Non-Chemical Touchpad Recovery

[butcher]

Use the caustic waste you generate, to neutralize the acidic waste you generate.

NaOH + HCl --> NaCl + H2O,
(caustic soda and hydrochloric acid neutral PH is salt water).

Raising the PH to around 9 will precipitate most dangerous metals in solution.

Editing to add additional Idea:

Use caustic waste to make hydrogen gas for a torch, or just to remove aluminum from something.

One mans waste is another mans treasure think recycle not disposal.

 

[solar_plasma]

Some touchpads use an adhesive to attach the gray plastic sheet

I just removed it by putting the pad into nail polishcleaner (non-acetone), two days after the adhesive could easilyand quickly be rubbed of.

 

[drlonzo]

This is sort of off subject but do all touchpads have the gold plating or are there just certain ones? If just certain ones can anyone shed some light on what brands to look out for? Thanks,

 

[solar_plasma]

edit:

This is sort of off subject but do all touchpads have the gold plating or are there just certain ones? If just certain ones can anyone shed some light on what brands to look out for?

I have only scrapped maybe 6-10 notebooks. As far as I remember were all devices made by Synaptics with gold plating. Though I remember there was only two of them all that had a good plating, the rest had that very thin plating which almost looks silverish. I am more or less sure the good ones were Synaptics - would be fine, if someone could validate this.

 

[rickbb]

I'm not kicking myself for not seeing this post a few months ago. Just the thought of that pallet load of notebooks that I paid to have hauled off. sigh

 

[solar_plasma]

This is sort of off subject but do all touchpads have the gold plating or are there just certain ones? If just certain ones can anyone shed some light on what brands to look out for?

I just found one made by Synaptics, which is very thin gold plated like those vibra soundcards.

 

[Geo]

any gold content is still gold and should be reclaimed. for the touch pads, make sure all the glue is removed first. use a piece of copper mesh cloth and cut a strip as wide as the board and twice as long. fold the piece in half long-wise. add a couple of copper clips and you have made an anode basket for a stripping cell. aside from the electricity, everything else is re-usable.