Telecom power boards

http://i52.photobucket.com/albums/g6...Untitled-2.png

I've mentioned this several times already but I wanted to show a pic of one of these boards. This board came out of a Nortel Option 11 power supply. I have already removed a very large heat sink that was in the center of the board. Everything circled in red was removed also in just a few minutes. So instead of getting 20 cents a pound I get $1.20 a pound.

I'm sure it took very little time to remove those components. You did gain a little #2 copper worth more than the board. The ferrite off the transformer and the inductors/chokes is good for #2 prepared iron. The question is how much did the removed components weigh? Not so long ago I weighed some RAMBUS. Then I removed the aluminum heat sinks and re-weighed everything. Then compared the price of RAMBUS to Gold memory adding in the aluminum at the going rate. Conclusion, it was an excercise in futility. Should've left the heat sinks on and sold for $5.25 (or whatever the going price was). Gained absolutely nothing converting that RAMBUS to gold memory. After some further thought, I came to the greater conclusion that recyclers/scrap yards have almost everything priced right so that there is no gain in breaking items down beyond a certain point. Why? Because it makes it easier for all of us to bring them material off of which they profit. More material brought in means more profit at the end of the month. I will now yield the soap box.

I wonder about this, too. Is removing stuff like pictured enough to degrade a board, say a motherboard or a hard drive board? Reason I think about doing it is as it's getting close to be time to ship them to someone, it'd make so many more fit into a box...

What do you "pros" do?

Thanks!
Brian

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Flinthills

I'm sure it took very little time to remove those components. You did gain a little #2 copper worth more than the board. The ferrite off the transformer and the inductors/chokes is good for #2 prepared iron. The question is how much did the removed components weigh? Not so long ago I weighed some RAMBUS. Then I removed the aluminum heat sinks and re-weighed everything. Then compared the price of RAMBUS to Gold memory adding in the aluminum at the going rate. Conclusion, it was an excercise in futility. Should've left the heat sinks on and sold for $5.25 (or whatever the going price was). Gained absolutely nothing converting that RAMBUS to gold memory. After some further thought, I came to the greater conclusion that recyclers/scrap yards have almost everything priced right so that there is no gain in breaking items down beyond a certain point. Why? Because it makes it easier for all of us to bring them material off of which they profit. More material brought in means more profit at the end of the month. I will now yield the soap box.

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Well the heat sink weighed about 2 lbs @.50 lb. The yards around here pay .10 lb for transformers and chokes/inductors. No such thing as #2 prepared iron but I wish there was.

I have been doing the same for several years now.

Locally the best I can get for that board is shred price, so last I checked it would be $0.09/lb. With removing the extra stuff I get the better price and more fit into a box for shipping. Personally its one of the best upgrades I think you can do other than selling for re-use.

Good photo and explanation, thanks. Mike