Can gold plating be burned off something with a torch?

**urbanminer** · 09-23-2012, 10:01 AM

I once saw a video on Youtube and a guy was holding a CPU with a pair of pliers, he had some type
of torch. He would put the flame on the pins for a couple seconds, the shake the stuff into some type
of bowl. After he had gone over all the pins, he had collected a small amount of material in the bowl.
Supossedly he was showing how to burn off the gold plating off the pins. My question is does anybody
think this will actually work to recover gold? Has anyone actually tried this? If it would work, it would
be a lot eaiser and safer than trying to recover gold using the chemical extraction process.

**BarrenRealms007** · 09-23-2012, 10:05 AM

Nope this will not work to remove the gold plating.

**Filthy** · 09-23-2012, 10:46 AM

i have seen this video. he was not melting the plating, he was melting the whole pins.

from there, he was taking the melted alloy mixed with the plating and refining it with an inquarting process i believe. but he was using chemicals in the end anyway.

**jghilino** · 09-23-2012, 10:49 AM

yes he was removing pins from black fiber cpus

**Mechanic688** · 09-23-2012, 01:38 PM

If he was doing that without all the proper ventilation then we'll be reading his obit also.

**kane333** · 09-23-2012, 03:18 PM

I saw a similar video but the guy was using a heat gun and depopulating MoBo's. I'm sure you can use a heat gun for those CPU pins also. You can pick up a heat gun at any local hardware or automotive store for $20-30. Cheaper than torches since you don't have acetylene, butane, or propane tanks to refill or replace.

**Bear** · 09-23-2012, 03:51 PM

Having to pile and burn large amounts of broken limbs on a fairly regular basis, having an antique cast iron clothes washing tub, and a pile of old motherboards got me to thinking about putting the pot in the middle of the pile filled with motherboards. Those ashes sometimes smolder for days, and once it cooled, I wondered if the gold would be on the bottom of the tub. Thankfully, I found a buyer on here before attempting such an atrocity, but after reading this, I wonder what kind of a mess it woulda made. Hope I haven't given anybody any stupit ideas, lol!

**billygoat** · 09-23-2012, 04:10 PM

Originally Posted by kane333

I saw a similar video but the guy was using a heat gun and depopulating MoBo's. I'm sure you can use a heat gun for those CPU pins also. You can pick up a heat gun at any local hardware or automotive store for $20-30. Cheaper than torches since you don't have acetylene, butane, or propane tanks to refill or replace.

Harbor Freight has one on sale for 10 bucks if you have the coupon from the mail ad.

I also watched those kinds of vids on YouTube. Tried using the heat gun to get an IC off. IC didn't budge, but I did get to watch a small capacitor blow up.

**jghilino** · 09-23-2012, 05:18 PM

If your not trying to save or reuse the board i can tell you one way to depopluate. Hit the back side of the board with a grinder the area where the component is on the other side, then you have to take a soldering iron with a pointed tip and push it into each pin. Once that is done you can remove the component. If you are trying to remove components without hurting the board you need desoldering wick or a solder sucker.