This should be a fun project. I did 26 parking lot lights this past summer. Fun stuff.
Thornton Scrapper
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This should be a fun project. I did 26 parking lot lights this past summer. Fun stuff.
Experienced Scrapper
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If it breaks with a hammer hit, is it always some form of cast aluminum? Here is a photo of the housing I was uncertain of. It broke like an eggshell with a hard smack with my hammer.
photos. app.goo. gl/ QqrF77jy9LuTDw7m7
Metal Recycling Entrepreneur
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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.
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
Experienced Scrapper
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Thank you. You likely saved me a lot of unnecessary work with the paper. I need to buy some good quality cut-off blades to get through the welds, then I can just bust throught them with a 5 lb hammer and a railroad nail that I have. Works like a charm.
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.
Experienced Scrapper
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Just brought my 2nd batch of lights home and today I found out there will be a total of 450 of these things. 18, 000 lbs in total of copper, aluminum and steel. I have my work cut out for me.
Metal Recycling Entrepreneur
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You got some money coming your way! Congrats! Have you checked local yards for prices and such on your first load?
If you have, for example, 3 yards within some distance youre willing to drive from you, it might be a neat experiment to take 30 lights, disassemble them each/equally and take each load of 10 to each yard and see which you get the most at. Then take the remaining to whatever that yard is. You can factor driving distance and such in to if you want to get real technical.
For example there has been times where Ive taken stuff to one yard where they pay better for 1/2 of the stuff I am bringing, but worse for the other half.... so now after a while I have figured out which of the 2 around me pay better for which things and sort my loads accordingly!
You may find out one yard pays $0.25/lb for cast alum and $1.60 for #2 copper, and the other yard pays $1.80 for #2 copper but only $0.19/lb for cast alum. It may make sense to split your loads then to maximize profit!
Of course, if you only have one yard close by.... you can throw all this out the window
Just an idea! Good luck! report back please with how it goes!
Last edited by kss; 02-25-2020 at 03:28 PM.
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