Something to keep in mind. 5 lbs of CLEAN cut gold fingers, meaning no green at all. Will get you aprox 1/10th ounce of gold. That's in the best of circumstances, using a percolator and high voltage low amperage power in the mix. Dropping some motherboards in a vat of acid and walking away is going to get you a massive mess and a few grams after a few months.
The most per bucket is 10lbs per 4 gallons hcl. Drop that weight very fast for anything more populated than gold fingers (eg peripheral cards). And that's just looking at gold. Yes you can make thousands, or more, in your own garage. But in reality most people never get set up correctly to do so. those that do cash out after a year and take a vacation never to do it again.
If your going to do it, DO IT, buy books, take courses, learn and study. Get the licenses you need. But do it all the way. Read about all the other metals (and minerals) . Not just copper platinum and iridium but.. A bare empty never used 1 lb brown board is worth 15-30¢ The same board fully and completely processed will yeald apx ¼lb of tercium power from the polymer fibreglass. At $20 per lb. that's $5 for a 15 cent board. While recovering that alone yourself would cost more than it's worth (copper and nickel too in these cases) doing so as just a step in refining many boards for other materials is a very nice yeald. But here we're moving into commercial grade refining. Alas you can now understand why empty breadboard blanks cost $10 at the store any why they are worth money recycling.
It's nothing you're going to be after but recovering copper nickel silver etc tungsten, carbon, palladium, magnesium...! Those are all just one extra step in the gold recovery process; add a bit if this and reduce a bit of that to recover other metals and minerals along the process.
If you keep trying and don't give up and learn as you go and invest what you need to and have the patience to keep it up and and and. Yes you can make money. Lots of money. But it's not an afterthought activity.
|