There's copper in them there heatsinks

I have a bunch of computers that I picked up a while back. I have finally been able to break them down and was excited to find some copper surprises inside them. As many of you know, the processors typically have a large aluminum heat sink mounted to them. Well, I haven't been e-scrapping for very long so I just figured all heat sinks were aluminum. Well, I pulled off one heat sink and it had some copper coloring in the middle of it. Huh, I wonder if that is a hunk of copper in there. Out comes the hack saw and I am gonna find out. I'll be ****ed, that is a nice heavy hunk of copper. I found two other heat sinks with a solid copper cylinder in the middle. Then, I looked in my box of heat sinks and found more copper. I am really pumped that I found all of this copper. I think I may keep all these nice chunks of copper or I may check the bay and see how much I can get for them. Check em out.

The cylinders are all about the same and weigh about 6.5 ounces(about 6ish troy oz for all you bullion collectors). The larger rectangles weigh about 10.5 oz each and feel like my silver 10 ozers. That is so cool.


The thinner cylinder reminds me of Ag rounds. It weighs 4 oz.




I had to lightly grind off some sort of zinc coating on the 10ozers. I will probably buff them with the dremel and see if I can get a mirror type finish on them.

those are COOL, hope I find some later when I get to the computer hoards around the yard. I like interesting copper.

Some heat sinks that look aluminum have copper bottom plates also. If it feels heavy, grind the bottom and check.

the solid copper ones are nice as well that weigh over a pound or the g series huge radiator style ones that weigh over 3lbs

SICK! I have a bunch of pcs to tear down, and now I am chompin at the bit! those are bad a$$! NICE finds!

It looks like enough of those could bring a few good bucks.

How did you go about removing the copper cylinders from inside the aluminum? I have seen these before and the only way I could seperate them was with a lot of heat (a MAP gas torch) and then hammering on the copper?

Originally Posted by cmgscrap

How did you go about removing the copper cylinders from inside the aluminum? I have seen these before and the only way I could seperate them was with a lot of heat (a MAP gas torch) and then hammering on the copper?

He says in his post he uses a hacksaw

[QUOTE]How did you go about removing the copper cylinders from inside the aluminum? I have seen these before and the only way I could seperate them was with a lot of heat (a MAP gas torch) and then hammering on the copper?[QUOTE]





If you have a worn out but correct diameter socket, a hammer and either a oversize socket to set it on or a vise to hold it you're in business. Of course, a hydraulic press trumps that method. However, I like the ones such as the far left, bottom row, example in the photo. They are either held on by 4 tiny screws or some of the Aluminum heat sink is pushed through the holes forming a rivet type fastner. Either way, easy money.

Forgot these photos in my original post. I used a small hack saw to cut through the aluminum to remove the copper. I nicked a couple of the copper pieces as seen in the photo but overall I was able to cut just close enough to pry the aluminum apart and release the copper.

The heatsink on the left, the one with the Copper 'coin' in it weighs a total of 227gms.
The Ali weighs 194 gms
The Copper weighs 32gms.

Now this is something thats been raised here before. Is it better to not put any extra time into it and sell it for a 'Mixed Copper/Ali' price?

Or scrap it down and get 'extrusion Ali' & 'Copper domestic' prices for it.

I could work it out but exchange rates and differing metal prices will smear the answer.

I like to put the heat sink in a vise and use an angle grinder to free the copper cylinder from the aluminium housing.
Very fast and easy.

I scrapped down one of the right hand heatsink and worked it out afterwards that I lost 2 cents..... Thats my two cents...

But i had just scrapped one of the left hand side heatsinks a few days ago and then read this thread .
So I pulled the parts back out and weighed them.

Between the NZ$ vs US$……… differing Ali prices
(we get a better price for Ali here in NZ. Its melted down at our Aluminium smelter and sold to their buyers and so theres only one middleman before
recycling/export).
And our slightly lower Copper price. Makes it change value to much for me to quote our prices.

I only spent a few minutes each removing the copper from the aluminum on these heat sinks. I am not worried about my time as this is just a little me time away from the kids. Copper and aluminum prices both stink in my area so I am stock piling most of my Ag and Al. Like I said before, you don't find copper chunks like this very often so I will hang on to them as if they were bullion rounds and bars. If I do sell them it will be on the bay when prices increase. Now, I just need to find some more computers to find more copper. Have fun!

You also have to consider the grade of copper as well. From what I understand those are not "pure" copper, and your payday at the yard or online may not be as much as you think. Maybe I'm wrong, but I was doing the same thing as you a couple years ago using a grinding tool with a metal cutting disc. It was easy, but eventually I just gave up and sell now as A/C heatsink at $0.70 per pound. Some older posts may answer the purity question of the copper you have. They do look cool tho