scrapping mistakes.

If I could turn back time to when I started scrapping, 4 weeks ago,
I would of first learnt to scrap a tv or monitor properly before I went out curb picking.
now I have a big stack of tv's & monitors and no time to do them as I'm out all day picking.

I decided I'm not going to pursue best practice in disposing of crt's, that meant holding them until
I could register as an ewaste scrapper as that's the only way the recycler that does crt's properly
takes them, not from public but from a reg' co' that scraps them clean.

An old time scrapper I met in the street early last week spent a good half hour giving me tips, he's been scrapping
my area for 25 years and was really excited to tell me all he could think of about scrapping.
then a few days later I saw him again in another location, he saw I was full of monitors mostly so he gave me
the run down, he's mostly a scrap steel guy but has select items he takes aswell.

so anyway, he told me not to bother picking up crt tv's or monitors at all, pulled out a pair of side cutters &
a cordless drill, walked me over to a tv on the kerb and stripped it clean, replaced the cover, all done in 3 minutes flat!
I was super impressed and felt a bit like a dill when I looked back at my hatch overflowing with monitors.
he told me to go home and practice on what I already had, then when i'm out picking I don't need to go back & forth,
I could stay out longer and kinda scrap as I go.

so that's what I did today, got up early and scrapped a few tv's & monitors.
hmm.. monitors are not as easy as tv's, will take me a bit longer to get the handle of 'em.

then I went out to the current hot spot and went at it, it felt a bit weird I have to say,
out the front of houses unscrewing backs of tv's, I just kept my head down and went as fast as I could,
expecting someone to come out and say, what the heck are you doing man?
but no prob's, even got the confidence to scrap tv's on busy streets by the end of the day, piece of cake.

when I first rocked up in one street there were two guys with a truck, drove past and saw they were doing the same thing, scrapping tv's on the spot, it's the first time I've seen scrappers do this, it's amazing how diverse the scrapperhood is, everyone doing different things, but there's enough to go around, I think I spent an hour just in one little street, scrapping tv's, I guess the other guys were doing the same, never saw 'em again today.

monitors though were awkward, just that thin aluminium casing when you remove the back cover, I had problems
with a few on the street, it was a jack the scrapper moment, I just wanted to grab a big hammer and smash the crap out of some of 'em, but I was in public, trying to keep a low profile so I ended up still taking home some monitors.

but tv's, oh wow, what a difference a bit of practice has made, I did 34 tv's today on the street, two were big plasma/lcd flat screen types. I didn't know what to take from 'em, one was huge, like a complete unit, I opened the back, removed some boards, there were 3 small yolks but couldn't work out how to get them off there on the spot so left 'em, then I did a smaller flat screen, no yolks, a lot of boards though, I only did that one because my car was full, otherwise I would of taken it home, I must of unscrewed 50 screws to get to the boards, too long in one spot.

Today was my best day so far as I only went out once, 5 hours I was out there, brought back a full load like no other,
found some good things too, looks like i'm the only one that likes keyboards, they take the cords but that's ok, and speaking of cords, there are many cord cutters around here, most cut the plugs on the spot, when I come by I pick 'em all up, have hundreds already, I wanna collect the little brass bits from the plugs, want a big jar of 'em.
got a couple laptops, one was in a nice bag with all different kinds of plugs and cords inside.

so yeah, if I could turn back time I would of practised on my first few tv's, before I loaded up the backyard full of 'em.

I myself have never done tv's ''on the spot.'' Something about doing that just feels so wrong lol. I don't know why though it would save space and taking them all to the curb after I get home and break them down. I dunno, I just dont feel I could do that.

well if i put a tv out in the trash for a scrapper to pick up i'd be pissed if someone grabs the goods on spot and leaves the junk at my curb.Its ether take it all or none.

Originally Posted by scrapperben

If I could turn back time to when I started scrapping, 4 weeks ago,
I would of first learnt to scrap a tv or monitor properly before I went out curb picking.
now I have a big stack of tv's & monitors and no time to do them as I'm out all day picking.

I decided I'm not going to pursue best practice in disposing of crt's, that meant holding them until
I could register as an ewaste scrapper as that's the only way the recycler that does crt's properly
takes them, not from public but from a reg' co' that scraps them clean.

An old time scrapper I met in the street early last week spent a good half hour giving me tips, he's been scrapping
my area for 25 years and was really excited to tell me all he could think of about scrapping.
then a few days later I saw him again in another location, he saw I was full of monitors mostly so he gave me
the run down, he's mostly a scrap steel guy but has select items he takes aswell.

so anyway, he told me not to bother picking up crt tv's or monitors at all, pulled out a pair of side cutters &
a cordless drill, walked me over to a tv on the kerb and stripped it clean, replaced the cover, all done in 3 minutes flat!
I was super impressed and felt a bit like a dill when I looked back at my hatch overflowing with monitors.
he told me to go home and practice on what I already had, then when i'm out picking I don't need to go back & forth,
I could stay out longer and kinda scrap as I go.

so that's what I did today, got up early and scrapped a few tv's & monitors.
hmm.. monitors are not as easy as tv's, will take me a bit longer to get the handle of 'em.

then I went out to the current hot spot and went at it, it felt a bit weird I have to say,
out the front of houses unscrewing backs of tv's, I just kept my head down and went as fast as I could,
expecting someone to come out and say, what the heck are you doing man?
but no prob's, even got the confidence to scrap tv's on busy streets by the end of the day, piece of cake.

when I first rocked up in one street there were two guys with a truck, drove past and saw they were doing the same thing, scrapping tv's on the spot, it's the first time I've seen scrappers do this, it's amazing how diverse the scrapperhood is, everyone doing different things, but there's enough to go around, I think I spent an hour just in one little street, scrapping tv's, I guess the other guys were doing the same, never saw 'em again today.

monitors though were awkward, just that thin aluminium casing when you remove the back cover, I had problems
with a few on the street, it was a jack the scrapper moment, I just wanted to grab a big hammer and smash the crap out of some of 'em, but I was in public, trying to keep a low profile so I ended up still taking home some monitors.

but tv's, oh wow, what a difference a bit of practice has made, I did 34 tv's today on the street, two were big plasma/lcd flat screen types. I didn't know what to take from 'em, one was huge, like a complete unit, I opened the back, removed some boards, there were 3 small yolks but couldn't work out how to get them off there on the spot so left 'em, then I did a smaller flat screen, no yolks, a lot of boards though, I only did that one because my car was full, otherwise I would of taken it home, I must of unscrewed 50 screws to get to the boards, too long in one spot.

Today was my best day so far as I only went out once, 5 hours I was out there, brought back a full load like no other,
found some good things too, looks like i'm the only one that likes keyboards, they take the cords but that's ok, and speaking of cords, there are many cord cutters around here, most cut the plugs on the spot, when I come by I pick 'em all up, have hundreds already, I wanna collect the little brass bits from the plugs, want a big jar of 'em.
got a couple laptops, one was in a nice bag with all different kinds of plugs and cords inside.

so yeah, if I could turn back time I would of practised on my first few tv's, before I loaded up the backyard full of 'em.

Thats how I feel - take the item home with me and do the work there. I've passed spots where I've seen scrap already broken down but I just don't feel right in doing that.

stripping them on the curb will save your back from lifting those 32 inch and up sizes but Im guessing the scrappers dont have the time or want to properly dispose of them and strip them and leave them for the home owner. The tv basher is still around here. Breaks the glass and plastic all over the place. Then due to the new law, the garbage man wont take tv's or monitors anymore and the home owner is stuck with that mess. i dont think best buy or good will would want them in that condition either.

yeah we have breakers around here too, figure the tv's i'm getting to first are tv's they can't break!
when i'm done with a tv you would not notice that it's been scrapped, I take all the screws and everything,
except for two, I put in a screw in two corners to secure the cover back, the trashman that will pick it up monday will not notice except that it's a couple pounds lighter then normal tv's that size

yeah my back has had a workout, the heaviest tv's that I found were not the biggest,
it's those wide screen crt's, they have a smaller back then normal with a wide screen,
I can't believe how heavy they are and I think I did a disk in my back lugging the last one around.
so yeah, for personal H&S, i'll be scrapping most tv's on the spot, pity I wasn't in the states
as i'd love to come scrap your tv's drop, hehe.

out there today I flipped the cover off a tv already opened and scrapped,
all they are doing is cutting out the yolk and degaussing cable. leaving the board and wires.
so I started flipping the backs, pulling the board up as I went along, they just slide out easy.

only scrapped about 10 tv's completely out there today, pulled up about 30 boards though, i'm just cleaning off the wire and stacking them up for now, i'll sit down one day with 'em and pick 'em appart.

today has confirmed to me that there's more scrappers around then I ever imagined, each day I come across heaps of different ones.
there were tradies building a house in a street and one guy said that I must be the 40th person to look over that pile today.
it's was like 4pm, but I got a few good bits from it, most scrappers here don't look, they just skim the side facing the road, I notice that scrappers in trucks don't like to get out of 'em much.
but I've also noticed that people throwing things out, put out the smaller electricals and things last, so from street view the dvd's, laptops ect are hidden.

I prefer to park and pick the guts out of piles, I look in every box, if the box has a picture of a printer on it,
most likely it will have a printer in it!
same goes with a lot of things I find, and what about the box of electrical goodies? I seem to have a knack of spotting
that little box taped up, filled with small electronics, old mobiles, modems, fresh cables in bags, gimzo's ect, usually all in one box.
I'm loving all the things I get, I think there's at least 100 items that I just can't scrap, I find electrical things fascinating, some things i've found I never even knew existed.

the car was mostly loaded with boards today, and an insanely large ibm monitor I just had to have and maybe 8 vacuums,
including a real fancy one, oh and irons, for some reason irons stood out like beach balls today.

You, sir, are the reason I look into EVERY tv before I pick it up, to make sure it hasnt been stripped. The other day was the first time I found one with the back ripped open, yoke gone, so I pulled the board and the smaller degaussing cable they forgot.

if you put the back of the tv back on, I don't think there's anything wrong with scrapping on the spot. It does save space and disposal. Plus here in australia the items will be picked up by the council. so your not disadvantaging the homeowner in anyway. my 2 cents.

yeah, the rubbish will all be gone tomorrow in that spot, and none gets recycled.
it used to be picked up by different trucks, one for steel, one for green waste and another.
but now days it's back to dumping it in landfill, so what's being taken by scrappers is all that's getting recycled.
I couldn't get everywhere in that area so it's hard to imagine how much really good stuff is going to be gone forever there.
as I mentioned, most scrappers here don't really look, they pick off the top, today same thing, boxes of electrical goodies.

so yeah, a tv is sitting on a naturestrip waiting for the garbage truck to come by any minute, I see nothing wrong
with pulling out the guts from it and leaving it just as it was.
I scrapped a few tv's at home again today and once scrapped I felt I didn't get enough out of 'em to justify
having to lug it around again, real shame about the big ones I have, not looking fwd to carrying them again.

yeah axl, I have been tricked into picking up a scrapped item myself.
at the previous location, it was vacuums, I got about 6 into my car and then realised every one was taped up!
so I opened one and it had about 3lb of rocks in it! they all had rocks! so it was a scrapper that unloaded them onto
other peoples piles, the whole street had taped up vacuums.

A tv that's been scrapped and cover put back on feels a lot different in balance when holding it I found.
the rear is light as a feather 'cos no board so you can kinda tell if ones been scrapped already or not.
doing them on the spot now means I don't have to lift at all, just turn them over, scrap, cover & onto other things.

I'm still taking monitors though, and got a neat system of scrapping the small portable tv's, I pick it up, lift the hatch
and scrap it in the back of the car, cover screwed back on and put it back, I can do two at the same time in the back.
I've also done them in the front seat, the other day it started raining hard so I scrapped things in the car until it went away
then put the waste back on the piles.

Driving through an area that just had hard rubbish and now all is gone feels like a ghost town.
a street loaded with hard rubbish is exciting and full of life, each pile has something to say, something to give.

This "on the spot" method would make me feel like I'm cheating... I'm sitting here stuck with at least 15-20 glass tube things from crt monitors that I broke down that I am still trying to figure out what I'm going to with. That's part of the challenge - scrapping whole units, no matter what they are, down the the screws/washers/plastic stickers on them. Having to figure out what to do with the more difficult materials that you're left with at the end gets the creativity/ingenuitity going and that's where all the new territory is discovered!
Wow started running with that one... sorry guys... Julie's $.02 has to be extravagant I guess! At least today it does

yeah I'm stuck with my fair share too, did just a few today, was wet and I was stuffed as the first thing I picked up
today was a photo copier, it was real heavy, I over committed to it by dragging it onto the road going downhill so no
way was I gonna put it back now, was slippery and luckily it kinda just fell into the hatch, took up most of the space of the car, was pouring rain so I picked up a couple monitors, some vacuums & printers and went back home, spent the rest of the day scrapping.

Here's the copier, it a minolta 2050. but don't think it's a model number, think it's the weight!



it's winter here, the veg' patch is having a rest with a broad bean cover crop.
I'm a big fan of companion planting and found monitors are excellent for keeping bugs at bay.

An monitor fence line. Lol. My neighbors would have a fit.

mine would have no idea, we have fences so they can't see anyway.
we have hoarders here that have the entire property in junk and not much anyone can do about it.
apparently hoarding can be a symptom of depression and that's what they do, hoard things.

but I'm gonna get to them aventually, if you look at my place from the front you'd never know I'm a scrapper.
i'm also into my garden and permaculture so i'd say I have the nicest property in the street.
this pile against the back fence is still there too, just a little more added since I took this..



the fence is 6ft4in high so yeah, no-one can see anyway, I counted over 200 tv's & monitors today so there's lots everywhere.
but i'm not in it to store things, next week I get a week off from hard rubbish, so i'm planning to scrap the lot.
now that I have a much better system, all i'll be bringing in are pc monitors, if I don't feel like scrapping a tv on the spot i'll just leave it completely, monitors seem to be better value anyway pound for pound.

By me it seems like tv's and monitors will be broken down the following way at the curb or alley... Someone will cut the cord and leave the rest, then some a ho le will smash the back and take the copper yoke leaving some wires and the board, finaly a few days later someone will pull the board and take the rest of the wires. Leaving a plastic mess (that could have gone in a recycling bin by me) and the smashed tube (that should have gone to goodwill by me). Also I need to show my wife the pics of all your stuff in your yard so she may give me a break on the piles of stuff I have! LOL

My biggest issue with doing this if neighbors are close by to hear gases from escaping. Most people in my area do this and is one of the reasons i carry basic tools like a screw gun and sawsall with me when im out. Saves alot of time and space for processing. I find as long as your freindly and neat most people dont care.