My First Run to the Yard - 50 CRTs

I started in February, and I have scrapped 50 CRTs now. I took my scrap to the yard, and here are my results.

Low Grade Board...162 lbs @ 0.10
#1 Bare Bright...39 lbs @ 3.15
#2 Tubing/Bus Bar...12 lbs @ 2.65
Wire...20 lbs @ 1.00
Sheet Al...38 lbs @ 0.48
Stainless Steel...1 lb @ 0.59

for a total of $210. Thank you Rockaway Recycling. Although its to much work for to little money, but i can't complain its money i didn't have before.

I will now change how I break apart and organize some things with what they told me today. such as...

-they classified the copper from the yokes as this #2. I was separating the nice ones away from the ones i couldn't get the glue off, but they just threw them in together. that will be easier, because it will be that much less cleaning of them.

-the insulated wire...i was cutting the ends off and putting them in their own bucket. they wouldn't even take the cut off ends. they told me to leave them on and i will still get the $1/lb. i lost out on another 10 or 15 lbs just in cutting the ends. also a time saver not having to worry about that.

i didn't take everything such as all the cords (maybe ill strip them), shred and larger stainless steel. the stainless steel that i did bring was the pieces that hold the yoke on the tube. they didn't believe me that it was stainless so they tested it, and in fact it was.

magnets...on their site they take AlNiCo magnets for $1/lb. i found this interesting so i called and asked if it included speaker magnets, sure enough the guy on the phone said yes. though when i got there today they wouldn't take them. he would have to have his boss look at them. ill swing by this week and try again.

I wanna know where in any crt monitor there is #1 bare bright. i think its a typo

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Originally Posted by Dunemaul

I wanna know where in any crt monitor there is #1 bare bright. i think its a typo

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The degaussing cable after being stripped is considered BB as long as it's not the colored stuff.

I haven't broken down any degaussing cables yet. They sit in a garbage can staring at me. The yolks sit in their can and stare at me as well. I can't keep up with the amount if crts I've come across. I know yolks are #2 I assumed the cables were in fact #2 due to the thinness of the strands and the residue left from the tape. That is a question? Until I find a yard that pays 3$ I am not turning any #2 or BB in.

My yard gives me BB on stripped degausing cable too, don't know why and I'm not going to question them on it.

My last load on Fri. paid $.70 for SS, #2 clean- $2.90 and BB- $3.40 lb. Extruded alum-.70

Thats just seems insane, its the same stranded wire i get from everything else. im gonna strip 1 and see what happens but im betting against myself ill only get #2

Only thing i find get called bare bright is the wire that is just a single solid core bigger then a pencil lead.

If this turns out to be true around here im gonna be kicking my own ass all week.

Maybe you could send it boxed to HighVoltage, He buys BB and not too bad prices also.

I'm sure it's just a lack of training on the yard workers here, my understanding is the same as yours - bare and bigger then a pencil lead. Whatever, they hose me on everything else, so I don't mind getting a few extra cents when I can.

anybody got a gauge size for a pencil lead ?

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Originally Posted by Bear

anybody got a gauge size for a pencil lead ?

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Seems I've heard 16 ga is about right but have not verified.

Dunemaul you are right single strand and thicker than #2 pencile lead is #1 copper. All the yards I use grade copper as #1 or #2 no bb as long as the copper is thicker than pencile lead has no sodder or heavy corrosion it is #1 @3.15 and #2 @3.05 #2 can have glue or strings attached dose not have to be cleaned. I never cut plugs off the cords unless they have gold pins, your cutting off wieght.

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Originally Posted by Bear

anybody got a gauge size for a pencil lead ?

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There's a joke to be made there somewhere...

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Originally Posted by Bear

anybody got a gauge size for a pencil lead ?

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Looking at my combo wire stripper/bolt cutter/stakon tool, it looks like #14 would be pencil lead sized.

50 CRTs at $210 or $4.20 per CRT.

Let’s do some fuzzy math (you might want to double check me for accurancy) if all you did was take the CRT apart, cut the wires off and left everything else, including the copper transformers, Al, etc, on the circuit board, stripped the degaussing cable, took of the yoke and bashed it with a hammer (about 5-10mins worth of work per CRT).

#1 Bare Bright...32 lbs @ 3.15 (meaning you left the transformers and other copper on the circuit board leading you to loose some copper weight)
#2 Tubing/Bus Bar...12 lbs @ 2.65 (I assume this is just the copper from the yoke)
Wire...20 lbs @ 1.00
The rest is circuit board weight approximately 210 lbs @ .10

= $173.60

I think there is a lot to learn about applying the 80/20 rule to scrap. Meaning 80% of your returns will come from only 20% of the work.

My yard is 12 gauge or better for BB.

2.90 #1 2.80#2 here. Best I've found within driving distance is 3.00 for#1 but their #2 is $2.70. I'll keep hoarding. Maybe makin a trip with 500lbs will be worth it.

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Originally Posted by Jeremiah

50 CRTs at $210 or $4.20 per CRT.

Let’s do some fuzzy math (you might want to double check me for accurancy) if all you did was take the CRT apart, cut the wires off and left everything else, including the copper transformers, Al, etc, on the circuit board, stripped the degaussing cable, took of the yoke and bashed it with a hammer (about 5-10mins worth of work per CRT).



#1 Bare Bright...32 lbs @ 3.15 (meaning you left the transformers and other copper on the circuit board leading you to loose some copper weight)
#2 Tubing/Bus Bar...12 lbs @ 2.65 (I assume this is just the copper from the yoke)
Wire...20 lbs @ 1.00
The rest is circuit board weight approximately 210 lbs @ .10

= $173.60

I think there is a lot to learn about applying the 80/20 rule to scrap. Meaning 80% of your returns will come from only 20% of the work.

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I'm not sure it's a good idea to count on getting BB from the degausing cables. In my eyes it just doesn't meet the accepted description. It's great some of us get that rate on it, but I think it's more of a fluke than the rule. I'm also wondering about the original poster's 20 lbs of wire, seems low to me for 50 crts.

I just reread the original post. He says crt's, but no other info. For some reason I had monitors in mind, but his material could have been anything from old 10" tv's to 24" computer monitors. Lots of variations possible here. I know I get way better recovery from big old computer monitors than I do from a tv.

I think the "wire" is just the short pieces of "Insulated" around the tube (excludes the cables and yokes). Just short of a half a pound per tube sounds right.

You're right, I just reread (again) and he said he didn't take in the cords. My bad.

yeah i didn't take the cords since they may be worth stripping.

jeremiah...i do strip the circuit board of copper and aluminum pieces. i also haven't handed all these copper transformers. i break them down as i watch tv with the wife. i can't stand watching tv but for some reason she wants to hang out with me. haha.

the crts have mostly been tvs of all sizes smaller than 32". though i have been getting more monitors as of late.

why does bare bright have to be pencil size? if its bright its bright. couldn't be much variation in copper content going from thin to thick. you can see there is a huge difference comparing it to the yoke copper.

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Originally Posted by jbravo54

why does bare bright have to be pencil size?

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I'm guessing there might be some loss when processing some of the smaller gauges, especially angel hair type stuff.

guess that makes sense. it may burn off instead of melting? possibly, but obviously i am no expert in copper smelting.

unless its copper pipe, I have no guaranty I will get bb for my copper, but I still have 2 buckets just in case. I figure its better to seperate the degausing cable copper from the yoke copper in the begining, instead of digging through a full bucket and trying to seperate it later on (which I have done on occasion and don't want to do again). If the yard wants to dump my two buckets into one bin and give me a single price, well... I guess I will accept it with a plastic smile, because I know for sure they wouldn't do it the other way around if i brought a single bucket and they were prepared to give me two prices.

I bought a mountain of computer monitors and only took 200 so far to process. I also got BB price for the degaussing cables. I estimate over 1000 yet to pick up. I got the whole pile for $100 and he threw in 1000 keyboards.

Well i got my answer the Degaussing cables will only got for #1 copper around here. still good news for me.

What did you do with all that CRT glass?

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Originally Posted by amfine

What did you do with all that CRT glass?

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I am curious about that too as we are heavily regulated here in NJ especially with monitors.
BTW jbravo54 we are 10 minutes from Rockaway Recycling and can match those wire and non ferrous metal prices and given you more for the boards.

What are you guys doing with the crt tubes?