Introduction: Copper Extraction From E-Waste for Jewelry Making
Motivation for this project:
In our world, we are constantly producing new goods for the use of consumers across society. Every year, new electronics and iterations of old electronics are produced. With this cycle, companies intentionally build-in limited lifespans for their products (referred to as "planned obsolescence") so that there is a constant need to buy new things. This presents a problem: a steady and large stream of electronic waste piling up year after year.
In reaction to this, there are two different approaches; recycling and up-cycling! Recycling is well understood by most, and lots of countries have varying scales of infrastructure designed to sort and process plastics, papers, and metals so that they can be returned to their "raw" forms for re-use in new products. The other approach is up-cycling, which instead of processing the materials or waste produced, seeks to utilizes the available materials in as ready of a form as possible. This reduces the environmental impact by not needing further manufacturing to make further use of the materials.
In this project, we take an up-cycling approach; scrapping electronic waste to use the copper in new jewelry!
Supplies
You will need:
1) e-waste
2) pliers
3) box cutters
4) safety goggles !!!!!
5) first-aid kit incase of accidents
6) handheld and table clamps
7) a clean, organized workspace
8) containers to sort electronic parts you collect
Step 1: Slice Open Large Copper Coord
Be careful here! The plastic insulation on the large copper coord you've acquired is pretty sturdy, and so it's going to take a little bit of force to cut through this. With that in mind, make sure you cut away from yourself, and towards no one else. You may want to use clamps here to secure the coord to the table to make this even safer!
Step 2: Extract and Untwine Copper
This step is relatively self explanatory. The copper you extract from large wires like this are in fact many small wires twisted together. One at a time, untwist these to extract smaller, individual wires, and be mindful that the tips of each wire may be sharp and could cut you! This process may not seem glamorous, but these wires are some of the most useful sources of copper in all forms of e-waste!
Step 3: Instructions for Other E-waste
Most e-waste are not as simple to scrap as coords!
Often, like with this portable fan, there is some type of plastic casing with surround the electronic components. Various types of screws, both in size and screw-head design, are used to secure these plastic casings. Inspect the object you are working with and try to identify what type of screw driver you need. There are several commonly used screws, so you will most likely have a screw driver had which you can use.
Next, you will need to start disassembling the interior components of your object. As seen with this example, zip ties have been used as a form of cable management to keep the different components of the fans nice and tidy. Carefully use scissors, wire cutters, box cutters, or whatever other cutting implement you have at your disposal to remove any zip ties or other similar fasteners in the objects.
Additionally, there may be other mechanical fasteners like nuts in use, in which case various tools can be used to loosen those. In the photo, you can see us using pliers to remove this nut, though a wrench is more appropriate. You may not have a wrench on-hand which is of the correct size, so get creative! Just make sure you're using safe practices and not putting yourself, or anyone else in harms way!
Once all of the various fasteners are removed, extract the electronic components! You should expect to find lots of different wires which will lead to a motherboard. If you haven't found the motherboard yet, keep looking! It's the "brain" of every electronic device, so if you haven't found it yet, there is more copper for you to recover!
Most of the copper in electronics are in the wires, so once you've gotten to this point, isolate all of the wires you've found, and return to steps 1 & 2 above to extract the copper!
Step 4: Make Jewelry!
Other instructables can serve as good starting points for different approaches of how to make jewelry with all this copper you now have. Soldering is one good method, but make sure you take proper care when you do so.
