My first score!

[zuberb]

I just got my first score from minimal advertising on a free ad service. A guy from the IT department at a local business called me, and I got 7 desktop computers, 8 flatscreen monitors, 8 working CRTs (went straight to Goodwill with those puppies), a laser printer, an all in one fax machine, two UPS, and two keyboards. I know the monitors, UPS, keyboards and printers are not going to yield much (if any) Au, but I didn't want to pick through his stuff, and I really do want to help keep this stuff out of the landfill.

I've disassembled all of the desktops. I'm posting pics of the 7 CPUs. No idea how much gold I'll get from those. I may wait until I have a bunch more before I even mess with them.

The IT department had removed all RAM and expansion cards except for one machine, and it only had two DIMMs. That machine had an after market video card attached to an expansion card (PCI riser). So after disassembling 7 computers, I only have four sets of fingers. Everything else will come from pins.

I'll post pics of the boards and fingers later.

 

[Marcel]

Congrats!
You can remove the memory sockets and the CPU sockets as well. Put them on a hot plate until the tin melts and simply remove them with some pliers. The contacts contain gold and some PM as well. Also remove all board connectors (USB etc.).
While so you can also remove all (larger) ICs.

 

[gold4mike]

The UPS's will have a circuit board, a battery or two (sell for the same as car batteries), and some brass strips that make up the sockets (depending upon UPS model).

It's all good!!

 

[zuberb]

I'm still learning, so I'll definitely be taking everything apart. I tore down one of the Compaq keyboards last night and the key contacts were the gray stuff printed on clear plastic. I only found one connector in that whole keyboard with four plated pins.

Good tips on the component removal. I was going to use my heat gun, but I might try the hot plate. Might be quicker and easier on my back. There's definitely gold in all of those sockets.

 

[zuberb]

These are the only fingers I got out of 7 computers. I was mistaken, there were two DIMMs.

I'll be saving all flatpacks as well. Anyone know if these GPUs have gold? All of the Mobos had integrated video, so there are two of those chips on each motherboard as well.

 

[zuberb]

Here are the motherboards. The newest computer had that cheap motherboard in it. Hardly any visible gold at all on that one. Anything that is gold plated on that one looks like they barely brushed it.

 

[pimpneightez]

It's my understanding the grey stuff on the plastic from the keyboards are silver. save them until its worth processing. I never did it before but I think it's relativly easy because there are no other base metals to contend with.

 

[WEG]

I'm just starting myself so I've got about a gazillion questions and 1 or 2 answers. With those CPU chips I understand the pins can be heated and will fall out, but is there anything inside the chips making it worth breaking them up?

 

[Geo]

chech that video card against whats on Ebay and see what others are getting for them, assuming it works.

the mother board with the blue plastic and the SATA ports still have gold on the pins. the finish is very bright, pull the plastic sockets off leaving the pins in place and see if the gold shows better.

the fiber CPU's have a small amount of gold other than the pins, they need to be incinerated with the north and south bridge chips.

 

[zuberb]

Still tearing it all down. Only four flat screens to go. The long skinny circuit board in the LCD monitors appears to have a long set of gold fingers and gold all over the board.

Does anyone have experience with LCDs? That is gold right? I'll still tear them down for recycling, but these boards may be candidates for the AP pile.

 

[zuberb]

chech that video card against whats on Ebay and see what others are getting for them, assuming it works.

the mother board with the blue plastic and the SATA ports still have gold on the pins. the finish is very bright, pull the plastic sockets off leaving the pins in place and see if the gold shows better.

the fiber CPU's have a small amount of gold other than the pins, they need to be incinerated with the north and south bridge chips.

That's a very good point Geo. I will certainly test video cards in the future to see if they work before tearing them down. Honestly, the way these computers have been treated, I'd be afraid to stick that graphics card in any of my machines. Besides, although this card would pull way more money from an auction than the gold I'll get, I'm after the experience at this point. From what I see in the photo galleries, experience in this line of work is worth its weight in.....well, you know...

 

[zuberb]

All done with the monitors. On to the laser printer.

One question. I have broken everything down to the basic recyclable parts. The only thing I'm not sure on is the lamps from the monitors. I know they contain mercury. I just don't know the proper way to dispose of them. Guess I'll be calling around tomorrow to see what the local laws say.

Steve mentioned that he gets the stuff he wants off of boards, then sells the boards. Is that right? People will actually still purchase the boards after we've pulled all the good stuff off?

 

[Claudie]

chech that video card against whats on Ebay and see what others are getting for them, assuming it works.

the mother board with the blue plastic and the SATA ports still have gold on the pins. the finish is very bright, pull the plastic sockets off leaving the pins in place and see if the gold shows better.

the fiber CPU's have a small amount of gold other than the pins, they need to be incinerated with the north and south bridge chips.

The heat sink has been ripped off. It probably lost a lot of value when that happened. :|

 

[zuberb]

Example of the monitor boards I mentioned. Looks like gold to me.

 

[zuberb]

chech that video card against whats on Ebay and see what others are getting for them, assuming it works.

the mother board with the blue plastic and the SATA ports still have gold on the pins. the finish is very bright, pull the plastic sockets off leaving the pins in place and see if the gold shows better.

the fiber CPU's have a small amount of gold other than the pins, they need to be incinerated with the north and south bridge chips.

The heat sink has been ripped off. It probably lost a lot of value when that happened. :|

Yeah, they went a little crazy with the thermal paste. Of course, the value probably went way down once I scraped the paste off with a screwdriver. :twisted:

 

[joem]

Example of the monitor boards I mentioned. Looks like gold to me.

Right now I have an auction of these vid boards. I have removed the fingers and they are in A/P. I was also told the ribbon connectors have gold in them, but I learned this after I scrapped them. Oh well I will get more.

 

[zuberb]

Marcel, I'm removing all the sockets as you pointed out. The hotplate idea didn't work out so well. I mean it worked, but I think the heat gun is twice as fast (and less pungent). Now what I'm dealing with is the tedious process of removing all of the pins from the sockets. I can't imagine everyone is doing this with some of the big stockpiles I've seen on here. Is there a better way? I was going to put all of these into my cell, but the two problems I see are 1. The pins still have some solder on them, and as I understand it, I don't want solder getting into my cell. 2. It's going to take forever to get all these pins out, and I'll still have to wash all the solder off of them. I'm guessing with HCl.

Could I just run these sockets in AP with the pins still in them? Seems like it would be more efficient.

 

[Geo]

the solder wont effect the stripping cell that much, you just don't want that much in your AP. i use a tool called a painters tool, its a scraper type tool that has a metal cap on the top of the handle that you can strike with a hammer. i set the board on its side and use the scraper like a chisel and cut every thing from the board. it keeps solder out of the mix and i can depopulate a MB in a couple minutes by hand. leather gloves are needed because some dexterity is involved holding the board upright and holding the scraper with the same hand. practice makes perfect so don't despair if you cant do it on the first few tries. i use a low profile cardboard box with a small flat piece of steel in the box to keep from destroying the box for cutting in as the components will fly off while being cut. i spread a small tarp to catch these. ive never really counted but im not afraid to say i can cut 1 MB per minute. the real work is sorting through all these parts. a magnet helps some.

some of the plastic sockets will dissolve in strong hcl solutions, i believe its the type of pvc the socket is made of. you may wind up with a black solution with lumps of gooey plastic trapping your gold foils.

 

[zuberb]

Thank God I only did one MB before asking. I know exactly the tool you're talking about. Unfortunately, I don't have one, but I will tomorrow.

I imagine the pins come out of the plastic much easier when they are sheared from the MB.

 

[Claudie]

I live about 7 miles South of Nowhere USA, so we don't have very good access to tool stores here. On my list of things to get when I go to the city is a scraper tool that fits in my Sawzall. I have seen them before at stores like Home Depot & Menards. I think it will make fast work of stripping some of these things. Make sure you are cautious of the dust created. :|