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I'm curious as to how everyone goes about breaking down their e waste. Do you break things down completely then move to the next item? Or do you break an item down, separate the boards and such and put them in a pile to tear down later? Any opinions on which way is most efficient? So far I've been breaking down items and separating them to process later. I'm getting ready to break down a tub of circuit boards, and a bunch of the boxes that are found on power cords.
I go in stages and only do one type of ewaste at a time, remove everything from the towers ,printers or whatever, then clean up, sort plastic and shred and place everything in its designated home. Then move on to other types of ewaste or break down drives or clean boards. I basically want my work area clean before moving on. I don't know about efficiency, but with how my mind works it is what works for me. Plus with most ewaste once you remove shred and plastic you can store large amounts and keep it organized until you have time.
It depends on what scrap. I do try to unload all like servers or what ever on the same pallets and do one type at a time.
I do have the correct of containers in front of the work area and sort boards, plastic and metal as I tear them down. Avoids handling the same material several times.
Hard drives are a little different. They come to me stacked in boxes, in random. They come in different trays so I have try to sort them into piles according to screw type and size, as I work them.
When tearing down the hard drives I do them according to screw type and size
very carefully!
Ewaste - Take out boards an goodies. Find big hammer. Smash non-boards an goodies till it fits in my totes....Ok so seriously I just toss the rest to the side, an move on. I will use the hammer on things that get annoying or for payback on things that were difficult. (looking at you cable boxes an your thousand tiny little security screws!)
Harddrives, CD/DVD roms, all get group together. I seperate the HDs by company an size. If over a certain size I set to the side to find out if any good, if not..Its broken down with items similar to it. Seagate IDE with Seagate IDE, WD Sata with WD sata, etc. I spend more time seperating into piles then I do in breakdown..ha ha. OCD can be fun. I also keep all my containers for that break down near by, or under my work space, so I can brush the screws, small pieces etc into it. Later I go through it with my handy dandy computer magnet screw finder! Pluck out all the magnetic an into it's own bucket it goes. My board boxes, wire buckets, totes, etc are all near by for easy tossing or placing.
Shred pile crap = Throw in the to be beaten down to a smaller size pile, for days when I'm bored or need to bleed of stress. This pile is also popular with friends who stop by who are having a bad day. ;)
I do more, but that's the short end of it. I like breaking things down that are of similar nature. If I got a stack of Cable/Sat boxes, and three house phones, I'll do the boxes first, an get them out of the way. then the next group eventually I'll get to the phones, or I'll let the stack grow more, depends on my mood by the time I hit them.
YMMV, an it should. There is no right or wrong way to break things down. Long as your maximizing your time, an the money your making.
Sirscrapalot - I eat baby bears for breakfast. Rwarr!
All parts have their own bins or tubs. Towers get taken apart and after all are disassembled we go back to what has to get processed further. Cut wire off of power supplies, remove fans off of heat sinks, excess steel or al from finger cards. Steel, batts and al from mobo's, drives get done last since these have multple bins for what comes out of them. Keep a bucket nearby to sweep all the screws into.
Best advice is to have your bins close by so you can toss the parts where they belong. Its easier to further process items that are in their own bins instead of fishing through a big mass of parts.
Not all Ewaste are created equal, that means some will get more attention than others. Some are not worth the time it takes to break them down. So it's a game time decision and an experience call.Quote:
Originally Posted by Chrissm14
For my computers, I save things like these in their own bin for further breakdown. Usually for a rainy day when I am all caught up on the bulky items that take up space. When organized, These items don't take up much space. It can be monotonous, but It is always faster when you break down a pile of the same item. Repetition = Efficiency.
My down time to do list:
Hard drives (pull board)
Cd drives (pull board)
finger cards (trim gold, clean)
Power supplys (break down)
Copper Al heatsinks (separate)
Ribbon cable (trim gold ends)
to do pile
any final product gets removed separated as i go wires, metals, boards, ram, cpu.
motors, hd's, power supply's would be examples of items that would be tossed back into the to do pile.
the only problem i have with this method is if i have a slow week end up at the bottom of the pile with a bunch of items that are generally a PITA :-/
winter space dictates bulk must be taken care of first, not so much in the summer.
Alot also has to due with if you are getting material for free or buying. I am about 60/40 buying material so we try to get it in and get it out as fast as possible. Dont want to have a big drop in metals while sitting on material. So even the smaller items get processed as soon as possible
I breakdown into tubs that need to be broken down further.
For example - circuit boards into 1 tub. When full, break off all AL heat sinks (with parts of pins, transistors, and board pieces still attached) and throw in dirty AL bin. When that is full, remove transistors, board fragments and pins.
Rest of circuit boards (minus AL) back into another tub. When full, strip off wires, brass, CU bearing and break off board pieces that have large IC's. CU bearing and board pieces with ICs go into their own tubs.
When CU bearing tub is full, break down ferrite and plastic to remove CU.
When "dirty IC" tub is full, clean off chips.
Like others, I tend to work on "similars" for a day. Makes for more efficient use of time with limited switching of tools. Every day is a little different.
Whatever works best for you is what is best for you. Might want to review this thread http://www.scrapmetalforum.com/day-l...cket-list.html to get some ideas.
my problem persists.......100's of printers and crt's..........the towers are usually processed immediately and the other crap gets put on back burner as I have no local outlet for plastic except county recycle
thanks guys my process is pretty similar to a lot of y'alls. from a $ per hour standpoint I'm prob not making much, some things just fascinate me and I take to long breaking them down lol. I had my first big pick up from a business about a month and a half ago, about 10 tvs, some monitors, 6 pcs, 5 microwaves, 5 printers 3 fax machines, prob 80lbs of various chargers and cables, and a bunch of stereo equipment. I only have 1 microwave, 1 fax machine and 1 printer left to break down. I would have been done sooner but I took breaks to do other things like break down a tub full of boards, and also test/list items on eBay.
Anyone else rarely use a hammer and smash things? I have a porter cable impact driver so it makes pretty short work of most screws. Most of the time I'm breaking things down is when my fiancee or son is sleeping, and smashing things makes a little too much noise in my basement. Plus I can't stand the mess when plastic flies everywhere lol.
I don't use a hammer. If I can't unscrew it, I'll generally cut around the screw. I don't like a bunch of broken pieces around. I just have too much stuff to be broken down to start having broken stuff everywhere to clean up. Besides, I've found a grinder or Sawzall takes less time than a hammer.
Knowing where to hits stops some of the excess cleanup. I aim for the screws or around them if busting into stuff. Some of that plastic is tough, so you'll break it it but not in pieces. I've found one can do a lot with just a chisel an a hammer. lol.
One day I'l have a bunch of tools, then I'll be bored. ;)
Sirscrapalot - Fun thread!
Erewen, I like your system. Efficient and clean.
I really enjoy busting into plastic with my hammer, mallet, and prybar. Very satisfying to destroy a thing after the screws give me trouble. :)Quote:
Originally Posted by Chrissm14
lol - I don't know so much about "clean". I like to take advantage of the simplicity of using a limited number of tools with repetitive motions (bucket tosses) for a day. I do have a tub for "deal with it later" - pieces that each require a different approach for breaking down, and different tools. Interesting sometimes, but slow progress and not really the best return on time investment.
How does your "teardown" process go?
FAST! zoommmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm
heck yeahQuote:
Originally Posted by Sirscrapalot
Hammer first ask questions later... usually "wonder what that was?"
i attacked a large epson printer with a hammer last night and still have ink spots all over my arms and a few on my face lol...i took out the ink cartridges but this one had stainless steel tubing that carried the ink to the printhead, and these flung ink everywhere haha
Yeah, printer breakdowns are messy. And possibly toxic to breathe? I still like the breaking process!
I used to break down a pile into smaller piles for further breaking down, sometimes ending up with 5 smaller piles, but have come to realize that doing that just makes more piles that take up more space than the original first pile! Whew ... I break down each completely and sort accordingly in the process. Also helps to break up the monotony.
I usually put similar items onto a pallet when unloading (Example if I have 30 of the same towers, they go on their own pallet), all printers go on one pallet etc. Breaking down the same kind of towers or other items in a row is more efficient.
When breaking down, I try to get rid of the bulk material (shred) first. With a desktop/tower, I pull most wires first, put into wire bin, no more handling needed. Power supplies go into a gaylord, again no more handling needed, take to scrap yard when completely full. I clean the boards right away (remove Al heatsink and battery) and all go into a gaylord. Depending on where I sell, I may sell as mixed boards in the gaylord, or I may sort once it is full. CPU's, RAM go into their own boxes. CPU's I sort further at the end of the day. Pull boards from the CD drives right away, and put the leftovers into the empty tower cases (takes less room). I don't tear down hard drives, they go into their own bin. I stack the empty cases close to the shop door, so easy to load on the truck. Take to the scrap yard when I have a full truckload. I don't break down CRT monitors, not worth my time. With printers, pull toner, remove easy to see screws if comes apart great, if not smash with hammer. Pull boards, remains go as shred. I always clean up at the end of the day, sweep the floor, put away the tools, etc. Mixed boxes of parts are usually sorted/cleaned last, Al/Cu heatsinks are separated when I have a large box full.
I've had more than a few PMs asking about how we (I) operate.
Alright so lets get started. Breakdown starts at pickup. I have a process by which I mark every tower for contents and type ahead of time. (It's how I price them too)
At the shop (aka living room as some of you know)
Towers are dismantled into PSU, CPU, Motherboard, Memory, Finger Cards, Wires (not the PSU wires), ribbon cable, optical drives, magnetic (HDD/FDD) card readers if equipped. Heatsinks too. Empty tower is then discarded UNLESS it's an aftermarket ATX case like a aluminum thermaltake.
Next laptops are always tested for a good battery, failing that if they are P4 or older they are dismantled (even a refurb battery makes resale not worth the labor and listing effort) Either way with the dropping of XP support imminent only the high end computers of the day will be kept (linux).
Next, Optical drives are dismantled, I don't bother to sort them ahead of time, it's a waste of time. Instead I pull ALL of them for the day and sort out the DVD writers that im reasonably sure still work and recently the few BluRay players ive been coming across. The rest are dismantled for their board. After that they go in the shred.
FDD are next, the board is pulled then liberal use of a flat head screwdriver to yank out the copper wound motor. The rest to the shred (see where I'm going here?)
Now comes the interesting part...the order of precedence as far as TIME is concerned. Because regardless of the rate for labor, you always want to maximize based on end result value.
First HDDs. Break them ALL THE WAY DOWN. I'm a little different than most because I don't sell most boards (the old ones and the nonfunctioning) instead I keep a brand/model and revision catalog and sell them off to companies who recover data. I use an old filing cabinet and standard hanging folders for this purpose.
Next when ALL HDDs have been done I do power supplies. I do these since really, they are more than double the value to strip vs sell around here... When I strip them I remove the heatsinks, ICs, Transistors, chokes, transformers and wire.
After that the gold ends to ribbon cable and so forth are done.
And in no particular order, heatsinks are "cleaned" meaning copper gets heated and knocked off and so on, printers (my arch enemy) are smashed to bits for exercise. I'm sure im missing out on a little bit of this and that (don't forget to strip your low grades for ICs, CU backed Transistors and Ta Caps (And MLCCs but you should educate yourself on what is what) of and HINT HINT Ta Caps are a little bit magnetic.
Once I start on an item I won't stop till it's completely stripped. I hate leaving things unfinished. For the stubborn items I introduce them to a 3lb block splitter, which works wonders.
The process varies depending on the amount of time I currently have and the amount of material currently coming in. The amount of space I have to work with is fairly constant. I really really can have boom or bust times with my incoming material. First I try to cut cords, remove large steel parts, and remove most plastic from items. This usually results in reducing the space needed by 75% while not taking a whole lot of time. Then if I run out of room I determine if I am better turning in my 'breakage' pile without tearing it down further or using that space instead to get more fresh scrap. By doing that first partial teardown I have to make the second decision rarely, thus hopefully bringing max return for my stuff.
You;ve herd the term "Poetry in Motion." For me its "Chaos in motion" lol.Quote:
Originally Posted by NHscrapman
Sirscrapalot - Enjoys a bit of chaos.
Monitors I can wait to do since I take them to Goodwill so those can go in a corner for later.
After a load is emptied from my truck I do an ''initial'' breakdown since I'm usually turning and burning.
I break down towers, electronics etc into outside steel coverings which go into the truck or a bin. I then put boards and/or say VCR mechanics into a bin to be further broken down later with wire going right into the wire bin (as much as I can pull off by hand for the bulk of it) and tower components also into the ''to be done later'' bin.
After the initial breakdown and garbage, plastic etc is cleaned up I then finish the second and final breakdown of the smaller components.
Some items I wait until I have a bucket full of like the Dish ''eyes'' as those are kinda time consuming as well as the aluminum motors from VCR guts. Those things I'd rather just save a bunch of and then break them down.
After I clean the boards I toss the boards into their respective bins and then finish breaking down any little stuff that came off of them like teh aluminum pieces with the little copper thingies on them.
Hey Scrappy, add a little air pressure to that hammer and chisel and it goes even quicker!! I finally bought an industrial grade air hammer and some good chisels and it makes stubborn stuff a thing of the past. If "Brutus" can't break it, about the only option left is the cutting torch. Working over a solid box with some cardboard walls keeps things from flying all over the shop.Quote:
Originally Posted by Sirscrapalot
PS - you will also need a good set of ear protection, preferably with a built in radio.
Enjoy the surf my friend.
I am loving this thread. Thanks everyone for all the details. More, if you got them, pls.
What are dish eyes?Quote:
Originally Posted by newattitude
I believe they are referring to the satellite dish LNB (Low Noise Block) that sits on an arm over the satellite dish.
This is the device that collects the satellite signal
^^Correct. I hate those things lol, zillions of screws.