Computer scrap gold money WITHOUT chemicals or mechanical processing / General Science and Electronics / Forums

Forums

4hv.org :: Forums :: General Science and Electronics

« Previous topic | Next topic »

Computer scrap gold money WITHOUT chemicals or mechanical processing

Move Thread

LAN_403

Mads Barnkob

Fri Feb 02 2018, 09:16AM

Registered Member #1403 Joined: Tue Mar 18 2008, 06:05PM
Location: Denmark, Odense C
Posts: 1968

In this video I show how you can still make money on scrap computer parts without refining the parts yourself, so there is no use of chemicals, no tedious work in crushing and grounding parts, no burning and melting. Just a quick way of getting it exported with correct paperwork and get the money directly to your bank account.

Selling whole parts will ofcourse yield a lower price then processing it all yourself, but equipment, chemicals, refining, work hours, wear and tear on your stuff is all important factors to count into the equation, last but certainly not least, take care of your own health! Chemicals and fine dust from crushing electronics is not good for your body if you fail to protect it correctly.

This is the part 1 of 2 video and the second video will be about the process after the packet has been sent, comparison with my estimate and what is really paid out. I expect to have part 2 ready in a week or so.

Sulaiman

Fri Feb 02 2018, 02:49PM

Registered Member #162 Joined: Mon Feb 13 2006, 10:25AM
Location: United Kingdom
Posts: 3140

I have had a couple of gold-from-scrap attempts,
Chemistry is a hobby and I enjoyed geting pure gold from scrap,
but I doubt that any small scale refiner makes much profit
- I certainly made a big loss, but it was hobby not commercial.

So, for the small scale scrap gold market I think that you are in the right area.

Conundrum

Sat Feb 03 2018, 09:54AM

Registered Member #96 Joined: Thu Feb 09 2006, 05:37PM
Location: CI, Earth
Posts: 4062

Did it work?
Also there are valuable metals other than gold, eg palladium.

Sulaiman

Sat Feb 03 2018, 10:13AM

Registered Member #162 Joined: Mon Feb 13 2006, 10:25AM
Location: United Kingdom
Posts: 3140

For Gold
I did it therefore it worked ;)
I enjoyed its chemistry and colours.

When I did it I used waaay too much nitric acid,
which at that time was fairly expensive.

Now that we can not legally buy or own niric acid in UK,
and conc. sulphuric acid to make nitric acid in-situ has vanished from the shelves,
you would have to use other methods to oxidise the gold.

There are many 'recipies' that use more available chemicals available on the 'net
but I have not tried other than the nitric acid / aqua regia route so I can not recommend any particular one.
Have a look at YouTube videos and forums such as

The good thing about gold chemistry is that your gold is always in one or more of your vessels, never lost, just sometimes in an inconvenient form that needs more work.

If you get really interrested drop me a PM and I'll see what I can do to help.

Gold refining can involve 'nasty' chemicals, vapours and waste - think it through first.

Last, but not least,
you end up with quite pure gold ... how pure ... prove it ... how to sell it ?
In my case it is not a problem, but to make a profit you have to sell.

As for other precious metals, they are usually there but in tiny quantities, (smd caps etc.)
I guess that you would need careful electrolysis or some fancy chemistry to separate them
which would be very uneconomical at small scale - again just guessing.
For better info. search the 'net.

A good start is usually to pyrolize (burn the shit out of) everything then dump the scrap into hydrochloric acid
(muriatic acid, brick/concrete cleaner)
this will slowly dissolve away most base metals leaving precious metals, with lead, charred plastics and ceramics mainly,
producing a much smaller volume of material to process.

All of the above is based on only three batches with a grand total of 0.8g gold to show for it :(
e.g PentiumPro = 0.3g, 100's gold plated pins and edge connector padss and some misc. ICs = 0.5g ...

Conundrum

Sat Feb 03 2018, 03:05PM

Registered Member #96 Joined: Thu Feb 09 2006, 05:37PM
Location: CI, Earth
Posts: 4062

Not bad, thanks!
If you want any more "goodies" PM me.
I found a bunch of old dinosaur CPUs including some AMD dual core gen 1 chips ie useless unless you like running Windows XP.

Mads Barnkob

Thu Feb 08 2018, 07:36PM

Registered Member #1403 Joined: Tue Mar 18 2008, 06:05PM
Location: Denmark, Odense C
Posts: 1968

I agree Sulaiman, you need to know what you are doing and for small batches selling it to a precious metal refinery is a very valid option.

Part 2 is now ready that I have received all confirmations, papers and the money is in my bank account :)

It only took 5 days from I sent off the package till I had the money, awesome and fast service!

Conundrum

Sat Feb 10 2018, 06:20AM

Registered Member #96 Joined: Thu Feb 09 2006, 05:37PM
Location: CI, Earth
Posts: 4062

Wonder how much gold there is in a reed switch?
Of course there's always the option of going through my boxes of antique transistors, have some ooooooold germanium large format ones with nice long leads and in theory they might have gold mounts and interconnects.

Sulaiman

Sat Feb 10 2018, 01:07PM

Registered Member #162 Joined: Mon Feb 13 2006, 10:25AM
Location: United Kingdom
Posts: 3140

Via eBay, working germanium semiconductors are worth more than their weight in gold,
reed switches are for low currents hence do not need a thick gold coat,
'gold' relay contacts are commonly a very thin layer of gold for very low currents, that is punctured/erroded by higher currents to the silver contacts. (or ruthenium etc.)
Modern connectors are generally not designed for thousands of reliable mating cycles hence have minimal gold plating, if any.
Gold was used generously when semiconductor cost was high relative to gold.

Conundrum

Sun Feb 11 2018, 08:55PM

Registered Member #96 Joined: Thu Feb 09 2006, 05:37PM
Location: CI, Earth
Posts: 4062

I did try and sell a few way back, they did sell eventually but got nailed on postage.
EDIT: Sulaiman, how much gold is there in an S3?
The mainboard would seem to be the highest source (old phone, etc) but there might be some in the
screen interconnects and OLED flexi pcb / interconnect strip itself even if the display is wrecked

Don't feel too bad about it now as the phone kept crashing and had USB and screen burn issues, also would not charge
well and kept misbehaving due to apparent camera and CPU failure on diagnostics, so better "recycled".
Can anyone make use of scrap PC memory as have lots of that!!!! In fact an entire box full.
Mostly 4MB DIMMs and even some ancient dinosauroid laptop RAM which is essentially a paperweight as the laptop no longer exists. At the time I paid Â£75 for 2*64MB

Moderator(s): Chris Russell, Noelle, Alex, Tesladownunder, Dave Marshall, Dave Billington, Bjørn, Steve Conner, Wolfram, Kizmo, Mads Barnkob