Breaking down power supplies

Hey guys!
life's good just this one thing is bugging me!!!

I currently am breaking down my power supplies, I've showed them to the few yards around and they all give me the same look! They think i'm trying to sell them the plague. I just want some advice on anyone in my same place? Tips of how convince yard to buy my un-shippable.



Right now,
i take the metal case off, .07 cents a pound
pull the copper bearing materials, .30 cents a pound
pull the alum off, at .30 pound
cut the wiring off, at .50 lb
throw the low grade board in black hole(i wish)

just seems like a lot of work for $8.00 an hour.

i pop the top and grab the easy transformers/cbm's, and toss the rest (hard to get al heatsinks and all) in the shred, less the wires of course

do they ever say anything about the board, i would be nervous of throwing a circuit board in my shred? is there any toxic materials in them or just normal metal?

has anyone ever had to convince there yard to buy them, i was thinking should i leave one with my yard so they can do research on them?
just an idea yall

Originally Posted by machinistace802

do they ever say anything about the board, i would be nervous of throwing a circuit board in my shred? is there any toxic materials in them or just normal metal?

I throw all kinds of low grade boards in my shred, and nobody's said anything yet (but if they ever did I'd say "it's pure metal man, nothin but tin, and lead, and copper in that!"). But take the cover off a PS(so they can see the transformers and copper in there) and put it with electrical stuff, and they'll just frown and say it's shred(got some hick yards here dude ; ), but i'm sure, like anywheres else, they arrrre learnin

plus the copper heatsinks that go as #2

I took in a bunch of them and the guy at the scale said he can only give me 25 cents a pound. He recommended that I cut off the wires and bring them back. It will still be .25 for the power supply but $1/lb for the wire. It will be interesting to see how the totals play out.

Bill

I cut the wires off and sell the ps as copper bearing at .15¢ a pound. I tried to sell as motor transformers but no luck.

Yup, most yards I've checked with in VT won't take circuit boards of any kind. As machinist said, they look at them like they're the plague! However, I do have one yard that doesn't mind if I bring in a dozen power supply carcasses with a stripped board still attached, but of course it must go in the shred. Pretty sure they're not supposed to, but as long as it's a very small % of the total tin they'll look the other way.
Unfortunately that isn't enough for me right now... I probably have close to a quarter ton of these **** things stacked up. Still need to go through and pull out the salable ones, already have a dozen that are specialized (servers and small form mostly) or are obviously gamer supplies. Gonna have to put aside a solid day (or 2) for monitor/supply stripping very soon, I reckon!
Anyways, try throwing a few at a time inside your computer cases, brown boards still attached to the power supply's metal shell. Worst that'll happen is they will make you take them back.

It's $8 more than you had. I take them all apart board goes in the board box wires and copper stuff then steel. That's me

I'm reading this.. and I'm like... whooaaaa... We're suppose to be thinking about the enviroment when We're in the recycling business, its not proper to throw this stuff into the scrap metal if they say no electronic they have to follow EPA Rules too. and by indicating that You're doing this makes You part of the problem, There are escrap in this country that will buy the brown board, break it down.. seperate it and recycle it with a e-escrap company.. Please don't disregard this mesg Follow Your heart.. are You trully doing good for this earth.. or are You now part of the problem...

I normally don't do this, but I just feel its wrong to do sumthing wrong when You know its wrong.. Please do the right thing..

Recycle it. the proper way...

Point well taken I guess I should clarify, the place that "lets" me throw a few in with my shred (as long as it's still attached to it's metal case, that seems to be key) gave me verbal permission. I'm not sure if it's actually against EPA for them (the metal recyclers) to accept it period, I've been meaning to check on it. I haven't found anything that says specifically that scrap yards can't accept printed circuit boards, but it does specifically say landfills/dumps cannot accept them.
The way it was put to me is : "As long as it obviously has at least 75% straight metal in weight, it's fine, but we will turn you down if you start bringing 100s of pounds of the stuff or bring in a box of JUST brown boards", not word for word of course