Another CD/DVD drive break down of 10 units, very basic unit vs boards analysis

I thought I would post a CD/DVD drive break down that is for those who want minimum time spent for better than per unit return.
None of the 10 drives were newer SATA types which would be worth more "as is" to resell. This analysis is just between selling the whole unit for CBM/Shred or CD/DVD drive price. There can be more to break down on these drives for motors and silver mylar, etc, but again this is for the basic comparison.

10 mixed CD and DVD drives either plain or R/WR type.



Total weight 293.2 ounces (18.32 lbs) for entire drives with nothing removed.
Typical price for CD/DVD drives is $0.15 per pound which comes out to $2.75 with little labor.

The total weight for just the main board removed (none of the other boards on it, just the big one with the connector)
Total weight is 23.5 ounces (1.468 lbs) for the main boards with the connector on it.
Typical price for CD/DVD board is $4.00 per pound which comes out to $5.87

The high end weight of some drives were 39 ounces with a 4.3 ounce board on it and the low end was 26 ounce drive with a 1.4 ounce board.

So if anyone asks if it is worth the time, the best thing I can say is this:
If you saw 11 quarters dropped below a sewer grate, would you spend 2 minutes to reach down and grab them? Maybe not? Well if there was a stack of them that added to over $5, would you spend about 20 minutes gathering them? I would.

For quick cash and can't be bothered, sell them for the $0.15 per pound and be done with it. For a little more for just basic break down, rip out the main board and double the profit. Even then there is still more to CD DVD drives, if nothing else other than shred weight.
Feel free for others to chime in with their own numbers.

Very interesting, I have been breaking these down alot lately as I am buying them from my local scrap yard for .18/lb. So here is how i broke down my last pick up from them. 160# of mixture of CD/DVD drives no SATA's broken down. It takes 4 full size boards to get a lb and aprox 8 of lesser size boards to get a lb. So with my handy cordless I can do about 35/hr (includes removing motors).It took me 2 hrs to break them down and another 1/2 hr to remove the ta caps 14oz. I ended up with 12lbs of boards($48), 15lbs motors($3 my yard) and the rest shred 132lbs(.10lb $13.20). So i paid $28.80 to make $64.20 or $35.40 profit(a little over $17/hr) plus what ever you get for TA caps. It gets redundant but I like money$$

i do not do caps yet until i learn more but i also sell the gears and laser lens out of these as well as everything else

CTScrapman, nice break down!

Travis, do have a public vendor that you sell the lasers and gears, that you can mention?

Originally Posted by travistemple202020

i do not do caps yet until i learn more but i also sell the gears and laser lens out of these as well as everything else

Selling the gears. Never thought those would sell for more than shred, nice piece of info. As far as the laser part i had originally decided to put those aside for the retirement years but the box is getting full with no end in sight. So Im gonna give them to a member on here who seems to enjoy taking them apart (kind of a good karma thing).

Ive got over 300 cd/floppy drives waiting to be torn down. I am fast at breaking things down, and especially when you have more than one drill and pry bars. It is easy. I just have way to much stuff and to little time lol.

I also got like 100 H.D.s that need to be torn down.

We have a set of alligator shears that we use to handle our Cd drives. Usually we use it to trim radiators. A quick cut and the drive is in half. The board just pulls out and the rest goes in shred. Even after paying an employee $12 an hour, we make a profit. We do at least 100/hour this way. We save them up till we have at least a couple of hundred than have the employee do it when he is slow in terms of radiators.

Originally Posted by travistemple202020

i do not do caps yet until i learn more but i also sell the gears and laser lens out of these as well as everything else

who do you sell the gears and lens to?

What about using a Two Shafts Shredder to shred your drives into small pieces?

Originally Posted by james001

What about using a Two Shafts Shredder to shred your drives into small pieces?

Here we go again with the guy selling recycling machines...