one thing to remember is that many people would consider time spent at home stripping metal is a better deal than going to a workplace, you can have a break when you want and are still there with your family.
You can even do it with your family if they're interested. Me and my girlfriend enjoy picking things up off the curb or out of dumpsters, getting back home and tearing them apart to see what's inside. My daughter(almost 2 years old) likes picking up all the screws and stuff with magnets and helps put plastic bits in a trash bag.
the best thing about scraping metal is that your working at home most the time with your family close by and that time is worth more then all the gold to me.
Correct. I'm working in normal job and in free time I'm scraping electronics from friends and other sources. I'm collecting some parts to sell in the future and rest stuff I keep in my basement. When I will collect 1000kg then recover a gold and others metals.
I volunteer at a local shooting range as a Range Safety Officer. They let me take home brass casings. At 85 cents a pound, I turned in 192 pounds yesterday. $163.00. That is worth it,
@@commonsensekaren6508 there's also a limit to how many times they can be safely reused, so if you don't know if they've already been reused, it's best to toss them.
Combat wounded VET on a fixed income. I have tools, time and nice working space with an S-10 truck. My goal is to collect metal that I can safely handle and buy ounces of silver with the income. I don’t need more income to live but I need a reason to live. Thanks for your videos. I brought home my first extruded aluminum today.
Good idea to buy silver. You can also find it in some of the scrap that you will get. Every electric switch or button will have a silver contact in it. They're small, but it all adds up.
Zinc diecast pay way better than dirty aluminum. I can go through a bucket of molded plug ends in an hour or less. With just a pair of vise grips and a pair of good diagonals. And if you leave a little copper on them they go red brass. Some of us don't have much scrap available, so we learn to scrap everything we can get.
There are two important variables when considering whether scrapping something is worth it - other than the obvious time involved and price available in your area. They are the time an individual has to devote to scrapping (A) and the amount of scrap an individual can access (B). For those of us with virtually no time (A = almost nothing!) and have access to mountains of scrappable stuff (B = lots) - then the answer is, just scrap the absolute gems and nothing else! If the values are the other way around - scrap everything til your heart is content!! 😁
You know if you thought about it you could hire some neighborhood kids guide them along and show him how to scrap a TV or what not and split it with you know maybe you could get a lot more done if you got mountains of s*** ain't doing you no good sitting there
Just want to add that , on the plug ends, I normally just use 2 pair of channel lock pliers. With the tops of the jaws as leverage, I don't need to soften the plugs up before removing the brass. some times the brass breaks off but not often enough to make a significant difference in weight. I hope this helps at least 1 person to save time in recycling.
the secret difference maker with laptops is the fact that in some cases, you can actually re-sell the Windows license that came with the laptop brand new. like 40 for the software license. Also there's a niche demand for "burner laptops" if you know someone who knows someone who does the dark web thing. Alternatively, take a few days to brush up on your A+ computer hardware knowledge and know that any halfway modern, complete laptop is worth $40 to a lot of people if it powers up, runs stable, and has a power cord.
Haha thanks for the mention, plug soup is the future lol easy to pull out all the pins but of course we have 3 nice chunky brass pins but I only boil mine for 10mins in the urn, that's all that is needed in that. I love that you mentioned most of my channel content as stuff you don't bother scrapping 😂🤣 but that is because I have a good board buyer here now in the UK and as you said, it is different depending on circumstances where individuals are, having said that, I have a mountain of laptops to do, they are definitely not my favourites 😆 The ring with copper wrapped round them are toroidal inductors or the large ones (which as a copper adoring woman are my favourites) are toroidal transformers and they contain a lot of copper. If people do the ewaste like me then cherry picking the small ones off of things like power supplies quickly make them mount up, I did that when I was stuck in with Covid. Here in the UK we get a good price for lead at the yard, it is illegal to use lead fishing weights here so no market that way. Fab video 😉
Plug soup.. I love it, saw it on your channel sollers, I've been waiting to give it a go when I have a few more saved up. 😀 Strange how different things are good in different countries.
@@bfg69bug oh good, plug soups away, now an international dish😁, I didn't come up with the original idea though, just the use of the urn for a 10min turn around 😄 but it's nice and quick and easy. Was nice to see Thub giving it a go 🙂 Have a lovely weekend James!
Great video. For me, saving all the plug ends and taking the brass prongs out of them is definitely worth it. The way I strip them: I put them in the vice facing up and extract the prongs with side cutter pliers. Not hard on the wrist, very fast process, and no need to warm them up.
@@thubprint why do you cut the plugs off the #2 wire? I run a scrap yard and have never had any issues with leaving plugs on the shop wire for the 12 years that ive been in business. Also with the laptops you should beable to find somebody paying 2 dollars or more per pound "American dollars" for complete laptops. I think what you should do with your escrap is save up a large ammount than contact a US buyer to come buy it off from you. Where there is nobody buying it in your area that means you have no competition and could really have a monopoly on your local market. If there are no buyers in your area become the buyer in your area.
Fortunately for me, and many others, the situation in the US different when it comes to computer scrap. That said, I agree on laptops. I just sell them as is, not worth my time dealing with all those screws. I did a video on power supplies comparing all the different ways they can be broken down for sales. Bottom line for me - cut the wires and sell as PSU without wire. BUT my yard is happy to take my #2 ICW with plug ends still on, so I save tons of time. It's very interesting to watch these types of videos to compare what works and what doesn't in various regions and for different people. Thanks for sharing.
Your totally right. I quit wasting my time on any with a motor smaller than a box fan. Vacuum can be good but then your left with a mountain of plastics only a pro could separate and recycle to keep out of landfill. Keep scraping folks it just takes a while to find a method that works for you Edit: do call out your buyer. They are allowed a very small percentage of trash to aluminum or brass even and you should be allowed to. To have a good load of aluminum rejected for a few onces of junk is heartbreaking especially when you know they will just mix it in the clean and still get a great price for there's but not yours. It's a rules for thee but not me kinda thing. Stand up to your buyer and they will eventually break. Just don't go full Karen you don't want to lose them completely forcing you to drive to another town and waste more of your time and money
I’ve learned that lesson myself, didn’t realize at first that they have a certain percentage of contaminants they allow in their clean bins. It helps to have several yards to choose between!
I grabbed a vacuum some put at the curb with their trash, tore it apart and made over $100 selling the parts on ebay. .. sometimes i cringe when i see scrappers just binning stuff because they see the $2 in copper but not the actual item that is 50x as valuable. Same thing with conputer power supplies. The conponents inside are worth more than the copper, usually some large caps, high quality fets, ect that will all sell for wayyyy more than scrap value
As a avid scraper I don’t feel that any amount of dismantling of items is a waste of time. Yes some things will take a long time but I enjoy it because I learn from stuff and I enjoy a couple of beers while dismantling. Scraping It’s my hobby not my day to day 9-5 job. It makes some money and I’m fine with that. The Rest of my time I’m busy on the farm.
It's also the sciences of engineering non-reuse or economic unfeasible (until when needed). I see people stripping coated wires to get to the #2 copper projects rather than find a way to roll in like 10 feet and multiples lengths for engineering reuse projects. When an engineering project needs it it will require wirings. It is not to say that cracked and frayed (or aged copper wire coatings) are a reason to never reuse older wiring into new wiring projects but I think some bench tests can support going further with the wires and protection insulation shielding reuse rather than buy new and guaranteed again.
@@VAcreeper I do these a fair bit in Australia. There is little competition in picking them up. You get a bit of wire, the lcd is not worth anything itself, and is hazardous. You wouldn’t do it for the money.
Your presentations in videos are brilliant. Laid back and funny is a great combination. It takes talent to do that. I too am concerned about the environment, recycling and earning a bit of money to live in harmony with the planet. Get prepared for retirement as well because life is paradoxical. There is lots you can do and you can look back at it and it seems more like 400 years sometimes. But old age creeps up fast and it seems like 5 minutes and you can't do the things you could do. Your videos are worth more than scrap gold, especially from the point of view of an old British guy who's life was saved from bleeding to death internally by our NHS. Here's to being alive and kicking. Thanks you have more talent than you realise in your presentations.
I always welcome your perspective. I definitely save the zinc die cast and for a while I was getting a good number of PC power supplies while helping a non-profit dispose of their old computers. For plug ends I just break off the brass blades, but my scrapyard doesn't need the plugs cut off for #2 ICW, so I leave the rest on.
I love scraping. I found scrapping back when I was in a bankruptcy. It really got me through those tough years. I made a lot of relationships with people who would give me metal. The problems started when the prices just fell off the cliff. I’m in Nashville Tn. Honestly with the plugs I cut them off the wire and put them in my steel pile. I don’t really have the space or time to really get into breaking everything down and separating it.
Once again, amazing comments here from folks who are real micro-scrappers! So interesting, many clever ways to get the good stuff out. I always enjoy your 'Time (and Pain) vs. Money' research videos Thub. : )
I agree, the people who share their experiences in the comments are fantastic and I’m so grateful for them. This industry is different all over the place and it’s cool to see where the differences lie
Good video Thub. For me the biggest thing is figuring out what your scrap yard will take vs. how much your time worth to collect/process it. I get $1/kg for ballasts here in Australia. Your yard was 25c/lb, about 55c/kg or there abouts. So I make pretty much double on my balasts. That makes all the difference to whether something is worth picking up or not.. Cheers
I appreciate the video. Like you said this is an opinion piece and I completely respect your choices. As for me I do all my detail detail work while sitting around watching TV at night. I can tear down several laptops during one feature length movie so its not like I'm wasting any time. Same with the plugs. I've found a way that is pretty simple but you are right it can be hard on the wrists. Bottom line if you are spending time on the low end stuff when you could be doing something more productive then yes its a waste of time. If you can multitask though it can add a bit to your bottom line.
thx for the perspective! honestly i spend too much time breaking down anything, so i value the reminder. I too keep my lead, but for a different if not dissimilar reason: I'm teaching myself to flint-knap, and in so doing I also decided to make my own tools, including boppers. picture copper pipe with a cap soldered on the end, then fill it with lead for weight. ✓✓bopper✓✓. i took a little homemade ingot in to my scrapyard, asked the price, and immediately grabbed it out n took it home with me. waaay more valuable in my workshop as material.
Thank you for sharing. It was interesting to hear your thoughts. I only recycle dirty cables. I was going to ask, how does it compare to making videos for TH-cam, but looking at your views, that answers the question. Well done.
You are very correct in that when I have scrapped stuff, it takes only ONE TIME that I injure myself it is clear my health is worth more than $20 or even $200.
Hello Thub. Plug ends,, I clamp them in the bench vice and a pair of sidecutter and pull them out, sometimes the copper strands come with. Those round coils are called Torroidal transformer.
5:00 those ferrite hoops wrapped in copper are call *toroidal transformers.* Great video Thub! Best decision I made was to buy an old used 6x10 covered trailer for my non-ferrous scrap. Holds a surprising amount of scrap, but still it really helps to cut down the number of bins of worthless/low-value scrap taking up valuable space.
Thanks for this video. As a viewer of various channels, things like this is always in the back of my mind. I know that things vary by region and even by different Yards in the same city but I enjoyed your breakdown of what's worth YOUR while and why.
I usually fill up the trash bin and take the kids to the scrap yard just for a trip. Don't really get any money out of it. Copper is the one for me, though. I have a bunch of big plug-ins I'm going to tear up, as soon as I find time for it.😂😂😂
Have to agree with most of them but I do strip all my plug ends. Best to do them as you find them and they are not as bad. Save a huge bucket and it hell on the hands and wrists. Happy Hunting,
Have a 9" side cutter and grab prong close to plug and pry up. Use another pair of slip joint pliers to hold plug. Usually 2 to 5 seconds and it's out with small amount of copper wire.
The ballasts have too much tat like silicon inside to be worth anything but we go through them pretty regularly in our warehouse and the wires are solid strand copper that strips easily with a knife. Just clip the wires off, put the wire in a vice at one end, hood the wire tight with your hand at the other, and swipe your knife down. Usually one pass with a sharp blade will cut the insulation off pretty clean. Then after I’ve got 10 or so wires of good length I put all of them in the vice at one end, and the other ends in my drill chuck and spin them tight until they ball up really tight. So far I’ve got about 5lbs of really clean copper wire. Not great money. But not bad.
I just throw aluminum, cast aluminum, zinc, and lead in the same bucket and they usually give me clean aluminum price for it. I don't scrap plugs or transformer plugs because they give me extension wire price for the wire with plugs. The only electronics I scrap are receivers because there is a large microwave transformer inside that is always copper. I just take computer towers whole and get that price because there is no market for ewaste in my area.
@@thubprint I do most of my scrapping at night where I go due to the amount of traffic in the area, delivery’s and all that good stuff. Hope I make a few bucks on this one. Thanks for the good content man. It’s much better learning from someone with experience and who cares about the world we live in.
Here's how to do power sockets: either use 2 pairs of pliers to pull, one to hold the plastic, the other to pull the prongs, or just use some good cutters to snip the prongs off. You get half the metal but it's very fast and much less wrist strain.
For me personally I said screw it at the transformers and the plugs because I have a lot of wires and I have a bunch of those and I said why not scrap them o tried the method you did in the video with the plugs and it works and I have to admit it is saved me a bunch of time
I also don't bother with aluminum foil, i wouldn't come across enough to bother having another bucket. I do however pull the brass/copper from all plugs - 1 end in the vice and rip them out with pliers. Yes it does wear out the wrist but i tend to do them as i go so i don't gather a bunch to have to do at once. I hate power adapters but i still pull them apart.
When the plug end is in the vise, and using round headed channel locks instead of pliers, grab the spade ends long-wise and “roll” them out. Hard to explain the visual, maybe you can try next time. I do these by hand this bay, the vise would make it way easier though!
@@thubprint finally bought a powered stripper. There was a small learning curve on how to use it but it's so much safer than using a utility knife and half the time. $175 for the powered 150ish for the drill powered.
I try not to use my hammer to smash the transformers, ac adaptors, switches, receptacles and other items with hard plastic cases. It seems easier and less messy to simply put them in my vise if they fit and tighten the vise until they crack apart. Holding your non vise-cranking hand over the object while you tighten the vise will help contain the flying debris.
Very nice video, I agree with some, ehhh on others, but due to location (US). Scrapping is a 100% personal preference endeavor. One person may deal in volume from companies that have a regular dumping cycle, another person may be part time and finding it where they can. Some people may never touch refrigerators or ac units because of the Freon. Other people will take them because they can sell the refrigerant. My scrapping style is part time, and component level. If a board has an inductor or two, a few heat sinks, or other goodies, I will remove everything I know that is of value, and let it pile up. Bigger inductor torroids, I will break the ferrite, and throw the copper windings into a separate bin because of the enamel coating. Pull the steel pins out of the heat sinks, and unwind little inductors and transformers for the copper. Is it a good cash to time ratio? Nope, but for me, it’s therapeutic. I can definitely see Thub’s view of not wasting time or space for items that won’t pay for itself. Some people go beyond the yard. Having a furnace that can melt metal and make ingots, can be sold for more than scrap. Check out the prices for copper ingots on the famous auction site, and compare what the yard pays you for the same weight. I like doing E-Waste myself. I understand the dangers, potential hazards, and proper disposal of every piece of the item, and anything used to process said items. So far, so good and plenty more to go. Again, 100% personal preference.
Yup, I like melting the metals. Then I just collect the ingots, and artwork that I make, and let it pile up in my hoard 😊 (like a dragon😂) I take apart the torroids and small boards too, also mostly in a therapeutic sense, it's very relaxing to scrap and recycle, but I certainly enjoy a big motor more, for the amount of copper. Short tip, those little layered steel transformers you find in some electronics come apart with a grinder, or steel cutting dremel, then you can wrap a few copper windings around something like an Allen key, chuck it up in a drill... and let it rip
I enjoy the e-waste as well. I go for the precious metals gold silver (for inquarting) and platinum. Edit: but ya got to get the electronics for free in my opinion.
About the Lead... Get a melting pot and some sinker molds. Lead goes for .50 cents/lb at the scrap yard, or .75 cents/OZ as fishing sinkers on Ebay which pays triple that of copper and making sinkers is so very easy to do.
Phew, I finally managed to see all of your videos here on your channel! I'm so happy to be a subscriber. If I had a favourite it would be your food tasting one with yourself and Wubb, I roared with laughter on that one!! Thanks for doing your thing.
Thanks so much! I’d love to keep doing some of those but I need to aim for high views.. maybe someday when my average is higher I can play around a bit more 😅
I agree with majority of your list, the plugs you have are very thin brass compared to what we have in the UK. Also the ballasts you have are not good to scrap what we have here are easy to take apart and you end up with a good bit of cooper wire. Soon they will be gone due to LEDs
We have electronic ballasts in the UK too. I don't bother with them, no money in them. The older ones I do take apart for the copper coil. Tip: scratch the ends before taking the hammer to them. Nothing more disappointing than scrapping a ballast only to find it's ally wire!
You need to talk to some of your local computer shops. Not the big box stores. Many of then will have a e-waste buyer that they deal with. The reasons why so many places take e-waste for free is cause they have a buyer for it. They just pallet the stuff up and sell it bulk to a processor that will take them apart so they can move it one to the next round of buyers. I have to drive over 100 miles (160 km) for my nearest buyer. But with a pick up just like yours filled to the top with just laptops. I can net between $2000 to $3500 for the load. They are not bought by the pound. But by the processor type in it. Between $10 to $50. each if it is the later i-7 processor. But again. It is one of those things where you need room to build a stock pile.
I'm in south Florida. Laptops pay about 50 cents a pound whole and video game consoles pay the same as computer towers. Cell phones and digital cameras pay $1.00-$1.20 a pound. Power supply were around 25 cents a pound last time I took some. But you are right, not all scrapyards buy E-scrap. Ballasts I sell whole for about 15 cents a pound.
Pretty fortunate in my area. Yards take power cords with the ends still on them, no need to cut them off. And my E waste place gives .35 per pound for incomplete laptops. Pull the batteries, RAM and hard drive. I stack them on end in milk crates. Oddly enough the Lithium batteries from them are only going for .10 a pound here. Figure with the push towards electric cars they'd want as much lithium coming in as possible. Power supplies take up a lot of space, and get heavy quick. Right now there's an .08 per pound difference between shred and selling them as power supplies. And that's with shred being up. I usually save them. Wall blocks/ transformer plugs get tossed to shred along with any ballasts. I will do gaming consoles and such, get some decent boards from them usually. VCR/DVD and the like I'll pop open just to check. Usually only a couple screws. If I can see any nice IC chips them I'll grab those but otherwise right to the shred. Something I don't save are A/C compressors. Large, unwieldy, and likely to spill oil, they go to the shred. Not worth the hassle for me. Nice vid, good to see what different areas will pay for and how they handle it.
Random question. When you throw items in with steel that have other types of metal in them, does the machine separate the other metals from the steel or does it all just get mixed in together for processing? Always wondered how that worked. I've been tossing the power chord ends in with steel all this time and would hate to think I'm ruining the steel shred with brass.
Mixed loads get sent to a shredder. There are large magnets and eddy currents belt that will separate some of the different metals. It is a really neat process.
When the steel goes to the smelter different material melts at different temps so they are pulled off. Many times that pays for the heating power with the Cu and Al.
Great video! I keep electronic scrap as an investment, I think precious metals are way under priced. If it corrects and goes way up awesome, if not oh well it didn't cost me anything to gamble a little bit.
You can do what every you like and who knows what will happen in the future but i have been around scrapping for almost 50 years and saw several guys hoard stuff back thinking the price would go up or they would have time to clean stuff but it never worked out. I scrap about ever thing from semis to toasters i dont like to stock pile stuff i fill like i lose money the longer i store it.
On the light ballast we freeze them pull them apart wich takes only a few seconds then hit the tar part with a hammer over a trash bin and cut the copper wire off. We get a good amount of clean wire this way. some are aluminum however so be aware. Thanks for the video.
@@paulcoenen7918 It takes minutes to clean one out. You have to play the long game when scraping that's what makes it profitable. Or sell it for shred price whatever works for you.
@@Alex-yv5qw I still don't get it. What is in it that makes it worth carrying to a freezer then back to work bench to smash open with hammer? Gotta be more then 6 inches of copper wire for me to do that for 2 pennies worth of copper. I have never broke one open so I'm not sure.
Hey Thanks for putting your opinion out there; Great Vid! & sometimes it's hard to do this when you know that your going to get some negative feedback from a certain few. And before I forget.. I definitely agree with 98% of what you said!👍😉🇨🇦
Just a thought... this is what I do with laptops. Had to get creative...lol.. just check out computer repair shops... some of them will buy laptops and refurbish them to sell.. there are also refurbished on ebay..
You dont soften up plugs or wires. You put them into barrel with used motor oil for instance, then get it hot enough so PVC just melts off the wires and the plugs, then scoop them out. You can then siphon oil to another barrel, drain the PVC out to get oil off and if you do this with colors, some places are interested to buy the PVC it self to make recycled PVC to mix in with virgin material, so that could be potential way to do it. Just need to make sure there is no contamination from other plastics and depending who you sell it to they might want you to clean it, but that is just soap and water.
try using a vise for the plugs. You could use a blow torch on the prongs to soften them up. I pull the prongs as i prep the wire.....no bin required, just prepped scrap.
I agree 100%, but I'm lucky. I don't need to remove the brass/rubber plugs on my wire. Vacuums cords are always great fine. I did the hammer to the other wire ends/motors once, when I had +100lbs of wire.
Awesome video as usual Thub. Very interesting to see what's worth the time and what's not. With that said I do collect the brass from plug ends however I don't heat kine up I just put them in a vice and they come right out. Here in west virginia the e-waste is a total waste of time so I end up putting most of it in my metal shred.
Where I'm at there is a e waste yard but I've never been there and all ike you said it's a waste of time for most part. I save certain items and put in a container to sell on ebay. Other than that I toss in shred.
It's such a shame there are not the same opportunities across the world, here in the UK I got £1000 for just 171kg of e-waste a couple of weeks ago and computers literally take no more than 5mins to completely tear down🙈🙃
I dont make plug soup to soften them. I hold them in vice grips the pull the prongs out. I don't always get the copper strands out but I get the brass. I dont keep the iron because I don't have enough room to keep it to make enough. My yard is too far away to just bring small loads. Right now, I only keep copper, brass stainless, and cast aluminum.
Fellow Canadian here. I find I get best value for laptops listing lots on kijiji. Trying to scrap them I can't make more than shred. Kijiji always comes through. Some guy fixing up laptops or shipping them out of country.
you are right about small electronics and laptops.i take every ic chip relay 3leg transistors tantalum capacitors and save apart every BGE gold corner chip. tv boxea and dvr coax connectors are the same bras material on the power cords ingeneral itdon`t worth but on rainy days, snow, storms holly days,miceo scrapping is ok while watching tv or listening radio. do not compsre salary in time because if you like ti scrap it`s aldoa hobbie. but every little adds. good video.
Back when i was younger i scrap a lot saved it for 3 years and all most gave the guy a hart attack to. 5 ton of number 1 3 ton of 2 brass 21/2 ton all most 23k . Cans 1 ton 4 pich up loads 400. He told me next time call 5 days before i come in.lol
Those small ferrite rings wound with copper are inductors, an inductor opposes HF signals meaning it passes low frequency audio signals more easily. Good videos btw.
I do it as a hobby, while I'm watching T.V. or listening to a podcast. I find it to be therapeutic.
while watching carol brunett shows? LOL
@@bennylava8717 Good One! 😂
@@bennylava8717❤😢p1q😮
one thing to remember is that many people would consider time spent at home stripping metal is a better deal than going to a workplace, you can have a break when you want and are still there with your family.
You can even do it with your family if they're interested. Me and my girlfriend enjoy picking things up off the curb or out of dumpsters, getting back home and tearing them apart to see what's inside. My daughter(almost 2 years old) likes picking up all the screws and stuff with magnets and helps put plastic bits in a trash bag.
Hard to find a job you can do from home an hour here and hour there.
Yeah recently, I found 3 TV’s and a computer monitor in the trash, and I got some nice electronic components from them
the best thing about scraping metal is that your working at home most the time with your family close by and that time is worth more then all the gold to me.
Correct.
I'm working in normal job and in free time I'm scraping electronics from friends and other sources.
I'm collecting some parts to sell in the future and rest stuff I keep in my basement.
When I will collect 1000kg then recover a gold and others metals.
I volunteer at a local shooting range as a Range Safety Officer. They let me take home brass casings. At 85 cents a pound, I turned in 192 pounds yesterday. $163.00. That is worth it,
Wow other shooters don't pick them up to reload?
A
@@commonsensekaren6508 a lot of them don’t feel it’s worth the time to pick them up reload them, the cost of the supplies to do it to just buy more.
Worth it even more to reload 😎
@@commonsensekaren6508 there's also a limit to how many times they can be safely reused, so if you don't know if they've already been reused, it's best to toss them.
Combat wounded VET on a fixed income. I have tools, time and nice working space with an S-10 truck. My goal is to collect metal that I can safely handle and buy ounces of silver with the income. I don’t need more income to live but I need a reason to live. Thanks for your videos. I brought home my first extruded aluminum today.
you’re a good man
He'll yea! Vet also thanks for your service
I also buy silver
Good idea to buy silver. You can also find it in some of the scrap that you will get. Every electric switch or button will have a silver contact in it. They're small, but it all adds up.
Zinc diecast pay way better than dirty aluminum. I can go through a bucket of molded plug ends in an hour or less. With just a pair of vise grips and a pair of good diagonals. And if you leave a little copper on them they go red brass. Some of us don't have much scrap available, so we learn to scrap everything we can get.
There are two important variables when considering whether scrapping something is worth it - other than the obvious time involved and price available in your area. They are the time an individual has to devote to scrapping (A) and the amount of scrap an individual can access (B). For those of us with virtually no time (A = almost nothing!) and have access to mountains of scrappable stuff (B = lots) - then the answer is, just scrap the absolute gems and nothing else! If the values are the other way around - scrap everything til your heart is content!! 😁
Yeah, this is how i felt back when i did it
I had 2 hours to spare per day and I could really use one of them for sleep
You know if you thought about it you could hire some neighborhood kids guide them along and show him how to scrap a TV or what not and split it with you know maybe you could get a lot more done if you got mountains of s*** ain't doing you no good sitting there
Scrapping is the best for us that are retired .
Just want to add that , on the plug ends, I normally just use 2 pair of channel lock pliers. With the tops of the jaws as leverage, I don't need to soften the plugs up before removing the brass. some times the brass breaks off but not often enough to make a significant difference in weight. I hope this helps at least 1 person to save time in recycling.
same.
I don't mess with them, they are 50 cents a pound as is.
@@TheMurfed yea but brass is $3/lb
What planet do you live on? A doller a kilo for plug ends? I get 10 cents@@TheMurfed
Brass is $4 CAD it adds up Buy a vise for the cord ends, seriously
the secret difference maker with laptops is the fact that in some cases, you can actually re-sell the Windows license that came with the laptop brand new. like 40 for the software license. Also there's a niche demand for "burner laptops" if you know someone who knows someone who does the dark web thing. Alternatively, take a few days to brush up on your A+ computer hardware knowledge and know that any halfway modern, complete laptop is worth $40 to a lot of people if it powers up, runs stable, and has a power cord.
Haha thanks for the mention, plug soup is the future lol easy to pull out all the pins but of course we have 3 nice chunky brass pins but I only boil mine for 10mins in the urn, that's all that is needed in that. I love that you mentioned most of my channel content as stuff you don't bother scrapping 😂🤣 but that is because I have a good board buyer here now in the UK and as you said, it is different depending on circumstances where individuals are, having said that, I have a mountain of laptops to do, they are definitely not my favourites 😆 The ring with copper wrapped round them are toroidal inductors or the large ones (which as a copper adoring woman are my favourites) are toroidal transformers and they contain a lot of copper. If people do the ewaste like me then cherry picking the small ones off of things like power supplies quickly make them mount up, I did that when I was stuck in with Covid. Here in the UK we get a good price for lead at the yard, it is illegal to use lead fishing weights here so no market that way. Fab video 😉
Mention off thub = made it 😁👍
@@its_marc lol 🙂 Hi Marc!
What do you do with your pthalate-cancer-soup after? Pour it down the drain?
Plug soup.. I love it, saw it on your channel sollers, I've been waiting to give it a go when I have a few more saved up. 😀
Strange how different things are good in different countries.
@@bfg69bug oh good, plug soups away, now an international dish😁, I didn't come up with the original idea though, just the use of the urn for a 10min turn around 😄 but it's nice and quick and easy. Was nice to see Thub giving it a go 🙂 Have a lovely weekend James!
Great video. For me, saving all the plug ends and taking the brass prongs out of them is definitely worth it. The way I strip them: I put them in the vice facing up and extract the prongs with side cutter pliers. Not hard on the wrist, very fast process, and no need to warm them up.
Huh, not sure why I struggled so much? Well glad you’ve got a good system 😄
@@thubprint why do you cut the plugs off the #2 wire? I run a scrap yard and have never had any issues with leaving plugs on the shop wire for the 12 years that ive been in business. Also with the laptops you should beable to find somebody paying 2 dollars or more per pound "American dollars" for complete laptops. I think what you should do with your escrap is save up a large ammount than contact a US buyer to come buy it off from you. Where there is nobody buying it in your area that means you have no competition and could really have a monopoly on your local market. If there are no buyers in your area become the buyer in your area.
Fortunately for me, and many others, the situation in the US different when it comes to computer scrap. That said, I agree on laptops. I just sell them as is, not worth my time dealing with all those screws. I did a video on power supplies comparing all the different ways they can be broken down for sales. Bottom line for me - cut the wires and sell as PSU without wire. BUT my yard is happy to take my #2 ICW with plug ends still on, so I save tons of time. It's very interesting to watch these types of videos to compare what works and what doesn't in various regions and for different people. Thanks for sharing.
I agree..
@@darthtrolleus1947 🤣🤣
Your totally right. I quit wasting my time on any with a motor smaller than a box fan. Vacuum can be good but then your left with a mountain of plastics only a pro could separate and recycle to keep out of landfill. Keep scraping folks it just takes a while to find a method that works for you
Edit: do call out your buyer. They are allowed a very small percentage of trash to aluminum or brass even and you should be allowed to. To have a good load of aluminum rejected for a few onces of junk is heartbreaking especially when you know they will just mix it in the clean and still get a great price for there's but not yours. It's a rules for thee but not me kinda thing. Stand up to your buyer and they will eventually break. Just don't go full Karen you don't want to lose them completely forcing you to drive to another town and waste more of your time and money
I’ve learned that lesson myself, didn’t realize at first that they have a certain percentage of contaminants they allow in their clean bins. It helps to have several yards to choose between!
I grabbed a vacuum some put at the curb with their trash, tore it apart and made over $100 selling the parts on ebay. .. sometimes i cringe when i see scrappers just binning stuff because they see the $2 in copper but not the actual item that is 50x as valuable.
Same thing with conputer power supplies. The conponents inside are worth more than the copper, usually some large caps, high quality fets, ect that will all sell for wayyyy more than scrap value
I'm just starting out. helpful hints, thanks. I'm in the Vancouver BC area.
As a avid scraper I don’t feel that any amount of dismantling of items is a waste of time. Yes some things will take a long time but I enjoy it because I learn from stuff and I enjoy a couple of beers while dismantling. Scraping It’s my hobby not my day to day 9-5 job. It makes some money and I’m fine with that. The Rest of my time I’m busy on the farm.
What are your thoughts on breaking down flat screens TV’s?
@@VAcreeper replying because I’d like to know too I have 3 broken ones in my attic
It's also the sciences of engineering non-reuse or economic unfeasible (until when needed). I see people stripping coated wires to get to the #2 copper projects rather than find a way to roll in like 10 feet and multiples lengths for engineering reuse projects. When an engineering project needs it it will require wirings. It is not to say that cracked and frayed (or aged copper wire coatings) are a reason to never reuse older wiring into new wiring projects but I think some bench tests can support going further with the wires and protection insulation shielding reuse rather than buy new and guaranteed again.
@@VAcreeper I do these a fair bit in Australia. There is little competition in picking them up. You get a bit of wire, the lcd is not worth anything itself, and is hazardous. You wouldn’t do it for the money.
@@marcoparigi that’s what i figured
I appreciate your feedback
Thx
Your presentations in videos are brilliant. Laid back and funny is a great combination. It takes talent to do that. I too am concerned about the environment, recycling and earning a bit of money to live in harmony with the planet. Get prepared for retirement as well because life is paradoxical. There is lots you can do and you can look back at it and it seems more like 400 years sometimes. But old age creeps up fast and it seems like 5 minutes and you can't do the things you could do. Your videos are worth more than scrap gold, especially from the point of view of an old British guy who's life was saved from bleeding to death internally by our NHS. Here's to being alive and kicking. Thanks you have more talent than you realise in your presentations.
I always welcome your perspective. I definitely save the zinc die cast and for a while I was getting a good number of PC power supplies while helping a non-profit dispose of their old computers. For plug ends I just break off the brass blades, but my scrapyard doesn't need the plugs cut off for #2 ICW, so I leave the rest on.
I love scraping. I found scrapping back when I was in a bankruptcy. It really got me through those tough years. I made a lot of relationships with people who would give me metal. The problems started when the prices just fell off the cliff. I’m in Nashville Tn. Honestly with the plugs I cut them off the wire and put them in my steel pile. I don’t really have the space or time to really get into breaking everything down and separating it.
Good that you still recycle in some way putting in the steel pile. 👍🏻
Once again, amazing comments here from folks who are real micro-scrappers! So interesting, many clever ways to get the good stuff out. I always enjoy your 'Time (and Pain) vs. Money' research videos Thub. : )
I agree, the people who share their experiences in the comments are fantastic and I’m so grateful for them. This industry is different all over the place and it’s cool to see where the differences lie
If you are scrapping, best thing to do is hoard it until the prices are high and clean sort and reclean everything, cleaner it is the more you make..
I'm in Australia and agree 100%, I mainly target home appliances and ac units as they don't disappoint when they go on the scales
Good video Thub.
For me the biggest thing is figuring out what your scrap yard will take vs. how much your time worth to collect/process it.
I get $1/kg for ballasts here in Australia. Your yard was 25c/lb, about 55c/kg or there abouts.
So I make pretty much double on my balasts.
That makes all the difference to whether something is worth picking up or not..
Cheers
Dude,you are so well spoken and have a soft pleasant voice.
Thub, buddy, pal. Don't let the little stuff pile up. Clean them and save the small pieces as get them. Your wrists will thank you.
Iron 15 cents # #2 dropcoard $1.25 #1 Romex $.195 extruded/ cast aluminum 45 cents. Lead 50 cents. Copper #2 $2.95 Copper#1 $3.95 Dec 1 2022 St louis Metal.
I appreciate the video. Like you said this is an opinion piece and I completely respect your choices. As for me I do all my detail detail work while sitting around watching TV at night. I can tear down several laptops during one feature length movie so its not like I'm wasting any time. Same with the plugs. I've found a way that is pretty simple but you are right it can be hard on the wrists.
Bottom line if you are spending time on the low end stuff when you could be doing something more productive then yes its a waste of time. If you can multitask though it can add a bit to your bottom line.
thx for the perspective! honestly i spend too much time breaking down anything, so i value the reminder. I too keep my lead, but for a different if not dissimilar reason: I'm teaching myself to flint-knap, and in so doing I also decided to make my own tools, including boppers. picture copper pipe with a cap soldered on the end, then fill it with lead for weight. ✓✓bopper✓✓. i took a little homemade ingot in to my scrapyard, asked the price, and immediately grabbed it out n took it home with me. waaay more valuable in my workshop as material.
You are so right
Thank you for sharing. It was interesting to hear your thoughts. I only recycle dirty cables. I was going to ask, how does it compare to making videos for TH-cam, but looking at your views, that answers the question. Well done.
Most landfills pull out the scrap. Especially big stuff. Last time I went to the dump their scrap pile was bigger than the one at my local scrap yard.
You are very correct in that when I have scrapped stuff, it takes only ONE TIME that I injure myself it is clear my health is worth more than $20 or even $200.
Hello Thub.
Plug ends,, I clamp them in the bench vice and a pair of sidecutter and pull them out, sometimes the copper strands come with.
Those round coils are called Torroidal transformer.
5:00 those ferrite hoops wrapped in copper are call *toroidal transformers.* Great video Thub! Best decision I made was to buy an old used 6x10 covered trailer for my non-ferrous scrap. Holds a surprising amount of scrap, but still it really helps to cut down the number of bins of worthless/low-value scrap taking up valuable space.
That wire isn’t always solid copper… I have 4 10lb spools of toroid wire that is copper plated.
They are inductors commonly called chokes, less of a mouth full but same thing
Thanks for this video. As a viewer of various channels, things like this is always in the back of my mind.
I know that things vary by region and even by different Yards in the same city but I enjoyed your breakdown of what's worth YOUR while and why.
I like your video very much basically Iam in coal mining but more interested in doing similar like you.
I usually fill up the trash bin and take the kids to the scrap yard just for a trip. Don't really get any money out of it. Copper is the one for me, though. I have a bunch of big plug-ins I'm going to tear up, as soon as I find time for it.😂😂😂
Thanks for the tip on Led. I've got a lot.
Dillon Scrap Metal Pickup enjoy watching ur videos learning different things thank u
Btw the name of the channel mentioned is " everyday sollers ", for those who didn't hear.
Love your mojo on living simple and practícal!
Appreciate your videos. Live near Gary Indiana steel Mill town. A lot of scrapping to be had if you're willing to get dirty....
Laptop has battery 18650 cells they you wil collect :)
Lot of projekt to make and you wil love it :)
Much love from norway ❤️
Have to agree with most of them but I do strip all my plug ends. Best to do them as you find them and they are not as bad. Save a huge bucket and it hell on the hands and wrists. Happy Hunting,
Have a 9" side cutter and grab prong close to plug and pry up. Use another pair of slip joint pliers to hold plug. Usually 2 to 5 seconds and it's out with small amount of copper wire.
Thub, for the plugs best you mount a good vice and then leverage them out. Much easier and don't need to spend money for gas
agreed
Completely agree, also if you have kids you can talk them into doing that part, I bribed my kids with pizza, works every time..
@@TheWolfster001 🤣🍕🍕🍕
Also can heat them in water till you can extract with knife
Another essential video that will educated the masses!
By using my vise to hold the plugs, then a good grabbing tool to pull them out is a lot easier on the wrists. Good luck. I enjoy your videos.
My scrap yard buys the plug ends as refinery brass @ .27 lb last time I turned them in. Thanks for the upload
The ballasts have too much tat like silicon inside to be worth anything but we go through them pretty regularly in our warehouse and the wires are solid strand copper that strips easily with a knife. Just clip the wires off, put the wire in a vice at one end, hood the wire tight with your hand at the other, and swipe your knife down. Usually one pass with a sharp blade will cut the insulation off pretty clean. Then after I’ve got 10 or so wires of good length I put all of them in the vice at one end, and the other ends in my drill chuck and spin them tight until they ball up really tight.
So far I’ve got about 5lbs of really clean copper wire. Not great money. But not bad.
Oh I’m with you there, the solid-core wire is super easy to strip
A DIY wire stripper does a great job too.. I over the years made several different manual wire strippers.. Saves you hands a lot of cramping
I just throw aluminum, cast aluminum, zinc, and lead in the same bucket and they usually give me clean aluminum price for it. I don't scrap plugs or transformer plugs because they give me extension wire price for the wire with plugs. The only electronics I scrap are receivers because there is a large microwave transformer inside that is always copper. I just take computer towers whole and get that price because there is no market for ewaste in my area.
Makes sense to me. Gotta check the receivers first though, some of them are worth quite a bit these days
I really appreciate your channel! All the best
Everyday Sollers now internationally recognised! Go Girl 😁✌
You know it Mr Fox☮🦊😜
She is the Knees of the Bees.
@@offwithhishead2556 🐝🧎♀️🥰
@@SollersScrappingandDiving 😁♥
That’s cool man. Thanks for the video. Been getting back at scrapping lately n this just gave me a little more drive to go out n make some free money.
All the best on your scrap hunt!
@@thubprint I do most of my scrapping at night where I go due to the amount of traffic in the area, delivery’s and all that good stuff. Hope I make a few bucks on this one. Thanks for the good content man. It’s much better learning from someone with experience and who cares about the world we live in.
It would be nice to add to this the nine items you would definitely scrap. Interesting video, thank you.
Here's how to do power sockets: either use 2 pairs of pliers to pull, one to hold the plastic, the other to pull the prongs, or just use some good cutters to snip the prongs off. You get half the metal but it's very fast and much less wrist strain.
Learned something today, thanks
Great information
For me personally I said screw it at the transformers and the plugs because I have a lot of wires and I have a bunch of those and I said why not scrap them o tried the method you did in the video with the plugs and it works and I have to admit it is saved me a bunch of time
For the plug ends use a bench vise to save your wrists
I also don't bother with aluminum foil, i wouldn't come across enough to bother having another bucket. I do however pull the brass/copper from all plugs - 1 end in the vice and rip them out with pliers. Yes it does wear out the wrist but i tend to do them as i go so i don't gather a bunch to have to do at once. I hate power adapters but i still pull them apart.
When the plug end is in the vise, and using round headed channel locks instead of pliers, grab the spade ends long-wise and “roll” them out. Hard to explain the visual, maybe you can try next time. I do these by hand this bay, the vise would make it way easier though!
Great video. As a scrapper it's all about how much time I want to put into it and how long I want all that junk piling up.
Exaaaaaactly. Scrappers have to manage their time and space to maximize input/output
@@thubprint finally bought a powered stripper. There was a small learning curve on how to use it but it's so much safer than using a utility knife and half the time. $175 for the powered 150ish for the drill powered.
Amazing video, what I refuse to scrap is ink jet printers there as much fun as going to Costco on a Saturday afternoon won’t do it
Those wires are great hookup wire. The laptop screen make good backup monitor.
I agree with all u said buddy
I do the same thing with computers and electronics. But my yard takes em as shred. Hey 7.5 cents a pound is good enough.
I try not to use my hammer to smash the transformers, ac adaptors, switches, receptacles and other items with hard plastic cases. It seems easier and less messy to simply put them in my vise if they fit and tighten the vise until they crack apart. Holding your non vise-cranking hand over the object while you tighten the vise will help contain the flying debris.
Also, the box wall plugs can have some serious silver buttons. They might or might not but best to look and see before you throw them away.
I've found KEYS ( AUTOMOTIVE & RESIDENTIAL) also empty ammunition cases are a decent source of Brass..
Very nice video, I agree with some, ehhh on others, but due to location (US). Scrapping is a 100% personal preference endeavor. One person may deal in volume from companies that have a regular dumping cycle, another person may be part time and finding it where they can. Some people may never touch refrigerators or ac units because of the Freon. Other people will take them because they can sell the refrigerant.
My scrapping style is part time, and component level. If a board has an inductor or two, a few heat sinks, or other goodies, I will remove everything I know that is of value, and let it pile up. Bigger inductor torroids, I will break the ferrite, and throw the copper windings into a separate bin because of the enamel coating. Pull the steel pins out of the heat sinks, and unwind little inductors and transformers for the copper. Is it a good cash to time ratio? Nope, but for me, it’s therapeutic.
I can definitely see Thub’s view of not wasting time or space for items that won’t pay for itself.
Some people go beyond the yard. Having a furnace that can melt metal and make ingots, can be sold for more than scrap. Check out the prices for copper ingots on the famous auction site, and compare what the yard pays you for the same weight.
I like doing E-Waste myself. I understand the dangers, potential hazards, and proper disposal of every piece of the item, and anything used to process said items. So far, so good and plenty more to go.
Again, 100% personal preference.
Yup, I like melting the metals. Then I just collect the ingots, and artwork that I make, and let it pile up in my hoard 😊 (like a dragon😂)
I take apart the torroids and small boards too, also mostly in a therapeutic sense, it's very relaxing to scrap and recycle, but I certainly enjoy a big motor more, for the amount of copper.
Short tip, those little layered steel transformers you find in some electronics come apart with a grinder, or steel cutting dremel, then you can wrap a few copper windings around something like an Allen key, chuck it up in a drill... and let it rip
I enjoy the e-waste as well. I go for the precious metals gold silver (for inquarting) and platinum.
Edit: but ya got to get the electronics for free in my opinion.
Definitely agree with you about the laptops. I only get paid about $0.05 per pound of laptop.
Great info! Thanks!
About the Lead... Get a melting pot and some sinker molds. Lead goes for .50 cents/lb at the scrap yard, or .75 cents/OZ as fishing sinkers on Ebay which pays triple that of copper and making sinkers is so very easy to do.
great video again on you know the thing and such but i also miss the dumpster searches of old as well
Phew, I finally managed to see all of your videos here on your channel! I'm so happy to be a subscriber. If I had a favourite it would be your food tasting one with yourself and Wubb, I roared with laughter on that one!! Thanks for doing your thing.
Thanks so much! I’d love to keep doing some of those but I need to aim for high views.. maybe someday when my average is higher I can play around a bit more 😅
Yup I’ll give them a miss then. 😂
Thanks for the video. ❤️
I agree with majority of your list, the plugs you have are very thin brass compared to what we have in the UK. Also the ballasts you have are not good to scrap what we have here are easy to take apart and you end up with a good bit of cooper wire. Soon they will be gone due to LEDs
We have electronic ballasts in the UK too. I don't bother with them, no money in them. The older ones I do take apart for the copper coil. Tip: scratch the ends before taking the hammer to them. Nothing more disappointing than scrapping a ballast only to find it's ally wire!
You need to talk to some of your local computer shops. Not the big box stores. Many of then will have a e-waste buyer that they deal with. The reasons why so many places take e-waste for free is cause they have a buyer for it. They just pallet the stuff up and sell it bulk to a processor that will take them apart so they can move it one to the next round of buyers. I have to drive over 100 miles (160 km) for my nearest buyer. But with a pick up just like yours filled to the top with just laptops. I can net between $2000 to $3500 for the load. They are not bought by the pound. But by the processor type in it. Between $10 to $50. each if it is the later i-7 processor. But again. It is one of those things where you need room to build a stock pile.
I'm in south Florida. Laptops pay about 50 cents a pound whole and video game consoles pay the same as computer towers. Cell phones and digital cameras pay $1.00-$1.20 a pound. Power supply were around 25 cents a pound last time I took some. But you are right, not all scrapyards buy E-scrap. Ballasts I sell whole for about 15 cents a pound.
Pretty fortunate in my area. Yards take power cords with the ends still on them, no need to cut them off. And my E waste place gives .35 per pound for incomplete laptops. Pull the batteries, RAM and hard drive. I stack them on end in milk crates. Oddly enough the Lithium batteries from them are only going for .10 a pound here. Figure with the push towards electric cars they'd want as much lithium coming in as possible. Power supplies take up a lot of space, and get heavy quick. Right now there's an .08 per pound difference between shred and selling them as power supplies. And that's with shred being up. I usually save them. Wall blocks/ transformer plugs get tossed to shred along with any ballasts. I will do gaming consoles and such, get some decent boards from them usually. VCR/DVD and the like I'll pop open just to check. Usually only a couple screws. If I can see any nice IC chips them I'll grab those but otherwise right to the shred.
Something I don't save are A/C compressors. Large, unwieldy, and likely to spill oil, they go to the shred. Not worth the hassle for me.
Nice vid, good to see what different areas will pay for and how they handle it.
Random question. When you throw items in with steel that have other types of metal in them, does the machine separate the other metals from the steel or does it all just get mixed in together for processing? Always wondered how that worked. I've been tossing the power chord ends in with steel all this time and would hate to think I'm ruining the steel shred with brass.
Mixed loads get sent to a shredder. There are large magnets and eddy currents belt that will separate some of the different metals. It is a really neat process.
When the steel goes to the smelter different material melts at different temps so they are pulled off. Many times that pays for the heating power with the Cu and Al.
Great video! I keep electronic scrap as an investment, I think precious metals are way under priced. If it corrects and goes way up awesome, if not oh well it didn't cost me anything to gamble a little bit.
You can do what every you like and who knows what will happen in the future but i have been around scrapping for almost 50 years and saw several guys hoard stuff back thinking the price would go up or they would have time to clean stuff but it never worked out. I scrap about ever thing from semis to toasters i dont like to stock pile stuff i fill like i lose money the longer i store it.
I piled up 250kg copper. Only the really dense stuff. Don't think it will get cheaper.
@@leowuli8381 the times we are in now. I have more confidence in the intrinsic value of the metal more than I do dollars.
On the light ballast we freeze them pull them apart wich takes only a few seconds then hit the tar part with a hammer over a trash bin and cut the copper wire off. We get a good amount of clean wire this way. some are aluminum however so be aware. Thanks for the video.
I think I'll give that a try, thanks mate.
I do get it, you do all that for a bit of wire?
What am I missing? 🙂
@@paulcoenen7918 It takes minutes to clean one out. You have to play the long game when scraping that's what makes it profitable. Or sell it for shred price whatever works for you.
I’d never thought to try that! Might have to give it a go 😁
@@Alex-yv5qw
I still don't get it.
What is in it that makes it worth carrying to a freezer then back to work bench to smash open with hammer?
Gotta be more then 6 inches of copper wire for me to do that for 2 pennies worth of copper.
I have never broke one open so I'm not sure.
Hey Thanks for putting your opinion out there; Great Vid! & sometimes it's hard to do this when you know that your going to get some negative feedback from a certain few. And before I forget.. I definitely agree with 98% of what you said!👍😉🇨🇦
I strip all my wire down to 20 gauge. Vise and a 2by4 is a scrappers best friend
Just a thought... this is what I do with laptops. Had to get creative...lol.. just check out computer repair shops... some of them will buy laptops and refurbish them to sell.. there are also refurbished on ebay..
You dont soften up plugs or wires. You put them into barrel with used motor oil for instance, then get it hot enough so PVC just melts off the wires and the plugs, then scoop them out. You can then siphon oil to another barrel, drain the PVC out to get oil off and if you do this with colors, some places are interested to buy the PVC it self to make recycled PVC to mix in with virgin material, so that could be potential way to do it. Just need to make sure there is no contamination from other plastics and depending who you sell it to they might want you to clean it, but that is just soap and water.
Good info
try using a vise for the plugs. You could use a blow torch on the prongs to soften them up. I pull the prongs as i prep the wire.....no bin required, just prepped scrap.
I agree 100%, but I'm lucky. I don't need to remove the brass/rubber plugs on my wire. Vacuums cords are always great fine. I did the hammer to the other wire ends/motors once, when I had +100lbs of wire.
Awesome video as usual Thub. Very interesting to see what's worth the time and what's not. With that said I do collect the brass from plug ends however I don't heat kine up I just put them in a vice and they come right out. Here in west virginia the e-waste is a total waste of time so I end up putting most of it in my metal shred.
I scrap plug ends the same way. If very easy I think. But everything can be cleaned in a fast amount of time with a little thought and knowledge
Where I'm at there is a e waste yard but I've never been there and all ike you said it's a waste of time for most part. I save certain items and put in a container to sell on ebay. Other than that I toss in shred.
It's such a shame there are not the same opportunities across the world, here in the UK I got £1000 for just 171kg of e-waste a couple of weeks ago and computers literally take no more than 5mins to completely tear down🙈🙃
That’s such a good turnout! Not hard to see why people like Ewaste with results like that 👍
@@thubprint exactly, shame it isn't like that world over, so much more would be recycled I'm sure👍
I dont make plug soup to soften them. I hold them in vice grips the pull the prongs out. I don't always get the copper strands out but I get the brass.
I dont keep the iron because I don't have enough room to keep it to make enough. My yard is too far away to just bring small loads. Right now, I only keep copper, brass stainless, and cast aluminum.
I am in the states in IL and where I am at my scrap yards dont take ballast they stay in the lights for added weight (scrap yard worker told me that)
Fellow Canadian here. I find I get best value for laptops listing lots on kijiji. Trying to scrap them I can't make more than shred. Kijiji always comes through. Some guy fixing up laptops or shipping them out of country.
you are right about small electronics and laptops.i take every ic chip relay 3leg transistors tantalum capacitors and save apart every BGE gold corner chip. tv boxea and dvr coax connectors are the same bras material on the power cords ingeneral itdon`t worth but on rainy days, snow, storms holly days,miceo scrapping is ok while watching tv or listening radio. do not compsre salary in time because if you like ti scrap it`s aldoa hobbie. but every little adds. good video.
You really do get nagged about your choices constantly lol. Thanks for showing us your take! Cheers from Manitoba
It’s the life I chose haha. Hello from Calgary!
Back when i was younger i scrap a lot saved it for 3 years and all most gave the guy a hart attack to. 5 ton of number 1 3 ton of 2 brass 21/2 ton all most 23k . Cans 1 ton 4 pich up loads 400. He told me next time call 5 days before i come in.lol
I place plug ends in a vice, much easier than holding. Cheers
Plugs = my 10 year old can pull the prongs on plugs. We use Moose Scrappers method for removing them. Very easy
Great video!
I love plug ends
Those small ferrite rings wound with copper are inductors, an inductor opposes HF signals meaning it passes low frequency audio signals more easily. Good videos btw.