How to find Silver in Tactile Switches from PC's & TV's 

thanks for the visual demonstration, I had heard about silver in switches but never know where to look, I would have thought the copper disk was the silver.

I try to scrap as I go, it just seems to work better for me. But yes I keep every switch of every kind. Like you said there everywhere, if you hear a click there's a switch some of the best ones I've found are on Electric stoves, washers, dryers, etc. I've had many that weigh 1/4 to 1/3 of gram each. might not sound like much but they do "add up"!!! I might do a test to see with tv switches only (the smaller ones) how many it takes to get an ounce. I always look ahead with silver prices. Less than 20 years ago $5.00 an ounce or less was the norm. Now it moves on average $17 + or - a couple of dollars, with a shoot up price of $48 back 5 to 6 years ago. That's a 400%+ increase with a shoot up of 1,000%. That would put averages in 20 years around $60 to $75 an ounce, with a possible shoot up range hovering just under $190. None of this is guaranteed, I'm just looking at the history of silver from 1960 to present. If you do the math you'll see for yourself the possibilities! FYI, all of these figures are in U.S. currency!!!

thanks for the update. so much to learn.

hey Ben, would love to see a video on how you got into this. I need to do one too, lol.

On silver toggle switches the 8 or so looped connections on the bottom, silver plated or silver? 1970s era.

appreciate your channel eWaste Ben! hey what is going on when you do a close up of the parts your talking about it gets all wavy i thought i was having a flashback! lol trippy Thanks!

Good one ben very informative and I have been throwing them out and keeping the manual ones oh well, better start saving them then from Bren Gun21

Great vid ben thanks again!

So you take the top off them, then remove the copper plated round disc. What do you do after that? Cut the whole switch off the board with side cutters? Surely your not saving the whole boards? Need to redo this video showing the complete teardown of them. :)

Wattttttttttttt thank Ben keep it up sir. Greeting from Oakland califa.

Is it just the center button or also the two little flags on either side? I've pulled all the metal out of these and it all seems to be the same material. It's a bugger to get it out of the plastic matrix though. Lately I've been smashing the plastic with big pliers and then I can usually pry the metal bits out of there. Something to do while watching RU-vid scrapping videos! Maybe smashing them with a hammer would be more fun. I recently melted down a bunch of the bits into a blob and I'm looking for somewhere to test it to figure out what I ended up with.

I've peeled those all apart and they're all the same metal within the plastic. The central button has legs and the two little flag things on either side are connected with legs. It's all made of the same stuff, hopefully silver!?! I melted a handful of them down and got a silvery looking blob that I would say doesn't look like pure silver but I haven't found anywhere to get it tested for content.

they are more worth reusing them or selling them as they are .. at least in my opinion

Excuse me is that middle part solid silver or just silver plated?

Ben any word on recovery and refining silver from x ray film. Read your article on line and it seems to be some big secret unless you want to send someone you don't know $400-500. I have a lot of film but not to sure of the formula

2 kilos yield about an oz

Thanks for the information. Like 306 from me 👍😉

show us how u would get them out lol

I was hoping to see you process them

did you push that little round tin between your thumb and nail?

I love you, I'm sorry to be a creep, actually I'm not sorry, thank you for the knowledge you share

pure???

I estimate 0.01 cubic millimeter of silver on each switch and that is about 0.1 cents for silver. Really, not worth even thinking about. Silver is currently AUD 72 cents per gram. They are 5 cents each on ebay (retail price) so that means wholesale in large quantities to a manufacturer they will likely be around 100 for $1 or 1c each. That should give an idea of how much silver is in them which is almost nothing.

Are they the same as the ones in mobile phone boards as well?

little isn't the word I would use and with some being plated..... Ahhhhhhhh Noooo

ty i was just gonna throw them away

Cars have quite alot of switches...

mine look rusty.. does that mean no good?

how u get it out

You'd need 100 pounds to make any kind of good money.

Thx 4 the video, but GET TO THE POINT DUDE!

omg get to the point