Over the past few years I had amassed a small pile of computer ribbon wire, the flat wide kind. As there is practically no market for it in my area, pennies per pound if they will even take it, I had not bothered with it. Decided to cut the ends and bring to Boardsort as mixed wire along with the cords and other wiring. I spent over four hours clipping connectors, mostly the plastic pushpin embedded type, but a few of the metal type. Sad to say that I only got about 10 to 15 percent wire...about 20 pounds for my four hours work. Most of the weight is in the ends, it seems. Now comes the toughie: sell the goldplated end connectors as is, or spend days trying to salvage the tiny pushpins for pin rate. Very thin gold flashing, and not over the whole connector pins. However, the monetary return on the material isn't the main focus of this blurb. I had an old paper cutter with the pivot arm blade that sliced thru the ribbon cable very nicely. Didn't think to try my electric metal shears. Any way, don't think I will be doing much ribbon wire collecting in the future, especially if it has to be clipped.
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