The mother boards I have

[nickvc]

I think the guys are trying to give you alternatives and an insight into the work involved in recovering and refining the values from your material. We're it me I'm afraid I'm with them, too much work for too little return, gold and silver is money in it's most basic forms. If you wish to do a batch of these then fine but there are easy things to process and they in my opinion are not a good type of scrap to learn the processes from, fingers seem to be a good place to start using AP to recover and then refine them by either AR or HCl and chlorox or strip pins in the sulphuric cell to recover the gold and then again use the solvent of your choice to refine. If your stripping down whole computers then most of the money is in the base metals, the values in precious metals need to be graded and if you have a decent feed of material I would harvest high grade to process yourself and sell the rest and buy more to accumulate good materials to work with.
It might not be true to whatever dream you have but it will give you better materials to refine with less chemicals, waste solutions and toxic fumes to deal with and better yields. Make no mistake however green your aims are we deal with very dangerous materials from acids and fumes to the waste we produce and in my opinion the least material with the highest yields are the ones to look for with the least damage to your health or the environment, these worries may be reduced if you have the right hoods and fume scrubbers already if not one run with this material may change your mind.

 

[boutselis]

jimdoc and mmfj

I do appreciate all your advice. I want you to know I believe it to be sound advice and most likely proper for most people. I wouldn't even say I disagree with you. I have flipped these boards for a few years and all the time I had been wondering "can i process these boards? . some one is. Why not me."

It is a desire that has been burning and building in me for a few years now. I know I will be getting more of these boards ( I just picked up about 40 more drives all with logic boards on them) And I may have as much as another 100 lbs in my stash of drives and the 50 lbs is a good place to start.

There is a very good chance I will fail. It won't be the first time I have failed. The first vanity I tried to build wasted $40 in sheet goods before I even got off the ground. The first used jointer I bought ended up being so out of wack it went to the scrap yard and cost me $150 when it was all said and done.

But in those two screw ups I learned a lot about cutting sheet goods and I learned a lot about setting up jointers.

I'm sure You understand what I'm driving at and maybe with a little help from some of you fella's I can learn a lot about processing logic boards. I just hope I don't give up before I do because it looks very hard.

thanks again. I don't want you to think I don't appreciate your thoughts because I do. Keep the advice coming.

 

[boutselis]

I think the guys are trying to give you alternatives and an insight into the work involved in recovering and refining the values from your material. We're it me I'm afraid I'm with them, too much work for too little return, gold and silver is money in it's most basic forms. If you wish to do a batch of these then fine but there are easy things to process and they in my opinion are not a good type of scrap to learn the processes from, fingers seem to be a good place to start using AP to recover and then refine them by either AR or HCl and chlorox or strip pins in the sulphuric cell to recover the gold and then again use the solvent of your choice to refine. If your stripping down whole computers then most of the money is in the base metals, the values in precious metals need to be graded and if you have a decent feed of material I would harvest high grade to process yourself and sell the rest and buy more to accumulate good materials to work with.
It might not be true to whatever dream you have but it will give you better materials to refine with less chemicals, waste solutions and toxic fumes to deal with and better yields. Make no mistake however green your aims are we deal with very dangerous materials from acids and fumes to the waste we produce and in my opinion the least material with the highest yields are the ones to look for with the least damage to your health or the environment, these worries may be reduced if you have the right hoods and fume scrubbers already if not one run with this material may change your mind.

Thank you nickvc. All very good points. Especially about the fumes. In fact A friend who has spent much of his life in a scientific field has just warned me that the biggest help i can get in my endeavor is with some one sending the epa to my home if I do to much of the wrong thing because of the fumes. I think he is a little drastic with his idea of the epa police but I do understand the dangers of fumes.

The yields are secondary to me. Learning the process is first and foremost.

 

[Harold_V]

The yields are secondary to me. Learning the process is first and foremost.

I'm going to enjoy watching your baptism by fire.
You have much to learn, grasshopper.
Uppermost is the ability to take well tendered advice, made obvious by your obstinance.

I'll say one thing. If you can survive processing entire boards, you'll do just fine handling materials that are easier to process. You will also, by then, understand why boards are processed by the means used in industry.

Harold

 

[boutselis]

The yields are secondary to me. Learning the process is first and foremost.

I'm going to enjoy watching your baptism by fire.
You have much to learn, grasshopper.
Uppermost is the ability to take well tendered advice, made obvious by your obstinance.

I'll say one thing. If you can survive processing entire boards, you'll do just fine handling materials that are easier to process. You will also, by then, understand why boards are processed by the means used in industry.

Harold

I am not sure what you would enjoy about it but I Hope you find it entertaining. If I took all the well tendered advice I have received over the years I would not be nearly as happy as i am today. I can not think of any of the pivotal moments in my life where I did not have some one who KNEW much more than me and was steering me in a different direction for my own good. I can think of many more minor instances where people would scoff at me and tell me what i was going to do was never going to work only to find out what i was doing worked great. I won't bore you with details.

Enjoy my spectacular failure. Hope you find it entertaining.

That being said. I had just come in here to say I may have changed my mind. Not completely yet but just may have decided against my goal. I will let you know.

 

[patnor1011]

You remind me of my brother.
If you want to learn process please do.
I would say that most of what you need to know was already discussed here. Some things many times over. Read Hoke and search on forum. There is hardly something what was not covered regarding processing electronic waste.

 

[boutselis]

You remind me of my brother.
If you want to learn process please do.
I would say that most of what you need to know was already discussed here. Some things many times over. Read Hoke and search on forum. There is hardly something what was not covered regarding processing electronic waste.

Well I certainly hope you like your brother.

 

[schomisch]

Boutselis,

I love your ambition to want to learn something new. I would recommend getting some fingers or pins or similar concentrated material and refine it. Do this just to get you used to the chemicals and the processes. If money is not an issue, then in the meantime you can stockpile some more boards, for when your comfortable doing the whole boards. =)) I wish the best of luck to you on your journey!

~Chris!~

ps. If you need some more of the same boards in your pics, I can get you a few thousand more

 

[Harold_V]

I am not sure what you would enjoy about it but I Hope you find it entertaining. If I took all the well tendered advice I have received over the years I would not be nearly as happy as i am today. I can not think of any of the pivotal moments in my life where I did not have some one who KNEW much more than me and was steering me in a different direction for my own good. I can think of many more minor instances where people would scoff at me and tell me what i was going to do was never going to work only to find out what i was doing worked great. I won't bore you with details.

Just as well. What you don't understand is that you hope to run before you can walk. That being the case, and that you see yourself as more clever than those who have experience, what you will accomplish is to drive away those who may have input when you hit a wall, secure in the knowledge that you don't heed anything you're told. So then, what's the purpose in trying to help? Indications are, you hope to hear only that which you wish to hear, not what you need to hear. We've had an endless stream of inquiries like yours--none of which are here long enough to show us that they knew they were right. I wonder why that is.

You're hear for one of two reasons. One of them is you hope to learn enough that you can process for recovery. The other is to show how clever you are, and that the rules don't apply to you. One is a healthy attitude that encourages those with knowledge to share with you. The other is to discourage others from trying to help when you need it most.

Can you guess which side I'm on?

That being said. I had just come in here to say I may have changed my mind. Not completely yet but just may have decided against my goal. I will let you know.

Don't bother. I really don't give a damn. I already know not to try to help, and I'm not the least bit interested in watching the dog and pony show. I'm here to help where I can, not to cajole those who intend to reinvent the wheel.

Harold

 

[boutselis]

I am not sure what you would enjoy about it but I Hope you find it entertaining. If I took all the well tendered advice I have received over the years I would not be nearly as happy as i am today. I can not think of any of the pivotal moments in my life where I did not have some one who KNEW much more than me and was steering me in a different direction for my own good. I can think of many more minor instances where people would scoff at me and tell me what i was going to do was never going to work only to find out what i was doing worked great. I won't bore you with details.

Just as well. What you don't understand is that you hope to run before you can walk. That being the case, and that you see yourself as more clever than those who have experience, what you will accomplish is to drive away those who may have input when you hit a wall, secure in the knowledge that you don't heed anything you're told. So then, what's the purpose in trying to help? Indications are, you hope to hear only that which you wish to hear, not what you need to hear. We've had an endless stream of inquiries like yours--none of which are here long enough to show us that they knew they were right. I wonder why that is.

You're hear for one of two reasons. One of them is you hope to learn enough that you can process for recovery. The other is to show how clever you are, and that the rules don't apply to you. One is a healthy attitude that encourages those with knowledge to share with you. The other is to discourage others from trying to help when you need it most.

Can you guess which side I'm on?

That being said. I had just come in here to say I may have changed my mind. Not completely yet but just may have decided against my goal. I will let you know.

Don't bother. I really don't give a damn. I already know not to try to help, and I'm not the least bit interested in watching the dog and pony show. I'm here to help where I can, not to cajole those who intend to reinvent the wheel.

Harold

Dude. I don't know what your talking about. I don't think I'm more clever than any one. I just know I do things different. And I am not here to show how clever I am. I could care less about how clever people think i am. Especially people I am never going to meet. I just don't see why you and a few others would try so hard to talk me out of doing something that I already want to do. Why don't I just stop doing everything that isn't profitable?

I came here for help. so far I have gotten more crap for wanting to try than I have gotten help. I don't care what side your on. You don't want to help me then don't. Just sit back and laugh because you obviously have NO idea what my goal is. I just like doing THINGS. things of all kinds. Its just the way I am. I stumble across something I want to do and I do it.
There is one thing I don't feel like doing. That is driving around and picking up computers and what not to find the gold in it. I always found scavanger hunts boring. What i have to work with is HERE and was super easy to get. It practically walks into my shop under its own power. I am very fortunate to have it.

If you would like to help , and still feel free to laugh while you do as it will not bother me, then it would be much appreciated. I hope you fall on the side of helping. There are way to many people in this world that have the attitude of "if your not going to do the things i feel like helping with then I'm not helping".

So I am asking you for your help and I hope I get it because I need it.

thanks for your input and this short debate. I do like a good little debate once in a while.

 

[etack]

I'm not in your debate between you and Harold. That said all the info you need is on the forum. patnor1011 has a pdf on chips in his sig. search and read


I now that most of the people that say sell your boards say that because you have done whole boards and know how much it sucks. However most of you started with MB which in my opinion one of the lowest grades of boards to start with. HD controllers boards are 3X the price of MB for a reason. They contain more with less waste and are easier to tare down.

here are some numbers to think of each IDE HD contains $0.40 in pins 10 grams of of chips (on the low end) @ $0.11 a gram that $1.50 a board without the #s for the chip resistors or capacitors.

pin #s came from me with the help of goldnscrap.com calculator with the plating thickness at 30 as most male pins are
chip per a gram came from Geo

i just did 2 pounds of IC's and recovered 2 grams of refined gold. this is what i do.

Eric