...honey I'm home

greetings in a nut shell I am located in Vancouver WA as in U.S.A. 2 years ago I was clearing a property of unwanted crap and discovered scrap and caught the fever. spent a year dumpster diving while a mega building was built collecting every thing from the rebar to siding to the wiring. last year I approached a few thrift stores offering to buy their unwanted which is pretty much what I do. I am willing to work very hard as to not have a job and scrapping seems a suitable fit. At present it's me and my ford ranger. I dream of upgrading to a larger truck but still learning what I need as I am a middle aged woman working solo so do I want a lift or a boom, flat bed with stakes or an f250 with a trailer.Trying to educate myself on e-scrap to increase income. And trying to figure out how to approach construction or deconstruction sites being such a small operation.

Welcome aboard. I will make a reply to this thread in the AM regarding construction sites, and the such.

Welcome from Searcy, Arkansas. There is a lot of valuable information here that will be of great help. If you use the search feature at the top right and can't find what you are looking for just ask. There are a bunch of great, very knowledgeable people here that don't mind helping.

Hello Sally :) Welcome to SMF! Construction or demolition could both be good sources, and don't overlook renovations either, as both phases are included with it ; )

Welcome from Indiana...

Welcome from the far end of the world...

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Originally Posted by SallySalvage

greetings in a nut shell I am located in Vancouver WA as in U.S.A. 2 years ago I was clearing a property of unwanted crap and discovered scrap and caught the fever. spent a year dumpster diving while a mega building was built collecting every thing from the rebar to siding to the wiring. last year I approached a few thrift stores offering to buy their unwanted which is pretty much what I do. I am willing to work very hard as to not have a job and scrapping seems a suitable fit. At present it's me and my ford ranger. I dream of upgrading to a larger truck but still learning what I need as I am a middle aged woman working solo so do I want a lift or a boom, flat bed with stakes or an f250 with a trailer.Trying to educate myself on e-scrap to increase income. And trying to figure out how to approach construction or deconstruction sites being such a small operation.

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Go with a heavy half ton, with a trailer, no doubt the F-250 is a real work horse but the differential ( rear end ) is geared low which will gobble up your profits in fuel. The lighter heavy half with taller gears with give you better miles per gallon. In addition the the heavy half the trailer will give you more real estate - deck space plus a lower deck on which to load stuff onto.

Once you make some spare change buy yourself an electric winch to mount on your trailer, saves having to split the profits.

Welcome from Canada

Scrap and save enough and you will get that bigger truck, thats what I did. Good luck and welcome from south of Chicago

Welcome to the forum

Welcome from the Pine Tree State !! I love Washington State!

Welcome Sally. I know what you mean about working alone and being a middle aged female. I've had to pass on a lovely cast iron bathtub in a dumpster because I can't get it out myself or find anyone interested in splitting it.

The electronics recycling section of the forum has a lot of threads that will help you learn the basics and more advanced aspects of escrap. In a big city you - you might find that electronic recycling may be all you want to do after a while as you can probably get a lot of it there.

hi Sally i'm new here too and totally understand the solo woman thing. my 2 kids sometimes go treasure hunting with me but they are 6 and 4 and not tall enough to help me lift things out of the dumpster. waiting for them to grow up so i cam make use of them. good luck to you. :)

I think Scrapette has a good thought, ewaste is generally lighter than other items. You can do well with just computer towers, of course other items will come with them. I have had to deal with restrictions and not supposed not to lift greater than 20lbs so ewaste kept me in the game. I learned most of what I do know by reading the old threads on this forum and keeping up on the new ones. Best of luck. Mike.