Aluminum Satellite Dish

Hello!

I picked up a big aluminum satellite dish today. It was already being cut into sections when I arrived, so to the scrap yard it goes!

Some things I would greatly appreciate input on...
- Painted aluminum pricing... should I expect regular, dirty or somewhere in between?
- The screws holding the mesh on are nonferrous. I'm assuming they are alumninum also?
- I didn't have a chance to check out the goodies in the center of it before it was tossed in the back of my van... anything in particular I should pay attention to?

This was a great surprise.. I thought it was going to be a small steel one and figured, "I already need to do a steel run, every little bit will maximize my load." I show up and it is a massive aluminum being cut to the perfect size for my van!

I'm sorry if these questions have been asked before. I searched, but didn't see anything that fit.

nice find! I know that they charge me for dirty aluminum even if it is painted. check those screws and other metals with a magnet. no attraction means its aluminum

Most likely the screws are stainless. Some yards devalue your aluminum for this; some don't care.

What Spin said x4. My yard it could go either way with the dish. The crappy yard...they'd give me dirty. My main yard..I said would go either way, but I've never been given a hard time for painted alum that I recall.

An again I agree with Spin, most likely stainless on the screws.

Sirscrapalot - Great minds think alike..an there is brilliance like me an Spin.

See a lot of aluminum rivets but don't see too many aluminum screws because it's to soft and shears easily.

I get .40/lb for Al but I can throw in clean and things that are about 75%+ clean with steel still on it. They don't even look closely at it since I always have steel/Al/Copper/wire separated before I pull in.

My yard gives me clean price for painted aluminum...as long as there's no steel/iron mixed in, they don't care

I'd be wary of any yard that defines painted aluminum as "dirty"...Dirty means it has some steel/iron mixed in. Since it's a bit of a misnomer, they may be trying to take advantage of someone who they perceive as less educated about scrap. Seller beware.

The center piece that sticks out is called a "feed horn" not much in there. Maybe a little brass and piece of coax. Probably some stainless bolts holding it on. You will probably want to pull it off b4 going to yard.

Thank you for the information, everyone! I try to know exactly what I have when I go in.

Usually the feedhorn is cast alum. and if there's an amp. hanging on the front (with coax) then it has a real nice OMG board inside. Plus the amp chassis is alum. also

Painted Alum has its own price by me, as for the screws check them good hopefully stainless either way stainless or not I would remove them. That way they not looking at everything you put on the scale thinking that it will go as dirty alum...

I pulled all of the screws today. My yard said they don't deduct for it being painted!

The feed horn ring seems to be all ferrous, but the arm with the amp is aluminum. I ran out of time today, so I set that aside to crack open later.

The boards in the LNB are...awesome.

Good to hear on your yard!

Sirscrapalot - A black cat crossing your path signifies that the animal is going somewhere. - Groucho Marx

Back in my earlier years I helped a crew manufacture and install those large (10 -12') black mesh dishes. Ours were alum. mesh on (aircraft) alum. ribs with alum. rivets and standard bolts held the sections together like a pie. Of course the paint was standard powdercoat baked on.

I have a question. I took one of these down and in the receiver part of it. I pulled out of it a small piece that I thought was gold. I took it to jeweler and had it tested. It came up negative. It's not magnetic.

Does anyone know what it is? Brass?

Thanks!

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by spinroch

Most likely the screws are stainless. Some yards devalue your aluminum for this; some don't care.

---

why would they devalue your alu when stainless is more than alu?

at my yard, they wont mind as the other stuff is of higher value
they will undoubtedly remove it once i leave.

maybe they devalue cos it means a bit more work for them

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by Mechanic688

Usually the feedhorn is cast alum. and if there's an amp. hanging on the front (with coax) then it has a real nice OMG board inside. Plus the amp chassis is alum. also

---

Mech is right. I've never acquired a dish that size, its usually the Dish/Direct Tv ones that I pick up, but even most of those have gold boards in them. There is one in particular that's completely plated on the back. So I would imagine that those are even better. Nice find, and let us know what you net. A picture of that board would be appreciated too ;)

when i first started fooling around with circuit boards i got several of the old descrambler receiver boxes for the old style large satelite dishes....they were loaded with the white ceramic gold cap and legged ic chips also there were several of the black ceramic ones with the gold cap and little gold line on them....i put thos boards on ebay and made a great profit from them....ive never found anymore of those things yet......

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by ParttimeChuck

I have a question. I took one of these down and in the receiver part of it. I pulled out of it a small piece that I thought was gold. I took it to jeweler and had it tested. It came up negative. It's not magnetic.

Does anyone know what it is? Brass?

Thanks!

---

Should be some gold flashing in them but there is a difference in color between gold flashing and brass.