Some really nice boards.

[glondor]

I picked up 400 lbs of boards today. There was 100 pounds + of boards like these. Just wanted to share how good looking they are. What would youse guys do with these, feel free and chime in. Have to pick up another 200 lbs tomorrow.

 

[trashmaster]

what did you pay for these???? nice looking NEC chips on them .
very nice looking boards,,, Thanks for the pics...

 

[glondor]

I caught a lucky break while at the scrap yard unloading a truckload of computer steel, this fellow walked passed me with 4 boards in his hands on his way in to get a price on them. I grabbed his attention on his way out and flipped him my card, He told me the scrap guy offered him a buck a pound, The scrap yard owner was making a beeline for us so I just told him to call me. He did and I went to see what he had yesterday. I offered 4 per pound for the ones in the pics, 3 per pound for 200 pounds of less flashy boards and a buck a pound for another 300 pounds of basic boards. I pick up another 200 pounds tomorrow. Needless to say we were both very happy. He was just going to throw them out. He is not a new guy to scrap, he has been scrapping for 20 years. He just did not want to deal with such a small amount. The flashy ones were all in boxes marked sony ericson. The lesser ones were all from a casino's gambling machines. 200 pounds of the casino boards all have fingers.

I still put the question out there. What would you do with them????

 

[Oz]

Glondor, that is a lot of money to put out if you did not know what you were going to do with them. How did you decide your pricing that you paid?

 

[Barren Realms 007]

I would be guilty of processing everything I could off the boards. But most would try to sell them and make a profit.

 

[glondor]

Hey OZ I do know what I am going to do with them. I was just curious what others would do thats all. (or see if there are better ideas). These will round out a 1000 pound lot that will goto a local cyanide stripper. In the end I will have about 600 pounds of boards for about 1100/1200 bucks. I can not get hurt on them. They are the nicest boards I have ever seen.

Do you ever deal with this stuff OZ? I would love to incinerate the lot of them, mill and process the ash and clinkers but I have not found a place yet that can incinerate these, so the second best option is to cherry pick them a bit and have the cyanide guy do his thing.

I will check tomorrow but there must be close to 100-150 processors on these boards and 90% of them are plated.

 

[glondor]

Hey 007 I like the way you think...Dust mask and air chisel woo hoo

 

[Oz]

Do you ever deal with this stuff OZ?

Generally speaking, no I do not. I have of course “played” with electronics but they are a lot of hassle for the return when you can just sell the refining problem down the road at a profit. Mind you I have that opinion even though I get all of my computer scrap for free.

I will tell you though that after looking briefly at your boards that if you send them out for cyanide treatment you will not recover all the values (unless they ball mill them fine) from your ICs and similar components. If you wish to spend the labor, ask for your boards back after processing.

 

[glondor]

Thanks OZ. Wrecker 45 tells me they do incinerate and mill before leaching. I have been looking forward to sending a load. The biggest worry is of course getting full value for the boards sent. I don't know how to do this yet, but I will learn. I may keep these boards out of the material for the leach until I am sure I can get full value for them. I will keep the forum up to date on how it works out.

I would rather incinerate and mill outside the facility and get an assay on the values and then send the pulp in for a leach but I cannot find a place to do the incineration. I will not try to incinerate them myself as much as I would like to. A barrel burner seems easy enough to make and use but I would not be sure I was eliminating the toxic smokes and I would probably blow a fortune up the stack of the burner anyhow.

I will start a thread later for advice on how to not get burned by the refiner.

 

[dtectr]

In my life, if the shrimp cocktail smells bad, it is usually bad. Regardless of how badly I want one, I don't try it just to find out.

In GSP's book he gives some VERY good advice on how not to get screwed by the refiners. Since he was one for many years (maybe is again?) he knows what of he speaks. One thing for sure, I would NEVER send out a batch that size without quantifying the values first.

This reminds me of keno, where you basically give a gal your money, then she tells you if you picked the right numbers or not! :lol:

I was in sales for many years & was constantly amazed at salespeople who put their commissions totally in the hands of management (Don't get me started). I never went home at night without knowing 1st EXACTLY how much money I had earned that DAY & month-to-date. And it saved me money more times than I can count.

With the quantity you have as feedstock, you could easily spare 5-10 lbs. to sample first. I believe that would be the best bet, at the very least. They won't rot while you're taking time to quantify values. After they're processed by the refiner, you are pretty much screwed when it comes to dispute. The refiner has already spent his time & materials, & he will have a complete record of what he processed, though not necessarily an honest one. What documentation will you have?

I highly recomend GSP's book, not only for processes, but also for insight into matters like this from "the other side of the table".

just my dos centavos.
dtectr

 

[glondor]

I agree with you 100% dtectr. The trouble I have at this point is finding a place to sample and assay the material. You are right, the boards will not rot, so I do have some time to ponder this and make choices as well as find the right way to do this. I do have GSP's book by the way. It is very good. Can any one tell me what metals cyanide will recover? I have been told it does not recover silver or pgm's. Is this correct?

I will however solicit any advice on this subject here, and use the knowledge here to help me get this going. Cheers.

 

[texan]

As has been said here before some of the older ceramic chips may be worth more as collectables than as scrap. I would check them out even before harvesting from the boards.

Texan

 

[glondor]

Hey Texan, most of these boards are about 2003 I think.

 

[texan]

Hey Texan, most of these boards are about 2003 I think.

That's the "Middle Ages" in computer time.

Texan

 

[dtectr]

Just an idea - this is called "high grading" & much more profitable than merely shipping them whole to refiners.

 

[glondor]

Oh yes, These will be stripped naked I think.

 

[Anonymous]

Since I started processing,99% of the material I have refined has been Escrap. I am telling you that you do not want to incinerate these.Unless you had a commercial grade afterburner on your incinerator you WILL have law enforcement and the fire department called on you.I incinerated a load of boards once without an afterburner...........I will just say that it won't happen twice.There are some guys that have the capabilities of getting the primary source hot enough to stop the smoke,but its very hard to do.
I don't like the cyanide idea either.Whatever company you choose to process these should know better than to try to run them in cyanide.There is too much "untouchable" gold on these.
Commercially incinerated,ground to 60 mesh,melted,then electrorefined (via rolled plates),would probably the best way to go IMO.Of course I am sure others would have different ideas.....that was just mine.

 

[glondor]

Mic, That is exactly what I want to do with these. Unfortunately I have not found the right place yet. I may not be able to do what I want in this case.

If the boards were shredded really good, after high grading, i suppose it would help the cyanide leach would it not.

 

[trashmaster]

Very nice boards indeed;; I think that they are mainly telecom boards,, The last pic bottom right chips are NEC and has a date on them (the ones that has the round gold solder on the cap these were declared obsolete in I think it was 2001) I have around 15lbs dated 1988-1989...

please post pics for the other lower grand boards of around the same size , as the ics can be loaded with PMs

 

[Harold_V]

Can any one tell me what metals cyanide will recover? I have been told it does not recover silver or pgm's. Is this correct?

No, it's not correct. Cyanide, used quite dilute (.02%), will dissolve silver and gold only. In higher concentration, it will also dissolve copper. It does not dissolve any of the platinum group, to my knowledge. It is also most likely you would not be successful in making a purchase for home use. That's a good thing considering how little cyanide it takes to kill.

Harold