"What I learned Today" A thread.

This is a thread on which I am going to try (TRY) to document my findings and education through doing (And what I find here) each day im able to do SOMETHING scrapping related. I wont always be able to do it every day, im aiming for at least one time a week.

Reasons:

1) To get input from the veterans so I can save time in the future.
2) To educate people on what I find in my own adventures starting from day one. Maybe it ends up one of those threads filled with smarts in it! :D
3) To keep my own sanity.

So lets start with today:

Found 2 carpet vacuums on the curb right across the street.

Got em home, beat the hell out of them, got some wire, and the motors (Forgot to get wire from inside the handle but got the power coards)
STarted taking apart the engine and OH WHAT A MESS. And time consuming.
Time for me to get real technical with yall,
I yanked the spinny thing out of the square thing and took to trying to get the copper from it
Square thing? Pain in the ass, so got out the saws all and right down the center. Turns out, its copper colored aluminum (Silver inside) So that sucks. Dunno what to do with that metal, where to toss it. Maybe smelt it? I dunno. I know people dont like ingots for scrap selling but I am doing this for fun and smelting ingots looks like fun too. (And sell on ebay maybe.) But if its copper coated aluminum how would that work?

So got the spinny thing, its copper in there but no idea how to get it out, I spent a hour trying to find a way to get at it, no luck, kinda frustrated, but I got some ideas tomarrow, maybe angle grinder or something.

Made a hell of a mess.

This might help:

http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-I4qci8Wncq...ic+parts+2.JPG
The two main things to be interested in are the stator ( the stationary part ) and the rotor ( that part rotates ).

It's easy to get the copper out of the stator.

The rotors, if they have copper windings, are hard to do. There's really no good method that i'm aware of.

Some motors have copper windings. Some motors have aluminum windings.

You're better off to sell the ones with aluminum windings as "electric motors" at the scrap yard.

I learned after taking one vacuum apart that I would be cutting the cord and selling the rest whole as shred

Vacuums are definitely one of the least worth it things to take apart.... but youll learn whats is and isnt worth it with time and experience. I took apart a few before agreeing that it 100% was not worth taking apart. 100% just cut the cord and send the rest to shred.... they do got long cords tho... so I do always grab them.

Your time is money and you are wasting money touching a vacuum cleaner for anything more than shred.

This will help for sure! Thank you so much. No updates for the weekend (Busy time at the game store :D) but I think Ill go this route, Motor takes 30 seconds to get to and at .17-.22 a pound out here, its a quick buck. Sweep the rest into the plastic (except coard) and move on.

Was there anything wrong with the vacuums? Many things get thrown away because a NEW one was purchased.

I just cut the cord and be on my way. Vacs in the shred pile is for little league scrappers. I look at them the same as crt's. to little copper for so much waste. But then thats my way of doing things.

Haven't done any vacuum motors yet.

I dunno ... it's hit or miss with the smaller motors that come out of fans and pumps. They aren't too much trouble if you've developed efficient breakdown methods. Sometimes they're a PITA. I guess the trick is to eventually learn which ones are worth doing and which ones aren't. In general ... they seem to yield between 1/3 and 3/4 of a pound of copper.

It's something to do if are into copper. It eventually adds up.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by jimicrk

Was there anything wrong with the vacuums? Many things get thrown away because a NEW one was purchased.

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Yeah ... i've run into a couple of high end ones where the only thing wrong was that the hose was plugged. The rich folks are smart about some things and not so smart about other things.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by greytruck

I just cut the cord and be on my way. Vacs in the shred pile is for little league scrappers. I look at them the same as crt's. to little copper for so much waste. But then thats my way of doing things.

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Ive came across some working dysons that Ive sold for $30/ea.... but I agree with this too..... Im still little league tho lol... so when Im out driving, I take what I can get. but I am mostly shifting into e-waste now, haven't been to curbco in a few weeks.... spending too much time with e-waste and resale of ewaste... but the cords are worth about a dollar so if im already out and looking for stuff, and its there, ill take it, but def not going out my way for one thats for sure.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by hills

The rich folks are smart about some things and not so smart about other things.

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And thank the Doot Gods for that!!

(My wife calls scrapping "doot" ... long story. Basically it started with her sounding out the Sanford & Son theme song when I came home with a fistful of dollars: "Doot & Doo-Doot" and went from there. It's my ringtone on her phone now.

https://youtu.be/XsE9aglVu4U

Quote:

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Originally Posted by kss

Ive came across some working dysons that Ive sold for $30/ea.... but I agree with this too..... Im still little league tho lol... so when Im out driving, I take what I can get. but I am mostly shifting into e-waste now, haven't been to curbco in a few weeks.... spending too much time with e-waste and resale of ewaste... but the cords are worth about a dollar so if im already out and looking for stuff, and its there, ill take it, but def not going out my way for one thats for sure.

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Yeah, stick with the ewaste, at least the by product of ewaste is the steel cases. Not like vac's, the by product is worthless plastic that you end up wasting time messing with just to throw the plastic away. I always say i dont want to waste my time taking plastic apart and filling up my garbage cans, but thats a whole nother story. The more scrap you get, the more trash is left over from breakdowns... Plus too much skusting factors with vacs. from the filth, bugs, and cat piss stench from some, ive seen enough horror stories back in the day for a .10 motor. Cut the cord and ... "On to the next, Where ever that might be."

E-Waste can yield plastic in large volumes too ;)

The thing about E-Waste is that when you hit something really good, it's really good. You can make good money on some of the items you run across. Some things, like CPUs and RAM, aren't even that rare to find

I used to remove motor but if you can get paid for the plastic with the shred I stopped breaking them down. Cut cord add to shred even with the dirt cup or bag full lol.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by auminer

And thank the Doot Gods for that!!

(My wife calls scrapping "doot" ... long story. Basically it started with her sounding out the Sanford & Son theme song when I came home with a fistful of dollars: "Doot & Doo-Doot" and went from there. It's my ringtone on her phone now.

https://youtu.be/XsE9aglVu4U

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That's my ringtone as well. Lol

I cut the cords and run my reciprocating saw to get to the motor. My yard wont take the plastic housing for any vacuum.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by matador

E-Waste can yield plastic in large volumes too ;)

The thing about E-Waste is that when you hit something really good, it's really good. You can make good money on some of the items you run across. Some things, like CPUs and RAM, aren't even that rare to find

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Indeed! You can make a fortune of it too if you are knowlegable.

I just picked up a vacuum cleaner walking home down the alley. It's a Kirby Avalir. Aluminum housing, reusable bag. Looks to be commercial grade like they use in hotels and casinos. Only problem is the cord is severed in two places. Easy fix. Another thing about vacs, they suck up gemstones that are lost from jewelry. Could be interesting panning out vacuum bags. Also they're expensive new, especially the good ones. Most of the ones at CurbCo are easy cheap fixers. Others are good for parts. Everybody wants a good vacuum cleaner. They make good quick flips for like $20-25 after fixing simple problems.

The Aluminium Tellus vacuums have a faithfull following & I pick up the hoses and the wheel bases at 2nd hand places when I find them..
Mostly interchangeable parts but the little plastic screw that holds the handle on is a weakness.
Always use the single use filter bag for longevity.
I found my first one nearly 30 years ago & am still using it.