how swap power supply board grade

[jghilino]

What grade are hot swap power supply boards? also what is there value? all have either a gold plated finger style connector or a pin style connector I just pulled one that weighs 4 pounds.

[LoginR]

Remove all the transformers and heavy metals and such, and depending on the number of ICs, palladium monolithics, and such (some have way more than others, I've found... even big ol' socketed EPROMs) you can get fingerboard price. Just make sure to get ALL the heavy stuff... it won't be anywhere near 4 pounds after you're done stripping it.
It will go as midgrade if you half-ass it and just remove certain things and leave others. If you're lucky. Leave everything on, you'll get power board. All depends on the buyer, of course, but this has been my experience.

Also, I've been told to trim the board if there's a large area that's obviously worthless. Check the back though, there's often large clusters of monolithic capacitors, you don't want to trim those off.

[jghilino]

Looks like If i part it down ill get, 1 pound aluminum, 1/2 pound clean copper wire, 1/2 pound copper transformers, 1 pound misc scrap and a $1 pound midgrade / finger board board for about $8 total. What about selling it as is without removing anything? 4 pounds of midgrade worth $8?

[LoginR]

Mid grade varies wildly... I've been paid around $2/lb for midgrade, and as low as $.40, all depends on how much low value crap is on it. If you leave everything on, it's power board, and usually goes for like .30-.40 a lb if you're lucky. Of course, this is all my (limited compared to many) personal experience... I use 2 different buyers, one for my high grade stuff, one for everything else. The one that buys the lower grade is a lot more picky than the higher grade buyer Go figure.
Personally, I love breaking down hot swaps and UPS units. Not sure why, maybe because everything is jumbo sized compared to your standard low/mid grades. Regular PC PSUs, however, I don't like nearly as much :P Probably just because I get so **** many... I have about 90 of them piled up in my storage space right now, dreading the day I have to break them down. Scrap yards in my area wont touch them with a 10 ft pole, though they will let me throw the carcasses with the stripped brown board still attached into the shred. They might say something if I tried to do that with my current stash all at once, though
Another note on the regular PSUs... SO MUCH DUST!!! And of course, I'm especially allergic to dust mites... scrapping can be pretty rough on my sinuses sometimes. Seems like the best stuff is always covered in dust and grime, though

[jghilino]

Thanks for the advice, i think im going to leave it intact for now. I hate breaking low grade boards down.