There's copper in them there heatsinks

I have a bunch of computers that I picked up a while back. I have finally been able to break them down and was excited to find some copper surprises inside them. As many of you know, the processors typically have a large aluminum heat sink mounted to them. Well, I haven't been e-scrapping for very long so I just figured all heat sinks were aluminum. Well, I pulled off one heat sink and it had some copper coloring in the middle of it. Huh, I wonder if that is a hunk of copper in there. Out comes the hack saw and I am gonna find out. I'll be ****ed, that is a nice heavy hunk of copper. I found two other heat sinks with a solid copper cylinder in the middle. Then, I looked in my box of heat sinks and found more copper. I am really pumped that I found all of this copper. I think I may keep all these nice chunks of copper or I may check the bay and see how much I can get for them. Check em out.

The cylinders are all about the same and weigh about 6.5 ounces(about 6ish troy oz for all you bullion collectors). The larger rectangles weigh about 10.5 oz each and feel like my silver 10 ozers. That is so cool.
http://i779.photobucket.com/albums/y...pskxauaw7p.jpg

The thinner cylinder reminds me of Ag rounds. It weighs 4 oz.
http://i779.photobucket.com/albums/y...psifgpweww.jpg

I had to lightly grind off some sort of zinc coating on the 10ozers. I will probably buff them with the dremel and see if I can get a mirror type finish on them.
http://i779.photobucket.com/albums/y...ps2tocjv2c.jpg

those are COOL, hope I find some later when I get to the computer hoards around the yard. I like interesting copper.

Some heat sinks that look aluminum have copper bottom plates also. If it feels heavy, grind the bottom and check.

yes these are common in most business class machines and ESPECIALLY servers. Most will have copper bottoms/centers and/or side heatpipes as well. If you do not have the time to hack out the copper at least pop off the side pipes (#1 copper) and work on convincing your yard to buy them as radiators AT A MINIMUM....might should be higher based on the amount of copper recovery to aluminum.

the solid copper ones are nice as well that weigh over a pound or the g series huge radiator style ones that weigh over 3lbs

SICK! I have a bunch of pcs to tear down, and now I am chompin at the bit! those are bad a$$! NICE finds!

It looks like enough of those could bring a few good bucks.

How did you go about removing the copper cylinders from inside the aluminum? I have seen these before and the only way I could seperate them was with a lot of heat (a MAP gas torch) and then hammering on the copper?

Quote:

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Originally Posted by cmgscrap

How did you go about removing the copper cylinders from inside the aluminum? I have seen these before and the only way I could seperate them was with a lot of heat (a MAP gas torch) and then hammering on the copper?

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He says in his post he uses a hacksaw

[QUOTE]How did you go about removing the copper cylinders from inside the aluminum? I have seen these before and the only way I could seperate them was with a lot of heat (a MAP gas torch) and then hammering on the copper?[QUOTE]





If you have a worn out but correct diameter socket, a hammer and either a oversize socket to set it on or a vise to hold it you're in business. Of course, a hydraulic press trumps that method. However, I like the ones such as the far left, bottom row, example in the photo. They are either held on by 4 tiny screws or some of the Aluminum heat sink is pushed through the holes forming a rivet type fastner. Either way, easy money.

a press will do it as well. I have a cheap manual arbor press i got at hazard freight

Forgot these photos in my original post. I used a small hack saw to cut through the aluminum to remove the copper. I nicked a couple of the copper pieces as seen in the photo but overall I was able to cut just close enough to pry the aluminum apart and release the copper.

http://i779.photobucket.com/albums/y...psmzg5c6gl.jpg

http://i779.photobucket.com/albums/y...pstbggz0vh.jpg

The heatsink on the left, the one with the Copper 'coin' in it weighs a total of 227gms.
The Ali weighs 194 gms
The Copper weighs 32gms.

Now this is something thats been raised here before. Is it better to not put any extra time into it and sell it for a 'Mixed Copper/Ali' price?

Or scrap it down and get 'extrusion Ali' & 'Copper domestic' prices for it.

I could work it out but exchange rates and differing metal prices will smear the answer.

I like to put the heat sink in a vise and use an angle grinder to free the copper cylinder from the aluminium housing.
Very fast and easy.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by eesakiwi

The heatsink on the left, the one with the Copper 'coin' in it weighs a total of 227gms.
The Ali weighs 194 gms
The Copper weighs 32gms.

Now this is something thats been raised here before. Is it better to not put any extra time into it and sell it for a 'Mixed Copper/Ali' price?

Or scrap it down and get 'extrusion Ali' & 'Copper domestic' prices for it.

I could work it out but exchange rates and differing metal prices will smear the answer.

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this is a YMMV type of thing....all of it depends on what you get for each of those items in your neck of the woods. You also have to ake into account HOW much er hour you want/need to make. I would do the math on a mixed vs broken down and then see how many based on breaking a couple down you can do and extrapolate that into how much material per hour. If I can do 10 of these per hour and the different is $1 if broken down, then is $10/hr a GOOD use of your time? for me, maybe not, for someone else, maybe so....

That is the way most scrapping is...what do you need to make per hour...I have stressed that people do the equation and work it down to a per hour basis....then if something you are doing does not equal that amount, you don't do it. :)

I scrapped down one of the right hand heatsink and worked it out afterwards that I lost 2 cents..... Thats my two cents...

But i had just scrapped one of the left hand side heatsinks a few days ago and then read this thread .
So I pulled the parts back out and weighed them.

Between the NZ$ vs US$……… differing Ali prices
(we get a better price for Ali here in NZ. Its melted down at our Aluminium smelter and sold to their buyers and so theres only one middleman before
recycling/export).
And our slightly lower Copper price. Makes it change value to much for me to quote our prices.

I only spent a few minutes each removing the copper from the aluminum on these heat sinks. I am not worried about my time as this is just a little me time away from the kids. Copper and aluminum prices both stink in my area so I am stock piling most of my Ag and Al. Like I said before, you don't find copper chunks like this very often so I will hang on to them as if they were bullion rounds and bars. If I do sell them it will be on the bay when prices increase. Now, I just need to find some more computers to find more copper. Have fun!

You also have to consider the grade of copper as well. From what I understand those are not "pure" copper, and your payday at the yard or online may not be as much as you think. Maybe I'm wrong, but I was doing the same thing as you a couple years ago using a grinding tool with a metal cutting disc. It was easy, but eventually I just gave up and sell now as A/C heatsink at $0.70 per pound. Some older posts may answer the purity question of the copper you have. They do look cool tho :)

The heat sink with the fins looks cool for steampunk art & such.

I understand the taking the copper out as curious little copper curios. They look quite nice as a little family of curious copper curios.

The flat ones would look great in a shadow box mounted on velvet. There are many items that look cool in a shadow box mounted on velvet material. Keys, jean buttons, other buttons and other smalls and tiny things.

I do enjoy my SMALLS and tiny things. I do have quite the hoard of those things from the many years. That is part of WHY I'm partly busy cleaning and sorting through the yard after all the years. I want to make more room for my favorite things.

When I think of all the old computer type items and other items with heat sinks on them, it excites me and helps with my motivation on putting my next adventure in the yard together.

I seem to have copper/brass rads on the brain and will most likely pull the rest that need pulling as it seems to be the popular adventure trend and fad in the theme park at this TIME.

There is a old dodge van that I have been cleaning around that has sat for many years that I know has a bunch of old Packard Bell computers and such in it. That was one of my first BIG computer hauls. Since then I have amassed a nice selection of computers and their related items. I personally don't care much for computers as they are just a fancy telephone as I view it. I like telephones more so then computers. I have a land line phone as it's a good thing to have when you Live where I do. I have never had a cell phone as I don't like phones much better then I like computers.

Some might wonder, WHY do I use and have phones and computers if I don't much like them?

Much the same reason that I have a insured vehicle that mostly sits in case I have need of a TAXI.

When we view "things" from a very different view point then what is popular, we see the best use for what would be best not invented in the first place.