New to metal recycling. Interested in electronic scrap recycling/pm recovery.( Have needed chemistry knowledge).
There is base metals to recycle. (Computer casings...). So far did not have time to do metal recycling as a primary occupation.
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New to metal recycling. Interested in electronic scrap recycling/pm recovery.( Have needed chemistry knowledge).
There is base metals to recycle. (Computer casings...). So far did not have time to do metal recycling as a primary occupation.
Welcome from Maryland
Hi from South Dakota. You don't need to do it as a primary occupation. If you like tearing things apart, you've come to the right spot...
Try and sell your ferrous scrap (sheetmetal cases etc, anything light gauge steel) and Copper wire to cover your expenses as you scrap.
This stuff takes up a lot of space anyway.
Find a good escrap buyer who pays good prices and has a good history. Prefibably a 'face to face' deal. Or find a good cheap way to ship your escrap to the buyer.
Theres good buyers here at SMF and references for other buyers. It depends on where you are.
Look really hard at how to grade your escrap. Little mistakes can co$t you $$. (leaving batterys on boards is a bad idea..a really bad idea)
Little touches can make a happy buyer. ( removing all the 'tinsel' steel trimmings. Removing the steel screws beside plugs and sockets. Removing any steel brackets. Actually removing anything thats worth less than the actual price of the board. Or anything thats going to make shipping cost more (weight).
Seperating boards into sub catagorys, ie a Banana box full of random Hard drive boards vs same box full of Hard Drive boards seperated into their seperate shapes. And sizes (inch dia) of hard Drives.
Knowing what catagorys there are. Depending on board age, socket size, server vs simple motherboard.(2 CPU vs 1CPU)
Don't remove electronic parts from the boards if they are soldered or 'embedded'. Surface stuff like memory you do, its plugged in, thats a different catagory.
'Boardsort.com is a good site to visit to see how its done. I am in NewZealand, which makes the escrap game a bit tougher. I will be selling to a local middleman who sells to Asia somewhere.
I have over 500 motherboards and the other boards that come with the computers. Stacks and stacks of them. Mostly from 1994 to 2008.
I dunno what its worth at all and the dropping Gold price and our exchange rate NZ$ vs US$ is giving me the heeby geebys.
(since I was going to get paid in NZ$ at the US$ value. ie if its worth US$90, I get paid NZ$90 and the middleman takes the difference of, at the time $10.
Thats his cut.
At the moment the NZ$1 is worth US$0.65 cents. Thats a 1/3rd drop...plus lowering Gold prices = lower escrap prices. = lower return. ouch my hed hurtz..
A big thing health wise.
Spray a spray of weak cheap kitchen cleaner (with a few drops of detergent and maybe a tiny bit of denatured alcohol for 'bite') onto any dirty boards as soon as you expose them to stop any mold flying around you.
You do not want to breath any of that in, its concentrated germs, bacteria and smokers tar all rolled into one easy to inhale dust.
Then leave it for a while and wash it off. It all balls into easy to run off gunk and leaves the boards like brand new. The escrap sorters will love you.
Some boards are worth $ to sell onwards. Video cards is one. Try and do that if you can as it adds to the money you bring in while you are collecting escrap.
Good luck and read read read.