Hey guys, been scrounging the forum for awhile now, just getting around to introducing myself.
I'm an unemployed 23 year old from Green Bay, WI. (yea yea go Pack, blah blah)
I was employed at an auto dealer for 2 1/2 years, detailing cars. Then I got kicked by the economy. Everybodys story.
I took it as an initiative to go back to school, get my GED, and enroll in the Auto Technician program.
I've "scrapped" for years, since before I could drive. When I was a kid i'd junk pick, strip, and rebuild bicycles...like alot of kids do. At one point in time my parents old landlord told us if we cleaned the attic of the garage (we'de lived there for 15+ years and accumulated alot of stuff for our little apartment) we could have it for storage. I know metal was worth money, and her oldest kid had been a mechanic for years and used the attic as his storage...for junk parts. At the time I didn't know cat converters, rotors, torque converters, etc were all worth more than scale weight. I didn't know the difference between sheet iron, aluminum, copper, etc. If it was metal in went on the trailer and over the scale. I still kick myself in the ass, through the 2 days of cleaning i threw a cat converter, torque converter, numerous rotors, and god knows what else into the pile.
It was free, easy money, and I never stopped. Just recently I got into really breaking things down...thus leading me here.
I don't have a truck anymore, due to gas prices skyrocketing I downgraded, to a 1991 Honda Civic hatchback...which surprisingly can fit ALOT. When I accumulate enough for a scale run, I recruit my brother and his trailer and 20 bucks off my load. Buckets of copper, motors, aluminum, etc go in in the back of my car.
I'm big into electronics...easy to get, easy to break down, easy to deal with, but i'll never turn down anything metal. ANYTHING.
Through my wanted ads, and local posts, i've became pretty good friends with a guy who specializes in freon removal and large appliances. He gets me alot of TVs, radios, etc thats to time consuming for his operation. Also, if I come across AC units, dehumidifiers, etc, he pumps them for me for free. So I get the item for free, he pumps it for free (and recycles the freon, which gets him money) and I dismantle the object and cash it in. Free money, I call it.
For me, everything metal is scrappable...to the tiniest screw...sure, in the end a bucket of screws may only be a couple extra bucks...but it's a couple extra bucks I didn't have before.
I do the best I can. Me and my girlfriend live on our own, which means cost of living, plus pet care...we don't have any government assistance, only her part-time paycheck, my unemployment (which is close to dried up) and my scrapping money.
Well, enough ranting. We all have better things to do
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