Scrap PCs complete process

[Mikestaf35]

Hello I'm a newbie and would like to apologise in advance if I am posting in the wrong section or asking something that has already been asked.
I own a computer repair shop in the UK and have realised I have been throwing money away for years now to the scrap man, so I have been looking in to either to recover the gold content from the PCs boards memory hdd etc or just sell the components on to a company for scrap.
So I'm looking for some advice on does anyone know of a good company in the UK who buy scrap components?
In your opinion is it more economical time and resources to recover and refine the gold myself of just sell the scrap components?
Finally does anyone know of a video (s) of the complete process of recovery the gold from components and then refining the gold? I have looked on you tube but am more confused now as I think there are multiple processes for refining different parts of the gold I.e. The gold fingers from memory, the gold contacts from memory channels, gold pins from CPUs etc

Ant help and advice for a newbie would be much appreciated, thank you

 

[FrugalRefiner]

Welcome to the forum Mike. You may have been throwing money away for years, but it probably hasn't been much. It takes a lot of computer parts to get a little gold.

I don't have any recommendation for a buyer on your side of the pond, but there are a number of forum members who will probably be in contact with you.

If you already have a full time job, you'll probably be better off selling your scrap. Breaking things down, processing, and dealing with the waste take some dedication of time and money. It's a fun hobby, but unless you go large scale, it's not a big money maker.

You are correct that different parts have to be processed in different ways, and they're all dangerous. Videos make things look simple, but don't expect to learn this craft by watching them. They're examples of when everything goes as planned. More often, things don't go as expected, and the refiner has to rely on hard won experience to get things back on track.

Best of luck,
Dave

 

[g_axelsson]

Moving this topic to Help needed, the Tutorials section is for posting tutorials.

Also taking the opportunity to learn how to move a topic... :mrgreen:

If you are looking at strict economically factors you should just sell the scrap and not spend any money on processing it your self. You could collect some high value components and sell them online on ebay or here on the forum, but almost anything you do with refining gold will pay less than what you do on repairing computers.
To be commercially profitable you need large material streams, we are talking tons of circuit boards here and nothing you process in your back yard.

To start refining gold your self would mean getting acids, equipment and a safe place where you can work where the corrosive fumes doesn't destroy anything valuable in the vicinity. As valuable things I include the nails in the wood frame of small buildings. When the roof falls in because the nails have corroded things get costly. A fume hood or outside are the only alternatives.

But if you want to learn a fascinating hobby and have something shiny to show off then all you need to do is to read on. You are at the right place here. 8)

Göran

 

[danieldavies]

Hi mike
If you don't feel comfortable processing your material yourself, I will be more than happy to buy from you.
Thanks
Dan