Non-Chemical Processing Old Equipment

[chemgal68]

Okay, so I originally came to the forum to seek advice on a bench process we are working on in-house to recovery PGM's from low-level ore. Then I started searching around and started reading about recovering the Au from boards and such and started thinking --- I own a chemistry lab that just moved this summer. Sitting in 2 storage units I have all of the older and un-needed laboratory equipment - most of which is too old to be of any value - I have tried to sell it but this equipment is so heavy that the shipping alone makes it undesirable. This being said, my techs and I started talking about removing the boards and such and recovering the gold from these ourselves. Needless to say we haven't done this before - exactly. Just wondering if done correctly if this is going to be worth our effort.

Just as an example I have 4 PE 2380 AA's, lots of boards and gold plated connectors for the finger boards. When I have had these opened in the past I remember seeing lots of additional boards and such within the instrument. I also have over 25 other pieces of equipment containing boards and such. I am thinking I could remove anything that appears to contain PM's and then scrap the remaining metal to the local company.

Anyone got any thoughts on this or experience with this type of equipment?

 

[element47.5]

Boards from "wherever" usually have gold-plated fingers where the boards sit in edge connectors, gold-plated pins where ribbon connectors connect to Berg-strip pins (in a row or double-row on .100 centers) and various components that contain PMs. There is also the gold-plating on the long connectors the board fingers connect to and physically sit in. There are also chips of various types that may have gold on the outside (in the case of early ROM/RAM and some processors. As always, the thought process involves deciding whether you have enough of this material to make processing worthwhile. It takes a serious load of edge connectors to produce viable amounts of gold. The gold is there, but it takes a lot of raw boards to achieve a yield that has the potential to pay for time, effort and chemicals to make it happen. Virtually all "e-scrap" folks find that their efforts are compensated by the base metals recovery from computers, and whatever PMs they can get are gravy. Indeed, many people just sell off the boards to folks who are better equipped to handle them.

 

[chemgal68]

Thanks for the info. After more discussion this morning, we have decided to take apart the instruments, separate the components and then I will take a picture of the different items and post them here. Maybe at that point someone could help weigh in on whether or not the recovery of the PMs will be worth our time or if I should just look for someone to purchase them outright.

 

[goldsilverpro]

Okay, so I originally came to the forum to seek advice on a bench process we are working on in-house to recovery PGM's from low-level ore. Then I started searching around and started reading about recovering the Au from boards and such and started thinking --- I own a chemistry lab that just moved this summer. Sitting in 2 storage units I have all of the older and un-needed laboratory equipment - most of which is too old to be of any value - I have tried to sell it but this equipment is so heavy that the shipping alone makes it undesirable. This being said, my techs and I started talking about removing the boards and such and recovering the gold from these ourselves. Needless to say we haven't done this before - exactly. Just wondering if done correctly if this is going to be worth our effort.

Just as an example I have 4 PE 2380 AA's, lots of boards and gold plated connectors for the finger boards. When I have had these opened in the past I remember seeing lots of additional boards and such within the instrument. I also have over 25 other pieces of equipment containing boards and such. I am thinking I could remove anything that appears to contain PM's and then scrap the remaining metal to the local company.

Anyone got any thoughts on this or experience with this type of equipment?

I sure hate to see those AAs scrapped. They are extremely useful in the PM scrap business, even the old ones if they still work. Where are you located? What other equipment do you have?

 

[chemgal68]

I hate so see the AAs scrapped as well, however, they all need a little something or other and I don't have room for them in my new facility. They are work horses, wish they made the new ones this hardy. Anyway, I have 4 of them along with auto samplers and furnaces and am located in Colorado. The last one I sold on **** (not sure if mentioning the name was okay or not) only netted me $50 plus several hours of headache for packing and shipping and arranging transport. I also have 2 old HP 5880A GC, these have gold (not sure what to call it) lines on all of the boards, lots of them. Various other older pieces of equipment, some working, some not.

 

[chemgal68]

Our thought process on possibly taking these apart was that there might be 1/2 oz of gold in all of the equipment and at today's prices that would be worth a lot more $$ than selling them. Please correct my thought processes if they are in error. Again, I love chemistry and have been working on bench processes for recovery of PGMs from low level ore for several years and it seems like it might be much simpler to recover gold I can already see on equipment that is costing me to store every month - less frustration I am thinking.

 

[goldsilverpro]

PM sent.

 

[NobleMetalWorks]

If you post your equipment with pictures there might be some of us here who would be interested in them. If you are after the gold, I am sure there will be people interested in purchasing your used equipment with gold they have refined. I currently trade gold I have refined for equipment I need or want from an equipment re marketer. Bartering is a great way to do business in my opinion.

I might be interested in some of your equipment myself.

Scott

 

[element47.5]

Boy oh boy, I myself have zero experience with these things (but many years of electronic experience) but/and I would find the challenge of making one working unit out of four semi-corpses utterly irresistable, if they have any utility as working devices. GSP, you have my spiritual support for making old gear fly!

Road trip!!!

 

[NobleMetalWorks]

Personally I prefer older equipment. I try to either build my own to keep costs down, or purchase older equipment not only to keep costs down, but it lasts. I have two hotplates/stirrers that I picked up, that were made in the 80s and have given me no problems at all. I picked up a newer hotplate/stirrer at a flea market, and it broke after two weeks, I replaced the pot that blew, and it failed in less than a month again. Older equipment was built much better I feel, and built to last.

I hope someone is able to get these working again, it does the heart well to know that old equipment still has purpose and use.

Scott

 

[eesakiwi]

http://www.artisan-scientific.com/73145.htm
PerkinElmer 2380 Atomic Absorption Spectro Photometer

http://www.labx.com/v2/spiderdealer2/vistaSearchDetails.cfm?LVid=19962722 no price
http://www.ebay.com/itm/-/310370196737?item=310370196737&ViewItem=
$1225. 3 bids

I have seen inside stuff like this & have had some of the gold pointed out to me.
The gold parts they pointed out were parts, like a matchbox sized gold plated box with tubes etc comming out of it.
They didn't want me to know too much about it..... I was the only other person who looked at it.

 

[chemgal68]

No offense but what is the point of your picture. I know what a PE 2380 looks like, I have worked on them since 1991 and have 4 sitting in storage.

If you were trying to point out that they will sell, I agree that they might, eventually. But when you factor in a minimum shipping cost of around $450 per unit as they are extremely heavy and usually need to be placed on a pallet, most buyers pay next to nothing. The last one brought in $33.85 profit after the E*** fees - this didn't even cover the cost of the storage unit for 1 month. Now figure in a basic hourly charge for my time in listing and arranging transport and I ended up paying this buyer to take this unit off my hands. Not sure but I think I can make that much money recovering the gold out of each unit. I also have the added pleasure of paying for a storage unit every month I still own them.

On the other hand, if your pictures and links were letting me know what price you might be willing to pay for these units, (I believe the E*** listing closed for $1,225.00) - consider them SOLD - to you. Congrats - I hope you will be very happy with them. Where did you want them shipped and how did you want to pay for them?

Just joking ( that is unless you really were thinking of paying $1225 for them). By the way, all of my units look WAY cleaner than the picture you sent.