Gold Plated Pins

I have been reading up on Gold recovery for the last week or so and find it very interesting to say the least.

I am desoldering gold plated pins. Does anyone have suggestions on making this go any faster or a better way of going about it?

Thank you,

Joe

havent got it down to a science yt, but the hard plastic can be either pried off or a better way may be building a small stamp mill to crush them. the soft plastic softens in mek methal ethel ketone but it is about 20 bucks a gallon works great on cable ends. cut off the end just behind the pins and soak in MEK for a few minites. im looking for a better method. but this works. I have about 100# of boards rams ect. am thinking of processing my self just cant make up my mind. one wrong move can be disaster. but what the hay, nobody lives for ever.

PS using a torch with out breathing equipment is a big time no no. and a filter painting mask isnt going to do the job, I have emphisima and copd and **** near killed my self desoldering just a couple of boards with a paper mask.

Been experimenting and things are speeding up. I am only desoldering the fully plated pins.

The flash plate pins are getting cut off as close to the plate as I can. This is to save on chemicals later on!

The plastic is not bad. After I broke out every small hand tool in the first three drawers of my tool chest, I find my end nippers work best at grabbing and prying off of the plastic hiding my goodies! I just use snips from there.

Wanting to take trip to town for refractory supplies for my first burner and furnace. I am hoping the fireplace supply will have what I need. Still researching !
I like the idea of a waste oil burner. No rush on refractory at this point, lots to be thought about beforehand.

This is a huge learning adventure I am on. There is a plethora of information at our finger tips! But sorting through it and being able to consume it is a challenge.

Thanks dude that would be great to find an old kiln for cheap but as you know this is ceramic zone down here, retirement city, well use to be. Anyway they just don't go very cheap these days. Being I am just wanting something small for experiments at this point I don't want to spend very much on first attempt.

I was thinking fireplace supply would at least have fire clay. I think I can come up with the other ingredients from cheaper resources.

Here is a good list of DIY refractory compositions, http://www.alloyavenue.com/vb/showth...y-Compositions

check the posts by 'lasersteve' over on the gold refining forum. That man is a Guru! and has lots of great info on his own website too. yeild data etc...

if you are serious about gold recovery, then get to know Steve

Thanks Torker I have been reading a great deal of his work as well as others on the forum.

At this point I am just reading and collecting !

Originally Posted by injunjoe

Thanks Torker I have been reading a great deal of his work as well as others on the forum.

At this point I am just reading and collecting !

He helped me alot!! I was scrapping computers for gold recovery, I don't anymore due to having a bad reaction to the HCL I was using to strip the gold foils from memory etc..

18mths ago, my 6 mths of gold recovery paid for my wifes 1.4ct diamond (set in platinum, and cost about $5k ) ring for her 40th b'day, so YES, it can be very lucrative if you get the process right

Joe

To remove pins from boards, the best and fastest manual way to do so is with a sharp wood chisel.
Position the blade at the base of the pins with a slight angle (to the arrangement of the pins, not the board) and tap it with small hammer.

Leave the soldered 1-2mm left over on the board, it's just not your time and health breading this cr*p from desoldring.

Also, any solder on the pins will produce a handful of problems were you decide to chemically process them.
Been there done that...

Just to give you a perspective,
Personally, i would never (commercially and non commercially) process computer pins chemically/electrochemically (depalting), it's just not worth it.
The only exeption in case of pins are those of CPU's, where the ratio of plated surface to mass relatively high.

When you have several pounds of clean pins and you complete your furnace, we can talk business

Originally Posted by wavecrazed

How about a hot air gun with hemostats?

I think that would not be as economical as a iron. The hemostats would be okay but after a while would fatigue hands from opening and closing.
I have about 15 different needle nose pliers, most have springs in them to open back up when released. The spring saves your hands. Out of all those pliers only three work good for the job.


Thanks Torker those are encouraging words. I see you say "recovery" and not refining. Did you have someone else refine the ore you collected? I have a bucket of HCL working now.

Well Joe, what I found was that the gold price was so good, that I would not need to refine it to .999 pure.

I could have, but wanted fast money and limited processed to go through.. I just removed the golf foils (off fingers etc) melted and sold as Karrat scrap (14 - 18k mostly) to one of the newly created "we buy your gold" type franchises that sprung up when gold hit $1500 an Oz.

My CPU trick was good. heat the gold pins with a propane torch, tap the cpu on the edge of a bucket, the pins fall off, then straight into the crucible for a button of 14k Gold

that way I wasn't exposed as much to the chemicals like HCL, Nitric etc.., which for a normal person are fine, but as it turns out I am not normal ha ha! so had to limit my contact..

Sam I am happy to see you joined in the conversation.

So I take it the pins are not worth the effort. I had started to chisel them but seen they were fully plated and switched to desolder.
I was hoping to collect enough to start acquaintance tests with the pins. With the pins not being worth much it seems only the CPU and fingers are worth the effort. I have also been collecting the caps for testing.

At this point I am more interested in learning how to do this, then making money at it. Knowledge is what I am after money will follow

injunjoe

Originally Posted by injunjoe

start acquaintance tests with the pins.

Sure, i can understand and it is important that you do so.
In any case, leave the soldered portion of the pins on the boards, trust me on that

Another thing... plated pins can be lucrative, just... not by the processes you currently know (yet).
Actually, this subject is planned for one of my next tutorials.

Originally Posted by Torker Man

My CPU trick was good. heat the gold pins with a propane torch, tap the cpu on the edge of a bucket, the pins fall off, then straight into the crucible for a button of 14k Gold.

Now... where did you find that trick?

Originally Posted by samuel-a

Now... where did you find that trick?

...some random Guru from youtube I think??
(wink)
LOL

Originally Posted by Torker Man

My CPU trick was good. heat the gold pins with a propane torch, tap the cpu on the edge of a bucket, the pins fall off, then straight into the crucible for a button of 14k Gold ..

I saw on TV's news, in India, a little kid sitting in front of a small fire, beside him was a huge pile of computer boards.

He'd pick up the board, hold it above the fire & then slip it over on top of a small drum, then bash the thing down while the solders still molten & all the solder falls into the drum.
Then he'd do it again & flip it over so the components fall into another drum.

Another kid was sitting there with a soldering bolt on top of a fire, unsoldering certain components & dropping them into a tray labeled with their names.

Both were about 8.

& our kids think they have it tough.............

Originally Posted by eesakiwi

I saw on TV's news, in India, a little kid sitting in front of a small fire, beside him was a huge pile of computer boards.

He'd pick up the board, hold it above the fire & then slip it over on top of a small drum, then bash the thing down while the solders still molten & all the solder falls into the drum.
Then he'd do it again & flip it over so the components fall into another drum.

Another kid was sitting there with a soldering bolt on top of a fire, unsoldering certain components & dropping them into a tray labeled with their names.

Both were about 8.

& our kids think they have it tough.............

Makes you wonder just where your scrap goes after you send it off!