Removing IC Chips, Flat Packs, Gold Pins off circuit boards for gold recovery

After some trial and error, and a bit of research, I have come up with the easiest way to depopulate circuit boards of their IC Chips, Flat Packs, MLCC's and gold pins using an Air Hammer with a sharp chisel blade, see update video here.. • Depopulating Motherboa...
Check out my recommended safety products, Furnaces & stuff on amazon.. www.amazon.com...
I tried the heat gun method and it produces toxic fumes and doesn't work for all components like the gold pins.
An Air Hammer cleans it all off, no fumes.
Better for you and for the environment.
Once the boards are clean of all the valuable bits you could probably sell the boards as a very low grade, keeping all the good stuff for precious metal recovery.
The compressor is 50 litres, 11 gallons

[@Mikey-qe5zn]

This was strangely satisfying.

[@zachlafave1914]

Wow that air gun looks so much easier than what i use haha i just have a chisel and hammer great video as always

[@marshallhansen5170]

Hey Ben, another great video. I have three different widths 1/4, 1/2 and 1" ground like wood chisel - flat back, bevel top and sides. Don't worry about grinding temper from steel as these tools are used for this only. This helps segregate collecting specific components for high grading while processing quickly. Handpiece hangs 8" above work station on bungee cord. Generally: 1st pass - bus, pins, connectors; 2nd pass - ICs, transistors, mosfets; 3rd pass surface mounted devices. Working on foot actuator to punch out blob ICs. Almost all of my tools have been modified in some way. Look at pawn shops in the bargain trays for the handpiece as well as tips. I tried hot sand but two gaylords of mobos will change your mind quickly :)

[@billmchugh8654]

That is AWESOME! Nothing like Big Boy toys making noise! Gotta get me that set up! Build a little table with sidewalls and back board to keep the pins in, and use hucks33 small vacuum (which I already have) and you are all ready. Nice video!

[@eWasteBen]

+Bill McHugh Thanks Bill, yes sidewalls and a backboard is definitely a must, the pins did look like they were going everywhere but didn't go too far.

[@MaryAnnVanMeter]

Love it! but shouldn't you loose that carpet and get something smooth, it just seems like a lot of pins would get lost or tangled in it.

[@gevsar6674]

Hi Ben. You're doing great as always. In one year you probably improved your performance. I just want to mention that if you use some table with front board, it will prevent from sliding of pcb and you don't have to hold pcb or use clips to attach board to table edge. And also, you can make on table few openings to make easy separating parts. Thanks again for your videos.

[@whiggy6976]

i use an oscillating tool with a bimetal blade for the connectors and electrolytic capacitors (they often explode when they get hot), then blow the chips and smc off with a heat gun

[@rizzlablue2138]

This hammer is WONDERFULL !! you'r a genius !

[@eWasteBen]

+Rizzla Blue Thanks, takes one to know one ;)

[@faithwaipouri8472]

awesome recovery process, like you said, still get'n used to it yourself, so I'm sure you'll find an easier way of collecting all the crumble from the floor ( I,e ) a table with a box framing, again awesome process

[@piperdoug428]

You can get larger brick splitters for yer air hammer, 2" and 3", that'd speed things right up. Good job on the vid as usual.

[@bobbysbackingtracks]

+PIPER DOUG Hi Doug, Good info do you have url or location for those 2" - 3" blades?

[@piperdoug428]

+bobbysbackingtracks , hey there, Bosch makes a descaling chisel HS1910 and HS1427 which you can see on Amazon under air chisels. Cheers.

[@bullshitstomper9417]

This is fricken awesome as I’m cracking out the air chisel Thought I’d never use it again after that tile removal job

[@americasfavoritehoarder]

Aahhhh. Your killing me! Lol. I can picture myself in the basement at 4am with the aie compressor running and the air chisel buzzing away. Yep. The neighbors will luv me.

[@celestedelrio4070]

temper the chisel it should help the blade last longer sharpen it first of course before doing so will make the blade hard to sharpen

[@shaneyork300]

I LOVE TO SORT!!!! That crumble would be a lot of fun! I'd do it while I'm sitting and watching a movie that I've seen before, so as not to get distracted from sorting the crumble! You should do that for one of your contest. Guess how many pins in the jar! haha :) Another good video. The longer the video the better!!!

[@danimaster131]

I'm using blowtorch to desolder pins, chips, mlccs without burning the board.

[@TheRedneckAtheist]

Dude, when grinding on a chisel, never grind for more that 5 seconds, you're destroying the temper of the metal. Grind for a few seconds and dip in cool water.

[@corsagafa]

Great video Mate,its good to see a scrapman investing in tools! just one thing I want to point out is the chips that you take off at 12.20 are called "BGA chips" or "North South bridges" .They have at least 5 grams of gold per kilo of chips! most of the gold is in the black top (gold bonding wires) and not the green base, Go on the gold refining forum and look for a thread by patnor1011, all the best mate

[@eWasteBen]

+corsagafa Thanks Mate, have just started using the air hammer so I will definitely keep the black tops. cheers.

[@Ken-rk3by]

you are just having too much FUN with that thing!

[@es4forty892]

you should look into doing a sand bath. it cleans off the board with minimal effect from the person and no damage to the components.

[@eWasteBen]

+Kyle Smith try a motherboard and see how you go :)

[@celestedelrio4070]

there is gold bonding wires in the ceramic DO NOT THROW AWAY

[@uberism81]

Awesome!! Trying to get those pins out of the carpet would be a pain.

[@eWasteBen]

+EricTrippOnline Thanks, yeah it kinda is but I got a good tip and it works good. Using a hand vacuum cleaner dedicated to just that job, sucks 'em all up.

[@bingers1585]

you can use a 6-In-1 Paint Scraper Soft Grip Hammer End Nail Remover Putty and use a hammer or mallet and just cut the thing off. It comes clean off

[@wildliferescue8784]

I'm very surprised that you don't save the copper off the boards as well. the copper windings

[@Slutmaker-mw6el]

Just a thought. I wonder how a combination of using a sand blasting cabinet, air chisel and a shop vac would work? Might have to try that. Thanks for the info Ben.

[@moosescrapper5928]

holy hell.... that's awesome!

[@eWasteBen]

+Moose Scrapper Hello Moose, that's nice to hear coming from yourself. I've had people telling me that a hot sand bath would work on motherboards, I found the gold pins don't come off with hot sand, what do you think? I think hot sand is best for small boards that have no pins or plugs, like a cell phone board

[@moosescrapper5928]

eWaste Ben COMPLETELY AGREE!! The sand baths are great for cell phone boards but those big boards take forever to heat and they suck all the heat out of the sand.

[@eWasteBen]

+Moose Scrapper ok thanks, yep that's what I thought, so for a lot of motherboards it would take ages to get through them, where as the air hammer can rip through one in a minute, not to mention it's so much fun. anyway, thanks for your inspiration over the years, many of us are junior moose's so your video's have inspired a lot of people worldwide.

[@moosescrapper5928]

eWaste Ben It still freaks me out to hear that...lol thanks!

[@eWasteBen]

+Rick Miller Thanks, I did the bench grinding but never thought of the stone afterwards, i'll do that, cheers.

[@geoffupton]

whole new meaning to destruction derby! lol that is so 😳😳😳 its awesome! loved watching this... kinda theraputic! 😊 should have watched all these earlier! 😊

[@zackcat276]

That thing is great. How in the hell are you ever going to separate all of that crumble?! Haha Good luck my fellow scrap friend. If I'm ever in Australia ill stop by and give you a hand.

[@darnneljones6954]

Thank you for this video. It really is a help.

[@hucks33]

You could vacuum the small stuff with a dedicated vacuum cleaner

[@eWasteBen]

+hucks33 Good idea hucks, thanks mate.

[@raymondcote6669]

You are cutting the connectors off. Many still have pins inserted. How are you planning to remove the pins? I found that vice grips across the connector and pry the vice grips with a screw driver will pull the connector up and leave all the pins on the board. Then when you are ready, cut the pins. Connectors are free if pins. Works for me

[@vincenttelfer4206]

another good video, maybe a flat hotplate where you could get the right temperature from underneath then everything would scrape off very quick with an ice pick, how close are you to the equator? the temperature and timing together in some combination maybe it'll work.

[@garzaglass]

How do you pick up all the gold pins that fell on that carpet?

[@ward26102]

Carpet and everywhere about a 10' diameter circle around the work area. It can be messy.

[@pacoblancosmith]

Yeah, I know all about the Aussie prices and import fees. I am going to post my very first video on KZbin using the Air Scraper just to get things started for myself and hopefully pick up additional tips from folks.

[@eWasteBen]

+pacoblancosmith Fantastic mate, look forward to your video.

[@jetman1963]

Ben, you've inspired another-scrapper mate. I've about 120 lbs of PC boards and need an air compressor, what size do you recommend as a minimum size air compressor

[@eWasteBen]

entry lever compressor is more then enough, you actually want to set it to a low pressure so it don't smash through chips, rather just pop 'em off

[@astanfartin1647]

i send my pc off to get fixed and this is how he treats it...... unbelievable

[@wally8075]

Lol

[@MiguelSierra]

Excelente

[@pacoblancosmith]

Thanks again for a great video explaining your latest tip, Ben! Haven't seen this approach yet and definitely beats the sandbath as far as ease of setup, etc. my only question is do you think this disintegrates the tiny MLCC's? Looking forward to more tips! Patrick

[@eWasteBen]

+pacoblancosmith no the MLCC's pop off clean, I skimmed off a line of tiny mlcc's and they were ok but you could always take them off first with a screwdriver or after you remove the large items.

[@bobbysbackingtracks]

Hi Ben Great video!...What size air compressor are you using to power that Ryobi Air wave? Thanks brother for your good heart.

[@eWasteBen]

+bobbysbackingtracks Hi bobby, it's a 50 litre compressor, 11 gallons. but it's set at a low pressure, I found most components only need a little knock to get them off cleanly.

[@bobbysbackingtracks]

Thank you Ben , U Rock!

[@sunnychung809]

It can be done at diy at home, but not work in plant because high labour cost! I see they put mother boards in furnace in order to save lots of manpower.

[@armyguy2481]

What a good idea. How many gallons does your air compressor have?

[@markhickman7021]

Ben, Thanks for another great video... I do have a question, if you use the jack hammer removal method, can you then use a mixed metal recovery method on the pile. thanks again for your channel.

[@eWasteBen]

+Mark Hickman Think that's how i'll have to go with the small crumbles, but first i'll seperate what I can into their category and then one day when I have no easy things to refine i'll do the crumbles.

[@wilmanmiami]

Wthat is the tool do you use for removed components? thanks

[@Karen-mk6sq]

I used to make microchips, there is gold wire inside of all those black chips.

[@marobiy6702]

Sorry I want to ask the tools you are using to open ic and socket called what??

[@SuperNinjazx6]

Hey Ben when you clean off a board is it worth it to take off the larger capacitors

[@mohdsattar557]

after this . what is the procuture that how to get gold melt. pls show

[@pacoblancosmith]

Thanks again, Ben! I found an Air Scraper online for $25 US with 4 different blades already "sharp" so I'm looking forward to wiping out my 100+ pounds of boards to depopulate. Easy enough for me to check out myself but thought I'd ask you first.....on the higher end video, audio, motherboards, etc. there appear to be much higher gold content cable pins....are those plated even below the solder mask? I don't have that many of those but I hate to leave any gold behind.

[@eWasteBen]

+pacoblancosmith Not normally, it would just be tin pins underneath. Yeah everything's cheaper in the US, $25 is a good investment and your going to have a ball doing it, it's a lot of fun.

[@paulchristenberry5140]

Wondering how you clean out the rug your working on??

[@IsettasRock]

At 11:43 those are not IC chips and you don't want them in your mix. They are impedance matching transformers and they have no precious metals.

[@IsettasRock]

+IsettasRock Also, at 12:45 the top of the BGA chip popped off. You DO NOT want to throw those away, they contain all the gold bond wires. The black epoxy tops have more gold than the green bases.

[@eWasteBen]

+IsettasRock ok thanks, I'll take them out and have a closer look.

[@ShaunLewellyn]

How do you grind the chisel down?

[@silverskeletonkey1649]

Try the hot sand method. You won't loose any pin

[@gortnewton4765]

Has anyone done any research into how much gold is in a typical motherboard - and other precious metals including silver, palladium? Anyone know? With the quantity of metals known, then a spreadsheet can be constructed to calculate the cost of harvesting versus the cost of processing to re-obtain those metals.

[@MrNikosnik]

How do I search for the airgun that removed the pins please? Is airgun it's original name ?!

[@NameisRed]

Why not the copper?

[@demijunejohnstone9226]

if u was to do that on lino might be better. its goto be a pain cleaning that carpet at end

[@paulyagoda142]

Hi Ben! What size compressor do you use? I was looking at a small double tank.

[@eWasteBen]

+Paul Yagoda think it's 1.5hp so just an entry level size single tank

[@paulyagoda142]

Thank you Ben. It's next on my list. You make that look like the absolute most efficient method possible.

[@ricardoreddy9741]

when do you depopulate and when do u sell the PCB as is ?

[@eWasteBen]

I depopulate high end boards and just pick a few things from motherboards and lower

[@sergiovieira3361]

Hello! Man what´s the name of machine hand?

[@e.g.5471]

+eWaste Ben , thats nice. But does it worth if I buy lets say high grade motherboard and do this to it ? MB costs ~4,5eur/kg in my place, if i take everything out, it will be low grade board for ~0.30 eur/kg. Lets say Eur=USD. 1 lb = 0.453 kg. So will I win anyways doing this in fact that i dont know how to cook gold myself ? :) thanks

[@eWasteBen]

+gylyse gylyse No you won't win at all, refining is not something you can just do easily, everything is processed differently. Not worth buying boards for that money, free is best.

[@lechneralex2459]

U should screw a pice of wood on the table to hold or push the board against it, just saying

[@aissayakoubi8667]

Possibly lhe name of the device

[@historicalfootprints9642]

Great video and my choice to depopulate a computer board! My question is do you know a way to sort out the mlcc's, tantalum, ruthenium, etc after using the air chisel? I'm trying to separate everything out including the very small components or do I remove before using the chisel? Thanks

[@eWasteBen]

+Tom Geer sorting them is something to do when you have nothing to do, slowly, otherwise yeah, remove some of the small stuff before you use the air chisel but I prefer to do it after because both ways take time anyway

[@gazmercer9237]

yep good clean boards but crykee ya blady carpets a blady right mess.

[@richjenkins4521]

still copper rings on the first board

[@henniganjared]

Ben get a wide bit

[@keytefirerefining1355]

Throwing away gold corner bga tops when there the most valuable thing on the board 😬😬

[@SMOBY44]

Try sharpening that chisel to resemble a wood chisel; flat on the bottom, bevel to the top. You'll get a lot better efficiency out of it.

[@SMOBY44]

+SMOBY44 The flat on the bottom will keep the point from wanting to "drift" up and away from the board surface.

[@eWasteBen]

+SMOBY44 thanks, all good advice

[@carmichaelmoritz8662]

looks like a enjoyable job , i just wish there was a way to deal with all the poor people , either help them succeed or put them out of their misery , no fun being dirt poor , i use to be

[@eWasteBen]

+carmichael moritz good thing no one didn't put you out of your misery when you poor where hey?

[@carmichaelmoritz8662]

+eWaste Ben ,, well , my life is still a uphill struggle , i am still poor just not dirt poor , i use to love to do all sorts of odds and ends , i even at one time in my life collected resistors , capacitors , ect , i keep on going for the time being , if someone would have put me out of my misery when i were dirt poor they would have done me a great favor , just saying , life could be worse and yet it could be better

[@eWasteBen]

+carmichael moritz well, it's not all about money, being alive and free is good

[@carmichaelmoritz8662]

+eWaste Ben ,, i agree

[@chaz2922]

so I found an old electric organ that somebody had dumped into the woods as trash to get rid of I open this thing up to see that it had all these computer green motherboards and wires and stuff everywhere will I get it all out and I start learning about these I see Clips in the gold and all the water in the stainless steel and the copper and I just I don't I need to talk to somebody about this

[@deoxal7947]

Anyone else here from the Amphour?

[@rgarito]

All of that for 10 cents of gold. Modern electronics have such tiny amounts that you'd have to recycle a metric ton to get enough value out of it...

[@deoxal7947]

Ya but there's more than juat gold

[@ralphharoldson5511]

Can’t watch this with the go pro stuck on your head. You’re making me dizzy. Find a way to anchor your camera and you’ll probably get more viewers.