eesakiwis adventures - Page 4

Great to hear from you and things are going well for you. Some great scores. You know we love to see photos. Mike

After getting a bit done to the house the weather went bad, rain and wind.

My best scrap source has closed down. Thats not so good. On the other had, I don't have to go there 3 times a day so I can get nonferrous before anyone steals it.
This leaves me time to clean up whats around the house, and whats inside of it to..... Yeah its that bad.
My escrap source has gone as well. But, now I have more time, I can sort it all out and sell it, thats a major mission.

At the same time I have to spend a few $$ I dont have yet, on my car so it gets another 'Certificate of Fitness.
Safety belt = $175.. Yeah I know... I expected $100 max, plus $50 odd for the test. The test is something the local garage can do. They check the whole car but I only think it eeds a new safety belt and some rust spots ground off and painted over.
I just don't want anything else to be wrong with it, as its intended to get me onto my next line of $ Income, the escrap and Flatscreens, more about Flatscreens later.

Since I want and need to sell 100% of my escrap in one go, I need to have worked everything escrap down to the last board.
So as I have 'Gold connections, pins and stuff' I also need to cut the connections off all my cables.
The Brass screws off the boards, as well as any Trim and Tinsel, then sort it, all 500+ boards, and box it. And everything else that needs cleaned down.
Logistics logistics logistics.. and good weather. And Boxes and time. Lots of boxes, and more time.

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I will 'copy n paste' a post I put in another thread here->
[I have about 12+ flatscreens sitting about and I know that the biggest one only has a bad connection to the screen, fix that and its working, all it involves is time....
The Plasma screen I got going had nothing wrong with it, just some scratches on the screen that dissappear when its going. I am using it at the moment.
On the plus + plus side, I was able to scrap the 29ich CRT that I was using before... And stack all the DVD players I have, on its old 'footprint'.

Some of the other flatscreens have broken screens so its inside electronics can be assumed to be still working.
But some I had not tested and coul have broken screens that I didn't know about.

So I grab a long RCA cable to fit to the DVD player, and some power cords, and test the rest.
I found 4 that would not start up, one 'clicks' so thats the relay somewhere inside it. Ones 'Off/On' buttons been wrecked. Two are simply doing nothing.
One worked fine.... It needed no work at all.
Two, after mucking around with the Menu, and colours, and various settings, worked...... Uh, theres nothing wrong with 4 of the flatsceens.. WHY?
One, its got the same picture as the ones that I got going, but, theres something else going on too. I will get inside it later.
1 of the OK looking screens did have a broken screen, no visible damage on the outside. I do wonder if I broke it when getting it back home. Oh well.
I was able to double check that the 3 others had broken screens but otherwise still went. All I need is a good screen.(x3)

Sooooo, Thats about 25% of them are good to go anyway. Quick money there. $$$$.
I will use the 2 that I got going in other parts of the house and get onto the one with a bad sreen connection as its the biggest screen and a 'keeper'.

The rest,?
I have tagged them with whats wrong with them. I will get their model numbers etc and put them on a notebook and put them aside In storage somewhere else in the house.
Its easy to see theres money in these Flatscreens at the moment. Since I have a car now I can advertise for broken ones and pay a small amount for the ones with good screens.
I am getting the impression that a few have been chucked out after he owners mucked up the menu programming.

Broken Plasmas have lots of escrap in them and 455 screws, arrrrh.. Some glass thats easy to get rid of and 1/2 are Aluminium backed screens so theres a few ($3-4) there. Plus the light plastic frame that will cost almost nothing to dispose of.
I think I can fill my car full of rubbish and dump it for $5 at the local dump (Refuse station)..
I can only start the buying of flatscreens after I have got rid of escrap ]<-

I have sold two lots of $100 metal just to pay a odd bill and have started cleaning up whats around the house, today it was the CRT yokes and electric pump motors from washing machines.
It was easyer to use a 4inch grinder with a thin cutoff disc, mounted in a bench vise, sorta like a bench grinder is, to cut thru the coils on the Ferrite yoke.
Most of the Copper came off clean for about 6Kg Copper #2 . Theres probably another 6Kg in the rest.
Also being done is any 'Cast Aluminium' That I have about the house, theres some gearbox castings and such. It all has to be cleaned down and sold in one go to get the most out of it. Its a space thing too.
Thers about 40 odd Microwave transformers to be done tomorrow and some electric motors(8?) with Ali on them.
Plus a bunch of fridge compressors to scrap down.
I have a electric/hydrolic logsplitter that I will try and use to push the Iron cores out of the windings as a experiment.

I know someone who is making trailers, he showed me what hes doing and at the moment hes making one from a caravan trailer.
Its been mentioned here in ScrapMetalForum about doing this.
We use trailers here in NZ a lot, hardly ever see the big gooseneck trailers I see in America.
We don't have the big trucks you need to have to tow them. Just Jappa utes (utility vehicles) and cars.

I'm lending him a welder I found, Oh yeah, I found another welder.. Its a transformer sort, oldish but good quality, with a volume control, nothing else fancy on it.
But it was free. :-) So I will get info from him in return.. I have two axle setups to make a trailer from, gotta take the weight.

Thats about it for the moment. Its 1:30 am, I'm in town on Halloween and theres hunderds of drunk people all dressed up having a good time. People are really getting 'into it' this year. Thats good to see..

Spotyah/e

I spent most of the day/afternoon scrapping down computer power supplys. Just taking the steel case off them and cutting out the wires for my 'plastic coated wire' sack.
I have about 10 - 12 of these 30Kg sacks full of wire. It comes out to be 66% Copper, so thats 20Kg of Cu a sack.

The PSU's were on the kitchen floor and taking up too much room.
If you are scrapping any of these down, remember to dunk them in a bucket of slightly soapy water before you open them up. This dampens down the dust inside them. Somehow I breathed in a bit of this dust a while ago and its stuck in my throat, under the vocal cords.
I think I got rid of it today but if its not gone in a day or two I am going to the hospital to see if they can get a camera down there and chip it off.
Same goes for any CRT TV's and Computer towers. Use a dust mask and a spray bottle full of slightly soapy water and spray anything untill its dripping wet.

Late afternoon today I got the electric 'skillsaw' (6inch dia blade electric saw) and cut up some scrap wooden chairs I found, for firewood.
Then I used the 9inch angle grinder to cut up a pile of kids Aluminium scooters. They were scrap thats rusted.
A couple of days ago I bashed the Ali fins off a pile of Magnatrons. I used a peice of solid round tube in the bench vise, the magnatron fits over that with the fins sitting o the tube. And another tube that fits over the end part of the magnatron and sits on the stainless steel end of its body.
Then one bash with a sledge hammer punches the body thru the fins, seperating them off the body.
That Ali brought my Ali sack up to 20+Kg, NZ$30. wow wee. Food money for 2-3 days..
Or $30 to pay a bill.

Just in case, if you don't already know, the pink or white ceramic part on the ends of a Magnatron has Beryllium in it.
Beryllium is poisonous so never break the ceramic part. Its OK as a solid, but inhaling the dust is very dangerous.
It takes a few years to happen but the result is not good.
So never break it. In fact, the return $ amount of the Ali fins is low, so its probably not worth doing anyway.

The only way to reclaim the Copper 'Bobbin' is to Lathe machine the welds where the Stainless steel endcaps meet the Copper part.
I think the bobbin weighs 80grams, not a lot. Thats 13 per KG @ NZ$6.00 Kg.

Oh, I found another Flatscreen and got it home, plugged it in and it works.
I dunno why people are chucking away good going flatscreens. Well its good for me, I have 5 of them now.

I think its because NZ went 'Digital' a couple of years ago and they need a 'set top box' addon to get them going, and therefore two remote controls.
Current flatscreens have the Digital service in them.
But they could get $100 for it if they wanted to sell it.

A set top box is worth $30 or more if you want added features like recording.

But thats $500 worth? If I sold them.
Flatsceens is my next $ maker.

I saw a 'funny' today. Someone in a 4WD towing a trailer with a plastic 1000 litre tank on it.
The tank was full, I expect it was water.

They went too fast around a 'Roundabout' and the whole trailer tipped over...
When I went past they were trying to tip the trailer back up with the 4WD, while traffics trying to get around them.

Someone could have hit the trailer with another vehicle and caused it to happen. There was a few cars sitting there.

Tomorrow?. Do the rust in the car. Gardening. Computer PSU's. Cleanup.

Since my scrapyard dropoff source closed. I find out yesterday that the owner was going to have to PAY $25 a ton to get rid of 'Shred'.......

Yeah, pay

Thats not good, but I wonder where its all going,? The stuff I was getting was the pickings of the nonferrous, but the nonferrous arrives with the ferrous.
So if I want more nonferrous I have to 'deal with the Steel'. Oh, the Irony.....

But yesterday I finished off cleaning my #2 Copper wire.
I had a 40Kg Coal sack full of Degaussing cables from CRT TV's. And 40 Microwave transformers.

I think about 10 of the transformers were Aluminium windings after getting thru them. Thats more than I thought there would be, Ok I get the odd 'Half Ali/half Copper'.
But I found a few 'All Ali' that I had not weeded out beforehand, Or, theres just more Ali ones now.?
Oh well, 30 = 30Kg in theory and thats NZ$180+. Thats two months electrical power bill for me.
(plus since I pay a set amount weekly and had not checked my bill for ages and since we get a 10% discount for prompt payment, its 5 months in advance...)

The Degaussing cables were saved up from last year, plus some from early this year. It was taking up room anyway.
They took about two afternoons to strip down. There must have been 40Kg of Copper in them as the total #2Copper weight was 71Kg.
At the scrapyard, #2 Copper had dropped NZ$0.60cents a Kg, down to NZ$5.90/Kg.
And I ended up getting NZ$419 and two blisters on my hands from the Degaussing cables. $420 SCORE!

Most of the cables were able to be stripped by cutting off the double layer of tape where the insulated wire meets the Copper coil.
Then pulling out a few strands of bare/varnished Copper wire and using that to rip thru the insulation right around the coil.
Its nice clean' solder free' Copper wire. And thats all of my #2 Copper gone.

I brought some food, gave some coin away, got some paint for my car, catfood, $60 fuel and $40 for some sciency stuff and went for a 400Km drive to pickup the sciency stuff. (Hard to find. amazingly cheap deal of exactly what I wanted).
Some underarm deoderant stick that for some reason is only avaliable in the 4 weeks before Christmas...

Next is to get a WOF (warrant of fitness) for my car, maybe $50. And membership here at SMF, thats MY Christmas present for ME.
If theres anything left I will get some tabacco for 'randoms'. I still have NZ$120. Baccy is about $50 = 30gms.

I fixed up a old cheap MIG welder so I could repair the rust holes on my cars sills. It uses real thin fluxcore wire. Amazing to weld with.

Most of my work Job MIG welding is 1.2mm + @ 200-300Amps, and that would blow a hole right thru the car.
Then I get on the end of a tiny cheap MIG with wire thats about the same size as fuse wire and I can do intricate beads 1mm wide.

For the sills patches I am using some galvanised steel strips from a shop roller door shutters, they have a sorta 'loop' on each edge that I will cut off and the main part is just the right curvature for the sills. Just a little thicker than panel steel. Perfect.
About ten feet long, way more then I need. They came from the scrap drop off yard.

Oh, I forgot. I dropped in to see the owner, he mentioned having to pay to get rid of the scrap shred and closing the yard.
My deal was that I get nonferrous from his metal and replace it with ferrous so theres no cost to him,and I clean up around a bit,
I had dropped off 6 (US) 55 gallon drums to his yard and filled them with HMS Iron. I have another drum full at home to get to him. He has not yet taken them to the scrapyard.
So I also asked if I could get the roller door strip for my cars rust holes and a broken laptop that was there (same as one I have at home too).

That was when I mentioned the HMS Steel. And gave him NZ$100. Thats from some HMS I sold a couple of years ago and never got it
the ($) back to him.

So hes getting paid $300 a ton for HMS when its only worth $100.... Plus he gets to sell the HMS I have, and I will organsie the HMS thats at his yard so he can sell it. A nice wee unexpected bonus for him at the right time of the year, and me too.
Oh, Its summer here now, hot days that end at 10:00 pm plus.....

I have some ca$h, my cars nearly fixed and legal and I have everything to finish off the work I'm doing on the house.

I was able to get some much needed and very cheap scientific glass. Got to take a very relaxing 5 hour drive in the country and gave a friendly hitchhiker a 150+ Km lift and later on was able to give a lift home to two very drunk, very friendly, very good looking girls..
Its 2:16am now and soon I get to sleep. Nice.
Spot yah/e

Thanks for the update. Its good to hear you are progressing and adapting in your life.

One thought about repairing your car. I am under the impression that wielding galvanized steel gives off very dangerous fumes. Please don't believe me but if you are unsure do some research. I would hate to hear you have hurt yourself. 73 Mike

My car got its 'warrant of fitness', sweet, that just saved me $200 in fines.
And now I can update the registration of about NZ$180. Its registered to the end of this month.
I like getting a 13 month Rego and it shows up as 'expiring 2017' for all of 2016. On the window label.
I have not been pulled over by the police since getting it, that's how it works I guess...

Yep, welding Galvanised mfatal (sic(sic)) will give you 'zinc fume fever'.
Its a acquired thing, for a while you won't get it, then suddenly you do and from then on you are going to keep getting it, even after low exposures.

I got it first when I was welding up long 'rolled steel' galvanised channels together.
The metals thinish and burns the galvanise when it gets hot, you have to get it hot for the weld metal to burn thru. These, now 'beams' were used as adjustable props to prop up the concrete 'tilt slabs' when they were making 'tilt slab buildings'.

I came home from work on Friday feeling like I had the flu, sore eyes, sore back, headache, sore knees, sweating, I went to bed and woke up Saturday afternoon, 20 hours later....
Even a good wiff gives the effects now. I have a welders filtered air setup if I get a paid job and I have to weld galvanised steel.
Even thinking about it makes me queasy.

So, a few days ago someone turned up with as trailer full of computers stuff, the first thing I thought was'Oh no, CRT monitors...'.
Then I counted and found 7 printers, 6 CRT's, 10 computers, yeah that's worth it.

I can get rid of 2 CRTs a week in my rubbish bin, plastics cheap to dump as its lightweight, I can get rid of the lightgauge for free.
I don't mind printers, there's good steel rods in them, wire, small circuit board, image sensors, Copper wire, motors.
I need plastic for my 'Plastic to fuel' experiments for next year anyway.

I also picked up some plastic coated wire and a couple of microwaves and a couple of Computers.
Ah, question.

I find that one of the motor boards supports a '8 Channel Audio' setup.
Do they have a extra value because of this?
It would seem to be handy somehow and I have only found a few of them so far. Sorta rare.

I put some fertilised eggs under my chicken and one eggs hatched. Its a black chicken and makes a 'Barr rarrk' sound all the time.
Guess what I'm going to call it?.......

And, a few days ago while I was where I am using the free internet, in my car.
A couple come up to me and asked if I "Could give them a lift home" as there were no Taxis about.
They told me they "would pay me some money". And I decided that any money is going to cover fuel so "Yeah OK, I can".
When I got there, it was a bit of a rural area, they told me that "It would normally co$t then $80...."
And gave me $50.... Yes!!!! $50 bucks for going for a quick drive!!

Then about a hours after I get back, a young chap walks up to my car, asks of I could "give him and his girl friend a lift home, will pay for it".
Ah, yeah!!
So he decides he wants to go to McDonalds first, he's drunk and wants a feed, gets feed, drive and drop off his friend at her street, then get to his place.

In the meantime he tells me he works on a fishing boat, for a few months at a time, got off it a week ago, gets $2000 a week..
I know other's who do the same thing, they get sometimes $20,000 ca$h plus when they walk off the boat.
And he pulls out $60 and drops it on the center consol and gets out with a "Thanks mate".
And is gone..
I got $110 for taking some people home.... And put $20 of it as fuel into the tank.... Still got $55 after food,
3 days later...

Next week I am making sure I have a shower just before going to use the free wifi at 10pm....

Love your thread because it is both educational and entertaining. Keep up the good work.

Great news and I agree with Patriot76. I think its nice that we have folks from other parts of the world that are willing to share some of their day with us(which is why I like ham radio so much).

Put a shine on the car along with a shower for you and maybe you can pick up a few more dollars. 73, Mike

CRT monitors have then advantage of being small and easy to smash up so they fit in the rubbish bin..
There's a OK amount of Copper in them, some TVs (the Panasonic's!!!) have even less Copper..
Also the CRTs do not have as much useable electronics in there, no SAW devices or Tanti caps.
But, hey, the computers make up for it.

Yesterday I had to take the cat to the vet for a checkup, and I noticed a car trailer on a front lawn, with an computer and rubbish on it. And it was a stinking hot day....
So, later I go back there to find out if I can get the computer. A guy answers and he calls out his flatmates name.
And I relies I know this guy, he fixes computeras a sideline, and I have asked him before "if I can get his ewaste scrap for Gold.."
So he says "OK" and that he "thought that what I wanted was newish computers".
"Nah", I say "Any computers have Gold in them, older computers have more Gold".
"Oh, I just got rid of a trailer of old computers".....
Arrrrh! missed out.
Something with scrap metal, if you miss out, you will never ever ever make up for it. Once its gone, its history.

But, he says he's getting another load of computer gear that I can go thru next week.

So I cleaned the trailer out, it was covered in grass clippings, nice and refemented from the hot day.
But, I got cases, 2 PSU, 36 CPU - 3 of them socket7's, laptop boards, 10 RAM, and a bunch of other green boards, a load of misc wire and laptop parts, printer.
As I did that, it started to rain, then pour, got soaked thru with water.
The neighbour came over and gave me 2CRTs and a water blaster. nice.

I spent most of last night scrapping it down. Today I slept In too late afternoon.
I have to get back into fixing the house up, mow lawns, fix guttering, getting up late is a bad habit.
Tonight, scrap the 8 plus printers, they take up too much room.

I will also have a early night tonight so I can get some sleep and wake up before lunch.

There's too much scrap lightgauge around the house as well, and I have to find out if its worth storing it, or dump it at the scrap metal dealers for zero $ a ton.
That just seems sooo wrong.

So, are there any uses for the '8 channel audio' Motherboard I have?

Gidday again, scrappings pretty slow lately.
But that's given me time to start cleaning up inside, my kitchens a mess and some parts I simply do not go near anymore (mouse droppings...eek!)
There was a pile of odd circuit boards that got cleaned out and down. I cannot move too much stuff at a time because that makes too much mess. Hoardings a bad thing..
I found my 'power transistor bucket' under something, probably the circuit boards. Unfortuanlly at some time I had dumped my 'Brass spade clips' bucket in on top of it. So it was a mix of transistors and clips.

But after cleaning down the circuit boards, which were mostly power supply boards, I got a jar of power transisters and a few Kg of Copper wire. Last night I sorted the transistors out and have a 4 gallon sized bucket full. Its Heavy!

There's a pile of 'Silver contacts' material. Mostly from switches from driers, washing MC's and such, just a pile of it against the wall, no box.
And a container of small Relays I get from microwaves etc, and two cat food bags full of them since I couldn't get access to the container... Because its covered by a container of microwave switches..

The switches, I once did a 'Breakdown' of them to figure out the whole Silver and Copper/Silver contacts amount and weight.
Then somebody here advertised they are buying them for 25cents each. So I just stockpiled the rest of them.
I have got 'before photos' so you can see one day, when I figure out how to upload them.

I have a pile of dechipped circuit boards under the bench, on top of several plastic bottles of Hydrochloric acid containing Copper/Gold, a result of thinking I'd actually get Gold off escrap years ago.. So they have been there for years.. hoarding again.

And that's why I will not suggest to anyone here to try it (escrap Gold extraction) or even go to GRF to find out how.
I ended up doing exactly what they told me I would. "Generate a lot of dangerous acids dangerously and make a dangerous hazard of dangerous chemicals that's dangerous to dispose of" and "end up with no Gold anyway.."
Yup.
Yah better off selling the escrap and buying Gold coins. Honestly. And this happened too....
I was boiling a Florence flask of HCL acid to 'dissolve the Copper from under the Gold'.
Ah yeah, in reality.. since there was oxygen getting into the flask I was also dissolving the Gold....
But I put a loose stopper on the flask.. Bad move. The flask mouth expanded with heat.
The stopper dropped down into the neck.
The heat expanded the stopper, stoppering it in..
The pressure built up, stopping the boiling of the green HCL acid.
This ment to me 'add more heat' and I did, the pressure built up higher until it blew the stopper out and the boiling overheated HCL acid/Copper/Gold mix shot up into the air covering the ceiling and walls.

Now anything else could have happened, it didn't. I'm very very lucky it didn't...

Thats why I suggest to "Save your escrap, clean it down properly, find a good buyer, sell it to them, take ca$h to store and buy Gold coins".

Tonight I will clear out the dechipped boards, that will give me enough room to put the electric stove I have back in there so I can cook food again.
And I can see what the boards need doing so I can get rid of them. I think they still have Gold connectors and Tanti chips on them. Then to the rubbish bin.

I have what lots of other escrappers have.. A huge pile of tangled connector cables. The only thing I can think of is to untangle each one and coil it up and put it in a tray, max of two deep, and stack those trays.

Then one day, photograph them, maybe sort some out, and sell them on the NZ eBay, called Trademe.com.
Look it up if you want, its different from the American sites, a insight to NZ too.

Tomorrow since the weathers gonna be fine, I am going to remove some rusty house roofing and replace it.
About time too, it will clear out some rubbish from around the place.
I'm storing by light gauge iron outside under a tree, its not worth anything at the scrapyard anyway, till I can get something for it. Something? anything!!

I had a play with my chickens today, shifted the coop and gave them some extra food.
The smaller one, still a chick, is nearly about to loose its pin feathers and get its shiney black full feather look. They will eat out of my hand now.
The chick loves grass grubs/wire worms. Its funny watching it learn off the mother chook, if mother chook eats something, chick grabs some from its mouth and learns what's good to eat.

But if chick sees a wireworm in my hand, its like a heat seeking missile direct at it. Jumps up into mid air to get it.

I am saving my scrap untill I have at least $200 worth. Since I'm scrapping small Copper coils/transformers and such, I only have $50 worth. Copper #2 is worth $5 a Kg, down from the 14 month ago price of NZ$6.50
Thats made a difference and since my source closed down I have nothing extra coming in.
There's a place nearby where there's a pile of whiteware, all mushed up, I noticed a few fridge compressors and a few other bits that are worth getting out, maybe $50 +, a little work but a 'oncer'. Once done that's it, nothing else out there.
. If I don't do it, there's nothing else out there and I can say goodbye to $50 and some useable gocart parts.

I also got rid of the last of my CRT glass today in the wheeliebin, yay!

A few days ago there was some ex yard sales leftovers beside a donation box on the side of the road.
Its OK to go thru this stuff and keep what you want. Its leftovers, not much good to the cause and if it rains it gets wet and cat peed on.
The council picks it up on Mondays as rubbish.

So I pick out the broken wood, Ali dish and odd lid and a Hanna Montana DVD, just about to chuck it aside and I see 'Miley Cyrus' written on it and 'Score!!' That's a keeper...

Hmm, I might check out the yard sales tomorrow saturday. There's not many customers these days and I'd like to see what's out there in the way of scrap and escrap.

I tried asking at the local Habitat 2nd hand shop for scrap, I might be able to get stuff off them but he mentioned 'set prices' so I think he expects to sell me stuff 'that's still working or intended to work'. I will find out this week.