Northern NJ

**JPete** · 04-10-2012, 05:01 AM

Thanks for the welcome everyone! I am in Hackettstown NJ. For those not familiar, it is closer to PA and the Delaware River than it is to NYC. My electronics has been mostly printed circuit board design. One thing I notice is the price for mother boards vs old fiber boards. Truth be told, an old tube type radio or TV probably has more copper on its double sided board than a multilayer digital board. I can bore you with those details later on! Thanks again for the welcome.

**Mechanic688** · 04-10-2012, 10:38 AM

Originally Posted by JPete

Thanks for the welcome everyone! I am in Hackettstown NJ. For those not familiar, it is closer to PA and the Delaware River than it is to NYC. My electronics has been mostly printed circuit board design. One thing I notice is the price for mother boards vs old fiber boards. Truth be told, an old tube type radio or TV probably has more copper on its double sided board than a multilayer digital board. I can bore you with those details later on! Thanks again for the welcome.

Yes but the motherboards have gold pins/connectors and other PM's (precious metals) that make them worth more.

**JPete** · 04-10-2012, 11:37 AM

Originally Posted by Mechanic688

Yes but the motherboards have gold pins/connectors and other PM's (precious metals) that make them worth more.

Agreed 100%. Mobo's and MIL and telecom have more PM on them than ordinary. I do not know what the process is for recovering those metals though. I would think with straight copper it is a matter of delamination and burn off the FR4 and prepreg material. With mixed metals, I do not know how it works.

**JPete** · 04-10-2012, 12:22 PM

Not to answer my own question, but to just put something out there, I just was reading this:
http://www.prospectorsparadise.com/html/smelting.html
and made me wonder if those getting the mother boards; first delaminate the outer layers with the nickel and gold on copper and smelt them down.
Then with the inner core layers burn it all off and what remains is copper.

**CLR Solutions** · 04-10-2012, 08:05 PM

Originally Posted by JPete

Thanks for the welcome everyone! I am in Hackettstown NJ. For those not familiar, it is closer to PA and the Delaware River than it is to NYC. My electronics has been mostly printed circuit board design. One thing I notice is the price for mother boards vs old fiber boards. Truth be told, an old tube type radio or TV probably has more copper on its double sided board than a multilayer digital board. I can bore you with those details later on! Thanks again for the welcome.

JPete welcome to the forum. You are about 15 minutes up route 80 from us. If you have any escrap questions don't hesitate to call or stop by.