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The Gravitar Thread

| A Day in the Life of a Scrapper
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    The Gravitar Thread

    This will be my thread documenting me trying to grow my business over the summer. So, I guess we will start off with the load I took in today. We decided to use a new yard and walked away with a whopping total of $88. Not bad for cleaning up the yard.



    The load of Shred for today:




    Also, a big thank you to Waredu for telling me about the yard I used today, they had WAY better prices than the other yard I used. Thanks guys! -Gravitar
    Made in China, Recycled in the Republic of Texas!

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    Glad you had a good experience with them - they've always been fair with me.

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    It all adds up, don't it ? Nice trailer you got there, is it a tilt ?
    Alvord iron and salvage
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  7. #4
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    Quote Originally Posted by taterjuice View Post
    It all adds up, don't it ? Nice trailer you got there, is it a tilt ?
    Nope, just a regular flat bed with plywood side rails.

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    Love the ratchet straps, gives the law one less reason to dislike you. I always appreciate people who secure their scrap. "that guy" who losses bits and pieces going to the yard and makes no attempt to be legal, lights, chains, etc, makes us all look bad, ESP with the law. Only thing worse is "that guy" who's littering the highway with scrap that is stolen. Anyway, im done ranting and hijacking.

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    Looking forward to your updates.
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  13. #7
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    Quote Originally Posted by taterjuice View Post
    Love the ratchet straps, gives the law one less reason to dislike you. I always appreciate people who secure their scrap. "that guy" who losses bits and pieces going to the yard and makes no attempt to be legal, lights, chains, etc, makes us all look bad, ESP with the law. Only thing worse is "that guy" who's littering the highway with scrap that is stolen. Anyway, im done ranting and hijacking.
    Thanks Tater. I always tie down my loads. We also load our stuff a certain way. I put all of the stuff that is flat and likely to fly out ( i.e. tin roofing, washer shells, etc.) on the bottom. Then we put long poles and heavier items on top to hold the light stuff down, followed by lighter stuff thats ratcheted down to hold everything together. Then stuff little stuff in the cracks to add weight. Kinda like a sandwhich I guess. We've never had anything fly out yet. (Knock on wood)

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    there's a line with dirty aluminum, and another with aluminum breakage. I've never seen them both mentioned in the same post, and had begun to believe they were the same, but your receipt shows two different lines for them. What's the difference?

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    Quote Originally Posted by Bear View Post
    there's a line with dirty aluminum, and another with aluminum breakage. I've never seen them both mentioned in the same post, and had begun to believe they were the same, but your receipt shows two different lines for them. What's the difference?
    I was wondering that and also electric motors and electric motors dirty?
    expect the worst and hope for the best
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  19. #10
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    Quote Originally Posted by corycouch View Post
    I was wondering that and also electric motors and electric motors dirty?
    I sold:
    I sold:
    Two swiffers with most of the plastic removed - Dirty aluminum
    Cast Aluminum engine block/parts with steel piston sleeve etc. - Aluminum Breakage

    Transformers and small motors (Printers, etc.) - Electric motors
    Ceiling fan with some of the blade arms left on - Electric motors Dirty

    On the dirty electric motors, I was surprised about this category too. I had never heard of that before, so your not the only one.

    EDIT: The second dirty electric motor price was for Ballasts. Forgot about that.
    Last edited by Gravitar; 06-23-2013 at 08:13 PM.

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  21. #11
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    So this morning I went and picked up the computer lot I won on Tuesday. I paid around $77 dollars plus tax on this lot which was a little high. Then, to make it even worse, I had to overnight my payment which costed around $20. CRAP. Well, I go out and pick the stuff up today and got away with more than I paid for (I'm not complaining) I wound up with:
    -14 Desktop Computers with no hard drives. (I was only supposed to get 12)
    -3 printers/fax machines (I wasn't supposed to get any)
    -7 UPS Battery Back-ups (I was supposed to get 1)
    -2 Server Switches
    -1 Paper Shredder
    -Random Cords and AC adapters
    -A bunch of keyboards and mice



    I think I will make up the money I went over with the UPS units and printers and stuff and then make more on the desktops. Keeping my fingers crossed! Also, I am trading the Asus Aspire Desktop with my Grandfather for a old Pentium 2 unit. Today will be a good day!

    EDIT: Oh, I almost forgot. A HUGE thank you to Auminer for finding this lot. It was too far from him so he sent me the link. Again, THANK YOU!
    Last edited by Gravitar; 06-06-2013 at 01:09 PM. Reason: Forgot to add picture

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  23. #12
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    Ok guys, so I'm back. I was in the Dominican Republic all last week and just got back into the swing of scrapping. Anyway, so I finally finished tearing down the computers I bought last week. The original plan was I was going to the yard tomorrow to drop off the barrel of power supply and cd/floppy carcasses and computer cases along with the aluminum and other non ferrous scrap. Then, the day before I leave, someone calls me and tells me they will drop off a gas dryer, fridge, and flat screen TV. I tell them I will call them when I get back and I then leave. I come back, and they tell me they will drop them off tomorrow. No biggie, just a quick flip of material. THEN, my grandfather calls me telling me he found a desktop on the side of the road, and he has a tv and stereo and some other stuff to give me. Awesome! We go run some errands and stop by his house and pick up the stuff and get talking to his neighbor who is moving out. He has a trailer full of stuff and says take what you want, it's all free. SWEET! I immediately grab a bread-maker and a printer and it all went up from there. I ended up with:
    -2 more complete desktops
    -3 printers
    -a breadmaker
    -TONS of insulated wire
    -TONS of steel Coax (Unfortunately)
    -a Ps1 and like 5 cell phones
    -2 VCR's
    -and tons of household electronics

    So now my garage is overflowing with product that needs to get moved out and more stuff coming in while I have no room to work with. What a wonderful problem to have....

    Today's haul:



    Yea, I think my garage is worse than Jack Shmuc's right now...


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    your garage is making me drool
    There ain't nothing wrong with an honest days work. Anyone who says otherwise is a fool.- Old Man

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  27. #14
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    Ok, so today was the scrap run from hell. I went out and picked up the fridge and dryer and that filled up my trailer. I went home and starting loading up computer carcasses and other random shred from the day before. The only problem was I had no room to fit any more in the trailer. So we pulled the dryer out and get lent everywhere while trying to get the motor out. Of course, it's aluminum but it did give us the back of the trailer to fill up with shred. We ended up stuffing almost all of the shred into the back of the trailer and strapped it down. I then had to move the flat screen TV back into the workshop for later. It had been sitting in the sun for a while and was burning hot. I picked it up and burned my hand so I dropped it on the concrete. The glass bottom shattered all over the driveway. I quickly clean it up and try to make up the lost time. We loaded up the rest of the non ferrous and finally got on our way, an hour later than what I was hoping. Oh well.

    So we hop on the road and go the back way to the interstate to avoid the city traffic going north. About halfway through the trip to the scrapyard, I look in the mirror and a tie down has wiggled it's way loose. Crud! We pull up to the next red light and I try to get it tied down again. Of course, the light we stop at is the shortest one I've ever seen in my life and I don't get a chance to get it tied down. It's still secure, but a little scary. We stopped in a mechanics parking lot and finally get it secured.

    We arrived at the scrap yard and start unloading the shred into the pile. They don't have their claw running so we had to hand unload the refrigerator full of power supply shells and other random steel in the middle of the 95 degree day in the middle of a rock quarry that trap's heat. Anyway, an employee and I lift and throw the fridge over the side of the trailer and finally get to the small scales and get rid of my non ferrous. I did get to trade a 6 gallon bucket for a couple of city recycling bins, you can never have enough tubs. ANYWAY, I ended up getting $145 for all of that, not bad.

    Today's Shred Load:



    Scale Ticket: (and yes, that is my dogs chew toy)



    So that was today's story, thank you for reading my novel. lol
    Last edited by Gravitar; 06-18-2013 at 10:10 PM. Reason: Changed the scale ticket picture so you could actually read it. :)

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  29. #15
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    Ha! Looks like a deformed egg roll!

    No wonder dogs love'm. I know mine do!

    Keep it up Gravitar, enjoying the read.

    Sirscrapalot - A lean mean reading machine.

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  31. #16
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    Is scrapping your job?

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    Keep the updates coming buddy, looks like your doing pretty good. And is it just me or does scrap a lot mention egg rolls in about half of his posts ?

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  34. #18
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    Its you, it's really a 1/4..an it's all your fault for calling me a egg roll.

    I mention beer, and the cooler more then egg rolls! So ha!

    Besides..egg rolls are awesome sauce, they are right up there with Bacon, Beer and Whiskey as my favorite foods.

    Sorry to hijack your thread Gravitar! An as Tater says..keep it up buddy, always good to see folks doing well!

    Sirscrapalot - Dialing for dollars is trying to find me..oh lord..won't ya buy me a Mercedes Benz... - Janis Joplin

    Fun Fact - Egg rolls in China are mostly eaten in the SE an not as much in the northern and western parts of China.
    Last edited by Sirscrapalot; 06-21-2013 at 01:09 AM.

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  36. #19
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    Quote Originally Posted by scrapping4ever View Post
    Is scrapping your job?
    Part-time.

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  38. #20
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    Quote Originally Posted by Sirscrapalot View Post
    Its you, it's really a 1/4..an it's all your fault for calling me a egg roll.

    I mention beer, and the cooler more then egg rolls! So ha!

    Besides..egg rolls are awesome sauce, they are right up there with Bacon, Beer and Whiskey as my favorite foods.

    Sorry to hijack your thread Gravitar! An as Tater says..keep it up buddy, always good to see folks doing well!

    Sirscrapalot - Dialing for dollars is trying to find me..oh lord..won't ya buy me a Mercedes Benz... - Janis Joplin

    Fun Fact - Egg rolls in China are mostly eaten in the SE an not as much in the northern and western parts of China.
    Thinking bout Chinese tonight, egg rolls and crab ragoon sounding pretty good right now !

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