A Scrapper's Dream: electrical and non-ferrous

This thread was started for those of us that lack knowledge of e-scrapping, but come across some unusual finds on the farm or in building clean outs. It is pure laziness that motivates the creation of this thread. It is known that we should research previous threads for information before posting a question, but time does not allow it in this case. If you want to cuss me for my lack of research efforts in this regard, so be it. If you have knowledge and a willingness to share, that would be appreciated. If you want to add other questions or insights, that is welcomed as well.

So first question, can anyone tell me what this is? What was it used for and what parts are valuable?

http://i1277.photobucket.com/albums/...ps1e33bb06.jpg

Sorry for the quality of the picture. We do not have electricity in the building and this picture was taken using two pen lights. Have you ever taken a picture holding the camera with your hands, a flashlight in your mouth, and another flashlight held between your knees?

Are there any panels on it? Any type of screen? Light bank? What about a graph, chart type thing?(either circular or cylindrical) The top looks like an old phone bank but I'm more inclined to believe it's something to do with stats of operations, the wires each running to tattletale switches, gauges too maybe, throughout the plant


I lightened it up a bit but it's still fuzzy. I believe it's some type of control panel

imgbox - fast, simple image host

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Originally Posted by Bear

Was there no panels on it? Any type of screen? What about a graph, chart type thing?(either circular or cylindrical) The top looks like an old phone bank but I'm more inclined to believe it's something to do with stats of operations, the wires each running to tattletale switches throughout the building

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This is all that is left. No other evidence we can see with flashlights.

Can you get it out in one piece? Is it one large unit or a bunch of pieces? How is it mounted?


PS you need a camera ; ) I did a thread once titled Photography 101 that might give you some pointers

The top things look like resistor coils. The rest of the items with capacitors on them may be older versions of instrument "transmitters" or "receivers" --I'm not sure of the correct terms--but they would either send signals out to remote control valves or receive signals back from temperature probes, pressure sensors or the like. Usually used low voltage, (24V) and a 4-20 milliamp signal for controls.

I'm buffaloed why the heavy resistor coils would be in the same box with the transmitter stuff. Usually the resistors would be with some power devices, for example, for braking on heavy electric motors.

Any chance of more photos? Is there any sort of nameplate on the panel doors or inside the cabinet doors that might name the cabinet, giving a clue as to its use?

Better get you a headlamp to put on your hard hat!! Way better than holding a light in your hand!!

Jon.

Bear, your thread on photography is well remembered. I am always reluctant to post pictures because of that thread, LOL. Maybe when I retire I will concentrate on photography. Until then it is point and shoot with the camera and the gun.

Saw, a headlamp was available. Just forgot I was wearing it. Anyways a headlamp would not be as fun with three stories of exposure as holding a flashlight with your knees. And FYI I have not worn a hard hat for over thirty years, still wearing my cowboy hat. That will end soon.

Some good decent head lamps out there to go with your cowboy hat....Used to use one when I was working for Amazon(dark in the campground!)LED..was like..10 bucks if that at walmart. Worked awesomely for several years, till I forgot where i put it, an when I found it, it was a in a flooded box. :(

Good for just taking photos, if the other is overkill. Sure their even cheaper these days. Or if ya got a smart phone, the flashlight app, strong but will kill a battery.

Yea, nothing earth shattering..just thoughts. Use at your peril.

Sirscrapalot - Character is power. - Booker T. Washington

Shooting in the dark, here (heh heh!)
The white blocks at the top look like 66 Blocks. Those are telephone or data termination blocks.
The items below that look like individual power supplies. Possibly part of an old telephone system or industrial control.
If you can get some better pictures.... you know the rest.

I think those top things are telephone equipment like mentioned. I've taken a few apart. Take the back/bottom lid off and hit all the grey tabs out from the front. They'll look like aluminum, but are copper with some kind of coating. Went as #2 copper.

Looks to me like some type of old telephone termination equipment.

Are there 2 wires twisted together making a "jumper" from left to right at the top of the photo? If so, then you have found the "cross connect" of the old telephone switching equipment. Typically, at a telephone company switching equipment location, the "cross connect" is called a Main Distribution Frame (MDF). The outside cables would terminate on the vertical side and the switching equipment would terminate on the horizontal side. Jumpers are run to connect a person's phone cable to the switching equipment.

If this is an old key system (internal telephone system), the cables running to each desk phone would terminate one place and the switching equipment would terminate on other blocks. Jumpers would be run to "cross connect" the internal cable runs to the switching equipment.

The bottom of the picture could some old mechanical switching equipment; can't tell from the photo.

Looks Telephone to me too but way to grainy to tell. If you can take closer pics that would help too.

Eric

Everyone has motivated me to be a better photographer with a better camera, light, etc. Never had this problem scrapping farms. So much to learn, so little time. Thank you.

Most any point and shoot will be ok Patriot. An Optical zoom is a key ingredient. Using a photo editor can be almost as much help as the camera itself. I'd be happy to answer any questions on any of it, although I'm not a professional photographer, I've picked up a few things along the way

Try to up the exposure a bit on your camera (if you can). I'm sure that'll help a good bit.

I humbly rest on my laurels

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Originally Posted by spinroch

I humbly rest on my laurels

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Your laurels equate to insight in my book. Good choice for an avatar. The best I could do is a smashed beer can. :)

Hope he remember's his buddy in the purple bag, if he's ever near my sandbar.

An stop taking photos after drinking Patriot! It' does make them less blurry. ;)

Sirscrapalot - Has a collection of Crown bags.

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Originally Posted by Sirscrapalot

Hope he remember's his buddy in the purple bag, if he's ever near my sandbar.

An stop taking photos after drinking Patriot! It' does make them less blurry. ;)

Sirscrapalot - Has a collection of Crown bags.

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Guilty as charged. The camera is going in for intervention treatment on Monday. Thanks for the heads up. And as far as the purple bags, we use them to store our fishing reels in. It is embarrassing to say my purple bags cannot keep up with my fishing reels. I think I will drink to that.

I'll have one for you also sir.

Sure Spin is just proud of himself now. He better have two for each of us. ;)

Sirscrapalot - Can't corrupt those that are already corrupted. :( - Unknown, but the frowny face is mine.

Just an update. We have miles and miles of brass pipe and copper wire. We have already removed two transformer stations with three transformers each. Ferrous metal removed equals about 55 tons.

Spin is now salivating!

There is a demolition foreman and our new lead man. The lead man has been scrapping for 25 years and working for this company most of the time. He started as a laborer and shortly moved up to a burner. We have gone round and round about different issues with the cutting. He finally accepted our method of cutting, story will be posted in A Scrappers Dream: Cutting Torch. The reason he is brought up here is because he has taught me so much about non ferrous. I carry a magnet around all the time while he can identify metal from experience and looking at it. He has shown us gold, silver, platinum, brass, copper, etc. in many of the machines in this facility. The learning curve gets steeper everyday.

He offered to buy all the non ferrous metals at the price we were quoted by the big buyers. Fearing hard feelings among the crew if we sold to him a deal was worked out with the non ferrous buyer. The non ferrous buyer gets all the prepared, and anything he buys that needs scrapped he will sell back to our lead man. Everyone comes out a winner, the lead man gets the goodies, the buyer does not have to hire someone to prepare the motors, and I do not have to worry about the crew. Just a tip to those of you working in a related field that want a creative way to get scrap.

Why not offer the same deal to all the workers?
The chance to make some extra cash at the "end" of the job would be a great motivator!
I feel putting things like this out in the open is a better way to deal with the problem. Having one of the workers find out about this backdoor deal could be worse then making the deal out in the open and not available to others.
You made it very easy for one of the workers to find out by posting this on a public forum where pictures of the job and you are available:(
If it's gonna be backdoor it's gotta be quiet......

Thanks, NHScrap. You make a very good point. Any one willing to research through this forum deserves the same deal. I will not give away one man's business plan, unless is my own. This is a deal I worked out because I was approached by a scrapper. Anyone else on the crew that approaches me will get the same deal. I will tell them who I am selling it to and they will have the right to approach the buyer. If they have a strong work ethic and good values, I will offer to be a reference. If not, they will be on their own. There is plenty of the material to keep everyone happy. My intent was not to make it a back door deal, only to avoid having to play politics while giving others the opportunity to benefit.

Different perspectives are welcomed. That is how we grow.

That's Patriot for you: a good guy in a black hat. :)

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Not in cahoots with the one scrapper, I can respect that!
And so will your workers!

FLimits - A hat is worn to hide this face, not highlight it.

http://i1277.photobucket.com/albums/...psc2e49013.jpg

Thought a few pictures might be in order. Every time we turn around someone is tripping over these. Good problem to have. To give you a perspective of the size, the torch you see is a 21 inch gas axe made by Smith/Miller Torches.

http://i1277.photobucket.com/albums/...ps7e7ba0d0.jpg

These are a couple of electric motors that powered the conveyor belts shown in a picture on the main post. These are about the size of beach balls and will be sent oversees for scrapping. Even our scrapper will not mess with them. We probably have fifty electric motors the size of a pick up box throughout the plant.

As we get light into the building more pictures will be taken. It is so bad, we finally broke down and bought every crew member their own flashlight. Following are pictures of thing a ma jigs and whatchama call its. So far 1/3 of the value of the metal hauled out of the sight is non-ferrous. We have three gophers working on the non ferrous and 13 torches going. The number will double within the next two weeks.

http://i1277.photobucket.com/albums/...ps9e811db6.jpg

Notice the conduit at the ceiling level. Miles and miles of copper wiring.

http://i1277.photobucket.com/albums/...psfa2a47a4.jpg

http://i1277.photobucket.com/albums/...psc2e49013.jpg



http://i1277.photobucket.com/albums/...psb3accc06.jpg

http://i1277.photobucket.com/albums/...ps39f8affa.jpg

There is limited knowledge on this end about the pictures. I know we have gotten copper, brass, silver, gold, and platinum from these and will let the experts chime in with their insights for everyones benefit.

OMG!
Gargantuan copper transformers, copper pipe, brass fittings, copper buss bars, miles o' wire & telephone systems!
Even industrial fuses have value.
I need a towel (I'm drooling)
Keep up the good work & thanks for posting the pics!

Wow, this place really is just miles and miles of metal.

The photos are great, Patriot. Are they at maximum resolution? I'm amazed they're turning out so well, given how dark it must be there. Thanks for taking the time to show them to us.

Another transformer. It seems like they are multiplying like rabbits. Good problem.

http://i1277.photobucket.com/albums/...psb80e1cfd.jpg

Just a few pictures of nonferrous this week. We average eight gay lords sorted every two weeks. A lot more is just sent to the scrap yard because we do not have time to remove and sort. The main focus on this project is reconstruction, not the salvage operation. Deadlines have to be kept so a lot of non-ferrous is not recovered. All types of nonferrous metals have been found and my learning curve continues to expand everyday.

http://i1277.photobucket.com/albums/...psdd5a1c7a.jpg

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Oh my aching back.....a salute to you, Patriot !!

Curious, where did you get the gold from? Any pics?

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Originally Posted by Longhairboy

Curious, where did you get the gold from? Any pics?

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Sorry I do not have any pictures. We have a life long scrapper that takes care of preparing the nonferrous. He is always upset because someone through away a motor or something because it would take to much time to prepare. He swears he can smell the difference between copper and brass. As far as what metals came from what, I do not know the names of half the stuff we are tearing into. If a magnet does not stick to it, we bring in our nonferrous guy and sometimes he can tell us the equipment we are looking at and sometimes he just shrugs his shoulders and does a little dance because he is so happy.

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Originally Posted by FLimits

Wow, this place really is just miles and miles of metal.

The photos are great, Patriot. Are they at maximum resolution? I'm amazed they're turning out so well, given how dark it must be there. Thanks for taking the time to show them to us.

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Sorry for the late response. Nothing fancy about the pictures. They are taken with a smart phone and not doctored at all. We are getting more and more light into the building by running wire or breaking windows. We will regret breaking the windows when winter arrives.

We subcontracted the metal in the turbine room to a large demolition company. Wanted to share some pictures that made my mouth water and tears come to my eyes. The first picture is one of two turbines.

http://i1277.photobucket.com/albums/...ps278223aa.jpg

These are pictures as they are being dismantled.

http://i1277.photobucket.com/albums/...pscd2cbb8e.jpg

http://i1277.photobucket.com/albums/...ps06cd854f.jpg

Coils that are aluminum faced, copper and brass. Each coil is 10 ft. tall, 2 in. diameter, and eighteen in each pack. There are four packs and the estimated weight is about one ton each.

http://i1277.photobucket.com/albums/...psb4f0e381.jpg

http://i1277.photobucket.com/albums/...pscee3f310.jpg

This is the core of the turbine, 80% brass and according to the foreman over 20 tons.

http://i1277.photobucket.com/albums/...ps0dd1ef3d.jpg

The hub the core was pulled out of is brass coils 3 in. wide, half in. thick, winding the whole length of the turbine.

http://i1277.photobucket.com/albums/...ps39aa3671.jpg

There is a labor intensive technique to access the non ferrous in the turbines that has been learned as they progress. This company specializes in scrapping turbines and have shared a lot of their secrets with us. Good contacts to have.

My GAWD... I have no words.. can't speak.. my mouth is hanging too widely open!
Thanks Patriot! Awesome stuff!

scrapper porn