Found Silver & Tantalum

Silver and Tantalum capacitors is what I found. Been studying and scratching my head in a "dazed and confused" mode. Determined to put all my resources to work in finding the different types of tantalum capacitors. Mostly rereading every post on this subject here at SMF, dealing with Tantalum capacitor things. Started by looking at all the PCB'S that I had previously sorted to low grade or had depopulated. I concentrated on the boards that I had depopulated first. Why those? simply because less to look at and less components to scrutinize on those boards. I chose to further focus on two types, the metal axial-leaded and the epoxy/ceramic "gum drop" dipped tantalum capacitors.

The Tools: I used my eyes aided by magnifying glasses (5 x's magnification) looking for the plus sign markings on both the board and the capacitor. Then once finding these capacitors I used a scrapers best friend, a magnet! Finding all tantalum capacitors have magnetic properties. The many previous post on SMF, both descriptions and pictures (big help) for identifying conformation. Dremel rotary tool with a cut-off wheel to remove capacitors from board. Also used manufacturers data sheets for final conformation. Utilized both digital scale and micrometer for documenting weights and dimensions.



Conclusions: When I started on this today I had zero Tantalum Capacitors with a value of zero. I now have a little over 100. They weigh as little as .2 to 9 grams each and I have over three ounces. The SMD and "gum drops" weigh almost nothing, the wet Ag/Ta's weigh a little bit more (7 to 9 grams) each. With most all scrap prices down right now and Tantalum capacitor scrap paying from $20 to $80 per pound. I just want to find more alternative ways to earn money for what I already have. With the silver/tantalum paying $5 per ounce, that's better than $.50 per pound for aluminum. I got a long way to go, but I got started on the elusive tantalum thing!

Congrats - I'm still confused with what they look like/where to find them.

Keep us posted on your progress.

Originally Posted by logansryche

Congrats - I'm still confused with what they look like/where to find them.

Ditto

Originally Posted by logansryche

Congrats - I'm still confused with what they look like/where to find them.

There is a thread with pics.

A little update: As I said I'm only taking tantalum capacitors off boards that I have previously removed components. These were boards with easily removable (not soldered) IC chips for the most part. All boards were green/green, with the older ones being dark green on component side and a lighter green on soldered side. Theses green boards were medical, computer and communication boards all pre 1990. I have found some tantalum capacitors on green/brown or tan boards that were heavy with switches, transformers and relays. These were all on what I would call control boards, in that they "controlled" temperature, air flow or machine movement. All of the boards had the positive "plus" sign with the anode side of capacitors attached.

I'll give you one example of the tantalum capacitors that I'm finding. These were made by the Sprague Company and have date codes from the 1980's. Looking at them with the anode on the right and cathode on the left. They are marked as such and I'll call "lines": (line 1) 109D+, (line 2) 220UFXO, (line 3) 30DC, (line 4) 2 "in side a circle" +, (line 5) 8828+. These are the only marking on the case, the case is metal, nonmagnetic and "SILVER" in color. These are in a Axial package, round cylinder shaped with through hole leads at each end. On the anode side of case there is a "deep crimp", much deeper than you would find on a "normal" aluminum capacitor. The case has a clear plastic protection sleeve. The anode lead is magnetic and that side of case has a "epoxy" like green seal. The cathode side is silver sealed with a tinned copper lead, that is nonmagnetic. These capacitors weigh 3.9 to 4.0 grams.

Looking at the Sprague data sheet for the 109D tantalum capacitor, these should be the Silver/Tantalum "wet" capacitor!

Any and all added responses and/or questions are welcomed and appreciated. Thanks everyone.

It's good to try it out for awhile. Breaking down the PCB's for their components is a learning experience that gives you a better understanding of E-waste.

For me: It didn't seem to be worth doing for the following reasons.

1: Time .... When i weighed everything up after a day's work there seemed to be fairly little return for the time invested. It occurred to me that it might be better to find something else to do that was more profitable.

2: The job hazards ....There are different methods for breaking down a PCB and they all have their risks. The least harmful option was to shave the board with a sharp chisel but even that released a micro fine dust into the air. Short term it might be okay but over the long term you would probably be risking some kind of poisoning. Came to the conclusion that it would be better to do this kind of thing in a closed environment of some kind. That way all of the dusts & whatnot would be safely contained.

3: The left over was devalued / depopulated boards that need to be properly disposed of. I ended up shipping them at a loss to a refiner. They might have had a value of .30 /lb but it cost .60 - .80 / lb to ship them.

4: It might have been worthwhile doing 20 years ago because the boards that one would run into back then were richer in recoverable value items. The boards that you commonly run across today are much scarcer. Axial tanty caps are rare and the SMD's are tiny compared to what was used in the past.

5: The economy of scale. There's a difference between dismantling and refining. Once you start breaking the boards down it's getting into the realm of refining. Refining is a specialty. If there's a guy out there that can do the job 100 times faster and achieve a higher recovery rate of PM's i'll gladly hand that job off to him. He's a better choice for that kind of work.

Just my two cents .... it might be a different story for somebody else in a different situation.

You have to figure out what methods work best for you.

[QUOTE=bigburtchino;229173]

looking for the plus sign markings on both the board and the capacitor.

Don't get too hung up looking for the plus sign on boards. At least 50% of the ones I find have no marking on the board.

I find that usually the circuit board is marked with the + sign, but you are correct a lot of them are not. You can't really go by the + sign on the capacitor either, as the + sign is on a lot of electrolytic capacitors also. If you take the time to educate yourself about tantalum capacitors, how they are made, the material that is used and where they are used. You can get fairly efficient at locating the type of board and then finding the tantalum capacitors on the board. I do have a background in electronics, electronics engineering degree, FCC license with a radar endorsement and twenty + years trouble shooting, identifying, isolating and fixing complex mechanical and electronic equipment. This was in my last "lifetime" and the old saying "Use it or loose it" is all so true! I like getting back into it, finding E-waste allows me to at least think about, what I used to do.

There are Tantalum capacitors on low grade boards, not usually but here is one example. These two little "muster yellow" epoxy "gum drops" weigh only .2 grams total. They actually came off of a old color TV, didn't expect to find them. I was scraping some old low grade boards, harvesting the coils, chokes, IC's and transformers. There in the middle of this TV board was these two "K" tantalum capacitors.

Here are some more pictures of low grade boards that I have found these epoxy tantalum capacitors on., Going from left to right, the tan board is a thermostat board, the middle green/green is off of industrial machine monitor (B&W) and the right one is off a chemical making control board. All three are low grade boards and made in the 80's and early 90's. The tan board only had two caps, the middle had eight black caps and the one on the right had three red & orange ones. It literally takes only seconds to snip these off of the board. I do use magnifying glasses (5X magnification) that make this job much quicker. Takes much longer learning what a tantalum capacitor is and where they can be found!

I too have started in on the tantalum hunt recently and your spot on when you said that they are nowhere near as prevalent on the "newer boards". One little thing that I have noticed that applies across the board is the color MUSTARD YELLOW. 90% of the epoxy Ta and even the ones I call bricks are mustard yellow in color. Now the tear drop ones do come in an assortment of colors but with those the shape and the fact that everyone has a little kick in one of the lead legs. Anyway that's my little tip for the easy to find ones.

BigBurt,

You an EE...?


Jon.

Jon, I never really considered myself a working EE, as I spent more time managing engineers and technicians. I did originally go to school for that. I spent over 20 years in the aviation community, both in the military and commercial airline. I have been running my own company now for another 20+ years none of it electronic engineering related. I can still read a schematic and a data sheet (I think?). I do enjoy breaking down E waste and it allows me to get back into the electrons and hole flow movement in a very small way!

Besides Silver and Tantalum, I maybe should point out the Gold. Yes that's gold in those first two boards, the tan board has nineteen test points five of them are gold and fourteen of them silver. The middle board had two removable dip chips and the sockets that they plugged into are gold plated. Here's another view of those two boards stacked on top of each other. Hopefully you can see the gold!

Thanks, BigBurt,

Its just kinda interesting to see the background of us SMF'ers.

As I said in my rants about the guy making $2500/night raiding retail store dumpsters--we in the buz cut across all walks of life. The way that article characterized the typical scrappie just blew my mind. I never cease to be amazed at the common sense and intelligence that comes off of these pages, from people who are in this game. There's a few winners out there, too, but its amazing how they usually get themselves banned or just kinda slowly disappear.

Now I see a chance at some teasing....hmmm..."boss of engineers".... Dilbert's boss comes to mind..... {wish we had Sirscrapalot here to help...} maybe something like "Pointy"?



Jon..... unh, wondering if he should look for cover....

I'm sure Sirs. is lurking close by and yes the diversity of this group of people has both surprised and amazed me. Then again when you get down to this business it makes more sense than anything Iv'e dealt with. Furthermore this is for a thinking persons much more than a nonthinking type. Certainly one needs to be ambitious, creative and a non-follower if you want to succeed.

I also am of the opinion it doesn't really matter what one chooses to do, just need to work at it and do the best job with the abilities you have. In short for me it doesn't matter if one shovels monkey $hit, just do a good job at it and things will work out for the better.