Relays on low grade boards

The other night, while I was turning on my TV with my remote, the click I heard made me realize that this sound was from a relay. (For those of you that don't know what a relay is, it's an electro-mechanical switching component. For the most part, it consists of an electro-magnet and contacts. The electro-magnet is made from wire coiled on a steel core.) Up to now, I have been overlooking relays while harvesting copper bearing components from low grade boards. The pictures below show what a typical relay from these boards looks like. It's not a lot of copper, but if you're pulling this stuff off anyways, you might as well take these too. I figure I should be able to pull 50 or more from my pile of low grade boards that I've already processed. Like they say, better than a poke in the eye with a sharp stick. The contacts also contain silver (for those of you that save this).

http://i1067.photobucket.com/albums/...psa34aa5f0.jpg

http://i1067.photobucket.com/albums/...pse0f0f3d4.jpg

Thanks, I'll have to go look at my stash. Ran across a few inductors/coils recently that had shrink tubing over them that made them look like capacitors. Only thing that tipped me off is they weren't smooth cylinders. The sides were a little wavy. Just something else to watch for. Looked similar to this: http://i01.i.aliimg.com/photo/v1/600...inductance.jpg

SILVER CONTACTS??? I have been throwing these into the bin with the brass or stainless. I will have to be a little more careful. Can you post a pic of what part is actually the silver plated part please. I will be saving these to precess them. I love precious metals for free!!

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Originally Posted by Storedaddy

SILVER CONTACTS??? I have been throwing these into the bin with the brass or stainless. I will have to be a little more careful. Can you post a pic of what part is actually the silver plated part please. I will be saving these to precess them. I love precious metals for free!!

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http://image.tradevv.com/2008/06/23/...-agsno2-cu.jpg
They look like little silver disks on the thin copper plates. I don't pull them, but thats a personal preference. Keep in mind it will take you a few thousand relays to get an amount that would be reasonable to send to a refiner.

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Originally Posted by Gravitar

http://image.tradevv.com/2008/06/23/...-agsno2-cu.jpg
They look like little silver disks on the thin copper plates. I don't pull them, but thats a personal preference. Keep in mind it will take you a few thousand relays to get an amount that would be reasonable to send to a refiner.

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Thanks Gravitar. That's a much better picture than my camera will take.

this year a few thousand next year maybe a few hundred. as i am sure we all know the metals market can jump or drop at anytime.

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Originally Posted by Gravitar

http://image.tradevv.com/2008/06/23/...-agsno2-cu.jpg
They look like little silver disks on the thin copper plates. I don't pull them, but thats a personal preference. Keep in mind it will take you a few thousand relays to get an amount that would be reasonable to send to a refiner.

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and these contacts are found where and on what before the look like the above pic.

The relay contacts in the above pic look like they come from Ice breaker relays.

The contacts on the relays the OP are talking about look like thin pieces of square wire. Or a small rounded square pad.

Eric

It will take a lot to make any meaningful amount of silver.

http://www.wadeinstruments.com/relay..._details_2.jpg

I have been saving up contacts from relays for about 6 months. So far I have over two ounces of silver contacts, 4 of silver/copper & 1 of silver/magnetic.
I guess that the silver/magnetic are either cheaper, or more valueable than the others, depending on the individual contact.

In the pic above, you can see the contacts, they are all silver/copper contacts. Normally the centre contact is all silver (because it contacts on both sides), just depending on the manufacturer.

The little relays you find in microwaves are easy to pick apart & they are all different deon their use.
The one I have in my pocket I just found in a washing machine, it has a silver bar on each contact surface.
The teflonny looking relay I found had three nice solid silver contatcs. Most of those relays will have silver/copper contacts.

The better contacts will be in, expensive industrial equiptment (sometimes gold), often opened & closed switches - clothes dryers - washing machines.

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Originally Posted by happyisthealero

and these contacts are found where and on what before the look like the above pic.

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I have no idea where these came from because I just embedded a picture link from Google. Look at eesakiwi's picture.

Hrm need more pics of them before and after dis assembly to understand fully thanks for posting pics anyway Eesakiwi