The things we do for scrap...

About an hour ago, (10:00 pm chicago time) I got home from a visit to my parents house. I went over there for a visit and dinner with my wife and 2 month old. As we got back home, I saw what I thought to be a computer monitor in the dumpster corral at the entrance drive of my condo. However, the baby was crying and the wife wanted to hurry upstairs to tend to her. So I drove to my spot and parked and got them upstairs and said I'll take a walk for the monitor. Well, a good walk and a few minutes later, the quick glance computer monitor was really a 20ish inch tv. I said to myself. I've already walked this far, can't walk back empty handed. So I hiked it up onto my shoulder and started walking. Definitely took a few breaks on my way back but ultimately ended up back at the truck. Put the tv on the back seat. Took a few breaths and rested the legs. Went upstairs and thought to myself, got something to take apart tomorrow and am 5ish dollars richer. Not a lot of return for the effort put forth. But it's better than nothing... The things we do for scrap.......

Steel is down, but you can still get something for copper!

And it all adds up. Hell even Alum windings will bring you more then a van full of shred these days.

Profit where you can.

Sirscrapalot - Feasts on Tv's even when not starving.

Don't forget the health benefit of the exercise - not all rewards are monetary.

I don't mess with the old tube tv's, as there isn't enough in them for me, and breaking the vacuum tube to get that small bundle of copper has more environmental harm than its worth for a few cents worth of copper. If I was really ambitious, I'd cut the windings with my dykes and pull them out. I will gut a projection, or LCD TV in a heartbeat if I have the time though.

I have a toolbox I carry in the trunk with my tools for roadside surgery. I take all the screws as I remove them, and toss them in the toolbox to deal with later, and then neatly remove the screen for the plexiglass, the electronics for the lenses, and metals (I just take the whole guts home to disassemble at my leisure), the mirrors to build frames for them (they are nice high polish mirrors afterall), I remove the casters to sell at the local flea markets (or use in my home built projects) for a couple extra bucks, and NEATLY put all the extra parts I removed back into the cabinet, or in a pile next to the TV. If I have the time, I've even been known to neatly break the cabinet apart by lifting it onto one corner, and applying enough pressure to split the seams, and then split the other corners and stack the empty cabinet parts on the curb too. That way the homeowner doesn't have to look at a gutted cabinet until their next trash pickup day.

I take the same route anytime I disassemble another large appliance like a dryer/washing machine. Leave no mess behind, and people don't make a stink about you doing it in their neighborhood.

If the residents are home, and outside, I let them know I won't leave a mess behind, and often times end up chatting with them, and joking around (like I better move my car before this guy strips it too. He's fast.) while doing it.

#1 rule in my scrapping handbook. Leave no mess for someone else to cleanup.

Like walking in the rain and the snow
When there's nowhere to go

'' #1 rule in my scrapping handbook. Leave no mess for someone else to cleanup.''

Couldn't have said it better myself! It even bothers me when I'm on city cleanup, people have destroyed TV's and left a mess. If I have to take something apart on the side of the road I always try to throw everything back in the case then put a screw or two in the case to hold it all in. Or at least if the trash can isn't full throw the small pieces in it. When one scrapper leaves a mess for someone else to clean up, they think all scrappers are like that.

I had a big post to write but..bleh. I've said it all before, so I'll keep to the other part of the topic.

Only other thing to touch on..an hey look..it's in a mostly serious tone. Miracles do happen!

CopperHead you mentioned taking them apart on the curb. Some folks may wish to do this, I prefer not to. I have a few reasons for this. One..I like working in my shop vs on a curb. All my tools an items I may have need for are there. I carry the basics with me when I'm out tool wise.

An the main reason, an most likely the most important reason...so important I'm going to use bold, italics AND underline score to show you how important...The number one reason not to take apart tvs on the curb is...you never know how long they've been unplugged an sitting. It could've been one day, it could be a month, do you want to risk your health to find out? Dischargeing a tv is a real thing an something you should be doing if your screwing with tvs or any item that can retain a charge. I like to let my tv's sit for at lest 3 days before I touch them. Then it's on me if I get a shock, not the poor bastard who put it on the curb or called me. My health is up to me, not someone who could lie, forget, etc. To see the dangers of a discharge..seek out the lovely new Sticky on the subject.

So yea..those of you who do it on the curb, or on a clients property keep that in mind. Me..I just take them to the shop, let them sit for a couple days, then go to town on them. I then of course dispose of all parts as legally allowed. Good thing my sandbar ain't all Nazi Secret Police on such things an provides a way for me to do so that doesn't' cost an arm and a leg or require 50 trips to best buy.

What works for me, may not work for you. An if it doesn't work for you..well that doesn't mean it won't for me. Your laws, rules, regulations, etc etc could very well be way different then mine. Imagine that.

For further views on TV's, CRT Tubes, feel to free to do a search an you'll find a good many of assorted thoughts in regards to taking them, breaking them down, etc. From folks who do plenty of them to folks who hardly do them at all.

If you choose to scrap tv's/tubes, an in a proper manner, then I applaud you. If you don't scrap them, then I respect your views an ask you to respect mine an let me do what I know how to do without judgement, or assumption. I'm sure you'd appreciate the same in regards to whatever you scrap/recycle/etc.

I don't tell a car mechanic how to do things if all I work on are huffy bikes.

Jus' saying.

Sirscrapalot - Waah waahh Waaahh - The Parents from Charlie Brown.

Very rarely does a tube get broken when I scrap a CRT. In almost all cases, a person should be able to get the yoke off and remove the d.g. cables without busting the tube. I also take the board with its Al heat sinks and Cu bearing others. I take the whole thing and then do it in the garage (people just see it gone). Put it back together and take it into the city drop-off place when I'm in town. i have a threshold (or the wifey does) on how many I want around at any one time. I don't really want to mess with large CRTs as the yoke and d.g. cables don't get larger exponentially with the size of the tube. I've liked the few rear-projections I've done but they can be quite different scrap quality-wise and they don't hide as well in the garage as the smaller CRTs

That to me is the proper way Dakota.

Take it all. No cherry picking. You chose to break it open, it's now your duty to see it's cleaned up properly. (General yous, nothing specific folks) I also do the same..from copper to wire, to the board. It's not for everyone but neither is tea an crumpets.

I'm not a fan of the smash grab tv folks. That just makes us all look bad. An I for one work hard to have the good reputation I do with my ewaste to have it ruined by someone to lazy to clean up after themselves.

Sirscrapalot - Do it right whatever it is your doing, or don't do it. - Me, someone else, fill in name here.

Round these parts, they're just lazy I guess. I see a lot of TV's with the tubes busted out. I have to gut the projectors, and washers roadside, I can't fit them in the car otherwise. If I can haul it, I take it, and do it at my leisure. Otherwise, I gut it fast, and neat, and leave the steel neatly piled for the next guy, because as I said already. No truck. Not worth the fuel to take small loads of steel. I stick to the non-ferrous stuff mostly right now. It ticks me off seeing all these broken and scattered devices from the lazy guys that don't take the time to clean up after themselves. I also loathe when someone drives by, cuts the cord off motorized things, and leaves the rest. Often times I can repair it, and sell the repaired item for more than the scrap worth. Makes it harder to troubleshoot, and repair stuff when some jerk snipped the cord off the device without testing it out first.

The smash an grabbers as I call them tend to fall into two categories in my experience...

1. Lazy.

2. Drug addicts, usually Meth or pills.

I suppose I could make a 3rd.

3. Don't care, an are just jerks.

If you do breakdown things at the curb, then clean it up, seems you do that Mr.Downtown. So I can't really get mad at you, at lest you pick up your mess, and make sure it's all picked up an placed so it's not an eyesore, hazard, etc. Lots of people won't do that.

When I first got started I did a lot of curb shopping. I'd find piles of crap sitting on curbs, an of course I'd dig through it for all that lovely metal. I always left it looking better then it was when I got there tho, not matter what I had to dig out, I didn't leave a huge pile of mess sitting about to piss of the homeowner. These same people now stop me or hold things for me if they see me coming through because they know I won't leave their curb looking like a dump.

YMMV.

Sirscrapalot - Clean up after yourselves, your mother doesn't work here. - Seen on a sign.

Aw, hell. Now that I see the prices that are paid for all these old computer parts, I seriously regret dumping boxes, and boxes of them for nothing. I've been giving away whole systems that worked because I couldnt sell them after fixing them. I'm glad I found this forum. I'll be doing business with some of these buyers when I get another pile together. It looks like I'd get more out of them selling them intact than I do breaking the heat sinks off, and dumping the rest of the board(s).

Glad to be a member here. I've found a lot of useful info in just the last couple days here.