Non-Chemical Removing Pentium Pro Bottom Lid

[Rag and Bone]

Has anyone tried removing the bottom plastic lid of a Pentium Pro using heat? (the plate that covers the core)

 

[lazersteve]

Rags,

The lid is more like a thin ceramic and yes I've removed them with heat. I use a MAPP gas torch. I heat the perimeter of the lid area and when I see the solder liquify I flip the cpu over using a pair of long SS tweezers and knock the cpu on the concrete. The lid falls right off in one or two tries.

Steve

 

[Rag and Bone]

Thanks Steve. I'm getting some ready for AR. I'll try a toaster oven first and bust out the torch if it doesn't work.

 

[patgspot]

Hi Steve,

I was worried that the Mapp gas would melt the gold off the pins or even melt the pins themselves trying to heat the bottom off the pentium pro. You don't lose any gold that way ?
Thanks
Pat G.

 

[Harold_V]

I was worried that the Mapp gas would melt the gold off the pins or even melt the pins themselves trying to heat the bottom off the pentium pro. You don't lose any gold that way ?

I don't want to interfere with this conversation, but here's something to consider. Regardless of the state of the gold, it is never lost. Even if you melt pins completely, the gold is still there--it's just alloyed with the base metal(s). Depending on your procedure, it can be easily recovered. Stripping, of course, becomes useless, but if you dissolve the base metals by any method, the end result is finely divided gold, ready to be separated from the solution.

Do keep in mind my refining experience excluded electronic scrap for the most part, and never included any of the work-around methods promoted here on this forum. I'm fully supportive of those methods, just commenting that refining with commercially prepared acids is slightly different as far as procedure is concerned, but the end product is one and the same. It is for these reasons that I constantly promote Hoke's book. If you understand what she teaches, all of these things become obvious.

I hope this doesn't discourage Steve from responding. That was not my intention. He will lend expertise to the problem based on the very procedures I mentioned.

Harold

 

[lazersteve]

Pat,

When you heat the Pentium Pro chip (or any cpu) keep the torch moving in a circular pattern and between 4-6 inches from the bottom plate. The tip of the flame should follow the perimeter of the bottom lid. Don't bear down on the cpu housing with the entire torch flame and you can remove the lid without fusing the gold plating to the base metal legs of the cpu.

If you do fuse the gold plating to the cpu legs you will need to use AR to completely dissolve the alloy as Harold has alluded. I've recently posted a modified version of the Poorman's AR method that works very well on ceramic cpus.

Here's the link:
Modified Poorman's AR

Steve