n00b Q: taking Al heat sinks off circuit boards

I'm new to the e-waste thing. Sadly, I used to throw away circuit boards before I knew better.

This might be a basic question, but what's the cost/benefit to removing (sometimes cast, usually extruded) aluminum heat sinks from the boards?

Does it devalue the boards? Or is it worth the effort for a few ounces of aluminum?



Thanks.

I can't think of many situations where it devalues. They sort of expect low grade to be picked over a bit and on the more valuable boards they sort of expect those things to be taken off. I will say, if you can get 18-22c per pound on low grade, I wouldn't bother taking off the copper stuff unless it is super easy to get unwound. At that price, its just about break even, and your time is likely worth something.

Oh, I'm not talking about motherboards here... more like low-grade power supply boards.

Removing heatsinks will increase the value of all boards except low-grade and power boards, same for transformers and large capacitors. Lemme know sometime when you're over on the SW side of town and can show you with visual examples of the different kinds of boards and what makes one clean vs. dirty, what to remove and what not to. Also there is a lot of this information covered in the old threads and pinned threads in the computer and electronics recycling sections of this forum.

I think it comes down to postage costs in the end.

If you can save some money on postage by taking something off the board that not going to devalue it in the end.
Ie,, the value of your boards drops because of less Aluminium, but you get the same $$ back later when you sell the Aluminium as scrap.
The money you saved was in the the cost of the postage.

Basically you have to juggle the numbers to see what works for you in your own situation.