Pins/Connectors from the 70's-80's

[joubjonn]

so i got a bunch of the connectors and pins from the 70's (according to the original packages) for free, see pic below. some were in original packages and some were clearly re-packaged. anyway, they all look they have some really nice plating on them. i ran about 35 grams in my sulfuric cell in one shot and it took a good 3-4 minutes for the amps to go down to zero. never saw that before, all the stuff i have ran through that cell took just seconds for the amps to go down to zero, including some gold plate jewelry. anyone have any experience with these types before? any estimations on yield? i only ask because i have ALOT of work ahead of me to get all those things stripped from the connectors. some of them pull right out but some i have to take a hammer to them. and i don't plan on cleaning out the cell until i run all these in it.

thanks!

 

[etack]

Well what you need is a set of calipers and a calculator.

Find the In^2 for the plating and put it in a surface area calculator and you will know.

The plating will be 30 micro inches thick.

Sam has a great one.
http://goldnscrap.com/index.php/calculators/72-gold-plating-calculator

if I would guess I would say $0.60-$0.80 each for the bigger ones.

Eric

 

[kurtak]

I picked up a 35 gallon barrel of pins like the ones in the black housing last year & if I remember right when I ran a 10 lb batch striped clean from the plastic (which wasn't all of them) I got somewhere around a 26 - 28 gram bar

Kurt

 

[joubjonn]

nice! I don't have that much and those do have some nice plating. some of the others have a nicer plating, like what you find on IC's with gold legs. how did you remove the plastic? iv been using a hammer and it's a pain. they are brittle but it take a while. the green and blue plastic ones break up real easy. I was thinking about just running them as is in the cell but don't know if that's a good idea or not, I know sulfuric will melt some plastics.

 

[goldsilverpro]

Thickness in inches x 10.17 x gold spot price = $ per square inch of plating

For 30 micro":
.000030 x 10.17 x 1330 = $.405 per square inch

 

[joubjonn]

I have searched the forum and have found a few little snips here and there about placing plastic connectors in sulfuric but nothing really of any experience doing so. have any of you tried that? I really don't want to make a mess of my solution doing so. these connectors and brittle plastic they break apart with force. I found a nice piece of flexible copper that should work to hang these on in the cell. just trying to save myself hours of hammer time, I already busted one of my fingers up. thought about a ball mill but don't really have enough material to do that with.

thanks for the help on the surface calcs also, I thought maybe in the 70's they might of used more then 30 microns on those parts.

 

[Emmjae]

You don't have to hammer them. Just use a medium to large straight screwdriver. Place the tip in the slot at one end and give a little twist. Then just work it down to the other end. You'll find they pop right apart. I've have done quite a few of these style of connectors.
Personally, I wouldn't try to do the whole connector in the sulfuric acid cell. Placing a strip of copper in the slots sounds easy....however, the pins won't deplate where the copper is in contact and you'll miss quite a bit of the gold that's embedded in the plastic.

 

[kurtak]

Just use a medium to large straight screwdriver. Place the tip in the slot at one end and give a little twist. .

This doesn't work on these - they are not like the slot pins you find in most consumer computer mother boards - using the screwdriver method will only brake away the side wall of the slot - it wont brake the plastic away at the base to relieve the pins from the base

The plastic is a bake lite type plastic so it is more brittle & harder then the more common slots from mother boards

I would incinerate - same as chips

Hammer (or milling) is the only other option

Kurt

 

[joubjonn]

the screwdriver method did work on some but not on others. did exactly what you said it would. break away half but that's it and the pins still stayed in. I'm going to bake them. I think I have a good way to do it and limit the smoke. it worked on IC's.

thanks for the help. from what iv broken down so far I should get about 3 pounds of pins, and a pounds of partial plate, all will go in the cell. I have a pound already from the ones I could break down easy. some look like they have really nice plating. I also got a nice big bag of old used microwave misc parts for $8, lots of gold plate and silver. I think I'm going to post pictures because I don't know what half the stuff is and it's old so google isn't helping.

 

[nickvc]

As a general rule the duller the plating looks the better the quality of plating so if it's bright and shiny it's usually low grade, you look at modern consumer electronics and you will see what I mean.

 

[joubjonn]

I know exactly what you mean, like the plating on old EPROM legs and certain IC's, when I see plate like that I know it's good. kind of dull golden color. not real shiny.

 

[Anonymous]

As a general rule the duller the plating looks the better the quality of plating so if it's bright and shiny it's usually low grade, you look at modern consumer electronics and you will see what I mean.

Ahh but you and I constantly disagree on this one mate :lol:

You've seen some of the plating I get on the server grade kit, and it doesn't always follow that rule.

Jon

 

[necromancer]

thanks, i found an answer to my post http://goldrefiningforum.com/phpBB3/viewtopic.php?f=61&t=20044&p=204605#p204605

 

[joubjonn]

incinerating those didn't work so good. I think they are just to big and I'm not setup for forced air. I'm really thinking about just running them in the cell as is. I'll loose a little bit but not much more then 10% with the rinse

 

[necromancer]

not sure what your location is ...... i live in a cold area

what i did was:

leave the black connectors outdoors over night

next morning smash them with a hammer

sweep all plastic & pins into a 5 gallon bucket, add one kg table salt & fill bucket 1/2 full of water (mix well)

all plastic will float to the top, remove with strainer or slotted spoon

empty water for later use

remove connectors & let dry

process with your favorite way

 

[bmgold2]

not sure what your location is ...... i live in a cold area

what i did was:

leave the black connectors outdoors over night

next morning smash them with a hammer

sweep all plastic & pins into a 5 gallon bucket, add one kg table salt & fill bucket 1/2 full of water (mix well)

all plastic will float to the top, remove with strainer or slotted spoon

empty water for later use

remove connectors & let dry

process with your favorite way

It's little tips and tricks like this that makes you wonder what other things are missed by not fully reading all the posts on this forum. THANKS!!!

 

[joubjonn]

I live in Houston, TX. but I could use a freezer. so your saying that by placing cold connectors after a hammer smash in very salty warm water will release the pins out? I'm going to try this. that's some super salty water.

 

[necromancer]

I live in Houston, TX. but I could use a freezer. so your saying that by placing cold connectors after a hammer smash in very salty warm water will release the pins out? I'm going to try this. that's some super salty water.

what i am saying is:

by using the highly salinated water (warm or cold) that all plastic will float to the top saving you from picking out little bits of plastic from your connector pins

do not smash the whole connectors in the salinated water, it wakes you all wet :lol:
_______________________________________________________________________________

leave the black connectors outdoors over night (or in the freezer)

next morning smash them with a hammer (outdoors in the cold or remove from the freezer 1 or 2 at a time) so they (all) do not warm up

sweep up all plastic & pins into a 5 gallon bucket, add one kg table salt & fill bucket 1/2 full of water (mix well) do not worry about dirt from the ground, it will float too

all plastic and other contaminants will float to the top, remove with strainer or slotted spoon
if your connectors are non-magnetic use a magnet to remove screws or metal parts

empty water for later use

remove connectors & let dry

process with your favorite way

_________________________________________________________________

try an experiment.

find some different types of plastic, wood, wire casings, metal screws & such

make a small batch of highly salted water (table salt + tap or well water)

put bits of plastic, wood, wire casings, metal screws & such into the water

you will see that only the metal screws sink, if you have other items on the bottom simply add more salt.

now..........

try this with water only (no salt) you will find that only some plastics float and everything else sinks to the bottom (leaving a big mess)

i would like to thank the dead sea for giving me this idea LOL

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dead_Sea#Chemistry


HINT:
by adding salt to small amounts of very hot water then diluting into large bucket the salt will dilute faster

EDIT: connectors can be any temperature after smashing and placing into the salinated solution

 

[necromancer]

my favorite tool,

http://www.german-hand-tools.com/images/1311-12-200.jpg

 

[cmiller92]

Could you use the super salinenated water to float ashes better after you incenerate ICs?