eesakiwis adventures - Page 2

Today I scrapped out a plasma tv........ 344, yes I counted them, 344 screws.......

Some nice boards, rubbish speakers and I peeled the Ali sheet backing off the unbroken screen.
Just did it real slowly, levered it apart and jammed cardboard into the gap so it wouldn't close.
Did that all around the edges, then went in furthur till it popped off.

Just so you know, the Ali sheet, plus some Ali strips screwed to it, weighed 1.5+ kg, say 4 lb Ali.

I'm not sure if heat, (like leaving it in the sun) would help soften the glue, or if cold (outside overnight in the cold) would help make the glue brittle and easyer to remove.

So that, and stripping out the plastic coated wire from some of the crts boards fulled up my day.
Gota microwave too. Taught a random a bit about Copper wire from crts, not going to be competition..

Today, cleaned down 5 crt boards, the Ali heatsinks, barrel shaped transformers plastic coated wire, tanti capactors and power transistors.
Found 4 small cpu motherboards, inc 3 pinned cpu, and 2 large cpu motherboards.
3 fridge compressors, 2 microwaves, ones old & really heavy.

And decided, after finding the Lead pipe a while ago, and knowing leads worth NZ$1.50 kg...
When it used to be worth NZ$0.50 cents a kg... And I'm just saving it up.
To remove some of the Lead flashing from some roofing. I got 7.5kg. Soccer ball size ball of it.
Weight for weight, pays more than fridge compressors. Nice.

Also found a largeish burnt out transformer, score.

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I'm trying to add todays, Mondays, post onto my last post, might work.... ( p.s. No it didn't)

Today after getting up late because of staying up late cleaning up Copper..
Went into town to see my bank to tide me over till Wednesday, and got some real food, wardorf salad in a tray.
Decided to walk home past the scrap dropoff yard & see what's there. Didn't expect much.
Closer looking revield some scrap, washing mc motor, solenoids, pump windings, nice.
Two dishwashers, pump motor inc Ali housing, solenoids again.
Also found 1/2 kg lead flashing id ripped off, but put aside and left there by mistake.
3 crts, small degaussing cables, looking again I notice a daughter board (?) & wonder..

Now, someone drops of computer stuff there, motherboards, cd boards, HD boards along with plastic trim. Often its inside a scrapped drier or such.
I can only guess the person is scrapping down computers & whiteware for Steel and Copper only, maybe the Ali too.
But. They 'hide it'. Like they want me & only me, to find it. Weird in a really nice way.
Once, they must have went in 6 feet into the pile of iron roofing whiteware & such, dug a hole into it, then put 15kgs of Ali ex heatsink slabs, about 10 inch square ones, into the hole & covered it up for me to find..... Real nice

So I look closer, upturn the drier that's over the daughter boards, Score!!
This find may be connected to the find of 5 or 6 motherboards a few days ago.

Two motherboards inc CPU, 1 brown fibre large, 1 small pinned.
12 sticks of ram, 14 daughter boards, 3 HD boards, 8 CD boards, pile of floppy drive boards & some Gold pin plugs.
Nice. Then walk home, shoot up to the supermarket before closing, brought some hot chips & utilize the free wifi..
Its raining a little now, but I just found a HP printer beside some rubbish..

I just didn't feel like doing a lot of walking yesterday (wed) and its payday, and I needed suger for coffee, and I had to get my cat some more medication... So, spent it going to the supermarket, vets, @ home & on SMF.
I also didn't think they, at the scrapmetal drop off yard, would wait till today to clean it out.

It was pretty overflowing, onto the footpath.. And it was getting to the point that more metal, roofing iron etc, was being removed by randoms wanting to make stuff with it, than was being dumped.
By the time the scrap has built up to the footpath, people then think its ok to take and keep it.

So I was figuring they would clean it out on wed, there would be very little stuff there to pick thru.

Just a reminder, I have a 'deal' with the scrapmetal dropoff yards owner, as he is selling anything that's dropped off there as 'shred'. I can pick thru the scrap and take anything that's nonferrous, I also sort out anything thats possibly worth extra and dump it into his enclosed(fenced) yard area, and anything that's considered 'Heavy metal'.
In return, I give him ALL of my scrap ferrous metals I find and get.

In this way, well I have no car to take ferrous to the scrapmetal dealers anyway.... So that sorts itself out, he comes and gets it.. So he gets very cleaned up lightgauge iron from me.
And, I get a source of nonferrous metal. The weight of the metal I remove is less than the weight of the metal I give him.
A 'one hand washes the other' sorta deal.
It works out really good for me. And better for him.
It not a bad idea either, he does not get to see what I make in $, just that it is worth it for me, and that it takes a lot of hours for me to do this, time that he has not got. I make my money because I invest time & knowledge into the work.

Today, Thursday, I only cleaned out the plastic coated wire from 11 odd crt TV boards.
Ripped out the degaussing coil and yokes out of 5 crts, actually 4.
One was a Panasonic tv and had a thin degaussing coil and a fully shealded ferrite yoke full of glue. So I ripped out the coil in disgust and screwed the back back on.
It seems Panasonics have the thinnest coil wire. Sony's the thickest.
One of the crts was a fancy one, real wide widescreen & had a slot for a SD memory card in its facia. It had the biggest cable I have seen so far. Will get the name & model.
Also a rear projection tv, nice boards, fun lenses, sheets of plastic for a greenhouse roof. Nice mirror.

I had put aside a plasma and a LCD tv to look into later, the lcd wanted to work, just had a double image on the screen.
I found out this is a common fault with this model. Its got a bad connection between the mylar ribbon and the screen.
From what I read, all I have to do is stick a strip of doorseal foam across the connection to force it together.

The plasma tv, its a dud capactor, easy to see and find.

So, I took the plastic coated Copper home with the coils & yokes, a fridge compressor and a 'spacesaver' tire I found, for my gokart projects.
Sort all that out tonight and return tomorrow to get more crts and the 2 fridge compressors I have there.
There's also 2 car batterys, better get them before someone else does...
Sooooo much stuff to do. Though, the more I do, the longer it takes, the closer to Christmas & NewYears it is.
AND, the more money I get........
NewYears a big thing here in NZ, we finish work on the last working day before Christmas, go on work holiday untill the 7th odd of January. Its the peak of summer then.
So most people have their holiday pay, bonuses and at least two weeks in the sun, maybe three depending on what days everything falls on. Christmas day, boxing day, newyears day & the day after are all paid holidays.
I'm thinking of gifting someone a NewYears holiday/3 day music festival.

Thanks to all those who read my adventures. Before I sell my metal I will sort out photos./e

Todays a Monday.
I went & scrapped down 7crt monitors on Friday, loaded up the guys van with the rest of the sheet iron etc.
And shifted some stuff to clear his yard up a bit.
The guys van, was packed with all the lightgauge stuff I had scrapped out of the computers, microwaves etc etc
The microwaves were packed with screws, metal strips and ferrite, then the top screwed back on, about 30kg+ each.
So I told him to go to xxxx scrapmetal buyers, the place I use.
"Nah, I will go to yyyyyys, they are closer & local owned". Told him again that xxxx has better prices and just as close if you go a certain way.
"Nah, I support locals". But xxxx actually is a customer of his... So I suggest again, oh well. This was on Friday, he's taking the metal saturday. In hindsight, on sat I relised yyyyyys has not got a weighscale, just a normal scale.
Today, mon, I ask how it went. "$74 was all I got for a ton" (metric) Uh, ripped off.....
"Givus a look at the receipt, how did they weigh it?"
"Had to go down the road to a weighbridge" (uh oh, weightbridge costs added..)
"What was the weight?".
"Dunno, they kept the docket" (I saw that comming......)
I look at the docket, no weight at all, just $100/ton written in. Must have been 750kg.
I think it was way more than that. Probably a ton plus.
Well, the place I told him to go to, has its own weighbridge, pays $130/ton......Gives you a computer printout.
So, he did what I told him not to do, got mucked around, got under paid by $55+.....
No suprise there. Just what is it about people?

So, on Friday I wasted a lot of time packing the lightgauge iron into his van so he would get max $$ for one trip, inc packing microwaves solid with metal and picking all plastic etc off this iron...

Sat & sun, it rained so much, cold sleety windblown rain. So I just stripped down crt degaussing cables for 5 hours, got 20kg Copper #2. Sorted some other metal out.

Today, Monday. Got the news about his metal.... Scrapped out a crt. Got about 5motherboards inc plain top ceramic chip & 1 small pinned. One old motherboard has a small metal capped ceramic soldered on cpu, interesting.
A bunch of plastic coated wire, wheelbarrow wheel, small pile of boards from harddrives & CD drives plus misc stuf
I also stabbed my left first finger under the nail with a screwdriver while trying to.pick a relay off a board, put a drop of iodine on that, which I found in a scrapped fridge once ("The jungle is neutral...")
I will sort the stuff out tonight.
Tomorrow I hope to pick out a few more crts and the two fridge compressors that are there.

I have added another 50kg of Copper to my goal amount. I am 25kg from that and expect I have enough stuff to scrap down to reach this new goal, like motors & fridge compressors, transformers.
In this time more Copper will arrive, maybe pushing my goal higher. 50kg is more than $300 worth.
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Thanks Dakota for the reply. That's really interesting.
I must say that we do look forward every year to the end of the year. It sort of caps the year off.

Like when we get back to work, about the 7th Jan + we ask "what did you get up too, where did you go, what was it like" to our workmates.
I sorta judge a year by what I did that new years.

We also have 'good Friday and easter Monday off as holidays, @ Easter, 4 day weekend near the last of summer.
There's a few other holidays thru the year. The Queens birthday, NZ day (Witangi day) commerates the day there was a agreement between the native Maori & The British for British rule in NZ
Local area 'feild days', or 'show day' where there's a large local show of local produce etc. And carnival rides, horse shows, cattle shows etc.

But, we get the most out of summer with Christmas/NewYears holidays and Easter, go camping etc.

Then winter arrives & we hunker down, start saving our money, get thru winter, then start to get set for summer untill in a huge push, Christmas arrives again. Something for everyone to look forward to.

The only real break is ski season, if you enjoy winter sports. That's around August, there's school holidays in August, for about 2 or 3 weeks too.

Todays a Saturday. Didn't go out yesterday. On thursday I got the other car battery, it was a small one.
A couple of crt yokes & cables and cleaned down some crt boards, picked up the microwave transformers.

Then, that night I checked the builders skip again (while holding my nose shut......) and found a nice Neon sign transformer. Dunno what its worth, looks new but made 12 odd years ago. Great for science experiments.
I have a feeling I can make Nitric acid with one. It does something to the nitrogen in the air and makes a brown gas that can be run into water to make Nitric acid.
w.sciencemadness.com is another site I use.

Today I go to the yard, find 2 washing mcs, real old commercial deep freeze with the older compressor version, sorta looks like a turtle shell, which is what i want to turn it into, using the dome valve covers off another compressor as feet.
A double Copper microwave transformer, yes double copper!. Getting rare these days..

I cut the thin copper tube on the freezer, no gas leaked out so I figured it was empty and cut the bigger tube.
It then p****d out gas and oil over everything. Thats something I hate. But, hey its gotta full Copper radiator..... I put that stuff aside.
Packed my sack with the crt tv stuff, washing mc motor, microwave transformer & Copper tube.
Walk off to find a heavy car battery sitting nearby..Ouch, better put that aside too, since i want to get to the supermarket before it shuts & do SMF.

The freezer, Im sure its got Copper tube all around the liner.
So I have to get there early b4 anyone else does, and get the battery, the other washing mc motor & what else turned up.
Oh, there was 2 fridges to scrap, compressors etc still there.
Tomorrow I will cut apart the compressors i have for their copper.

Im feelin tired a lot lately, I think its to do with diet. I found/figured out I'm gluten intolerent over ten years ago.
This happened after a lot of stress at the time. One thing I have found since that if theres gluten in my food I will get tired. The kind of tired when I wake up after 10 hours sleep, get up and feel like I never slept at all..

Also, I never yawn unless I have eaten something with gluten in it recently. So normally I never yawn...
But, I buy hot chips and for the last fortnight getting a deep fried sausage with the chips rather than a pumpkin fritter or such. I expect theres flour in the sausages.
So, I should find a going microwave oven with a 'grill' function and cook roast meals instead.

I just started using a sack to carry my scrap years ago when I was scrapping out wrecked cars from our local dump.
That was back when people just dumped off old cars & whiteware at the dump. Copper was $3 a kg or something, since then the highest its got is $9 and now its a bit over $6.
I remember it hitting $4 and anyone who ever did scrapmetal was amazed since it had never been that high before.
The $9/kg happened when Copper was @ a high & the NZ$ was at a low against the US$.
40 cents or such...

But, I had to walk a long walking track to get there, sometimes I used my trailbike. So a sack was easyest.
The car safety belt came next, rope cut into my shoulders, and after using car safety belt, because it was there.
I found out something pretty amazing... car safety belt, no matter how tight you knot it, will allways come undone easy like. Allways. And you can make a nice pack if you tie both ends to both bottom corners of a sack, leaving the top open, untill you tie it shut with the middle of the belt.
This was the NZ pioneers pack too, a suger sack with a couple of blankets, tin billy for heating up tea, "loaf of bread, pound of butter, tin of jam" & a bedroll & tent.
So I sorta feel like I'm walking in my great Grandfathers footsteps. If its good enough for them.......

I did put some effort into making a bike trailer for a pushbike, using a lawnmower trailer. But, little wheels have too much rolling friction. I had to pedal all of the time, even going downhill. Any incline ment getting off and pushing and I had to find the most level line if travel, so I was crossing over roads in what seemed like a random pattern.
I did that twice, took home a load of microwaves. Sweet, but I could have just scrapped them there & taken home the transformers etc in my sack.....
And I got home completly soaked in sweat, no condition to do anything but crash. Just had to leave the metal to the next day.
If you ever make bike trailer, use med/large dia bike tires with smooth tread. Less resistance.

Today I got the large car battery, its a 720 CCA @ 22kg..... or 46Lbs..... It still goes I think, green indicator spot on it, connected it to my battery checker, got 100% light... Charging it at the moment, then I will put a lightbulb load on it too see how long it it lasts. And check for its 'sold on' date.
I also picked up the freezer compressor inc all Copper radiator & electric fan & another fridge compressor & found a motherboard & power supply, & CPU, med size, all pin base, copper cap. Its a 8 channel audio MB too, never seen one before.
So, this load came up to 56kg, (122Lb's?). When its nicely loaded, sack on back & freezer compressor etc on cord around my shoulders, off onto the front side, it does not seen that heavy unless you have to lift & stand up.

I see the pictures of the guys serving in Iraq with absolutly huge amounts of gear strapped around them, while carrying the rifle & water....... and running! In that Heat!!
Man, what I do is nothing. They "have big balls" as the song goes.

Tonight I hope to clean down all of the plastic coated wire I have and clean down the Ali heatsinks since I just got my little electric screwdriver back to do this job.
Tomorrow might be a early shower, go into town to get another cutoff disc or 2 for my grinder so I can cut open the fridge compressors, 16 of them, plus 2 or 3 'turtle shaped' ones.
And use a new disc to cut the end loops of Copper wire off the electric motors.
Once I get into it that cleaning down won't take long, its just all the hassle with shifting everything 5 times.
The heavy metal cases/compressors/iron transformers is for another week. Next month.

I missed out on a home stereo & possibly nice sleeping bag I found beside a clothing bin & hid around the corner... Stereo had a large transformer & ali heatsink, sleeping bag looked good too, forgot to pick it up that night.
Thats how it goes..... You snooze - you loose.

Weird start to the day today. I wake up to hear someone on the front lawn, metal sounds, someone saying "better hurry, dunno if hes home or not" , " grab that sack", "those ali cans", "hurry, gotta go......"

So I jump up, grab my jeans n boots, run to the door, theres a car & trailer backed up onto my front lawn, some sacks on it, ali metal.
Run n grab a cellphone and camera, run to front door, open it to see cars moving, I run n jump onto the trailer, (the car looks like someones who I have seen takening metal without permission from the metal dump off yard I use)
The car judders, I see a guy in the passenger seat with a flat grey cap on, odd.
He turns around......
And I relise its the guy who drops off Ali cans to my front door.
He gets out... "ha ha! Fooled yah."

Im still waking up.. theres sacks on the trailer, not full of cans or metal.. but sand.. & a Ali ladder thats not mine.
Then I turn around to see two 26 inch CRT TV's on my porch...... I'd ran right past them without seeing it.
I remember now, he asked me a while ago if I want 2 TV's his mate wants to get rid off........

Ohhhhh. gosh. We larf I told him "I though someone was stealin stuff"...
"Oh, pleeeeeease knock next time.. Thanks though"

Nice, a old one, 5 blue tantis, med size all Copper yoke & coil, the others a Mitsi, nice fat coil. Choice.

My digital camera was spred around the house for a while, today it all got put together again, a battery & a memory card were not working before. Also, I lost a lot of pics to a photoshack or something changeover earlyer this year.

But, I will get photos of what I'm getting, what I have, where I'm doing it and the end product, plus the takings...

Today, a quick visit to the yard 'n I find, 5 CRTs, dvd player, printer, fridge ext Ali & compressor, plasma TV. And a shovel handle that will fit the shovel I found last week.

I got the crt Copper, extruded Ali from the fridge, dvd boards, there was a washing mc too.
I relised that, for a lathe project of mine, that the motor and mounting unit & belt drive to the spindle, may work as a headstock for the lathe..
I got the screws undone from the mounting, but couldn't undo the agitator nut thats right down inside the agitator.
Also, the plasma has Torx screws holding its back on, so I couldn't get its boards.

By then it was getting late for the supermarket, so I decide to go now, come back after doing that & this on SMF.
And pick up that stuff & the fridge compressor. Sorta a 'half now, half later' deal.

There was also a 'nightstore heater' there, I want the bricks out of it for use at home under a fence.
A nightstore heater was a great idea from a few decades ago. In theory they use cheap electricity from overnight power to heat up a bunch of bricks, then during the day the heat is let out slowly... Uh, in reality...
Its a lot easyer to just turn on a heater when you want heat, or burn firewood when you want 'real' heat.

So a combo thing tonight, more picking up metal, picking up stuff for two projects & a little escrap.
The bricks will just get set aside for the moment, theres no way I'm carrying that much weight home.....
Then, scrap down the crt stuff, tomorrows going to be a mission.