Have been scrapping computers for a few years now and have built up quite a stack of CPUs, ram board, pins etc. Was wondering if anyone would care to share how they refine without killing themselves from fumes. Or is the consensus to just keep stacking in the hope that they will be worth selling one day? Have watched Miniroo's u-tube videos plus all the others. cheers GF
Same situation, watched a lot of YouTubes, including 'Cody's Lab', broken down a lot of electronics and now have boxes of eWaste taking up space in my shed. From what I took away from the videos, it is fun to do as an experiment but you spend more on reagents than you recover. There are also many opportunities for it to go wrong, and if it goes right then no problem, but if you follow the recipie and it goes wrong, unless you know a lot about chemistry you now have a toxic acid slurry containing gold and no way of knowing how to recover it. I think it is best to just sell it, or if you know someone who does home refining then you can ask them to do it for you, that way you can get the gold from your efforts and pay someone else to do all the mucking about.
Was is (was?) a user on here that refined his own stuff and posted Youtube videos, can't recall his username though? You would want to be doing it for the fun of it though, because it's a crap ton of slave labour work to get so little.
I found this on the net. He accepts electronic stuff because he doesn't like putting anything in the tip. How to find real silver - Scrapping electrical switches & circuit breakers and what to look for! The Ultimate Recycler channel
yes i have done some of the higher yield easy stuff but not alot its quite an involved process even the easier stuff...
Hi goes by ewasteben on YouTube not sure what his username is here though. Seems to have a business destroying commercial scrap and just refines on the side.
Book by C M Hoke. "Refining Precious Metals from Waste" will answer all of your questions. You can get a copy in PDF here: https://recyclingsecrets.com/free-reports/refining-precioius-metals-waste-cm-hoke.pdf
"I think ewasteben is "miniroo" on this site." Yeah...Ben's videos are awesome. Humbolt via PM has an amazing wealth of knowledge as well.
I just watched a video that shows 1kg of CPU's worked out to 5.4 gms .... so $350. so 10 kg would be 1.5oz...I need to keep stacking lol Gav
The turn off for me is the amount of time and effort. Easier to get a second job and earn that amount than sort through rubbish. Sreetips manages to do well by finding silver and gold at pawn shops and garage sales, much like our very own does. That seems to be the way to actually make it worthwhile.
Factor in nitric acid (expensive), hydrochloride acid (cheap) and glass supplies 500ml 50% https://spectrumchemicals.com.au/products/lc17770?_pos=32&_sid=1765a4f3a&_ss=r depending how much you are going to refine, sunk cost would be a killer for curious hobbyist to make a profit, but could be fun (if you are into it) as for fumes if you live in house and your “lab” location is 15m from neighbours in all direction ie a biggish back yard, it should be ok (also would be good to have a fumehood with at least 2m height above your roof) ie don’t do it in garage with fumes ventilated via a fan through a window facing neighbours windows
Or better than that, put the time and effort into a second skill or a side business that not only earns money you can turn into metal but provides an alternative income source should you lose you main job. Sure you could argue that refining metal is exactly that, but it seems like a hard labour slog to me. Probably quite a fun hobby though.
‘yeah true... for those not going sideways from manual labour, recycling/refining would lose the gloss very fast.
I find it therapeutic to spend 1/2 an hour in the mornings scrapping PCs. I work 11/12 hours a day and don’t need a second income so I guess it’s a hobby... I like the idea of getting gold for free the most.