i love finding things

I just wrote a long and friendly post about who I am and what I'm doing, but the forum ate it up. This time i will just say hi, and that I am new. Thanks.

Hello Jilly, welcome to SMF

Welcome aboard, let us know if you have any questions.

Originally Posted by miked

Welcome to the forum. Take the time to read the sticky threads first and then branch out with your studies. Mike.

Thank you for the welcomes! Bear, my nickname is usually Jillbear - nice to meet a fellow ursine.

Mike, been working through the stickies and a few hundred threads of interest. Learning a lot about escrap and plucking apart some boards as we speak. Lots of fun learning what capacitators, transformers and inductors are.

Some early ewaste thoughts, if anyone has answers: One person wrote about silver in the crystals, but he didn't sound certain about that one. They appear to be aluminum? I'm picking them off anyway, since the mindless picking is relaxing. It would take a whole lot of these things to make a pound.

The ICs are hard to pry off with a screwdriver. Someone mentioned using a wood chisel and hammer, but I need to find a wood chisel first.

Another person mentioned 35% palladium in the 5-10 tiny chips between the normal chips on the ram boards, but I can't seem to figure out where those are - are we talking miniscule IC sizes?

More about me: living this month in Orlando, and after that, either somewhere in AZ or North Carolina. I'm addicted to scrapping, but never took anything apart before. It's a whole new world, and a fun one - even though I already gouged a flap off my toe on a heavy iron motor. I had my tetanus shot last year, so that's good.

My goal is to save up enough in junking metals to use as a down payment on a house. Tired of living on the road.

You can find a good wood chisel for under ten bux, or check at yard sales/flea markets/pawn shops for older American made

Originally Posted by Jillyenator

One person wrote about silver in the crystals, but he didn't sound certain about that one. .

Maybe these, they have silver in them. A tiny amount though.
> This is whats inside them, you canb see the silver on the crystal disc.

These crystals have Gold in them. Around the outside of the top edge. Its Gold solder. > & they have Gold wires in them too. &

A 4"/4 1/2" grinder with a cutting wheel works well enough. Use safety glasses(and good gloves). My Frieght Harbor grinder turned out to be 4" and I had to get large washers to put behind the only 4" cutting wheels around here so the blade is out far enough to turn

Welcome to the forums from a sandbar off the coast of NC.

Ya can get a good enough wood chisel at Home depot or Lowes, or if you have a Harbor Freight near you. Don't need anything fancy. Once I use, are cheap an from Home Depot..thing..10 bucks, for 3 sizes. Work like a charm. Smack wit a hammer, an no more issues.

Good luck, you'll find all you seek here if you take the time to dig into the archives an read it all.

Sirscrapalot - Keeper of the traveling cooler, an one of the people your parents warned you about.

Had a productive scrap walk today. When It's sunny out, I head out with some trash bags and pick up cans, metal bits, anything interesting. I found a copper pipe that was several feet long and a ton of insulated wire in a dirt lot that trucks pull over onto. Going on, I grabbed three CVS bags full of metal trash from the roadsides, and then came across a house with about ten bulky bags in the driveway.

Went home and came back in the CRV. There were tools, ropes, chains, three heavy new pallets of what looks like Italian tile, toys and misc building materials that were new in their containers.

Most of the toys I cleaned, and gave to my niece for her baby. One item was a broken electronic keyboard for children, which I promptly dismantled; it yielded a nice mylar, a board, wires, the usual. I plucked off the keys for my MIL's crafting room (the keys were in the shape of lambs and chicks and kittens).

Tools: a very nice hacksaw and a shrubbery lopper. I also found about fifty feet of garden hoses. I'll pull off the brass fittings on those with my new hacksaw.

Not sure what to do with the tiles: either CL, or give them to Habitat's ReStore.

I'm having a fun evening pulling things apart and sorting!

If the garden hoses were still of any use you could put em on FreeCycle if you use that. It's a good way to give something back, and keep your name up there, without actually losing much (I really doubt if your brass bucket would even miss the little bit of weight they'll provide).