Hard Drive Breakdown Numbers

[Geiser093]

10.2 lbs. of Hard Drives with Boards. (10.2 x $1.10 = $11.20)



After Breakdown 9.3 lbs. of Hard Drives WITHOUT Boards. (9.3 lbs. x $0.42 = $3.96)



.87 lbs. of Hard Drive Boards. (.87 lbs. x $10.25 = $8.91)





CONCLUSION

With Boards = $11.20

Separated = $12.87

Profit = $1.67 / or $0.27 cents a minute / $16.20 per hour.

Now I know it only took me about 6 minutes to remove them but it surely doesn't seem worth the effort for smaller loads. If I did not have a local place to sell them I would be more inclined to break them down. Of course there is an exception to every rule. If the boards were of a greater weight like I saw in several threads then it would be worth the effort. Also like I said if I had several hundred drives I would also consider breaking them down. Also keep in mind my sample size was very small.

I am going to take them the rest of the way down so check back to see the results.

Here are the tools I used:

Kobalt Ratcheting Screwdriver $7.99


Harbor Frieght Safety Bit Set $9.99


Harbor Frieght Scale (11 lb. Capacity) $17.99

[Bear]

how many drives was that and what capacity were they ? Since I have no local buyer for them, and shipping would be too much for entire hard drives, there's no alternative for me but to break them down, and ship only the boards

[miked]

I am now shipping them whole. The difference is shipping costs. In my case I was able to work out a pallet load with the assitance of my buyer. This change from shipping boxes to shipping a pallet reduced costs by nearly half.

I would quote the cost per pound but the accurate weights will be done at the buyers location.(I wasn't able to do the weighing myself this time) I am including power supplies as well since locally I get shred price for them. With including the power supplies much of the cost of of shipping was covered.

So for me I am no longer going to be breaking them down. In my case it does require me saving up more material but thats part of the cost.

Thanks to Geiser for doing the math and documenting the results. Mike

[BRASSCATCHER]

I have a local buyer here and I sell them whole. For me the time it takes to take out boards wasn't worth the effort when I have whole towers to go thru and space is at a premium for me. Everyone situation is different. Nice breakdown Geiser. I get a little less than $1.10# but the savings in shipping makes up for it.

[sollozo45]

Is it worth the time to take the platinum out?

How to Recover Platinum From Hard Drives | eHow.com

[Mechanic688]

Is it worth the time to take the platinum out?

No, the plat. layer is so thin that it is not recoverable. I sell the platters on Ebay as wind chimes or you could sell to your local yard as "old sheet".

[freonjoe]

I thought BarrenRealms was paying a buck a pound for the platters.

[PartTimeScrapper]

No, the plat. layer is so thin that it is not recoverable. I sell the platters on Ebay as wind chimes or you could sell to your local yard as "old sheet".

I had a very interesting conversation on this very topic with the guy who bought allmy platters on ebay. He in fact is recovering the platiunum and palladium from the platters. He told me how he does it and its very time consuming without a furnace. I have a couple emails into diferent refiners to see if it is possible to refine this stuff and still make money. If what he told me is true and I tend to belive him since he was a very nice 70 year old man who seemed to know his stuff. Amyway a platter could be worth anywhere from $.25 to $1.00 each depending on age of drive it came out of and weather it is single or double sided. If i get the answers im looking for I will share and probable start buying them as well.

[ryanw]

Couldn't you just throw these in with the boards and such if they are going as a load to a refinery?

[Mechanic688]

If their primary metal is alum. then you would be adding a large amount of extra alum. to the mix when their trying to pull out the precious metals. Nobody gets paid on the copper and alum. they pull out when they pay you for gold/silver.

You might as well just hand them the box full of platters for free.

[ryanw]

Well, I thought about it this way:

If you are being charged per pound to process, say $1. I weighed a pound of platters really quick to be 22 to a pound. If what PTS was told is true, then we'll just take the minimum amount of platinum value at $0.25 per platter. This would mean that a pound of platters has at minimum $5.50 worth of platinum in them. Subtract $1 for processing fee, and you're left with $4.50 and I think the refiner gets some small percent of that too...seems worth it.

[Mechanic688]

Well, I thought about it this way:

If you are being charged per pound to process, say $1. I weighed a pound of platters really quick to be 22 to a pound. If what PTS was told is true, then we'll just take the minimum amount of platinum value at $0.25 per platter. This would mean that a pound of platters has at minimum $5.50 worth of platinum in them. Subtract $1 for processing fee, and you're left with $4.50 and I think the refiner gets some small percent of that too...seems worth it.

Where is you get that figure?? Here is a quote from Harold, a well respected member of the GRF and his take on pulling platinum from them.

Do you want my honest opinion?
Pursuing platinum from hard drives, thus far, equates to digging six foot deep holes by hand in an effort to recover a penny. The aluminum is worth far more than any traces of platinum that may be present, and it's not present in all discs. Seems to me that's one hell of a lot of work for nothing. Sell them for scrap and buy precious metals with the returns. You'll be glad you did.

At some point in time one must come to terms with the idea that you may be wasting precious time, time that could be far better used to further your cause.
Harold

Gold Refining Forum.com • View topic - Hard Drive Platters - how to attempt recovery?

[ryanw]

Yes, I've read a lot of the posts on GRF about HD platters, and that they're worth aluminum scrap value. I had just found it interesting that PTS's customer is supposedly having different results.

I didn't say that that 0.25 figure was true, I was just referring to the numbers that PTS's customer provided him.

I'm assuming two things: 1. That he gave PTS correct numbers on their value, and 2. that these values were only from Platinum.

[PartTimeScrapper]

Couldn't you just throw these in with the boards and such if they are going as a load to a refinery?

The refiner I use doesnt want alluminum in the mix of boards. Thats why I have an email into them to see if they can do anything with them.

[PartTimeScrapper]

If their primary metal is alum. then you would be adding a large amount of extra alum. to the mix when their trying to pull out the precious metals. Nobody gets paid on the copper and alum. they pull out when they pay you for gold/silver.

You might as well just hand them the box full of platters for free.

I get paid for copper.

[PartTimeScrapper]

OK the guy on the phone I talked to said he removes the film layer on the disks with a dremel. Then sends that in to be smelted/refined. It said that the film as its removed contains about 30% platinum by weight. He also explained to me that he wanted to get a furnace for himself so that he could just melt out the alluminum from the platters since the platinum has a much higher melting point. Said something to the affect of putting 100 spindles in at a time. Now what research I have been able to do so far tells me that a platter is about 2% platinum/palladium by weight. The trick is extracting it in a cost affective way. Ill let you know if anything comes of it. I just found it interesting is all.

[ryanw]

A dremel eh? I wonder how that works.

[Mechanic688]

I get paid for copper.

Yea but your special,,,,lol

The trick is extracting it in a cost affective way.

I hope it does work out for him, might open up another market for us all,,,

[BarrenRealms007]

OK the guy on the phone I talked to said he removes the film layer on the disks with a dremel. Then sends that in to be smelted/refined. It said that the film as its removed contains about 30% platinum by weight. He also explained to me that he wanted to get a furnace for himself so that he could just melt out the alluminum from the platters since the platinum has a much higher melting point. Said something to the affect of putting 100 spindles in at a time. Now what research I have been able to do so far tells me that a platter is about 2% platinum/palladium by weight. The trick is extracting it in a cost affective way. Ill let you know if anything comes of it. I just found it interesting is all.

That is not going to work too well. When he you try to melt the aluminum it will lower the melting temp of the PD & PT and they will alloy with the aluminum.

I would remove the AL with HCL and then process the foils or melt them with silver as an accumilator and then process the silver and process the PT & PD slimes after that.

[miked]

I've had a thought but have not done any research on it yet. I was thinking that "reverse plating" would remove the outer layer of material from the disc. That the material from the surface would either fall to the bottom of the container or be platted onto the surface of the other pole.

Using the minum of chemicals and the very simple equipment might make it doable for a small timer with the time to wait until you have enough material to send off. Mike.