Stacking PM's from scrap electronics

SilverDJ said:
how much does the actual refining cost? Fixed fee? or do they take a cut of the PM?
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hobby level most will refine themselves or have a friend do it.
business level you don't refine, you on-sell your prepared circuit boards to a commercial refiner who not only extracts the gold & silver, but also about 16 other metals.
so because of that, and very large volumes the market is totally different to street level, hope that helps.
 
miniroo said:
they are not pc's stores, they are e-waste scrappers who have taken it to business level, you will never see what happens on the inside from the outside and no amount of trolling will get you that information, sorry.
Anyone wanting to talk freely about e-waste without these distractions can always chat with us at scrap forum, a forum dedicated to sharing free information about scrapping e-waste, scrap metal in general, refining, selling your scrap, buying scrap and everything you can think of in scrap metal topics.
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So you post your videos here but aren't willing to discuss it here. Got it.
 
miniroo said:
No I only discuss hobby activities, like stacking precious metals from electronic components.
read the title.
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I don't understand the concept of "stacking" electronics for PM to maybe sell down the track, it has to be the most horribly inefficient (and inherently fairly unpredictable) way to stack PM's possible.
Unless you have oodles of space, oodles of time, and an obliging partner, it seems like a guaranteed path to misery to me. But each to their own, whatever floats your boat.
 
wait a sec, you make all these videos pushing the scrapping message but take offense when I point out that its not economically a good business model, can attract unwanted attention from the authorities if you attempt to do it on a commercially viable level and is potentially dangerous to your health given the process and materials involved.
Your response is to accuse me of trolling then direct me to a forum that I assume is the one you brag about when stating how good scrapping has been to you and how profitable it has been.
I say that the risk, reward, outlay and time does not show scrapping to be a viable hobby to make money, you would be just as successful collecting beer cans from your local pubs bins to sell at the local recycling centre
however if you wish to tinker with heavy metals, dangerous acids and toxic chemicals in your residential home whilst building up e -waste as a hobby I can see how your videos would be a great guide
but I take it from what you have said your "actual" business does not produce PM's from e-waste, you simply process the waste for others to extract the metals which is why I take it you cant show us a gold/silver bar extracted from e-waste
Good on you for doing great work reducing landfill, I am a big fan of what you do, but stop trying to sell the message that you can make money from e-waste in your home. you just cant
 
I am not saying you can't make money, it just is not worth it unless you have a good source of e-waste or don't mind spending time/energy looking for it. Put it this way you can make money delivering pamphlets but I wouldn't consider that the best way to make money unless you want the exercise.
But back to my original point, the amount of e-waste you need to have the same amount of gold as say a sovereign is huge and if you had that many computers on you property in you back or front yard you would soon have either today tonight or the local council ranger knocking on your door.
I am sorry I am boring you but you don't own this forum so deal with it. Its bad enough how you are trying to mislead people into thinking that at home scrapping is viable but asking me to not ask hard questions or point out the realities is weak. I actually agree with silverdj on this, hobby scrapping is unhealthy mentally and physically
 
Yeah well you wouldn't go into business of scrapping e-waste if you didn't advertise and build clientele, just like any business, if your good enough the clients call back.
But I can assure you that a smart scrapper can do very well, don't judge a book by it's cover, scrappers mostly scrap part time for spare cash, 1 in a thousand take it further, 1 in 5 of them succeed.


SilverDJ said:
miniroo said:
where am I saying you can make money?
and why can't you? anyone can scrap a pc and sell the motherboard for refining, it's no secret :)
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How much on average?

just like e-waste, a cpu is worth a set price
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How much on average?
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well ok, firstly we look at the cpu, if it's a current cpu like at the moment i'm getting in pc's with I3-2100 CPU's, currently they sell second hand for up to $80 each, so it's a no brainer to sell them for $45 a pop whilst the goings hot, now that's for business, a scrapper that picks up a PC with an I3-2100 cpu off the street would go for maximum cash, some cpu's can sell for over $200.

now we won't talk about the possible 4gb ram sticks that might be inside or the motherboard that holds that nice cpu, or the most likely 1TB hard drive you can re-format and sell, video cards, drives ect.

ok with that out the way lets talk scrap value stuff, no use to a working computer or collector, just scrap cpu's for the refinery.

Firstly it depends on the equipment and skill of the individual to get maximum results.

0.48 g gold = $23.00
386_zpsynsdorjz.jpg


0.5 g gold = $24.50
104_4979_zpsegertson.jpg


0.2 g gold - $10.00
104_4970_zpszfjkgu03.jpg


0.11 g gold - $5.50
104_4961_zpsadotjjji.jpg


0.05 g gold = not much
104_5003_zpspwishwke.jpg


0.05 g gold = not much
104_4967_zpsjcg3djqk.jpg



that should give you an idea of a cpu as scrap value, but pentium 4's should always be checked for sellability first.
 
OK let's use one of the rare high yield CPUs as an example. How long does it take to extract the gold, what chemicals are used, how much do these chemicals cost?
Then you have to take into account the time it takes to get the CPUs. I should know, when I do the roadside run in the local area I always grab the CPUs' ram and high end mother boards, I have a couple of tubs of them but they are a side thing. I get more money from the valuables I find. I kid you not I have found jewellery, antique furniture, coins, watches etc road side waste hunting but if I was just scrapping for pm,s it wouldn't be worth my time/ fuel. I tell you this because I am not against the concept but I don't think the it is a viable hobby/job by itself
 
From the latest figures they are suggesting 0.5g and are saying that the 1g figure might be a beat up by ebay sellers initially.
I'm not sure myself, 0.5g figures come from smaller refiners, I have seen real cpu break downs and figures suggest higher but for an average refiner 0.5g might be it.

Platinum & Silver is usually overlooked by small refiners but in the figures I've seen there's quite a lot of platinum.
it's very high end refiners that get it all.
 
Yeah one of the simplest items to refine they say, it's a bit like dipping photographic paper into the developing solution, remove, rinse and the solution holds the silver, you have a clean sheet.
 
Um I am a stay at home dad so I am the daddy in my house hold. Honestly I decide when I eat sleep etc.
But good on you for making a business of it, it makes sense to have other people working for next to nothing gathering the computers for you to process. if you had to pay someone an hourly rate to gather the computers you would either have to pay them less than award or not make money.
 
Miniroo how do server CPU's and Mother Boards compare to PC's for PM content ?
Thanks for all your posts
 
generally a server board has at least 20% more gold content by weight, usually a lot more other pm's because of the higher end components, a server board can weigh 2 or 3 times as much as a regular motherboard.
they vary a lot but also it's the flat pack ic chips, the gold cornered one's, a regular motherboard has one high grade chip, a server has 3 or 4. Server cpu's are not much different to regular cpu's.
 
For me, I like to get scrap electronics and jewellery. Not all 925 is Sterling Silver.

I find the most expensive, and most interesting is buying Copper Sulphate, and using it in electrolysis. Otherwise, I find it a reasonable pass-time.

I have a few friends that have scrap yards, they are doing well with e-waste.
 
Yes it seems many scrap yards are putting up an e-waste section lately, even have the yard hands picking out pc's from the steel piles.
my yard sends a fork lift and bin when they see me dumping pc towers, I have to tell them they're scrapped out already and filled with small steel bits :)

Ronnie: I'm glad I answered your question before I headed off to a pick-up this morning.
on the way there I was thinking about servers and it must of brought me luck as I had a doozie of a pick up, mostly servers.

Maybe it was because I never mentioned server slot cards, logic boards that slot into large servers and the large servers themselves, usually the boards on the floor type servers are too high to grade as generic server board, personally I wouldn't sell them to a buyer, rather keep them for recovery as they can be seriously high grade.

Server slot cards are a lot higher grade then a regular slot card like a video or ethernet card in a pc, full size server slot cards (13in long) should be put in the "OMG it's Megga Grade" bucket.

I took some pics of some server slot cards I got today from a megga haul, although these are still new in boxes they still have some value if I can sell some, eventually the left overs will be scrapped, like this slot card here, I've already pulled 3 out and lot's to go through.
This slot card believe it or not was RRP US$8,700 per card! mind you one server chassis can take 16 cards :)

The Dialogic D/300SC-E1-120
Cards like this should be kept and sold for what they are, even a used card is valuable to the right person, cheapest i've seen for a used card is $500.

104_5326_zpstyzozpg8.jpg


Anyway here's some others I wanted to point out..

Here's a server slot card and as you can see it's covered with ic chips, other cards can be half blank space so there's a difference in what you sell or keep to refine, this slot card is worth more then slot card grade, how much depends on it's content so you won't know unitil you do.

104_5328_zpswlk1goyf.jpg


This one here is like two slot cards sandwiched together, all the ic chips are inside but I wont open it until I research it.
But aside from the tops, to give you an idea just look at this side, Palladium city.
The MLCC's are super high grade, very high PD/AG content, I must say the nicest mlcc's i've ever seen..

104_5330_zpsqhzgoayc.jpg


Look at how nice they stacked them..

104_5333_zpszkud1vca.jpg


So yeah, server slot cards are a different cat all together and unless you sell them to me, you should keep them.
 
I interact with my local scrappy semi regularly because of work (mostly copper) and I think it's great to see more and more scrap merchants dealing with E-Waste and fluorescent tubes because the environmental impact of these wastes are a growing concern.
So if posts like these encourage more people to recycle electronic materials then good work!
 
I didn't know crystals had silver in them. I'd be surprised if there was enough to justify the trouble extracting, but I'll do some testing...

And FYI, just a couple of minor corrections and some background to your crystal oscillators video.

95% of those devices you show are crystals, not crystal oscillators.

Many electronic devices need a source of regularly timed pulses, and quartz crystals can be used to provide oscillations at very stable frequencies. But the crystals need some electronics around them to make an oscillator, and that is contained along with the crystal in the larger cans, those with 4 leads.
They are the "crystal oscillators"

However, most electronic devices requiring an oscillating clock source have the required electronics already built into them, and only an external crystal is needed to make an oscillator. The bulk of the items shown in the video (those with just 2 leads) are only crystals, and in use are connected to a nearby chip that provides the electronics.

Regarding the nomenclature:-
The "X" designator on the PCB does not indicate "socket", but comes from the common contraction "Xtal", which in turn is short for "Crystal".
"Y" is also commonly used, usually when "X" has been already used to indicate something else, such as "transformer" (from "Xformer" I think).
I don't recall seeing "G" used for anything, but it makes sense as "Generator" when used for a crystal oscillator.
 
I stand somewhat corrected. After decades of working with electronics, I don't consciously recall seeing "X" used in reference to sockets or connectors. Maybe I just wasn't paying attention. While standards documents like your reference exist, in practice they may not be followed as much as tradition.

But "X" is absolutely, definitely used as a designator for crystals. I just checked a bunch of circuit schematics just to make sure I wasn't going bonkers! "XTAL" seems to be the most common, followed by 'X", then "Y", but even "Q" is used (which is usually reserved for transistors).

Wikipedia shows a similar list as yours above, but also shows "X" and "XTAL" (at the very end).
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Reference_designator

And when you find an "X" label for a crystal on a PCB, it obviously means crystal, not socket. Which was the point I was making.

BTW: When I say I'll test crystals for silver, it will be merely to satisfy my own curiosity. Not to confirm or refute "better sources", though I would have thought you'd have some interest in what I might find.
 
refining outcomes really depends on the method used, on a hobby level you can have 10 guys processing the same weight of product and get 10 different results, whereas a commercial refiner may extract 99-100% of the silver, so your results will be specific to you.

But hey, if you have enough crystals to give it a go, your stats would be just as good as most and i'm sure it would be useful information so go for it.

would really like to see pictures of your process, that's one thing we're lacking online a lot, the how rather then the result.
 
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