How to find Silver in Tactile Switches from PC's & TV's

There's a little silver in every tactile switch found in computers and flat screen tv's & monitors.
So if your looking for a free way to get silver then go scrap some flat screen tv's and there's a set in each one, high quality tactile switched can also have gold contacts

[@kenayala111]

thanks for the visual demonstration, I had heard about silver in switches but never know where to look, I would have thought the copper disk was the silver.

[@eWasteBen]

+Ken Ayala the underside that makes contact could also be silver plated, probably depends on who made them and for what application so you could keep them too and process together.

[@zartan7779]

I also thought the silver disc was silver .,.doh I now know thanks

[@shaneyork300]

I try to scrap as I go, it just seems to work better for me. But yes I keep every switch of every kind. Like you said there everywhere, if you hear a click there's a switch some of the best ones I've found are on Electric stoves, washers, dryers, etc. I've had many that weigh 1/4 to 1/3 of gram each. might not sound like much but they do "add up"!!! I might do a test to see with tv switches only (the smaller ones) how many it takes to get an ounce. I always look ahead with silver prices. Less than 20 years ago $5.00 an ounce or less was the norm. Now it moves on average $17 + or - a couple of dollars, with a shoot up price of $48 back 5 to 6 years ago. That's a 400%+ increase with a shoot up of 1,000%. That would put averages in 20 years around $60 to $75 an ounce, with a possible shoot up range hovering just under $190. None of this is guaranteed, I'm just looking at the history of silver from 1960 to present. If you do the math you'll see for yourself the possibilities! FYI, all of these figures are in U.S. currency!!!

[@kenayala111]

thanks for the update. so much to learn.

[@FollowMe2aMillion]

hey Ben, would love to see a video on how you got into this. I need to do one too, lol.

[@vanbemme]

Great vid ben thanks again!

[@filamrider1782]

Wattttttttttttt thank Ben keep it up sir. Greeting from Oakland califa.

[@Newmath907]

appreciate your channel eWaste Ben! hey what is going on when you do a close up of the parts your talking about it gets all wavy i thought i was having a flashback! lol trippy Thanks!

[@eWasteBen]

Hi, Thanks, yeah I used to use youtubes anti shake feature, it really distorts the picture so now I don't use it anymore but can't remove the anti shake in older vids now.

[@Newmath907]

whew! thats good news thought the Chemtrails were finally getting to me lol (chemtrails aint funny... its genocide btw)

[@torchandhammer]

I've peeled those all apart and they're all the same metal within the plastic. The central button has legs and the two little flag things on either side are connected with legs. It's all made of the same stuff, hopefully silver!?! I melted a handful of them down and got a silvery looking blob that I would say doesn't look like pure silver but I haven't found anywhere to get it tested for content.

[@Magisktification]

If you melted everything you have the base metals like copper in there. Not the way to go.

[@NOFX0890]

Make your own Schwerters solution.... potassium dichromate and nitric acid. A reddish reaction will be a positive indication of silver.

[@torchandhammer]

@@NOFX0890 Schwerters, my favorite brand of ginger ale.

[@NOFX0890]

@@torchandhammer i like ginger ale too... i like silver more.... Try putting your blob into schwerters ginger ale.

[@torchandhammer]

@@NOFX0890 Good heavens! I rarely get that kinky.

[@brendone171]

Good one ben very informative and I have been throwing them out and keeping the manual ones oh well, better start saving them then from Bren Gun21

[@whatsthetruth7961]

On silver toggle switches the 8 or so looped connections on the bottom, silver plated or silver? 1970s era.

[@torchandhammer]

Is it just the center button or also the two little flags on either side? I've pulled all the metal out of these and it all seems to be the same material. It's a bugger to get it out of the plastic matrix though. Lately I've been smashing the plastic with big pliers and then I can usually pry the metal bits out of there. Something to do while watching KZbin scrapping videos! Maybe smashing them with a hammer would be more fun. I recently melted down a bunch of the bits into a blob and I'm looking for somewhere to test it to figure out what I ended up with.

[@eWasteBen]

+torchandhammer pretty sure it's just the raised circular part, but there's no harm in keeping all the metal bits as there's different quality switches so some they might of plated with silver too.

[@xylz1798]

show us how u would get them out lol

[@MrGWN7]

So you take the top off them, then remove the copper plated round disc. What do you do after that? Cut the whole switch off the board with side cutters? Surely your not saving the whole boards? Need to redo this video showing the complete teardown of them. :)

[@akgoldbear7669]

Thanks for the information. Like 306 from me 👍😉

[@keytefirerefining1355]

2 kilos yield about an oz

[@kamisama9715]

Excuse me is that middle part solid silver or just silver plated?

[@petecurtice6340]

Ben any word on recovery and refining silver from x ray film. Read your article on line and it seems to be some big secret unless you want to send someone you don't know $400-500. I have a lot of film but not to sure of the formula

[@eWasteBen]

+Pete Curtice don't think any small operation has done it successfully which is why there's not much info out there, would selling the x-rays to a commercial operation be easier at this stage?

[@gortnewton4765]

The newer X-ray film has very little silver as the X-ray machines now are extremely sensitive and less silver is needed.

[@bradleymcewen4654]

There is platinum too!!

[@NOFX0890]

Look up Sreetips... he rips it off with bleach i think. Ill go rewatch it... its slower, but cheaper.

[@MichSignMan]

I was hoping to see you process them

[@Alex-kp3hr]

See 999Dusan for processing tactile switches for silver

[@PinkPoo]

I love you, I'm sorry to be a creep, actually I'm not sorry, thank you for the knowledge you share

[@MSApeace]

they are more worth reusing them or selling them as they are .. at least in my opinion

[@Magisktification]

Who would buy a used tactileswitch? Noone i ever heard of...

[@stephenp4553]

did you push that little round tin between your thumb and nail?

[@stephenp4553]

+stephen p at 4:55

[@eWasteBen]

+stephen p yeah it went in there somewhere :)

[@xylz1798]

ty i was just gonna throw them away

[@katecoombes1000]

Are they the same as the ones in mobile phone boards as well?

[@eWasteBen]

not really, phones have buttons which are usually on contact pads, I guess it's similar because they do have silver or even gold

[@katecoombes1000]

eWaste Ben. So it's not the silver shinny disc that comes out but what's under it? If that's the case I have been chucking them out for the last 6 years of scrapping.

[@Alex-kp3hr]

@@katecoombes1000 Right. The shiny small round disk is only a tin/copper spring. No silver

[@Magisktification]

Cars have quite alot of switches...

[@abunsonproject1779]

pure???

[@luckybambooguy6084]

little isn't the word I would use and with some being plated..... Ahhhhhhhh Noooo

[@gortnewton4765]

I estimate 0.01 cubic millimeter of silver on each switch and that is about 0.1 cents for silver. Really, not worth even thinking about. Silver is currently AUD 72 cents per gram. They are 5 cents each on ebay (retail price) so that means wholesale in large quantities to a manufacturer they will likely be around 100 for $1 or 1c each. That should give an idea of how much silver is in them which is almost nothing.

[@Alex-kp3hr]

True but wait til silver gets to AUD 5.00/g then you'd think differently and wished you'd saved up all those 0.1 cents pieces when you had the chance.

[@markleffler2275]

mine look rusty.. does that mean no good?

[@eWasteBen]

you mean on the outside? silver itself doesn't rust or the copper underside, if you see rust on the silver bits it's just rust washed over it from the outside, silver will be all good.

[@markleffler2275]

+eWaste Ben ok ty :) thou they look copper like underneath

[@markleffler2275]

+eWaste Ben oh and it's after tear down of button. the tiny piece that come out

[@eWasteBen]

that would be rust that leaked from outside in

[@xylz1798]

how u get it out

[@eWasteBen]

+Nate Chaps Just break the plastic up and keep the metal bits

[@xylz1798]

hey ben, do you know about older computers from the 80-90-2000? would an older computer that has a big block as a Pentium processor with and heat sink on it be old? and if i found a computer with the memory boards that have what it looks like is silver on the bottom strip is that really silver and what about the contacts it connected to? what do you think of this?

[@eWasteBen]

+Nate Chaps They will be Tin plated

[@xylz1798]

do you think there is tin on the memory cards or the ram cards cause they look like they are silver. you think it is tin? sorry for being pain in butt

[@eWasteBen]

Personally I believe they are silver because why would they do gold and tin? common sense says silver but everyone thinks it's tin because of a buyer who says so, so to not argue with uninformed people I just go with tin, but yeah I personally believe silver so it's your decision, the ic chips on 'em have gold, gold on gold, silver on silver so the pins on the boards would have to be silver plated but there's not enough today to justify a proper testing and assay, main problem is people read things and don't do it to say for sure.

[@cherylashton6926]

You'd need 100 pounds to make any kind of good money.

[@Alex-kp3hr]

Most people are just too impatient and want immediate fortune now. Stash the stuff away for the future when pm prices skyrocket.

[@kylegeorgebeckstrom4993]

omg get to the point

[@peteregan5346]

Thx 4 the video, but GET TO THE POINT DUDE!

[@eWasteBen]

+Peter Egan just chill dude, it's all fun