Shredding E-Waste To Refining Metal Bars

[@9772783]

I've been slowly working on pretty much this exact system. Manual depopulation of boards might increase overall yield but at the expense of time and labour. This in my eyes is a far more optimal solution!

[@troybourne8254]

Love my shredder, once I depopulate the boards...through they go for later milling.

[@PaulTanner-pc1nj]

Now the mining season is over and upon seeing this upload iv been reminded how much i learn, there's so many nuggets of wisdom and knowledge that one picks up from Jason's offerings, I'm unlikely to miss an episode, Cheers Jason that's some top tier content your putting out and i cant wait for more. Because of content creators like yourself i no longer watch television, best of luck in all you do Sir.

[@Enjoymentboy]

Watching the black PC getting chewed up made me think "Someone once hated that computer". Reminded me of my days in IT and how badly I would have LOVED to have tossed a PC into a shredder. True mental health therapy there.

[@bigbird2451]

Every IT department should have one of those grinders! Stay in IT and grind 'em up or buy the equipment and go into the refining business!

[@benjaminforman8901]

Holy jeez, talk about catharsis! Imagine one hour at the end of each work week, grinding traitorous tech while having a beer. And maybe a singalong.

[@paradiselost9946]

ive attacked many a tower with a boot, a hammer, even the tractor... but i always cry when i see the PSU get shredded, cus i am ALWAYS on the hunt for PSUs!

[@algummarcosvinicius]

LOL

[@f.k.burnham8491]

Jason- Most likely the "silvery metal" you see is mostly solder, both rosin core and "lead free". I would guess some tiny bit of actual silver in it. Out of the IC's & transistors there are rare earths like Yittrium, Gallium arsenide, gold, tin, Rhodium, and such. The content of the metals will vary greatly with the age of the boards and semiconductors. The earlier computer boards and connectors will likely have a greater density of gold. I had some very early ground bus bars that have a very heavy gold plating on them. Later electronics, such as gold plated brass RCA and cable connectors likely have a gold plating a couple of microns thick, as it scrapes off the first time the connector is used. The older the item the more gold was plated on it as a general rule. Same holds true for the edge card connectors. The earlier ones have fully gold coated pins, where the later ones only 1/2 the connector is gold plated where the card plugs into it. Batteries- On the Lithium batteries, a lot of the strips will be nickel, as they are used to connect the batteries together. I suspect the black material may contain Lithium.I am not an expert on all the materials used but after a few decades I do know the composition of many items used in electronics. ( You have my contact info already from my emails to you, so feel free to contact me if I can help you out. Also I still have the large crucibles if you want them).

[@scottdaviesvk2sdx319]

Hey Jason, 2 things for you. 1: Even though solder is "lead free" these days, there is always some lead that comes through when processing PCB's and computers. 2: If the Lithium cells were mostly 18650 style, the outer shell will be steel, they usually have a tiny circuit board with protection devices soldered on, and the innards contain graphite (carbon), Aluminium, and small amounts of copper, nickel and cobalt in elemental form. All the other metallic elements are in compounds and can't be recovered easily or safely using your furnace setup.

[@chrisd3884]

Your mining and smelting video's are the most facinating part of your content. Thank You! 👍 🇺🇲

[@patchvonbraun]

ICs like those, with the external pins, ("dual inline packages (DIPS)") typically had a gold bond-wire between the external pin and the actual circuit inside. Those wires were very fine, but typically solid gold. So a bit like "flour gold" from a placer deposit.

[@DoSomething-]

Thank you for making a longer videos about your machine I will never be able to afford but thinks is so magical and magnificent!

[@susanturcotte3176]

Jason, I love your newest addition to the recovery process. The material was easy to pulverize into pieces for further processing through the hammer mill. This eliminated the need to have to repeat steps in order to prep materials for the shaker table. Those samples you smelted also showed some unbelievable results! (At least in my book) Thanks for sharing and I send blessings from Alabama ❤️

[@dondavis5633]

Congrats, Jason, on another amazing product! That, and you've turned me into a precious metals nerd...

[@jtelliso]

Oh, I will need to see many more shredding videos. Many.

[@mikeburberry1]

Theres just something so satisfying about watching computers get shredded. Great video!

[@AT-os6nb]

yeah....satisfaction for all the pain in the a$$ it caused you over the years...but better yet would be watching r "windows" meet a similar ending.

[@mikewinings4120]

I've watched these videos 3-4 times,going on my 5th,yep,still love them,thanks Jason😊

[@nunyabizness9216]

Thank you for taking us through step by step.

[@patchvonbraun]

Gold on circuit boards is typically "ENIG". Electroless nickel over the copper, and then immersion plated gold. There's not a lot of gold there, but with enough boards...

[@حمدظاهرمزعل]

God bless you Jason very very very wonderful job

[@richardvanasse9287]

I think I like the e-waste videos best. Keep up the good work. 👍🏻

[@VendettaProspecting]

i always love seeing how many different refining chemicals can be found at our local ace hardware store! LOL Thanks jason!

[@wrxs1781]

Recycling, and extracting has great potential.

[@DirtyRichesKS]

I just did some math based on the XRF percentages. By those numbers based on today’s commodity market values it would lead to a $49.31/pound value from your #1 port once you separate the copper, gold, silver and tin since they are your most worthwhile components. Walk us through that process (without loads of toxic acids) or point toward a reasonable priced refiner. I mean I’m definitely interested in the equipment but bags of precious/base mixed metals don’t exactly pay the bills 😊

[@billoc1255]

I'd watch that next process. Interesting stuff !

[@Jordan-kk1rh]

That is a good process. Keep up the operations. Computerised metal composition technology seems pretty advanced. I have worked with fibreglass in the past.

[@rossgee2950]

Really interesting to watch. I suspect that the black is oxidized lithium. A nice side-step from the mining videos, although I was sorry to see the end of the season. Love to see some of those slabs from the primo ore!

[@DaTam-p4g]

Stoked about this series!!

[@tenns]

Wow you guys really increased the production quality. Not sure if I like it, but it's impressive!!! Maybe once in a while as a treat. It's just way more relatable when it's you and your phone. Even though this is an ad, I enjoy it all, thank you for the video, truly one of my favorite thing to look forward to when the weekend hits!!

[@mikewinings4120]

Still blows my mind how well it works!!

[@satoau1]

hey biochemist here. real glad you're doing this outside, but please do not put your bare hands into shredded e-waste again.

[@STRANGE_hour]

Why?

[@satoau1]

@@STRANGE_hour ultra-fine particles of heavy metals, which are very unhealthy, will tend to adhere to skin, and from there can get into the eyes or lungs next time the person scratches their face.

[@joshrogers358]

Black Mass is not good for the skin, that is for sure.

[@YB-PC-BYourself]

Jason, have you ever considered using an industrial magnet in your shaker tray setup? Simple, bar type that you can turn on or off with the desired separation power?

[@johnpullman3227]

Watching the separation of the metals by density is fascinating. One question comes to mind though. What is dissolved in the wash water in the tank? Could you electrolytically capture the fines suspended in it? Speaking of the lithium batteries, seems the lithium would be worth harvesting somehow. Keep the videos coming. I learn something useful every time I watch one.

[@waynoswaynos]

I'm pretty sure the electrolyte in batteries is Sodium Hydroxide which will only dissolve the Aluminium and Zinc. But it would be good to see Jason burn/melt some of the light PCB sludge just to confirm that nothing precious was lost. Fines in suspension wouldn't be affected by electrolysis, only metallic salts. I think!

[@jonasstahl9826]

You cant get it out with electryse, they would have to be disolved which would require acid. You can get the fines by filtration or sedimentation.

[@alanhollister9122]

Lithium sepific gravity is really light! .53 compared to say silver 10.50 or gold 19.00. So any lithium will go into trash. Be the first thing off the table

[@seanjones9309]

Great info! Can we get even more smelting videos? 🙏

[@Deadbrokemine]

If you have the whole pc tower, you are better off manually disassembling the tower manually. The case is steel and plastic and comes apart easily. A power Philips screwdriver will easily remove the board, which will shred. That way you get a clean steel stream and plastic stream, which should maximize sale value. That also takes at least half of the volume out of the shredder and hammer mill.

[@joshkelly3743]

This is about lbs per hour.. there is a balance between maximum recovery and the time to do so . Profit is what you are going for

[@TechTrashCash]

The best machine I can dream up would be a heated rotisserie with about a three foot diameter 316 steel basket with baffles to jumble the boards as they drop the components through 1/4" holes into an aluminum tray. This would allow you to recover everything down to the solder. If I can put one together I'll make my first video. Thanks for the videos mbmmllc

[@wesleymccravy901]

Use an old clothes dryer maybe?

[@mrMacGoover]

YYYEEEESSSS! Love these recycling videos!!

[@rayelectricmn]

I’m just really ready to see you punch through the last 15’ or so in your mine. The physical output it takes to do this underground mining, it was not going to be possible this last season. I’m going to need to wait until next year. On a different note, I was thinking maybe you should look at adapting a battery powered wheel borrow to power your push cart in the mine.

[@josephcormier5974]

Awesome Jason a very enjoyable video with excellent content thank you for sharing this with us six stars brother

[@deeannec2000]

Reminder to self.... send Jason all old boards

[@حمدظاهرمزعل]

welcome back jason

[@lemimid]

Can you adjust the slope of the table? You could adapt the slope to what you run through your process, so that your splits correspond to how the shaking table separates the stuff. Adapt the slope gradually during a first run, and when you get your splits at the right spots, you rerun your number 3 through the hammer mill.

[@flintcoat2596]

Jason, assuming that the batteries are lithium of some type, nickel is spot-welded to the tops of the individual cells to electrically connect the nickel battery cases/terminals. The lithium is going to have a density of about 1.4 g/cm³, and it's going to come out at the far right of your number four concentrator. At ~$13/ Kg for Lithium hydroxide- monohydrate it might be worth collecting. With copper being ~$9/ Kg, and nickel at ~$16/Kg might be worth trying to separate the two from your #1. as their densities are very close together ie: Copper @ 8.933 g/cm³ Nickel @ 8.912 g/cm³ Your separation machine might be hard pressed to separate those 2! The lithium and the aluminum should be easily separated as their densities are ~1 g/cm³ apart. LiOH-H2O @ 1.46 g/cm³ Aluminum @ 2.70 g/cm³ {Note : I am assuming that LiOH-H2O is what will be produced when the lithium in the batteries burn. Check with a chemist!}

[@RICDirector]

Makes me wonder what something like a gold drop could do by density...

[@flintcoat2596]

@RICDirector I am sorry, but I don't know what a gold drop is.

[@EastBayFlipper]

The black stuff in the batteries is a VERY saleable commodity 😊 21:49 It's used to make more batteries

[@stevem7868-y4l]

Just think of the thousands of tons of these boards we threw in the trash 30+ years ago

[@torchandhammer]

The industry of the future is landfill mining.

[@joshkelly3743]

​​@@torchandhammer I have had the same thought. Multiple shaker tables feeding the next table all tuned for lighter and lighter materials

[@Xero1of1]

24:24 I think the 'black stuff' is lithium. I worked R&D with Lithium Ion batteries, and if you were to unroll them, there's a metal film and on that metal film is the lithium. It's black.

[@captng]

Just like our friend from steetips you folks are absolutely amazing both of you have different methods but it's the end result that matters in my right boys

[@Ako2account]

Now I know why there are videos of industrial shredders. It was mesmerizing watching that shredder "eat". A little bit of info on recycling electronics for your viewers. - The average pc contains about $10 in gold. A laptop, $5. There are many trace minerals that could add more value but you'd need specialized equipment to extract it. - Modern computers use less gold than older computers (around 2005 and before) and that trend will continue. So the rate of return decreases as the e-waste gets newer and newer. - Never smelt e-waste. It is loaded with a lot of very, very nasty things. If you don't have the equipment to capture those fumes/waste, you just contaminated your garage, workshop, land, neighborhood with toxic metals and contaminants. It is easy to find a recycler who will pay you per pound for the raw boards and the whole batteries. No shredding or anything required. They sell that to a company that has the proper equipment to do that without contaminating anyone or anything.

[@physicsfan314]

Cool to see the new equipment... disappointed the entire rest of this is just an old video re-uploaded.

[@lemagreengreen]

Very interesting, have only seen shaker tables handling relatively small amounts of metals in your gold demonstrations but it's interesting to see how it handles a very high concentration. Looking forward to further refining, you're going to have some real rare elements in this stuff as well, do you intend on trying to separate this stuff out?

[@RGCbaseace]

Outstanding

[@rogeroconnell7691]

Tip to process manually. The best way is the gold prospecting way and that's a dolly pot and pan. You can smash it hard into powder if you want.

[@hunnybunnysheavymetalmusic6542]

Much of "The Black Stuff" in batteries is Manganese Dioxide and some of it is Indium and Cobalt.

[@robertlaplante8043]

you should "cook" the flat packs first. help soften the casings to break up finer and release the gold bond wire

[@BrianJensen-ym5gk]

Have you considered (or are you already) building tire-shredders? Might fit well in your recycling machines portfolio. Thanks for the video and take care.

[@Ryanscraft]

the Flat packs one two and three side by side gave me a vision of Transformer poop. More then Meets the brown eye.

[@richardbrobeck2384]

Nice !!

[@DamianGregoire-tf3mw]

Awsome Jason

[@BigMac-jr4th]

Would love to see a video stripping silver plated flatware with nitric solution…..$1/lb at thrift shops……….

[@BigMac-jr4th]

Be cool to see return on Video game cartridges

[@TerencePonting]

Just a suggestion, but how about having additional shaker tables after the first one? Shoot 1 & 2 going onto 1 shaker table and shoot 3 going onto another. Wouldn't that give you better, cleaner results without much effort after being set up?

[@waynoswaynos]

That shredder is cool. So the iron was converted to Iron Sulphide. That was a nice trick. Am I correct in assuming that if a little more sulphur was added the Zinc, Tin and Lead would have also reduce to sulphides? Also, there should be more silver and at least some gold here surely? Or maybe this was the number 2 or 3 concentrates?

[@waynoswaynos]

Jason, can you scan the slag with XRF to see there are any goodies there?

[@1944chevytruck]

awesome!

[@jamest.5001]

23:59 the black stuff is carbon with electrolytes and lithium in it!

[@korgothkillings2032]

Crucible time. Yeah boi!

[@paulmoore9679]

Did you know the silicon chips are doped with arsenic, phosphorus, and boron? Some might have antimony, but that’s older. Some have silver, gold, and aluminum bond wires. Ask me how I know :-)

[@Ammoniummetavanadate]

Did your undergrad in the right kind of engineering and made some in the lab like I did.

[@nunyabizness9216]

Can you describe the taste please? Asking for a friend.

[@Ammoniummetavanadate]

@@nunyabizness9216 Arsenic and antimony both have a slight garlic smell to them. I imagine the taste is about the same

[@paulmoore9679]

@@Ammoniummetavanadate design transistors and the process to this day, going on 30 years now.

[@paulmoore9679]

@@nunyabizness9216 a bit like almonds, garlic, and fish. If you know, you know.

[@SV_Try_Magic]

You can easily remove all the components from the useless board by heating the back with a large torch and a heated paint scraper can be used to remove the chips which is going to be where most of the gold is. I wouldnt mess with recycling that stuff too much because the metals are so cheap and full of cadmium and lead. You really need a big retort to do it in safely.

[@prinz10ga]

That’s exactly how I’ve depopulated these boards.

[@prinz10ga]

Jason. Long time subscriber and responder….absolutely enjoy your endeavors. I’ve also been a long time follower of Streetips here on YT. I really would like to see each of you refine or smelt/ cupel equal amounts of the 1 concentrates from these mother boards. Chemical. VS mechanical and fire with chemicals as in smelting. Which is easiest, and most productive to recover gold, silver and copper. ….just an idea.

[@prinz10ga]

The black stuff. .XRF it as it may be lithium which is valuable I think.

[@TracyRedding-c6x]

Way Back When I worked in a PC board shop, The boards came raw with copper attached the circuit was silk screened over and then the board was etched back leaving just the copper circuit then the holes and circuits were plated with solder and the gold fingers were plated on. Short explanation.

[@fredygump5578]

Who doesn't secretly want that shredder?

[@richardhulbert9480]

The black stuff is the lithium. I think there is so much non gold material that your way while fast and easy will use more chemicals to make a gold recovery. I do old school and take what I want off the boards the rest is just weight. My scrap yard buys mother boards at $1 a pound. But interesting for sure. The connectors with gold pins I put into AP dissolve all the metal left with plastic and gold foils.

[@Scottaaa]

Lithium reacts violently to air exposer so what's left in the drum?

[@kccorliss3922]

Could u put the number 3 or 4 tails through a filter sock so u can discard that junk and keep the water clean?

[@sovereignlivingsoul]

i used to work at a couple battery manufacturers, the black stuff is probably slurry used for anode / cathode plates

[@scottrouwhorst881]

Nice

[@nsa_surveillance_orb-42b]

Woot!

[@Spudz76]

I wonder what the PCB shred would look like blended into clear acrylic resin and poured as a countertop material, or paperweights.

[@SuperNetSpyder]

About 10:42 i started to get motion sickness lol

[@danielrothschild4912]

This may be kind of a dumb question, but when you are you are trying to extract metal from old electronics, why wouldn't it be more cost-effective to burn the circut boards first to isolate the metals from the non-metals. I understand that would probably result in a ton of nasty chemicals coming off the circut boards, but if you designed it as a closed system where you are capturing the air after it burns off the non-metals I feel like there should be a way to treat the exhaust before releasing it into the atmosphere. Also, if you have a furnace-like design where you are carefully controlling the volume of air entering the system, couldn't you use air flow (like a choke on an engine) to control the temperature of the burn and even start trying to seperate out metals based on their different melting points?

[@johnglasgow4176]

Interesting video better than watching Drilling and Blasting thanks

[@RICDirector]

Something for everyone!

[@johnnychimpo2636]

❤ i want to quit my job and do this full time

[@gplustree]

me now if I'd just been left alone to continue building waterworks in the suburban gutter as a child

[@richardschafer1911]

get Jason I think what you are calling alloy is solder bruv and it would be silver solder so would be worth processing if you have enough batts

[@jamest.5001]

20:36, the fiberglass and plastic would look great in epoxy making table tops. It would be a good way to get rid of it , reuse it! ✌️🤯

[@RICDirector]

Not bad....creative thinking!

[@josephgardner5891]

THE black sludge is part of the Li stew. i don't know if your run was washed to take the Li or not. if it does you want to save the light stuff.

[@BFRandall]

Sooo how do you dispose of the wastes from the hammer mill? Might well be RCRA hazardous waste. The wastewater? What do you do with it?

[@nunyabizness9216]

Sprinkle on toast, wash down with wastewater. EZPZ

[@joshkelly3743]

Let it all dry out and send it to the land fill probably

[@shawnsparkman7916]

Have you ever separated the individual metals and melted them into bars for selling? Copper, silver, gold and the like?

[@rca-in-glasgow6781]

3:12 BTW they HURT LIKE HELL when you step on them with bare feet. 😢

[@scotthultin7769]

First 👍's up mbmllc thank you for sharing 🤗

[@jaxjackson4100]

Lithium Ion black powder is, should be graphite. It also appears that most of the lithium has been harvested from the batteries. And side note lithium ion and LiPo batteries are different types. As are LiFe-Po and lithium thyanol chloride (wet cell lithium).

[@alfadoofus]

I wonder if you will show when you smelt the sample with the gold in it ? It is a small amount of gold compared to the copper , just curious .

[@leadsled8961]

With the right E-waist you can recover 2KG gold per ton of waist.

[@dizzious]

I still haven't seen anyone do the chemistry to refine those slabs of metal you sent out from the time you smelted a bunch of computer stuff. I know Omegageek ended up with one of those, I'll have to pester him about it

[@stillfree14]

Being a computer technician seeing that hp pc being shredded was sad. Refurbished I sell these still for over £100. Even if the mainboard was dead that graphics card inside it is still worth £20-30 😢

[@ericchamber1614]

what bin would the solider end up in? would it be in 1 or 2?

[@DavidBixler-pz4xp]

Great process but once it came off the table you should of put it in aqua regia

[@JeffSmith-yc2ly]

Jason, Where do you get your pyramid molds at? I'd like to get one.

[@Lunas2525]

One would think any easily removeable steel would be removed first. I suppose not needing to dissasemble saves time.

[@mcjdubpower]

Gud vid 💯💥

[@Lunas2525]

Lipo batteries the bulk of the desired recoverable lithium would react with water and be in the water the metals would be cobalt nickel copper and carbon some gold

[@markae0]

25:31 is when it gets interesting.

[@aredditor4272]

I think a few of those ICs weren't actually quad flat packs????, I think a few were DIPs - dual inline packages.

[@ursamines7643]

How much is a shredder and what power is needed? 110/220/330/gas?

[@laurahaaima1436]

The black stuff is oxidized lithium? should be pretty light like aluminium.

[@Zonkotron]

It isnt. Its carbon dust and a heavy metal oxide dust. The exact type varies with battery type. Graphite and Nickel-Manganese-Cobalt-Lithium Oxide is probably the most common. Some lithium in there, but the most valuable parts are nickel and cobalt. Lithium is not as scarce as those hype BS websites want you to believe. Nickel and Cobalt, sadly, are. Fortunately more and more nickel and cobalt free batteries are being invented AND finding industrial application. LiFePo is the first big commercial one, Sodium Ion batteries need neither Lithium nor heavy metals and are finally going commercial for real now.