haven't made any real money at it.
The labour involved with Escrap is way to much.
I won't be processing any more.

Regards
Buzz

 

[LaurenceOs]

Brilliant thanks for the help.

Can anyone tell me what i should offer for dental scraps?

 

[leavemealone]

Thats a very hard question to answer.If you are talking about dental scraps on ebay...I wouldnt do that at all.There is so much competition that there is little or no profit margin at all.If you are referring to directly from dentists you will find that a most dentists these days do not do their own reconstructive work.Most do not handle PM's at all.If you do find companies that do the work,most of them already have places they sell to periodically.However,If you are lucky enough to find any that are relatively new then you may be able to get some sweeps cheap.But remember anyone that does that work is well aware of the costs of those materials,and most likely will not let them go for too cheap.
Johnny

 

[LaurenceOs]

A refiners percentage thinggy then, harold? any suggestions?

 

[leavemealone]

Thats an idea,A lot of companies do that toffer to process the material for a fee,that way no matter how much is there you still make money.Then you could offer to buy the PM's for a percentage of spot price,making you even more money.
Johnny

 

[LaurenceOs]

Its no wonder the refineries are crooked... ay

 

[leavemealone]

It all starts with lack of morals,and the lack of being accountable to others.
Johnny

 

[goldsilverpro]

It's greed. When a refiner has a pile of your gold scrap sitting in front of him and he knows that you don't exactly know the value of the pile, he can soon rationalize and convince himself to take a little off the top, even though he is moral in all other aspects of his life.

Many of you understand that it's expensive to process PM scrap, if you consider all the labor, chemical costs, utilities, equipment, fume control, waste disposal, marketing, etc., etc., etc., that a real business has to consider. This is especially true with electronic scrap. Some refiners quote unrealistically low charges in order to get your business. They then steal off the top to cover their expenses and make a profit. Then, in order to be competitive with this refiner, a second refiner has to do the same thing. This happens not only with electronics but also with karat gold.

In one of the refineries I owned, I found myself in this position but refused to succumb to it. I found that if I bought most of the scrap outright, instead of quoting fair charges and settling on a "refinery basis", I had a lot more business. I actually quit refining a couple of times and made and sold hand-carved, gold-leafed wooden signs. I love to refine but I hate the business end of it.

 

[LaurenceOs]

well if you're doing it as a hobby and you're just stockpiling the result you could just see it as fun saving or investing, this is the way i want to look at it so i'm never too bothered. Thing is, i cant save. I have what i call consumer disease; if i have money it has to be spent. So this is ideal for me, im saving in a strange way, and doing something that seems so fun and interesting.

 

[Harold_V]

A refiners percentage thinggy then, harold? any suggestions?

Only that you should not get too deeply involved with e scrap. It is so labor intensive that your prospects of making a profit are not good.

Refining on a small basis can work, and very well, but one must seek a source of high grade materials, so time spent is profitable. The notion that a person can make a good income handling e scrap by hand, sorting and clipping, is not realistic.

Understand that I am not trying to discourage anyone from enjoying it as a hobby. I'm just trying to get readers to look realistically at the overwhelming amount of hand labor required to recover small amounts of value. Without the ability to incinerate and process in bulk, it is very doubtful anyone can make a living. It is for that reason that a great deal of e scrap is shipped to third world countries, where labor is miserably cheap.

The very best possible source for the small refiner is from the jewelry manufacturing industry. I would encourage anyone that has a vision of refining commercially to pursue that avenue. There are many small operations begging for an honest refiner.

Harold

 

[leavemealone]

I would give virtually anything to be able to afford to process and refine on a large scale.There is an old Tarmac plant that shut down about 1/2 mile from my home and it would be perfect to use.Its in an idustrial area and it sits on the railroad tracks.It already has some of the minimum neccesities to get started and I have enough material to keep me going for at least a couple of weeks.Oh well heres to dreaming(holds up coffee cup).
Johnny

 

[LaurenceOs]

Harold, i was referring to the bag full of gold dental scraps my girlfriends boss has.. she works in a dentists in barnet and her boss has been collecting them up for years and in his words said he hopes he can rip someone off for them... In my opinion anyone buying it would know what they're talking about....

I wanna try and get him to let me refine it so i can keep a percentage.

 

[nicknitro]

Laurence,

Look into amalgams. Dental scraps? Do you mean like platinum foil, gold foil, etc, or do you mean like old gold/PGM teeth and such? I have heard it said on other posts, that mercury can be involved in many older dental amalgams. It is obviously toxic, and I'm not quite sure as to how to remove it, except for maybe a retort, and I would highly recommend you get someone like Harold's advice on daling with this, or other issues.

On the other hand , dental scraps can have many PGMs as well, improveing the value of said scrap, but also complexing the refining processes. I wish you the best of luck.


Nick

 

[Harold_V]

Harold, i was referring to the bag full of gold dental scraps my girlfriends boss has.. she works in a dentists in barnet and her boss has been collecting them up for years and in his words said he hopes he can rip someone off for them... In my opinion anyone buying it would know what they're talking about....

I wanna try and get him to let me refine it so i can keep a percentage.

My apologies. I am so backed up right now that I am unable to dedicate the required amount of time to properly read the posts.

That is an excellent source, but you must learn to walk before you can run. while the values in dental wastes can be the best there is, you must also have a considerable amount of knowledge in order to successfully process the material. As has already been mentioned, it's very possible it will be contaminated with mercury, which, here in the States, is no longer an asset, but a liability.

If you can describe the material with some detail, I can provide some guidelines in how to process. From it you can expect to recover silver, gold, platinum and palladium. If you are successful in acquiring the material, it can be akin to hitting the lottery!

Not too long before I sold my business, one of the elderly dentists in my area, a fellow model engine enthusiast, asked me to process a few vials of filings, although not his. One of his colleagues and close friends had died, so he was handling the material for the widow. The material was represented as silver waste, but I quickly discovered that what he had submitted was dental gold filings. The yield, as I recall, was something like 16 ounces, and a total surprise for not only him, but the widow.

Those are days to be cherished! They are few and far between.

Harold

 

[nicknitro]

Harold,

Great Story,

Question, do you ever sleep? LOL

Regards,
Nick

 

[leavemealone]

Question, do you ever sleep? LOL

Did I mention he is nocturnal....rofl.