Salvaging PCB

Zereo_XI · Post by **Zereo_XI** » Tue Jun 03, 2008 8:05 pm

What are the most useful and easy things to salvage from a Printed Circuit Board? I was able to get a hold of 11 Tact Switch but I'm not sure if anything else is important.

Electric Rain · Post by **Electric Rain** » Tue Jun 03, 2008 8:16 pm

That really depends on the board. Hardcore scroungers would de-populate the entire board and throw every single part in a bin.

I, personally, keep scrap PCBs stored away until I need something... then I look through the boards and see what I have. If a board has what I need at that moment, I take it, and put the board back away. *shrug*

WhatULive4 · Post by **WhatULive4** » Tue Jun 03, 2008 8:28 pm

If you are going to take every component off the boards, take the time to organize. I made that mistake and ended taking a day to sort things out so if I ever needed something I knew where it was.

I hate throwing things out that are perfectly good, and I hate clutter. Otherwise I would keep the old boards and get the parts off them when needed. I would rather strip the boards and throw them out. They just take up space.

Mister X · Post by **Mister X** » Tue Jun 03, 2008 8:30 pm

With desoldering braid and a solder sucker, and of course, an iron, everything, really. Anything that's not a resistor is pretty expensive these days. ICs are especially handy. Remember, inside every PSX is a $30 video encoder chip.

But please don't go gutting functional equipment, that's stupid.

Zereo_XI · Post by **Zereo_XI** » Tue Jun 03, 2008 9:04 pm

Ok thanks guys. I found I big Mayonnaise Bucket that I will put all the PCB's in. I will also seperate everything I take in Water Bottles.

Mister X- That the last thing I will do. I used a old Oven Touch pad (Broken, It got a Short and a small part of it went Smoking), and got lots of Tact Switch from it like i said before.

Oh and are Resistor any worth the time Desoldering?

Electric Rain · Post by **Electric Rain** » Tue Jun 03, 2008 9:09 pm

Zereo_XI wrote:Oh and are Resistor any worth the time Desoldering?

Through hole, yes... SMD, probably not.

mothatrucka · Post by **mothatrucka** » Tue Jun 03, 2008 9:29 pm

Zereo_XI wrote:Oh and are Resistor any worth the time Desoldering?

Like Electric Rain said, the through-hole ones are pretty easy to get off. I've got mine sorted by size in a tacklebox. If I've got loads of a particular size, I won't bother about it. I also don't bother if the leads are really short.

timmeh87 · Post by **timmeh87** » Wed Jun 04, 2008 1:24 am

In this day and age, Id say keep the old PCBs for their copper. Its worth almost 4x as much as it was 5 years ago...

Im saving all the copper I come across. Im hoping it will be worth as much as silver by the time Im ready to melt it down and sell it

Electric Rain · Post by **Electric Rain** » Wed Jun 04, 2008 2:13 am

timmeh87 wrote:In this day and age, Id say keep the old PCBs for their copper. Its worth almost 4x as much as it was 5 years ago...

Im saving all the copper I come across. Im hoping it will be worth as much as silver by the time Im ready to melt it down and sell it

Huh... interesting... Never thought of that.

Neildo_64 · Post by **Neildo_64** » Wed Jun 04, 2008 10:49 am

I also keep scrap pcb for copper. With metal prices the way they are, its actually pretty profitable to keep even the tiniest things.