What to do--Have 70s 80s Vintage Instrumentation & Circuitry

[mademjac]

Hello:
I have quite a bit (a warehouse full) of obsolete electrical and instrumentation from a defunct facility that we want to liquidate. I don't know where to begin, but am thinking that perhaps we may want to recycle for precious metals contained. Any guidance would be appreciated. Please see pictures. Please help. Cindy

 

[Barren Realms 007]

Looking at your pictures IMHO you might not get a lot of PM's out of this stuff. You would probably do better checking the mfg numbers on the boxes you have and research them. I think you will find that you will do better selling the stuff as used control equipment.

 

[silversaddle1]

Location????

 

[leavemealone]

Yeh where are you located?You may want to see if one of the elders on the board may come over and let you know what they think.I looks like there is potential,but like barren said you may be sitting on a virtual gold mine if you have some things there that have good resale values.
Johnny

 

[glorycloud]

Picture # 1 looks like high end CCITT pins from V.35 comm stuff.
They should have nice gold plating on them. 8)

 

[mademjac]

Sorry I haven't posted responses--I'm just learning how to manuever this forum. I have been here every day, reading and gleaning info (and lurking). I just unhid my profile today, after reading that some of the GUYS were creeped out, sorry about that. I'm harmless (as far as this forum goes, anyway). I don't know where to begin, but I want to start turning some cash for our business (we're in the excavating business, but my dad buys and sells just about anything, as you can see from the pics).

 

[mademjac]

This equipment came from the closing of a "partial" nuclear plant under construction--it was closed during construction due to being built on a swamp, I think, ie foundation issues. Dad bought it at dismantlement auction, and sold off for 10 years or so. We have done nothing with it for probably 10 years, just pushed it aside here and there with forklift. Now, as I'm scrapping metal from our regular operation (excavation), I'm looking inside some of the boxes and stuff for brass, aluminum, and copper to scrap, and I happened to come across this forum, and now my interest is picqued. I want to know the best way to scrap or liquidate this equipment, but re-selling equipment when you know nothing about it can be extremely difficult. I am totally lost, and need to almost be led by the hand in what to do. I like the thought of pm recovery, though--very intriguing. I showed some of the gold-plated and silver parts to my dad, and have aroused his interest, as well, so he's all in. So, I'm ready when any or all of you are. Thanks in advance.
Cindy

 

[mademjac]

Here is a sample circuit board from my inventory. Most of the circuitry on my boards are silver (?). Non-magnetic. I know nothing about the black or ceramic bead chips and other components. Are they worth anything? I have many boxes containing circuit boards such as this.

 

[Barren Realms 007]

This equipment came from the closing of a "partial" nuclear plant under construction--it was closed during construction due to being built on a swamp, I think, ie foundation issues. Dad bought it at dismantlement auction, and sold off for 10 years or so. We have done nothing with it for probably 10 years, just pushed it aside here and there with forklift. Now, as I'm scrapping metal from our regular operation (excavation), I'm looking inside some of the boxes and stuff for brass, aluminum, and copper to scrap, and I happened to come across this forum, and now my interest is picqued. I want to know the best way to scrap or liquidate this equipment, but re-selling equipment when you know nothing about it can be extremely difficult. I am totally lost, and need to almost be led by the hand in what to do. I like the thought of pm recovery, though--very intriguing. I showed some of the gold-plated and silver parts to my dad, and have aroused his interest, as well, so he's all in. So, I'm ready when any or all of you are. Thanks in advance.
Cindy

Not sure what those 1st 2 pictures are they are not definate enough.

3rd picture of the reel to reel. These are still wanted by people if it a voice which I assume it is. You might get $100-300.00 out of it.

4th picture with the stainless stee(SS) tee set up. There is possibly $200-1000.00 with the right buyer. The SSbolts alone in the early 90 were $5-6 each whne I bought them. You could try to sell this as an assembly or part it out.

5th picture "oh boy". The relays you have possibly $2-25 ea with out more info to look at hard to tell. It is the controllers to the right of your picture that are expensive.

What is going to help you most is if you have the paper work that goes with these controllers that shows how they connect and their settings.

EDIT:

You selling point on this stuff is it was never installed or used.

 

[Barren Realms 007]

Here is a sample circuit board from my inventory. Most of the circuitry on my boards are silver (?). Non-magnetic. I know nothing about the black or ceramic bead chips and other components. Are they worth anything? I have many boxes containing circuit boards such as this.

Get what ever numbers are on these boards and search the MFG for info on them.

 

[ILikeBoats]

The best advice I can give is to research, research, research before selling anything.

For instance nuke plants are heavily regulated, it is possible that some of that hardware is still approved for use by a newly built plant, or would be good spares for one in operation. Not sure how to go about finding the people to talk to, however.

Another example when I first started scrapping was that local offers for computer boards for scrap were quite low, I held on to what I had and kept researching until I found a company that was paying much more (twice) what the original guy offered.

 

[kssurplus]

CINDY
WOW What a interesting problem you have.
This is my first post and like you I am a reader sometimes almost all day.
I am like your dad a collector ,Hobbyist , a noobie Gold recyclist maybe.
I wish you were closer to Arkansas I would donate many days helping dig through the goodies.
I myself have 3 trailers ,2 small buildings and tons moreof this stuff.
i have collected many ,many old computers and been into 2-way radio.
What I must say is I find most of these older circuit boards are better used for salvage or scrap nowadays.
I also must ad a plug for these experts here and hobbyists as this is the best forum ever and many thanks guys.
Anyways try to collect part numbers on boxes and some items may sell well in different sections of EBAY although they are getting pricey these days.
Also watch the scrap yard prices for aluminum,copper etc. and you can make some good cash that way.
By the way I am a young 69 yr old.
Good luck
Steve

 

[Palladium]

Welcome to the forum Steve.

 

[Barren Realms 007]

CINDY
WOW What a interesting problem you have.
This is my first post and like you I am a reader sometimes almost all day.
I am like your dad a collector ,Hobbyist , a noobie Gold recyclist maybe.
I wish you were closer to Arkansas I would donate many days helping dig through the goodies.
I myself have 3 trailers ,2 small buildings and tons moreof this stuff.
i have collected many ,many old computers and been into 2-way radio.
What I must say is I find most of these older circuit boards are better used for salvage or scrap nowadays.
I also must ad a plug for these experts here and hobbyists as this is the best forum ever and many thanks guys.
Anyways try to collect part numbers on boxes and some items may sell well in different sections of EBAY although they are getting pricey these days.
Also watch the scrap yard prices for aluminum,copper etc. and you can make some good cash that way.
By the way I am a young 69 yr old.
Good luck
Steve

Where in Arkansas are you located at Steve?

 

[kssurplus]

I am in Harrison Ar. just south of Mo. line about 30 mi.
Steve

 

[Barren Realms 007]

I am in Harrison Ar. just south of Mo. line about 30 mi.
Steve

Oh well you are not to far, I did a job in Rector a few years back on a remodel of a library not totaly sure what is was going to be. I'm in West Memphis. Welcome to the forum.

 

[goldsilverpro]

Several famous wood carvers live in Harrison. I once lived down the road in Berryville - pronounced Bar-vull by the natives.

 

[manchvegassalvage]

Cindy: I am interested in purchasing the lot. I can fly out there veiw the product and negotiate a on the spot cash price. Send me a PM if your contact infomation if your interested

 

[Metalgold]

Here is a sample circuit board from my inventory. Most of the circuitry on my boards are silver (?). Non-magnetic. I know nothing about the black or ceramic bead chips and other components. Are they worth anything? I have many boxes containing circuit boards such as this.

Just beeing curious, does anyone have an idea what kind of PM's we can recover from these type of circuit boards? Are the traces made of silver or any gold underneath? How 'bout the components what kind of values can we get from them?

 

[goldsilverpro]

The traces are not silver. They look like lead/tin solder plate to me. In 47 years, I have never seen silver plated traces on circuit boards. I'm not saying silver traces don't exist but, if they do, they are extremely rare. Silver isn't used since it has about the greatest tendency to migrate between the traces, onto the board material, and cause partial shorts. Here's an excellent article on electromigration.
http://www.te.com/documentation/whitepapers/pdf/p313-89.pdf

Other than the fingers and the black (and blue) plastic DIP (or ceramic) IC's, I see little or no PM's on those boards that are pictured.