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Ok. JamieRemer. Two fold question here. First. I experience a chip or two coming off a Ram Stick when I remove shielding. I do use a heat gun. Highly recommend using one. Really loosens up the adhesive. Same with heat sinks. A heat gun makes them almost fall off. BUT. At times chips do come off. I glue them back on with a small dab of silicon adhesive. I look at this way. Look at circuit boards overall. You will see labeling stickers all over them. They have adhesive. Also. Many times. You will find circuit boards straight from manufacturers with a small dab of silicon on them. So I am not adding any substational amount of contaminent. That hasn't already been introduced by the manufacturers
Second. Are chips being removed down grading the board? Sometimes yes. Sometimes no. Remove a gold cap chip from a circuit board. Your not going to get Gold Cap Board category. Makes sense. But. Remove enough chips. And of course. Category will downgrade accordingly. Example. Take enough chips from a High Peripheral. You are heading toward Low Peripheral. But one chip coming off. And you get Midgrade category. I doubt it. I think overall it is a matter of extent. How far has the removal of chips gone? Components also.
On these forum posts. You can read how some individuals do intentionally remove parts and still stay within the grade. It's an art in my opinion to do that. They know how to cannabalize circuit boards. Get the good stuff. Sell off whats left. And keep everybody reasonably happy. I personally don't do it. But. I don't bring in hundreds of pounds of escrap. I am a small time escrapper compared to many seasoned pros on this forum. So my opionion reflects my situation and overall interests. So you will consequentially see different diverging opinions on the same issue at times. Not just this issue of ICs falling off.
Something else. Interesting. Removing stuff(junk). To get an upgrade. No brainer there. But. I bring that up because the seasoned escrappers know when to quit removing shielding. When enough junk is removed. I did over kill on removing shielding. Especially on Gold Finger Cards. Also. Take a look at removing gold fingers from Gold Finger Cards. What a penalty. I learned when to stop from the forums. Keep it up on the forums. Ask questions. You will find your comfort zone on your escrapping situation. I know I got "long winded" on this question. Just hope it helps.
Here to learn like everybody else
My evaluations are my own opinion

I sent in a lot of ram with a chip missing or two and never had board sort downgrade it. Old dominator ram is a "you know what" to remove the heat sinks from without pulling at least one ram chip off

On small boards heatguns are a mixed blessing. They remove heat sinks but if the paste (glue?) has a higher heat rating than the solder you’re loosing the IC.

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