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Hello, I own a metal recycling business with my family! I am mainly on here to learn how to get more use from the types of things that end up at a scrap metal business. For starters, we have a lot of computers and technology that I don't know how to properly disassemble. There is even some medical tech that has ended up in our scrap yard. If anyone could give any advice on these, that would be wonderful! I am really looking for a computer disassembling kit. Any advice would be appreciated!
There is a whole section on here about e-waste.
Additionally there are multiple ewaste buyers on here that you can find in the buyers and sellers section. They have their categories and prices listed. So you can break down the computers to their individual components, or you can sell them whole (for much less obviously, but much less work)
My exact strategy for computers is:
Open case
Undo powersupply from the back and take out (to create room inside)
Snip wire from powersupply, and put in insulated copper wire pile to sell locally
Put powersupply in bin for pallet
Take out ram, if more than 2gb it goes into antistatic bag for more than scrap Value buyer, otherwise in a bin for pallet guy
Finger cards come out and into a bin for pallet
Take out cpu+cpu heat sink
Cpu heat sink goes local as alum or copper alum radiator
Cpu goes into a bucket to sort later for pallet guy, OR if it's new enough goes in an antistatic bag for a more than scrap value buyer
Motherboard comes out goes in a pile for pallet later
CD/floppy/harddrive come out
CD goes in a bin for me to take the boards out of later for pallet guy
Floppy I don't mess with and keep in a pile for a place that takes them at slightly higher than shred prices.
Harddrives if they are over 500gb I wipe them and send to mtsv guy, otherwise I take the boards off and send both the boards and drive to pallet guy
Clip wired that are sometimes there that go from USB /fan /sd slot to motherboard and put in icw bin
Case with fans attached goes into shred pile
That should be all the info you need to start extracting value from the computers. There are some other rarities that sometimes happen but that should cover you most times. For example some old computers you can sell whole for parts on eBay for a lot more than scrap. Some old enough boards go as telcom instead of motherboards (for more money). Some graphics card (finger cards) can bring more money that scrap value but most times not, etc etc
And then there's servers.... Which are mostly the same but larger. It just takes some time learning what buyers buy but after that is easy. You are very lucky to have a source for computers , that is most people's biggest hurdle, where to get enough stuff to take apart and sell.... You already have that so already have a huge leg up
1. Read the forum here to learn the different parts and how to sell them.
2. Understand you will not get rich from it.
3. Take them apart on your free time, it’s usually not worth paying a novice to take them apart.
Quote:
Originally Posted by smoerpulp
I think IF you had a steady supply, AND you really know what you were doing, and had someone competent you could teach to correctly and effeciently take them apart, I think it could be profitable paying someone minimum wage to take them apart. However most of the time whole systems are exported to countries where labor is practically free to disassemble because the margin here is really low if you have to pay someone us wages to do the work. But if it's just you doing it in time you'd be watching TV or just doing nothing anyways (like is the case for me) then it can make some good money.Quote:
Originally Posted by APA
If you know someone competent and can work efficiently for minimum wage, you let them know I am hiring.
Even with unemployment at 25%, no competent and efficient people will work for minimum wage especially cleaning old dusty spider infested computers.
Quote:
Originally Posted by kss
Quote:
Originally Posted by APA
Hey man! I strip old dusty spider infested computers! And probably for less than minimum wage, by CHOICE, like for fun lol! Maybe Im not competent lol.
Joking aside, I am sure that the numbers just dont work out most of the time to pay people to do it for you, or else lots of state-side places would be doing it. The reality is unless you can pay workers like $1/day, like you can in much of the world, it probably isnt worth it to hire/pay someone JUST to do computer stripping. However, if its something you have your employess do on downtime, or if you do it, or you let your kids do it for some walking around money, it could be worth it.
Me, I just like doing it and the recycling aspect of it. Not super concerned about the profitability aspect of it just yet.... but that is probably not the case if you are running a scrap yard.
Check out the prices on here for whole computers..... that may be your best bet just to keep them moving and not waste a ton of your time..... or send em to me :)
Tower computer breakdowns are pretty straightforward. They generally take about 7-10 minutes each. They could be used as "fill in" type work if the yard is having a slow day. One of my favorite disassembly tools is a 13.00$ multi bit screwdriver that i got from Ace Hardware. As with anything else in life ... hands on experience is generally the best teacher. Go do it !Quote:
Originally Posted by smoerpulp
Here's a basic breakdown video. ( Youtube is your friend. )
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K_LATGOuFfQ
Sorry for the thread derail. I was really curious about how all of the numbers worked out with your first pallet load. It's hard to do the ewaste thing profitably here and i'm always trying to work out the best strategy. Do you know if there's a certain threshold of value per pound that you don't go below ?Quote:
Originally Posted by kss
Hypothetical example:
Like maybe twenty cents per lb would be too low ?
Fifty cents a pound average is a break even ?
Maybe an average value of one dollar per lb. would allow for some profit ?
Of course .... every situation would be different.
Ah yes I was going to post a thread with àll my details/profit etc from my first load but realised I hadn't seperated/kept track good enough to accurately track that. But for this second one I have And will make that thread after that's processed/paid (probably like 15days from now)Quote:
Originally Posted by hills
So far I just do $3/computer, $5/server
Some I get free from the trash but not many. Maybe 1-5/month.
What really is the wildcard here with these is I've been working with a guy who cleared out some storage units of a guy that ran a printer repair shop (but like, in the 90s/early 2000s).... And I have gotten a lot of telcom boards from that that are the bulk of the money from the pallets. And that I'm not buying per lb. He wrangles a few boxes of it together as he sorts through things and then I'll just shot in the dark make an offer on the lot.
If I had to make my best guess, after shipping, buying the items, packing materials, etc.... I'm probably profiting $500-1000 per pallet.
But if I also had to guess, $3/computer is likely a bit high.
It is also difficult to keep track because computer stuff goes to 5 different places....
Local yard #1 for shred/cases
Local yard #2 for wires
Local yard #3 for floppy drives, disk drive with board removed
Buyer here for mtsv parts
Buyer here for pallet
Plus with all local place runs it's all mixed in with other stuff like wire from other things that aren't computers, shred from curboco, etc. So it hard to isolate out the exact computer only price
I think I won't truely know if it's profitable until the end of the year when running final numbers. And even then it could turn out that I don't know since profits from general scrap runs + selling items outweigh/obscure the fact that the computer portion is not profitable.
Like if I see total anual profit of $20k, it could turn out that total annual profit would have been $21k had I not done the computer stuff but I wouldn't know unless I made/kept track of "computer only" scrap runs and stuff which I don't care to do at this time. I'm keeping nimbers enough to do taxes and tell overall revenue/profit/loss milage, expenses, etc but to isolate it out to a single computer cost will be hard.
What I might do. Is take one of the least paying computers I can find (no mtsv parts, small-ish) and disassemble and weigh everything from it and price out the profit/loss from that and set that as my buy number. But so far it's mostly just been by gut feeling.
Edit: in regards to price per lb on pallet on my first one i sent nothing under $0.50/lb Because that was the TOTAL cost per lb because I only got 1 quote ... IE I said I think I have around 650lb and these dimesntions what's the cost and it worked out that the shipping quote I got was like $0.40/lb.... But this time I asked for a quote at 400lb and 600lb and realised that most of the cost is like a base cost.... So like 400lbs was $220, 600lbs was $228 or something like that. So even though the total cost per lb is over some of the items it is frontloaded in the base price so toward the upper end adding weight costs very little.
So for example, I could send 400, or for $8 more send 200lbs more. Bringing the cost for THOSE 200 lbs down very low to like $0.04/lb so then I just put everything I had on.
Yeah, i think you could run the numbers on a single, low end, tower and that would give you rough idea of a good price to pay for them. Probably the same with servers. They had a thread here on total scrap value a number of years back but a lot has changed since then. I doubt the numbers would be trustworthy.
That's really good insight on shipping by pallet. So it's like a base cost to move just about any pallet from point A to point B. Having as much weight on it as possible helps bring down your per pound cost.
I used to see pallets come in like that at the store. They must have done some experimentation to get just the right box. As i remember it was like five boxes on a tier. Two would be oriented one way and three the other way. The next tier was the same but offset 90 degrees. For tiers would make a nice square stack about six feet high. Bind it all together with plastic wrap and you've got a solid pallet that goes over the road well.
I tried the search term " How to stack a pallet " on youtube and got quite a few good hits.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LoAlhR-RXGQ
KSS, your inbox is full ;)
>So it's like a base cost to move just about any pallet from point A to point B. Having as much weight on it as possible helps bring down your per pound cost.Quote:
Originally Posted by hills
Yes I THINK this is the case. So in the example above, 400/$220 or 600/$228, if I am going to send the 400 regardless, I might as-well load up as much weight as I can onto the shipment if it is already going to be sent anyway, since it is the (what Im calling) base price, that is the majority of the cost. Like.... if you were shipping a piece of paper, taped onto a pallet it might be like $150 just for the trouble/base price of picking up/shipping the pallet. But if they are already coming and getting the pallet regardless and you are paying the base price, at that point the amount of weight on it only slightly increases the price....
So if I am thinking about it correctly....
400lbs @ $220 = $0.55/lb
600lbs @ $228 = $0.38/lb
This DOESNT mean that you are "giving away" or losing money by shipping items less than $0.38/lb, IF you were intending to ship the pallet either way. You can look at it as the first 400lbs are at $0.55/lb (since you are sending that regardless). And then since it only costs $8 more for 200lbs its only $0.04 for additional pounds over 400..... at least thats what it seemed like to me after having a few beers while packing the stuff. I could be totally wrong and have sent 200lbs of stuff for free, but I dont think that is the case.
Also keep in mind these numbers where just nice round example numbers, not my actually weights/numbers, but the point remains the same, and it did work out to about the same per lbs price as the example
:) fixedQuote:
Originally Posted by matador
....
:P
Not really derailed but maybe a little sidetracked. o:)
We took care of the OP first. He's got plenty of good leads on how to get started.
The shipping stuff might be useful for him later on. It's easy to lose your shirt when you're buying and selling. This is a tight margin business. You really have to mind your operating expenses.