eesakiwis adventures

Today, I had a shower, yes its that day of the week......

Between yesterday & today I picked up 7 crt yokes & degaussing cables & a 1/2 sack of power cables which I cut the plugs off, a couple of kg of stainless, which is off some sort of bakery machine, it has a cast Ali hotplate.
A fridge compressor (again..) makes about 20 of them to cut down.
Some random Ali heatsinks & Copper spools from crts.
A 33kg load that was badly loaded & felt like 45 kg..

I'm only 2 kg from my Copper goal. So its gonna be exceeded by 30 odd kg.. Maybe I should add another 50kg to my goal.
I really expected to sell my metal a few months ago, every month its "the end of this month"....
So, I better wrap it up in a week or 10 days. Theres still a lot to do.

All the plastic coated wire needs 'deplasticasizing' & I dunno what thats going to weigh. Thats going to be its own full on mission.
Cleaning down the rest of the 'dirty cast Ali' from cars will take a few hours & done, I don't get much of that st
Once I pull out the angle grinder to do the compressors I can cut down the 2 steel end radiators & 'done'.

Its all just sooooo much work.....

Tonight I will clean down the power cables by cutting off the plugs & unknotting them.
Also, any degaussing cables etc. That will get me the last 2kg of Copper for my goal.

And sort out the ribbon cables from computers, they need the plugs picked off and the plugs checked for any 100% Gold plated pins, which I keep. The ones with a tiny amount of Gold I chuck out, the partly plated ones are kept for escrap sale.
That will probably fill the rest of the 1/2 full sack of ribbon cable. I try and keep plastic coated wire seperate in its own catagory.

Then, maybe see part 2 of the Iwo jima documentary. '28 days of Hell' is probably a understatement.

Tomorrow, pop out the angle grinder to do compressors.
Spot yah then /e

Well I have exceeded my Copper goal by 3kg....
Nice start on another 50kg.. Have not started the compressors yet.

The yard has not been cleared for over a week, they have removed a little from the front. When this happens less metal gets dumped off as it ends up on the footpath.
Which the council does not like, but they are not stupid, if it didn't end up there, it would end up on random footpaths...

Today I found a microwave transformer in a 1/2 scrapped down microwave, weird. A washing mc motor, the 1kg of Copper 'unwind by hand in 20 minutes' can be turned into a wind generator sort, nice.
A macintosh computer inc printer & keyboard, b&w screen, the floppy drive & cpu is in the screen unit.
Thats going to get plugged in to see if it goes, good condition, faded. Interesting.
2 printer scanners, yay - lightbars = 200+ little Gold wires.
A large coil of sat dish cable, might have a use for that, random ex Ali. In a phone booth 20 ph cards, different.
I also gound a bmx bike frame with front shocks, like a motorbike. I will keep those for my lathe project, maybe a smaller lathe setup.

I have been stripping down power cords, its the only way to get $ out of them and cleaned down 2 crts & the radiators.
And sleeping in...... its a bad habit that one.

Tomorrow for the compressors I think. The weathers finally got better, sun during the day & not so windy.
Im sorta aiming to sell my metal next week (again..)
Only ribbon cables, power supplys, cleaning off plastic coated wire, and compressors/electric motors to do. And some cast Ali to clean left to do. And any crts that turn up in the meantime.

The Iwo jima documentary was actually 'Iwo Jima, 39 days of Hell' In full color. When men were Men.
Real Men.

Look that frame up online. Many frames are worth pretty good money

It turns out the bike frame is steel. So I will take my hacksaw next time i go.

Gee, I posted a post yesterday and its not here...
It was at one time...
I know theres been a few changes to the SMF layout & such...... But, now i cannot get the full site, when I try it logs me out, took 10% of my battery to log in. Theres only 4 new posts.... And the extra headers a pain as everytime I get a new page(on the full site kayout) i have to zcroll down heaps to figure out if Im on the right oage.
Ok, my keyboards stoopid, it keeps doing stuff I don't want to too, & 2 seconds too late. But, its such a hassle to sort thatbout with al the extra work as well...
'Android friendly' part won't work either...

So, you missed my last post. Sorry. There was a bit in it too.

So, today I fixed the trolly I mentioned in my kast post....
Its wheels fell apart, expanded foan tyres....China.

It needed bushing inbthe axle bearing tube, I just used a shrt peice of steel tube, tacked it in.
That was because I found two lawnmower wheels sobi was usingvthose, they had a 1/2 inch dia bearing size for tge shaft, the original shaft was missing, tge iwner, the guy who given me all the crts, just put a peice ofc10mm shaft in its place, tooblong, no end caps ir pins, just a cable tie.
So, fit tubes, weld washer on end of sgaft, slide wheelbon, insert axlebinto housing, slide washer on, slide wheel with no bearings on, slide anither washer on, cut axle to lenght.
Pull apart, drill hole in end if shaft for tge 'R' clip, cut clip to correct size to fit inside wheel hub end, cut extra slot beside hole for 'R' clip to clip into so it won'tvpivot on shaft. (Really good udea!)

Today I got 4 motherboards, 2large socjet with brown cpu & plain purple cpu. 1 is offboard cpu sort, 1 small socket cpu.
Power supply, dsughterboards, two med size electric motirs, CD boards & floppy board. Buncha wire. Ali.mesh.
Large Brass nut, yay! Don't get much brass...

Tonight, ckeaning down the plastic coated wire I didn't tell you about... For reasons you don't know....

Sorry, shrugs. Spotyah tomorrow/e

The site won't let me go into PC mode with all the pretty colours.....
And when I try, it logs me out......

Yesterday 'n today was spent cutting the Copper loops off the ends of electric motors.
Then pulling out the rest of the winding, and washing the oil off with hot water & washing powder.

Tomorrow I sell my scrap, its gonna be about 10kg less than I wanted for my Copper total.
And I have not got my plastic coated wire cleaned down, so thats not getting sold either.
But, its getting to the end of the year, metal prices seem to be moving too much too often and last time it went downwards...
But I got 3 more crts today and a gas powered water heater with a nice looking box of Copper dom inside it.
That should help.

Anyone get any idea why this sites formats changed?
For some reason my email passwords not working, dunno why.
When somethings working right, along comes someone to muck it up....
That, and mybtablets keypads random way of workingvis really getting to me.....
Swap tge tablet screen onto another tablet I think.
Spotyah, with ca$h, next time /e

And photos.....

I find it very interesting how much detail you remember from all your daily efforts. You are a serious worker!

Thanks, every little bit adds up.

Today, 'The big day'.....
I sold most of my metal, I got pics of just the sacks on the truck deck.
I sold, Ali ex, Ali cast, Ali dom, Ali/Copper rads, Copper dom, Copper #2,
The batterys, stainless, plastic coated wire & some Ali ex & Copper #2 I forgot about stayed at home.

I got NZ$3030 for it all.
$30 I gave to the owner of the truck & I ate a Chinese takeaway metal, oops I ment meal, tonight to celebrate...

All the Ali prices were up, Copper #2 was down from a estimated NZ$6.50/kg to NZ$6.15/kg.
But, I was using my bathroom scales to weigh my sacks for a estimated 285kg (I wanted to get up too 300 kg, but)
In fact it weighed 315kg!!!

So my guestamate was within $5. Haha.

2 days ago I found a gas water heater, it contained 7kg Copper #2 & some nice Brass for weight. Score!

So...... next.....SMF membership........

Thankyou guys & guyettes, its been a lot of fun.

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by eesakiwi

Thanks, every little bit adds up.

Today, 'The big day'.....
I sold most of my metal, I got pics of just the sacks on the truck deck.
I sold, Ali ex, Ali cast, Ali dom, Ali/Copper rads, Copper dom, Copper #2,
The batterys, stainless, plastic coated wire & some Ali ex & Copper #2 I forgot about stayed at home.

I got NZ$3030 for it all.
$30 I gave to the owner of the truck & I ate a Chinese takeaway metal, oops I ment meal, tonight to celebrate...

All the Ali prices were up, Copper #2 was down from a estimated NZ$6.50/kg to NZ$6.15/kg.
But, I was using my bathroom scales to weigh my sacks for a estimated 285kg (I wanted to get up too 300 kg, but)
In fact it weighed 315kg!!!

So my guestamate was within $5. Haha.

2 days ago I found a gas water heater, it contained 7kg Copper #2 & some nice Brass for weight. Score!

So...... next.....SMF membership........

Thankyou guys & guyettes, its been a lot of fun.

---

Wow sounds like Auckland or Wellington? Getting nothing much here in Rotorua but scarp metal and some electronics here and there.

Thats awesome, can't beat a yard run like that!

I do take a count of what I have before going home, that way I know the approximate weight and value.

A good CRT, or a fridge compressor, or a double Copper microwave transformer all have about 1kg of Copper in them.
So each ones worth about NZ$6+
The crt might weigh 2kg, compressor 7kg, microwave transformer 3kg+.

Today I went back to the scrap drop off yard, got.......
15 large socket motherboard
5 small socket motherboards
17 daughter(?) Boards with the Gold finger on one edge.
1 X Box, game machine, dunno if it goes, never had one before.
15 CPU, inc 2 purple ceramics & 3 small socket ones, nothing fantastic.
5 Ram
6 hard drives & 2 extra boards for them.
2 CRTs
That filled my sack along with some wire & a cisten Brass fitting.
And some nice condition chicken wire for my chicken hutch, perfect find!

I still have to scrap the cd drives & floppys down and bring them home.

I have had a sore back for a while, its not from carrying weights, actually if I am carrying something its not sore, but more as if i put my back out while putting my socks on or something.
So I asked my Doc about it while getting a med cert, he checks and tells me its 'Lumbago' or something.
Its a word I have heard of, didn't know what it was though, sounds like a holiday destination in Spain...
So I have a script for two different pills, to fill. One causes 'euphoria'...... Uh oh...
They stop the back.muscles from spasiming I think, sounds right, its not sore on the spine, just beside it.
Having tea now, Chinese again, its just got dark at 10pm plus.
Some parts of the summer, if its timed right, you never see darkness as its from past 11pm to 5 am.
And the sun..... boy its hot, sun burnt in 1 hour, paint fades as you watch it, but temps are mid 20 deg C, even higher. No humidity and the shadows of trees & such are cooler & refreshing.

Spotyah/e

Everybody on the Bay of Plenty got rain and terrible freezing winds. Nice load sounds sounds pretty decent.

Well, the pills work.... Thats a big improvement and saves a lot of time.

Today I went to the scrapmetal drop off yard, it had just been cleaned out so tgere was nothing there.

So off to the guy with all the CRTs.. I unpacked 3 pallets of tvs, sorted out the small ones & the ones with small degaussing cables (Panasonics.... arrrh) and stacked themup on pallets out of the way.
This gave the guy quite a bit of lawn area & car parking back.
Since he deals with cars as his home job, its important to him. Even his wife thanked me, knowing that its a pain for him to shift them & it would cost them time working on their cars too.

So I got 20 odd crts sorted, scrapped the degaussing cables and yokes from 10 of them (the biggest cable crts)
And shifted a bunch of bricks out of that area & over to where they are using them, in a 'get something done in every trip across the yard' action.

Then I took 2 crts to the scrap drop off yard and found...... A thick wall Copper tube 4 feet long, with bends in it.
It was a water heating 'wetback' tube. (Yes, I know the term 'wetback' has a different meaning in the US of A....)
Its a tube that runs thru a fireplace or coal range or duch to heat up water for the water cylinder, very common here.
Almost every house has its own 'Wetback'.......
And I find a smallish car radiator, great find, both of them....$$$$

Tomorrow? More of the same, scrapping CRT's.

My last post has gone missing. But I have been quiet for the last few days, rained all of yesterday.

Today I got 12 crts, so that makes about 20crts of degaussing cables & yokes to clean down.
They are just getting put aside till I clean down my plastic coated wire.

The 'wetback' weighed 4lbs, a bit over 1.5kgs. When I cut the Brass fittings off I will have a kg of Copper and some Brass.
I also found a 'Chicken shack'. It looks real nice, professionally built shed shaped zinc coated shed.
Its about the size of a large washing machine, a bit shorter with a peakted roof & purches inside it, windows with no glass and a hatch so I can get the eggs out. Its also pretty light to lift, its got a handle on its roof.

Now since I found a chicken a couple of months ago....Then last week some square mesh chicken wire for its run.
Now I find the chicken shack....... I can use the 6mm thick clear plastic from LED screens from a laptop to make windows for the shack.
Perfect, everythings recycled, even the chicken.!

I have also.picked up another flatscreen TV. Have not plugged it in yet but the screen looks OK.
I have found out that one of the other flatscreens I have has a bad connection from the ribbon cable to the screen.
What I have to do is put some foam packing behind where it meets the screen to force it together.
I got that info from a site called ' badcaps.com ' that a SMF member told me about.
They tell you everything you need to know to fix it. Amazing.
A good $$$ earner if you want to fix & sell flatscreens etc. As scrappers we get enough of them....

Also got a couple of motors, just for Copper.

Tomorrow, clean up & get some paperwork done in town, maybe new jeans/clothes.
Then off to the land of CRT's, theres still plenty to do.

Spot yah /e

It was a late start today at CRT land. I scrapped about 8 more cleaned some of the area up so I could move around easyer.
I found another Cast Ali lawnmower chassis, inc front wheels and handle.
No motor or rear wheels.
3 chassis in about a week, weird, since I've hardly ever got one before, unless it came as a complete mower.

There were some 5gallon plastic containers there too, they had some sort of cleaner in it, so they are clean.
I was wanting something like that to store stuff in. And they are squareish so the fit side by side nicely.

I filled my sack with degaussing cables etc, then flipped the lawnmower over so I could hold the handle and let it roll on its front wheels.
The car radiator that I got a few days ago was strapped across the mower handles and the container strapped on over that with tv power cords.
(The radiator, someone tells me it is off a Ford escort and worth something better than scrap, even if it has to be recored. Gotta check that out first, its got a ford ID badge on it)
And I walked home with all of that in one go..

I will be back out at crt land tomorrow. Then a couple of days off.
After Christmas it gets busy at the scrap metal drop off yard. Theres more people dumping off stuff.
And more people who have no spare cash, looking for metal to sell to the scrapmetal buyers.

Its a bit of a bummer really, they just don't have the money, any money at all, and a little will go a long way for them.
Some do go 'feral', but others are just bored and broke and cigerette less. And happy to meet someone else who knows what its like.

Oh, I mentioned in a post a few days ago about the 'six sense' we get/have when scrapping.
I mentioned finding cigerette packets with several still in it.
Well it happened again...... The first packet I saw on the ground and had the 'sixth sense' about....
I test with my foot.... "uh huh, its padded" .
Had 7 cigerettes in it!!!
So far I have only given one out, I have not seen anyone scrounging for butts yet.

A pkt of 20 here costs about US$12+ (NZ$15?)

Christmas went ok, didn't drop the halfcooked chicken on the floor while turning it over like I have traditionally done for the last 3 years.
Thats only because I got a precooked one this time.

Today I went for a longer walk to check.out some extra dumpsters. Figuring that at the end of the year most places have a 'cleanout' of extra stuff. But, nothing. Ouch.
There is a modern HP computer in one bin, the little box sort of HP unit, but the bins padlocked. Ouch.
I figure I can get around that later, but I was expecting boxs of boards not used christmas crackers & such.
.
At my usual scrapdropoff area I found a large green fibre CPU & motherboard & 1 RAM. A fridge compressor that was already seperate from the fridge, a stereo speaker with subwoofer, some extrusion, 2CRT's (makes 32 now!)
And a Apple Mac computer, I will see whats on it, then maybe scrap it to see whats in it.
I dunno much about computers & setting them up, I don't really have a use for them past this $100 tablet I use to get free wifi.
I will be out and about tomorrow, gotta get some new jeans & check a 3rd dumpster, then off to CRT land.

I have dropped into the scrapdropoff area a few times in the last week.
But theres hardly anything going in, just 4 crts, and I picked out some Ali bits for a guy I see there sorta often.
At least he can add something Ali to his collection.

Im really suprised, I thought that just after Christmas I would find a fair bit, but nothing really.
Even the 3 dumpsters were empty.

The imac computer I found makes a sound when its first turned on, after its been unplugged for a while.
So thats getting scrapped..

My lawns were getting a bit long, someone even went to the trouble of mowing my streetside strip for me...
Thats when you know its far too long....
But, well I have 8 lawnmowers.... with 12 things wrong with them...
A 'goer' just needed a new starter mechinism and exhaust, so I went past the dropoff area on my way to a recycling place to get the parts.

At the area was 2crts, a few freezers & a fridge... The fridge was on its back and something really stunk.
Stunk reeeaaaaal bad....lifted the corner of the fridge door, too see a couple of Paua shells....
Paua is the local name for abalone, a sea shell with a fist sized chunk of meat in it.
So, rotten seafood.... and a brown swill with maggots floating in it.... 'Drops the door & steps back'.

So, not going near that!
I don't have the time or energy to scrap the fridge compressors since I have to get the mower parts.
So a quick look & I see some thicker Copper earth cable. As Im getting that, a guy arrives, looks around.
Announces to me that "He knows the guy who owns the area" (uh f******g wow, his names the business name...)
He grabs the stinking fridge and pulls off a foot from it, then the other, Im not interested, then he leaves.
Im leaving, just at that point I relise the guys flipped over the fridge and all the brown rotten liquids running out of it...

And Im sure he not going to tell the owner about it..

So, I leave anyway, go to the recycling shop, see a dumpster behind a motorbike shop, have a look in it and find rubbish and a small pile of wheel weights

Since its not a lot of weight, theres Steel mixed in with them and some are Zinc, not Lead. I flick thru a few and find a strip of them with 'Sn' on them.
"Hmm, Sn is the sign for 'Tin' " I think. Makes sense, they are going away from using Lead, they look a different 'silvery shine' to them from Lead or Zinc. Neat, Tin.

Now I have been looking for Tin for a while so I can test for Gold. I need Tin and HCL acid.
I cannot find Tin fishing sinkers anywhere, or anything else Tin anywhere else.
So this find is a important one for me.

I got the lawnmower parts, fixed the mower & mowed the lawn, it was over knee deep and the council had told me to mow it too.
So, a couple of jobs done today. Mower goes now. Might get another going, maybe 3. Then give the others to the guy I mentioned before. He can fix them up.

Tonight, well I will drop into a friends place, hes back from overseas for a while, maybe I might check out the dropoff yard if I can be bothered. Theres stuff I have put aside there & the 2crts to scrap as well. Its 10:40pm atm.
Tomorrows a monday and most people are going back to work.

Its always amazing what little amount of meat based organic material it takes to cause a major stink as its decomposing!! I once watched a cottontail rabbit go from a recognizable form to basically a flat pile of hair in about 4 days one summer behind my rifle range shack that I ran for a Boy Scout camp. I truly appreciate the forensic folks who work to solve crimes who have to work on decomposing humans (anybody gagging on their brunch about now?? I need to go eat mine).

Tin for wheel weights down under?? Interesting. I always thought tin was a lot more expensive metal than zinc but perhaps in the South Pacific its cheaper than here in the States. Tin was one reason why the Japanese invaded the Dutch East Indies (now Indonesia) back at the beginning of WWII. Just wondering...

I understand we humans are hard coded for dead meat. Our schnozzes are supposed to be able to detect the scent of decomposing meat down to the parts per million in the air.

Not sure why...I don't think we are built to be able to eat rotten meat--just look at what a bit of bad hamburger does to a population!

Jon.

Haven't heard from him for a while. Anybody know anything about what's he doing or what has happened to him?? Eesakiwi are you out there???

Gidday. I have still been scrapping. Not selling as often, and working fixing my house weatherboards up since its comming into spring here now.
Its a 'villa'. Fancy name for a 11 foot high ceiling shotgun shack with leantoo at the rear and shed out the back. made 1910 or such.
Its only been painted once... But I talked to the grand daughter of the builder, she said "Every board was hand picked". Looks it too, where theres borer (tiny termites?) theres some rot, but some boards are like brand new. Just scrape 'em and prime 'em and paint 'em and its like new.
It will look quite smart when its finished. Though the weather side (West) needs 100% replacement weatherboards. Already brought them.

I brought a car which makes a difference. Very helpfull.

To get some paint $ I took in a load of metal on monday. Now while metal prices have dropped, so has the NZ$ which makes the metal prices still pretty good compaired to what it could be.
Like the NZ$ was worth US$0.90cents. Now its US$0.65cents.....

So. I got ....
Alum/Copper rads NZ$80.00. @ NZ$3.10 /Kg. nice, that was two Invertor heatpumps, maybe 2 and a bit. Nice return as theres other Copper and stuff in them as well.

Cast Ali NZ$33.00 @ NZ$1.30/Kg. That was 3 Ali car rims. Now I did not know they would have paid a extra 20cents a KG if they were not damaged (I cut tyres off with angle grinder, nicked rim edge) They actually fill containers with them and send them overseas to be reconditioned. Live & learn.

Lead batterys NZ$16.00 @ NZ$0.45/Kg. Ouch, should be better, but they are dangerous goods and get sent to China. A long way away....

Domestic Copper NZ$60.00 @ NZ$5.50/Kg. Thats a good price. It was NZ$6.50 a Kg. But because of the NZ$ vs US$. Its still good.

All up NZ$190!! A single car bootload (trunkload for Americans) U$135

Then on the way home I decide to drive by my scrap dropoff yard, where I get to pick out the nonferrous and give them my ferrous in exchange. great deal.

Boy was it a great deal!!!!!

I see some thick plastic coated Copper wire. Nice. I get closer and find its attached to 5 Hitachi 9inch angle grinders... YES!!!

And I look even closer to find 3, Yes THREE !!!! Invertor 'Caddy welders'. Now I already own one. It cost me NZ$1400 in 1998 and its paid for itself many times.
Its a 'Cebora' brand and I recommend them 100%. Nah, make that 200%.

These 3 were a
'Trans pocket'. Tiny, light 'lunchbox sized' Carry it up a ladder on a strap sort welder 160amp DC with TIG liftstart. (handy, no 'arc eye')

A 'Selco' 190 amp (out of a wall socket!!) DC. Small invertor size. TIG lift start again. Digital amp scale readout.

A 'Strata'. This could be a NZ brand name on a imported welder. Maybe not. 160amp DC . Broken volume control knob.

There was only one welding lead and several extension cords, damaged. The grinders had some of the nut parts missing, damaged cords. Odd guards.

Now I looked at this, found the companys name on some of the stuff and relised it was all 'damaged goods, well used, paid for it self already'.
It had been put aside for the electriion to fix and they got new stuff to replace it and then one day last week decided to ditch it all.
Lucky me.

So I checked things. 4 grinders work, the other does not start.
That means that it a bad cord (they are all bad and need replaced anyway, thats why they were there.) or a worn brush thats had the 'safety tab' pop out at a certain amount of wear. ie, it needs brushes, or a cord.
They are NZ$500 grinders and I have parts already for another one. NICE.

The welders. Ones missing the plug. Ones missing the volume control knob. They are all missing their leads. They ALL WORK !!

Brand new this all would have co$t NZ$6000..... I got it used, for free.

Oh, and a Tweco MIg handpeice with Binzel connection. A smaller one. Just what I was wanting for a small cheap MIG I have. To fix car panel etc.