First adventures in Scrapping...

[Saroro]

Ok. Finished working on my first dryer. Did a complete tear down. Tore everything out down to an empty husk. Quite the learning experience! Now to what I've found out for other newbies.

First, make sure you have good tools. I had a small powered screwdriver. Just a cheap-o generic small hand one from work. Could have used more power, but the small size fit better than my larger 18V drill/driver. Make sure you have a good variety of bits too. Had some phillips, flathead, and 3 sizes of hex head screws. (And there were a lot of screws!)

Second, Dremels can make good grinders when in a pinch. Don't have a grinder yet, but had a Dremel, and figured "what the hey!" Also, one Dremel grinding wheel will do a dryer sized motor. (not much left of it. haha) It's really thin and small, so be strategic in your grinding. It'll go faster and your wheel will last longer.

Third, removing the tumbling wheel was pretty easy, and freed up the rest of the items for removal. Lots of wires, a good size motor (maybe 7-8lbs?) plus a gas pipe with a brass fitting and some sort of non-magnetic regulator?? Anyone know what this is and is made of? looked silver/aluminum in color.

Took maybe 2 hours or so. First time though. I took it kinda slow. Looked everything over. Tons of dryer lint!! Some of it was even charred near the heat chamber. (good thing the guy was getting rid of it!) No money found inside, however, I did find an old flashlight inside! lol Didn't work.

Everything fit well back inside the frame for easy clean up. There was even a large cement block (heavy) that was banded to the removable back plate. Anyone know what to do with it?

Taking it in to the recyclers in the morning to see what I get for the frame. Saving the wires and copper from the motor to start my piles.



All journeys begin with a single step...

[IdahoScrapper]

Leave the block there and scrap it all.

Regulator might be aluminum or stainless. Grind on it. Aluminum won't spark. SS will.

[Destructo_d]

neat thing about dryers is... keep the frame/door assembly and you have a good bin to toss stuff in, if you have room for a couple in your yard... so one for aluminum, another for wire.. and so on and so forth

I only have one as I have access to wooden crates... I used the dryer bin to store circuit boards in... I wait til its full and cash in....

[Saroro]

neat thing about dryers is... keep the frame/door assembly and you have a good bin to toss stuff in, if you have room for a couple in your yard... so one for aluminum, another for wire.. and so on and so forth.

That's a good idea! Wish I could though. I'm using my parents garage as I live in the apartment above. I can't keep a couple dryer husks lying around, so I use buckets and boxes. My goal is to save enough to get out of there. (Keep a goal when you scrap. Something you want to achieve. Helps keep you motivated.)

Free tip! If you want 4 or 5 gallon buckets, check with your local hardware store. Instead of buying the ones for sale, see if you can get the ones they sell the bulk chain out of. The square ones are 4 gal, and the round ones 5 gal. We toss ours when we're done with em here (well, i take them now.)

From the husk of the dryer, and a few odds and ends, had 120lbs of ferrous today. Got $13.07, so like .1089/lb.