Originally Posted by Dbone
Hard to tell from the picture. Its either cast aluminum or plastic. If it feels.... metally.... then its cast alum... im like 80% sure.
Metal Recycling Entrepreneur
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Hard to tell from the picture. Its either cast aluminum or plastic. If it feels.... metally.... then its cast alum... im like 80% sure.
Experienced Scrapper
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Sorry, one last pic showing how much copper I can get out of these transformers. This is 15 lbs from only 4 of them. 3.75 lbs average per transformer, that's $7.50 @ $2.00 a lb. It takes me currently 10-15 minutes to crack it open and get the coils out. Some are too difficult to clean all of the paper off, I'm sure that will affect the price a bit. Or am I being too optimistic? With 300 to go through, in copper alone, that's over $2,000.
photos. app. goo. gl/ eZo2NMvdYtgYbPHaA
Don't clean the paper off. Maybe as much of the outermost layer as comes off quick but that's it. Any place that doesn't buy it as #2 copper will certainly be selling it as #2 copper since the contamination from the widning coating and paper is *well* under 1% and is not a contamination that prevents the copper from being furnace ready. Any yard that downgrades it below #2 is scamming you
Yes that is likely cast aluminum. It *could* be die cast (or magnesium like mentioned above) which also shatters but shouldn't be a problem mixed with your cast Al. If your yard currently pays more for die cast might be worth getting a tiny bottle of silver nitrate from a hobby shop or hardware store. A drop on die cast will darken but it'll have no significant effect on cast Al. Cast iron too shatters but will be magnetic.
Last edited by JJinLV; 02-22-2020 at 12:02 PM.
Also where in Florida are you? Company I work for has a yard in JVille.
Experienced Scrapper
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Sorry for the late reply, I am in central Florida in between Tampa and Orlando.
Metal Recycling Entrepreneur
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15lb from 4 =~ 1125lb from 300.... It would probably go as #2 copper in as-is condition by me which is $1.80/lb. So yea.... about $2025 in copper alone.... at 15 mins each, thats 75 hours to do 300.... So about $27/hr (just for the copper). Yay money!
Metal Recycling Entrepreneur
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The bulbs wont have Mercury in them, i think they will be High Pressure Sodium ( HPS ) bulbs.
Or Metal Halide ( MH )
If they are Metal halide the inner bulb will be a glass tube squashed at both ends with a football shape in the centre, its probably greyish/black/silvery inside it. With a metal wire sticking out both ends, joined to other wires.
The High pressure sodium bulbs will have a whiteish opaque/clearish glass tube in the centre of the bulb, with a metal wire sticking out both ends joined to other wires.
The ballast unit will have either HPS, or MH on it, before a number, most likely 400 or 1000, thats the wattage.
Low Pressure Sodium bulbs, long tubular bulbs with a U shaped tube inside it, normally 50 watts, will have a silvery Mercury looking metal droplets sitting in the dimples in the U tube.
Thats Sodium metal, its not dangerous like Mercury is, it will fizz & pop if it comes in contact with water, then it sparks & flares a bit too.
Fun with Sodium.
Theres Mercury Vapour bulbs, sorta like a Metal halide bulb, but with a metal filiment, just like in a normal incandesant bulb, thats sitting around the inner glass bulb.
Those lights dont have transformers, they use the filiment to heat up the inner bulb, vaporise the Mercury metal inside it, then when its hot enough, it trips a little switch inside it to run electricity thru the Mercury vapour inside the inner glass tube. It then gives off light.
If its got no ballast and/or transformer, and theres that filiment inside the bulb, its a 97% chance its a Mercury vapour bulb.
If the Metal halide or High pressure Sodium bulbs are relatively clean inside, they could be sold.
You would still need to test them in the proper unit and that takes some time because of the long warm up period before they are running properly.
Even then i have had a HPS bulb with a bad connection weld inside it stop working several minutes after it had got into the running stage.
Those bulbs get used for Hydroponic plant growing. There is a market for the units if they do work.
Unfortunately there's some dodgy people involved in that industry.
'Professionals' would only buy brand new units too.
Considering the amount of units you have ( far too many for a single buyer ) and that you will have a decent amount of scrapmetal & $$$$ involved, plus your time. I wouldn't let anybody else know about what you are doing.
Its simply none of their business, its yours, and yours only business. ( Oh, 'cept for us guys @ Scrapmetalforum.com , LoL )
You dont need to tell anyone, or brag about it. You getting enough kudos from all us guys here anyway. ( All the way from the other end of the earth, from here )
Once you have processed & sold your scrapmetal you could possibly sell the bulbs. It does open yourself up to the chance of other, abit dodgy people & their situations too.
If theres any brand new bulbs it could be worth finding a buyer. Maybe. Best to stay safe though. If you could sell them to some business, i dunno, it depends on the situation.
I'd put the bulbs in a sack, inside another sack, till its full, tie it off & using safety glasses & earmuff, and a baseball bat....
Knock them into a smaller volume, then into a dumpster & gone burger.
( Hmm, 'you learn something every day. It turns out that 'gone burger' is a NewZealand saying )
https://www.urbandictionary.com/defi...erm=goneburger
Last edited by eesakiwi; 02-23-2020 at 07:03 AM.
Experienced Scrapper
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I just took a look at the bulbs and they all say on them "Hg" so I am pretty sure that is indeed Mercury. Could they still be sold or is that considered a hazardous product? Thanks for all of the great info though. I appreciate you reiterating the importance of not bragging about it to friends or coworkers as it is definitely tempting! I will stick to the forums to let all of that out.
Metal Recycling Entrepreneur
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I've been thinking about the size of the job over the last few days. Time management and all that good stuff ..
Figure maybe .5 man hours per unit between the picking up, break down, trips to the yard, & everything else involved.
.5 mh x 450 units = 225 man hours
To put it into context : Figuring 40 hr work weeks ... the average guy works 160 man hours per month.
You are going to have to quit your job and do this full time for the next month and a half !
Been tryin' to think of some kind of work around the problem. Seems like you've bitten off more than you can chew. Heaven knows ... that's easy enough to do.
Is there some way you could transport the units directly from your pickup point to the yard ?
Forget the disassembly part and take your lumps ?
Maybe even have the yard drop off a rollaway at your pickup point. All you do is broker the deal for a commission ?
Last edited by hills; 02-25-2020 at 06:10 PM. Reason: fix typos
Metal Recycling Entrepreneur
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Pfft he'll be fiiiinnneeee ... LolI've been thinking about the size of the job over the last few days. Time management and all that good stuff ..
Figure maybe .5 man hours per unit between the picking up, break down, trips to the yard, & everything else involved.
.5 mh x 450 units = 225 man hours
To put it into context : Figuring 40 hr work weeks ... the average guy works 160 man hours per month.
You are going to have to quit your job and do this full time for the next month and a half !
Been tryin' to think of some kind of work around the problem. Seems like you've bitten off more than you can chew. Heaven knows ... that's easy enough to do.
Is there some way you could transport the units directly from your pickup point to the yard ?
Forget the disassembly part and take your lumps ?
Maybe even have the yard drop off a rollaway at your pickup point. All you do is broker the deal for a commission ?
If 30mins is to fully dissassble one completely you may need to do a slimming down where you take 3 mins on each to get everything out of the large casing and put the innards all aside, and scrap the biggest parts to make room for more and keep up a good pace.
I'll do this for example when I have like 30 pcs, I'll strip everything out of them so I can get rid of the large bulky cases right away, then work slowly on the innards at my own pace since they'll all fit in a large bin where as 30 pcs take up half the garage .....
Other options include renting a U-Haul and a storage unit for a month or so
Metal Recycling Entrepreneur
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Ummm .... you're not listening K.
I'll try again.
Quote:
Figure maybe .5 man hours per unit between the picking up, break down, trips to the yard, & everything else involved.
Metal Recycling Entrepreneur
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You may be right.... I'm just trying to give some positive encouragment. Worst comes to worst he can rent a U-Haul and drop the whole lot off at the yard as alum breakage or irony aluminum and still probably be profitable and done with it in 1 day....
Hopefully he updates with progress so we can follow along!
Metal Recycling Entrepreneur
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I hear ya bro. I would like to see him do well too.
It's a toughie when you're doing the Mon thru Fri / 40 hr per week thing. You're all worn out by the end of the week so Saturday is a day of rest and family time. Sunday is about the only day free where you get to work on your own stuff.
I'm reminded of the term " A month of Sundays ".
In this case, it could quite literally be an entire 30 Sundays or more to do the job.
< sigh> I miss the days of self employment sometimes. My time was my own. It wasn't a problem to take two or three weeks off to work on a project as long as my other obligations were being met.
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From what I see the only problem is storage....rent a unit get some lights (hahahah) and do this stuff in the evening as a 2nd job.....no biggie hills your making a mountain out of a mole hill
BUYING ALL COMPUTER SCRAP WORKING OR NOT
CHECK OUT MY BUYERS THREAD http://www.scrapmetalforum.com/scrap...nic-scrap.html
https://getjunk.net/Knox-County-TN-0...Recycling.html
Metal Recycling Entrepreneur
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Maybe hes got some kids that can help for some allowance money.... or some friends that would help out for some beers or a few bucks. For me, getting my hands on enough stuff is always my biggest issue, and he has that taken care of. I would find a way to deal with whatever amount I could get my hands on!
Metal Recycling Entrepreneur
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I dunno ... i AM pretty careful in the way i budget my time. Maybe too much so. I'll tell ya though .... my days are numbered. I'm gettin' to be an old fart. That's the thing see ? You can always make more money but you can't make more time. Every day ... it's a little bit less. That's why i try to live every day as though it were my last. Lol ... soon enough it will be !
Just an old timer's advise to a younger hand. ( Yeah ... i know ... you young pups think you will live forever. )
Budget your time :
Eight hours a day for work.
Eight hours a day for rest.
Eight hours a day for wife & kids, meals, entertainment, travel back and forth to work, household chores, running the kids to soccer practice, and everything else.
Last edited by hills; 02-26-2020 at 06:08 AM. Reason: fix typos
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In a perfect world which you may live in that sounds great but it is unfortunate that many jobs here and around the world do not pay a "livable" income so that 8 hours of rest turns into 6 and that 8 hours of "free time" turns into just a couple........Oh well I'm sure we will get an update from the OP and see how he is tackling the problemI dunno ... i AM pretty careful in the way i budget my time. Maybe too much so. I'll tell ya though .... my days are numbered. I'm gettin' to be an old fart. That's the thing see ? You can always make more money but you can't make more time. Every day ... it's a little bit less. That's why i try to live every day as though it were my last. Lol ... soon enough it will be !
Just an old timer's advise to a younger hand. ( Yeah ... i know ... you young pups think you will live forever. )
Budget your time :
Eight hours a day for work.
Eight hours a day for rest.
Eight hours a day for wife & kids, meals, entertainment, travel back and forth to work, household chores, running the kids to soccer practice, and everything else.
Metal Recycling Entrepreneur
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I get it Mike. Totally right. You gotta do what you gotta do to survive. It's not a perfect world.
With my own thing:
I work at a gas station pumping gas. I make a couple of bucks over minimum wage and routinely work 12 to 13 + hr workdays. It's not the easiest life here in Maine but it's a good one. Most of the people i know work pretty hard to make a living. Cost of living is high here on the island and the wages generally aren't all that good.
Lol ... no perfect world here but we manage.
It's kind of a juggling act if you know what i mean ? You gain on one thing but lose ground on another. More time spent working means less time with your family. You get home from work at the end of the day and the wife is all pissed off and the kids are raising hell. Neglect her emotional needs long enough and you end up divorced with monthly child support payments of 800.00$ per kid.
The side jobs do impact your regular job as well. A lot of employers here don't like you doing jobs on the side because they feel it impacts your job performance & availability to come in for extra shifts when needed. Seeing as your regular job is your bread & butter .... it's not a good idea to mess with it. It can earn you a downgrade in your value to the company and maybe even a layoff when things get slow.
As you can see, there's no gain in this ... just suffering.
Point being: Scrapping is all good and well but you have to be careful about the size of the jobs you take on when you're doing it part time.
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For me, I usually do what Kss mentioned. Get rid of the casing right off the bat. Throw the innards to the side in a box. Go to the scrap yard and get rid of that aluminum. Get the next batch and repeat the process. Save the innards for when you have stripped all the lights. I would argue against renting anything to store the lights. You will lose most or all of your profit. I would work my normal job (40 hrs) and tell myself I have a temporary part time job now that requires 20 hrs a week. In 20 hours I should be able to rough disassemble a lot of lights, especially if I set up a system and leave my tools ready for the next day. The goal is to keep moving the big stuff out and always going back to get more lights from your source. That way they see you can handle the job and will be willing to let it go a bit longer than they may have wanted it to go on for. Just my thoughts on it.
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