Shoplight Fixtures

Originally Posted by breakage

i dismantle shoplight fixtures as part of lamp recycling and i've always just thrown the fixture, sans ballast, wire, and bulbs, in with the shred. But i've been doing more of them than usual, lately, and i've seen some attractive yellow metal in the contact points for the bulbs. What is it?

Mercury.

All kidding aside anyone dealing with light fixtures should be aware that mercury is a possibility. Not sure what your yellow metal is, have you put a magnet to it.

Its Brass.
Fluoro light fittings are a good earner if you get enough of them, without the bulbs of course.....

Newer ones have about 60-100gms of Copper in the ballast itself, even newer ones use a 'Invertor' setup and contain nearly nothing.

Older units, the ballast transformer is in a pressed metal casing and filled with Tar, there's also the option that they might have poisonous PCB's in there too.
If its got 'No PCB's' printed somewhere on it, its OK to mess around with, if it has not, don't, its probably got PCB's in the capacitors.

Depending on your situation, you can take the newer transformers apart.
The newer ones are normally painted white, by peeling off the backing/mounting strip with some tools, levers and bench vise is good, then hammer out all of the metal plates to get a Copper coil, Biggest ones weigh 100gms of Copper.

The ones in the pressed metal casing, full of tar, are really messy. To get the Copper wire out, there's sheets of rice paper impregnated with Tar in there, some wooden blocks as spacer, some components, normally a flat capacitor or such.
. Its really messy and at current prices, not worth it for me.

Otherwise, and you will have to figure this out yourself, your time value and the prices you can sell your metals for, tools and space to hoard the metals, what you want to sell it as.
You can just save up the transformers and sell them at the 'Transformers' price. That involves hardly any work at all.

Ie, in NZ$. The Copper wires worth NZ$4.60/Kg and 'Transformers are worth NZ$0.58cents a Kg.

So that makes NZ$0.46cents a ballast in Copper and $? From the light gauge metal around it. Vs
A 1Kg ballast is worth NZ$0.58cents. and that took no work or mess or tools at all.

The wires on these fluro strip fittings, is normally a good return of Copper as its a single thickish strand with a plastic coating. It adds up quickly.

The Brass, it would take a lot to get some money from it, but its part of the dismantling process so in the end you get what its worth anyway, the screws holding the faceplate on are sometimes plated Brass too.

So,
'Light gauge steel = $.
'Brass = $.
'Plastic coated Copper wire = $.
'Transformers, or 'Domestic Copper' = $.

Getting these units normally means you will end up with floodlights and other metal light fixtures too.