My first score!

[Geo]

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.

yes they do. the only down side is your cutting some of your gold and leaving it in the board. im planning on saving my boards and basicly running them through my stock pot (which is a plastic 55 gallon drum). theres still alot of action left in the solution, im out of test strips but the last time i checked the PH is still very low in the solution. im going to make it like one big AP run and add an air supply and run all my deplated boards through it until most of the acid is used up. it means alot of transfering solution because as of right now i may have 4 drums of scrap boards that have been scraped.

 

[zuberb]

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. :|

Yeah, I think I'll completely avoid any form of sawing or grinding. I'm making a plenty big enough mess without it. Something else that might work with minimal dust is one of those oscillating tools with the high speed steel cutting blade. I've been wanting one of those anyway. I doubt that would be faster than a sharp, wide bladed chisel though.

 

[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.

yes they do. the only down side is your cutting some of your gold and leaving it in the board. im planning on saving my boards and basicly running them through my stock pot (which is a plastic 55 gallon drum). theres still alot of action left in the solution, im out of test strips but the last time i checked the PH is still very low in the solution. im going to make it like one big AP run and add an air supply and run all my deplated boards through it until most of the acid is used up. it means alot of transfering solution because as of right now i may have 4 drums of scrap boards that have been scraped.

How much gold are we really talking about here? I probably have some pretty low grade stuff here, but I've seen very few pins that are plated all the way down to the board. Seems like the part soldered to the board is nothing but base metal in most cases.

 

[Claudie]

I think you may have misunderstood which tool I was referring to. Here are some pictures of it:
http://www.google.com/search?q=sawzall%20scraper&oe=utf-8&rls=org.mozilla:en-USfficial&client=firefox-a&um=1&ie=UTF-8&hl=en&tbm=isch&source=og&sa=N&tab=wi&ei=R2RGT97aKMSuiQKT5qXaDQ&biw=1024&bih=625&sei=SWRGT8X9NLPTiALyh9zbDQ

http://www.ebay.com/itm/49-00-5456-Milwaukee-3-Scraper-Blade-HackZall-Sawzall-/300471309824?pt=LH_DefaultDomain_0&hash=item45f57c5600

I already have the sawzall, just need that blade!

EDIT: Added link.

 

[Geo]

only the straight pins that the data cable (the flat ribbon type) connect to are plated all the way through the board. as far as percentage wise, its very little compared to the time and effort saved by just shearing them off.

 

[trashmaster]

I have heard about those blades but have not seen them before.. :x Thank you for posting that link ...

I have to get some of those. :mrgreen:

 

[zuberb]

I think you may have misunderstood which tool I was referring to. Here are some pictures of it:
http://www.google.com/search?q=sawzall%20scraper&oe=utf-8&rls=org.mozilla:en-USfficial&client=firefox-a&um=1&ie=UTF-8&hl=en&tbm=isch&source=og&sa=N&tab=wi&ei=R2RGT97aKMSuiQKT5qXaDQ&biw=1024&bih=625&sei=SWRGT8X9NLPTiALyh9zbDQ

http://www.ebay.com/itm/49-00-5456-Milwaukee-3-Scraper-Blade-HackZall-Sawzall-/300471309824?pt=LH_DefaultDomain_0&hash=item45f57c5600

I already have the sawzall, just need that blade!

EDIT: Added link.

Oh wow! Yes, I misunderstood. That tool looks like it would be perfect. I ended up buying something called a 'brick set.' Very similar to that Sawsall attachment and the painters tool, but much more sturdy with a sharpened edge.

http://www.smallparts.com/bostitch-16-222-4-inch-2-inch-brick/dp/B004X9CP6Q?ref_=goo_pf_B004X9CP6Q

GEO, you were right. That is MUCH faster than heating.

 

[zuberb]

Follow-up for anyone else who wants to know how to depopulate without acid or heat.

Three tools have been mentioned in this post.
1. Painters tool
2. Sawzall attachment
3. Brick Set

I've tried the painters tool and the brick set and find that the painters tool is much more efficient. The thickness of the more sturdy brick set would lift the components too far before shearing, then the blade, no matter how sharp, would just bend the pins over without shearing them off. I'll be using the painters tool from now on. A paint scraper would also do well, as long as it will hold up to hammering. Both are the same thickness and have a sharpened edge.

 

[zuberb]

Still slowly picking the pins out of this mess. GEO, you weren't kidding when you said the fun part was picking through all of the components after shearing them off.

Question, I have a bunch of SMD resistors. I think I read somewhere that these have platinum. I'll be reading up on those to see if that is true. Has anyone processed these?

 

[Geo]

computer boards have a lot of MLCC's or MCC's (multi-layered ceramic capacitor or monolithic ceramic capacitor) which contain palladium. while Pd does not bring as much as gold, an average computer has on average 2X the amount of palladium as gold which equates to about as much money in Pd as gold in a PC. these components are usually small rectangular ranging in size from a grain of sand to a few mm's and ranging in color from light tan to black. I've never heard of Pt in a PC.

 

[zuberb]

On first research via Google, some of the surface mount resistors have thin platinum up under the ceramic. The metal ends are nickel plated tin on most of them, but the ones used as thermal sensors have pt inside. I'm guessing those are the ones mounted under the CPU socket, and the ones along the edge of a RAM module. They are for accurately sensing heat levels. Like you said, they are tiny, so it would probably take a whole bunch to get anything out of it.

I might try grinding them all to dust and soaking them in AR. A stannous test for pt would show positive if it is present right? At least positive for platinum group?

 

[Geo]

Harold says to test on concentrated solution. so i would think whatever you get needs to be evaporated down quite a bit. Sam has some videos on his site www.goldnscrap.com you might want to check out.

 

[kuma]

Hello all , how are tricks?
I hope all is well!
We all know that the amount is tiny , but I'm supprised that no one's made mention of Pt on hard drive platters.
It may not be econimical to recover at the moment , but who knows where the market will be in five or ten years , :roll:

A stannous test for pt would show positive if it is present right? At least positive for platinum group?

In a word , yes , this should help you out chief ; http://goldrefiningforum.com/phpBB3/viewtopic.php?f=41&t=5271
All the best with it , and kind regards ,
Chris :mrgreen:

 

[zuberb]

Kuma, I've seen a few posts right here on the forum about platinum on hard drive platters. If I remember right, I think someone actually showed evidence that most of them (except maybe the older ones) had no Pt at all. I think the recommendation was to sell them as aluminum scrap. I'm with you though, until I know for sure, I'm keeping those too.

 

[zuberb]

Ahh yes, I have read that post already, and it makes sense. So, as Harold points out, even if there is very little Pt in solution, I will still see a color change of yellow to some degree.

Getting the gold out of all of this is going to be priority, but as I get time, I'll do this test on all of the surface mount resistors and let everyone know how it goes. I don't think it will take much AR at all. I'll be using poor man's because to date, I'm a failure at creating a decent nitric acid. I'm already asking questions on that under a more appropriate thread.

 

[jimdoc]

Kuma, I've seen a few posts right here on the forum about platinum on hard drive platters. If I remember right, I think someone actually showed evidence that most of them (except maybe the older ones) had no Pt at all.

I think it is actually the newer ones that have small amounts of platinum in them. Very very very small amounts of platinum in them. And you can't tell by looking at them. I don't waste my time with them.

Jim

 

[kuma]

Hello all , how are tricks today?
I hope all is well!

I think it is actually the newer ones that have small amounts of platinum in them. Very very very small amounts of platinum in them.

For sure , the newer ones do seem to actualy have more Pt in them than the older ones , but still in extremely minute amounts.
This from one source , 'Platinum Today' (Johnson Matthey) ;

All disks contain platinum

Information storage requirements continue to expand at rapid rates, fuelled by the growing use of computers for video and audio applications. Today, all hard disks contain platinum in their magnetic layers, compared with around 50 per cent in 1997. The proportion of platinum in the magnetic alloy has been increasing steadily over time, from less than 10 per cent five years ago to over 35 per cent, on average, today.

Source ; http://www.platinum.matthey.com/applications/industrial-applications/hard-disks/
All the best everybody , and kind regards ,
Chris :mrgreen:

 

[zuberb]

35% doesn't sound too shabby! :lol:

Of course, I only got five on this first haul, so I've got some time before I need to even think about how to process those.

 

[jimdoc]

35% doesn't sound too shabby! :lol:

Of course, I only got five on this first haul, so I've got some time before I need to even think about how to process those.

That is 35% of one layer, a very thin layer, not of the whole disk.

Jim

 

[kuma]

Hello all , how are tricks?
I hope all is well!

That is 35% of one layer, a very thin layer, not of the whole disk.

Jim is spot on , 35% does sound good , but when you consider that it's 35% of less than even 1% of the platter , super tiny , :roll:
All the best , and kind regards ,
Chris :mrgreen: