Pins in card connectors (backplane in the PC)

[Husker]

Are these pins worth dealing with. You see them in ISA, PCI, etc, and even in many ram configurations. The pins seem to only be plated about 1/2" or so, around the contact point. They have a bend to get them pressed into the card fingers, and it is at this bend location where the gold is.

I can pretty easily pry off the plastic housing, right off the board, by either bending the board, or with a screwdriver to pry the plastic off. Once the plastic is off, there are the fine wires, and are pretty easy to clip them off clean, with no solder.

Is anyone processing these pins? If so, is there much that is recovered from them? They appear to be pretty minimal in gold plating, but I certainly could be wrong.

Jim.

 

[maltfoudy]

if you have a large amount of these i wouldn't just toss em,i am working on about 7k pounds of old telecom boards with a few p2 and p3 boards tossed in. i just add the half plated pins in with the rest,every little bit adds up.

 

[patgspot]

Theres gold in those connectors because I've recycled them. But I just found out that they are made of CuBe (beryllium Copper Alloy). Which produce very deadly toxic fumes when refined. Also the dust from grinding/cutting the material is just as deadly. Just a heads-up so you dont go dying unexpectedly. The gold just isn't worth a life.

Regards,
Pat G.

 

[Husker]

I was planning on running these through a sulphuric cell. Would this CuBe base metal blend be a problem in that cell?

Jim.

 

[butcher]

I cut or break the circuit boards of mother boards, around these and the other conectors ect. process them in copper chloride and air (AP), plastic and all, after done in AP run them through HCL Bleach to get fine gold flakes ,collect mud of gold,copper, lead and tin, then seperate these, with acids and heat (after INCENERATING in corning skillet on electric hotplate till burns off unwanted material in powder)you would be supprised how it adds up, you could also then make it into a type dore bar for cell.