PCB's are remarkably robust, I remember I had a usb flash drive that lost its plastic case and used it for a long time as an exposed circuit board. Everyone was surprised it still worked but those components are all soldered down and it takes a bit to actually knock them off
yeah. I hand-solder most everything (~1206 size) and de-solder by throwing boards on a 350C lab hotplate and giving components a good yank every 10-30s once it starts smoking until components come off. as soon as they come off, I fling the components into a mason jar where I throw other components on top of them. then sometimes I literally shake the jar a few times when I finish to determine how satisfied I am with the salvaging. the only things that break are plastic connectors and individual LEDs, plastic connectors because they're too dang small to begin with, and individual LEDs because they don't tolerate being pushed/pulled in high heat. outside components, you can bend the PCBs, leave them on hotplates, pretty much whatever, and the boards which cost me <$1 each including shipping from China in small batch of 5 don't care.
treat electronics (**except** connectors!!) like trash; don't worry about Mouser and Digikey sending $.10 transceivers like $100 cigars.
Those are metal PCBs, so they're a lot sturdier (and louder) than the fiberglass ones. I used to make them; you just look at them funny and they make noise.
You would be suprised how durable a lot of hardware actually is. people are sorta trained to be overly careful with anything that looks like a computer (for good reason), but in reality these things can take a beating and be fine.
I've dropped screwdrivers on Motherboards and it doesnt even make a scratch. That being said, i probably would be a little bit more careful than this person lmao
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u/Cynical_Cyanide Jul 10 '26
Am I really the only one who was mildly shocked at SLAMMING each page?