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Have a few different things I want to identify that aren't boards. Tried to label everything similarly across pics. Apologies in advance as I don't know most of the proper names for things.

I took apart a bunch of hard drive armatures and noticed some differences between them.
Most are like the picture and #1 is usually copper. Some are more silver (or colorful but silver/white when cut).
Are the silver colored #1s aluminum?

#2, I've read that the wires leading to the sliders/heads are gold.
Are these gold? If so, are they always?

The body of the arms I have seem to all be aluminum; I read somewhere that sometimes they can be titanium. I noticed when I bent several of them that they make a sound similar to tin (Sn) crying.
I can't imagine they are tin but does the sound indicate anything about what the arms are made of?

Silver plated brass:
Voltage switches from PSUs, that I took apart. Most of these were the "A" type. The leads for soldering wire to (labeled "A") look like they're nickel plated copper. The stubby e-shaped pieces labeled "A" look like they could be silver plated copper.
Do either of these qualify as silver plated brass?

I had a few that were the "B & C" type. The "B" pieces are brass and have a silver appearance. The "C" leads that are still in the board are brass or steel.
Do these qualify for silver plated brass?

#3 also appears to be silver plated but also has the button contacts attached. I know there's a variety of silver and Tungsten type contacts, any advice on these?

"Y" (because of its shape) has a small triangular contact on the bottom of the y that I took a close up image of. Again the silver/Tungsten contacts, any advice?

"G" Not sure what these are but the color of the contacts caught my eye. Appears to be a gold plating.

Last picture, or first if I uploaded in the wrong order... Is a military cable connector of some sort??? I think someone told me there's often silver wiring in stuff like this, I have no idea if that's true but the wire here definitiely isn't copper. Is it silver?

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Here to learn more so I can recycle more
My grades are my own opinion and not an official grade from Boardsort

marked141,

You asked if the sound of a metal could determine what the metal might be made of. Yes and no. When it comes to differentiating copper/zinc pennies from copper pennies, I'd know the sound difference anywhere when either is dropped on a hard surface. When differentiating silver/copper Kennedy halves from copper/nickel halves, again, yes I can. However, with all the different metals and combinations of metals used in the construction of just about everything else, no, I would say sound would not be of much help.

I know of one youtube video where the author claims the wire used in the read/write head of a hard drive head is gold. I've yet to come across one that was. I have not had the experience yet to do exceedingly large batches of ancient hard drives and I would suspect there may have been some made. Lost would certainly be a wealth of knowledge in that department though. I can say that resins in laminates used for wires and PCBDs can make the copper look gold, yet upon further investigation, proved to be copper.

If you take a look at the very tip of the hard drive read/write head, the space between where the disk would have been, you'll notice what looks like a fleck of pepper or dirt! It's not, from what I understand that is Rhodium. A rare earth metal you can, if so inclined, collect. Due to size and weight however, it will take many many hard drives to accumulate.

Your question regarding metals used in the construction of various types of contacts. The list is long and varied. Silver, Molybdenum, Copper, Cadmium, Iron, Nickel, Tungsten, Magnesium, Palladium, Platinum, Gold and others in various combinations. From your picture, it looks like it could be gold. As Lost would say however, "all that glitters, is not necessarily gold". There is a tool some jewelers use that might be able to discern the metal content however. The tool is extremely expensive. You may be able to find a jeweler or coin shop that has one. Perhaps they could help. Short of looking up the part number of the device your're interested in and perhaps getting lucky enough to list components used in construction, that would be my answer. You could also check out goldrefiningforum.com . Smart group of folks over there that could, perhaps help you out as well. I'm sure Lost will be along to shed more light on what you have as well.

Your connector. Yes, used in the aerospace industry, military and other applications. High quality components go into the construction. For many of the parts I've ordered like these, some companies do list materials of construction. The blue lettering on your connector is the part number. You could google or duckduckgo that p/n and see what comes up. The wire is more than likely silver plated copper, though hard to tell from the picture. The female pin appears to be gold plated brass with a nickel cap so the fingers inside better grip the mating male pin. As to the metals used in the connector body, like I said earlier, the part number may help you out there. Again, Lost has a wealth of knowledge and perhaps could shed more light on the subject.

Back to your question regarding metals used in contacts, relays etc. Yes, there are numerous metals used in the construction. But I'm not sure how many, if any scrap yards buy mixed metals like that or how they'd be classified so you could profit from your time separating. Others on this forum should know or may know.

Looks like a nice pile of parts to wade thru though!!!

Enjoy,

RustyFuryIII

Thanks for all the information!

I really wish I had one of those fancy scanners that tell you what metal you have. There's a scrap yard about 3 hours away from me that I know has one but that's quite the drive. I have some silver I'm interested in knowing the purity of so that may be an excuse to go check out some jewelers.

I'm hoping some of these are standard enough that they may fall into a certain category. Even if it's just #2 copper or brass instead of silver plated.

The connector is pretty beat up on the blue label but I'll see if I can't discern a number when I get home and Google it.

_________________
Here to learn more so I can recycle more
My grades are my own opinion and not an official grade from Boardsort

I’ll get back to this if others haven’t beaten me to it.
;)

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The tiny wires that connect to the read head from the arms are usually silver. Those strips of tough metal along the same path; usually are gold plated.
5.25 inch FULL HEIGHT drives (size of two dvd drives on top of each other) are the only place I’ve seen gold wire and it’s not pure. I had a whole pile of them and got it tested. Worked out to be about 12k (a little under that level) with lots of silver and aluminium in it as well.

Those rhodium heads are worth collecting if you scrap MANY drives. They add up eventually and rhodium is regularly over $1000 per Troy ounce. On the other side of that though is they are carbon heavy. So it works out to be about 2/3ds value by weight.

I have seen some old timers accurately guss a metal based on sound of the flex. Even to the alloy point ratios. I can’t begin to figure that out. A few can, most can’t. And I wouldn’t think you could easily describe the different sounds regardless.sorry

What makes up connectors, well that’s the majority of the periodic table! Lol.
In value order of pures, aluminium, tin, copper, silver for the base material
Platings are: silveride, silver, red/rose gold, white gold, gold, pink gold (gold + rhodium), rhodium.
The only pure gold connectors that exist are antenna wire connectors that are press down stile. And permanent. Old brick style flip down cell phones, palm pilot, the original Japanese Sega Nomads sold with the banking kit, etc.
Gold is an extremely soft metal. Even “junk gold” jewellery like 8kt rings. You can squash with your fingers and some determination.
Great for (expensive) wires, terrible for connectors.

Historically nickel is the number 1 material chosen for connectors. It’s rather hard. Does not flow like most metals do in solid form. Is a rather good conductor on it’s own and creates a large magnetic field when plated with most other conductive metals.
Science project for the interested and patient.
Cut a long thin strip of nickel slightly longer than the length of a AA battery. Fold the ends up at 90• angles so the battery fits comfortably but snuggly in it. Now use rubber gloves, you’ve got a good conductor now. Solder the ends to the battery terminals. Wrap a piece of string around the battery through, not over, the nickel.
Hang the battery outside from a window sill, nickel side down.
Forget about it for a few years
When you come back in a few years you’ll find that the nickel has “flowed” into a vertical alignment without disrupting the soldered points. There’s also amazingly still enough power that you can power a few quarter amp bulb from it! :)

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Thanks for the information Lost!

I'm getting the feeling the answer will be there's no way to tell, but just for clarification:

Do any of the items I have sorted out (A, B, C, Y, or 3--Just realized I labeled two different things as A... Oops) fall under silver plated brass?

And I get a bunch of power supply units with the voltage switches, if the material in these isn't silver plated brass, is there a standard for what they're made of so I can sort them correctly?

_________________
Here to learn more so I can recycle more
My grades are my own opinion and not an official grade from Boardsort

In photo order
Connector) looks nickel plated brass to me. The mesh wire looks like aluminium and the wand connector, looks like nickel tipped brass



Gold contacts 2) best guess, gold contacts on aluminium.
You can cut the contacts off for Boardsort and send them along with gold pins.

Gold contacts) my first guess is the same as above. If the metal is thick and hard to bend, stiff like, it will probably be nickel. If it’s soft and twistable it’s aluminium.

Voltage switch parts photos)
3&A are usually either silver or nickel plated brass. Scratch or cut one and see if there’s a golden colour below the silver. If there is Boardsort will take it as plated brass.
Y is a rare earth of some sort. Probably a transition metal.
I’m not sure what though.

A plated brass category if there’s brass under it.
B see above about soft vs hard metal
C see a


2 I covered above
1 copper and plated copper are most common
Aluminium with a now-hard liquid binder over it is also common.
High end portable drives will sometimes use aluminium-manganese.
Some very high end sas drives will use silver-manganese alloys. But those drives are many thousands of dollars per terabyte to begin with and all three manufacturers have repair programs for them. Worth fixing these over scrapping.
Copper is self explanatory.
An aluminium alloy or a “glued” aluminium ring will go as dirty aluminium at most yards.
Chances are it’s not silver. SAS connectors look just like SATA but noticeably longer.
Low end SAS drives are in the high $hundreds and fixing one without concern for data is rather inexpensive, comparatively: normal under $200.
They clean room disassemble the drive, replace the dead mechanical parts, vacuum seal it. Low level format it and done.
Also check the date stamp on sas drives. Most come with 5 year warranties. You may get a repair or new one for free. Most people and companies don’t register their drives. Free ebay money!

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