NOOB has the basics, but still has questions

[powermetalx]

Hello all. Thank you very much for making all this info available. I'm trying to make a few bucks with this recycling of precious metals.

I have the following procedure mapped out for recovery.

1) Remove gold fingers from ram and pci cards.

2) Remove pins from cpu's.

3) Remove pins from male and female connectors on cords and motherboard slots (i.e. ram and pci slots).

4) Remove flatpacks and IC's and collect.

Here is my question: Can I put all the pins in the same recovery solution? Or should I keep the CPU pins separate from the cord-pins separate from the female slot-pins?

Also, can I process the flatpacks along with the integrated circuits?

Again, many thanks to all the participants!

 

[solar_plasma]

You haven't got the basics of the basics. You will have to read more...Hoke...guided tour.... safety section before you start.

But one question is quite good and I wished, I had known the answer earlier: sort those thing as much as possible. Full plated, heavy plated, partly plated, thin plated, plated material A, plated material B.....

Later you may decide to put some together, but that's easy. But having sorted them will make it easier for you later.

 

[powermetalx]

Thank you solar plasma!

I've read a fair amount of Hoke. I'm also a phd student in physics, with lots of lab experience and machine shop experience. I understand safety precautions.

My instinct is to keep all sources separate. But this raises the number of processes I need to implement. I just wish I could put all the pins together.....

My impression so far is that I must keep the CPU pins separate at least, but maybe combine the cord and slot pins....

Does anyone try to recover the silver directly from the solder? It seems like the lead would make this a real pain in the neck....

 

[solar_plasma]

Here is my question: Can I put all the pins in the same recovery solution? Or should I keep the CPU pins separate from the cord-pins separate from the female slot-pins?

The tendency is to process low-grade plated in a sulfuric cell and high-grade/full plated in AP, best you post some pictures,if you are not sure.

Also, can I process the flatpacks along with the integrated circuits?

I am still working at my first batch, which was a blend of everything that was black and had more legs than a spider. Next time I would sort them in higher and lower than one gramm/kg. You can save much time,if you from the beginning cut the legs off, so you don't have any solder

My impression so far is that I must keep the CPU pins separate at least, but maybe combine the cord and slot pins....

Better to start with only one for one sort till you get a feeling for it. When using sulfuric cell, you will not put the whole batch in it at once. So just keep them sorted, so almost all items get stripped at the same time.

CPU pins are very small and full plated, I would put them in AP.

Does anyone try to recover the silver directly from the solder? It seems like the lead would make this a real pain in the neck....

The silver yield from e-scrap and its price is low, so I see it as a by product...too much value to through away, too little to use too much energy on it. In the most processes it will be recovered when precipitated as AgCl. I just keep the solids, that contain AgCl for later processing.

My instinct is to keep all sources separate. But this raises the number of processes I need to implement.

Follow your instinct. Later you can always decide to put some parts together. Blend them and you have no choice. If you only want to be specialized in one process, just sell the other stuff and get more of yours.

The more experienced folks will please correct me.

 

[ovidiuanghel]

Here is my question: Can I put all the pins in the same recovery solution? Or should I keep the CPU pins separate from the cord-pins separate from the female slot-pins?

Also, can I process the flatpacks along with the integrated circuits?

Again, many thanks to all the participants!

Separate the pins, full plated and partial plated, also put the CPU pins separate because the base metal is kovar.

The flatepacks you can process whit the other IC, i separate only the south/north bridge and ceramic IC from other chips.