Picked up 12 office florcent lights

**drozenski** · 10-13-2011, 06:11 PM

So i picked up 12 of these.

Should i cut all the wire out and leave the black balist box's inside to get more for scrap value or break open the balist box's?

Whats inside them?

Thanks

**MetalRecyclingBiz** · 10-13-2011, 06:22 PM

All the scrap yards I'm aware of do not accept ballasts. They're considered hazardous waste and should be removed from the fixtures before you turn them in for scrap.

If you get caught giving ballasts to the scrap yards they'll probably refuse your load.

**hobo finds** · 10-13-2011, 07:13 PM

Make sure they are PCB free. Then no problem.

**hobo finds** · 10-13-2011, 07:32 PM

My yard just put up a sign that no PCB's before that never checked. I believe they still don't check. So you could remove them and mix them in with the other scrap if you wanted to

**GeorgeB** · 10-13-2011, 08:01 PM

Originally Posted by MetalRecyclingBiz

All the scrap yards I'm aware of do not accept ballasts. They're considered hazardous waste and should be removed from the fixtures before you turn them in for scrap.

If you get caught giving ballasts to the scrap yards they'll probably refuse your load.

I guess mine don't care to much, as there is a place here that will accept them.

Just depends on how the company treats the material really.

**eesakiwi** · 10-15-2011, 01:19 AM

I have found that the ballasts are a real easy way to get copper.

Theres 2 sorts, old sort - box fill of tar & the modern sort - white painted lamination.

Box full of tar.
Use a fire & melt the tar out, small fires Ok or a fireplace, theres minimal smoke.
Grab one end with pliers & tap the ballast out while its still hot.
You will find that the iron core is made of 2 long leg 'C' shapes with a paper & tar covered coil of Copper wire.
Grab one or both ends of the 'C' & pull on it & the copper coil will fall off.
It will be covered with a thin layer of tar & some fine ricepaper, that flakes off & leaves you with a nice compactish coil of fine copper wire & 2 solid Iron laminations & the encasing box. Oh, & tar...

Real nice easy work, a bit dirty but the coppers good value. Save them up & do 30 or so at a time.
Since they get thrown away anyway, they are easyish to get.
If you are lucky, a shop fitout (where I got mine) can return from 20 to 200 (mine 30)
The Tar, can be used to cover a hole in roofing or something else, I dunno.

Laminations, painted white.
Peel off the backing plate, (hard - use a vise)
The rest falls apart, theres hundreds of 'C' sections & 1/2 that of small squares that you have to punch out of the copper coil.
Theres 100 gms of copper wire in that sort of ballast = NZ$.65cents each or US$0.50cents each.

I just found out that the pre 1975 flouros have PCB filled capacitors inside them.
Don't break them open & be careful of the liquid or the possibility of there being liquid in that part of the flouro.

**KzScrapper** · 10-15-2011, 08:40 AM

They are fazing the larger bulbs out so many schools and offices etc are either retrofitting old fixtures or installing new so I'm seeing more of these being scraped.

**eesakiwi** · 10-15-2011, 11:56 PM

Originally Posted by KZBell

They are fazing the larger bulbs out so many schools and offices etc are either retrofitting old fixtures or installing new so I'm seeing more of these being scraped.

It would be a good sideline. They normally dump the lot in a wastetaker bin & they use up a lot of space.
Since the whole light fitting (flouro ballast etc) is made from steel & copper wiring almost the whole things recyclable.

I even went thru & pulled apart the little chocolate box wire connectors for the brass, I ended up with hundreds of tiny steel screws that I threw at a microwave magnet for my amusement.
I can mould them into weird shapes since they all stick together magnetically.

**drozenski** · 10-16-2011, 09:46 AM

Dropped them off, the yard said nothing about them. Was prob 100 pounds of extra week.

Though tim/light iron dropped to 273/ton from 292/ton just 2 weeks ago.

**ozzy214** · 10-23-2011, 04:58 PM

Mine takes them as motor breakage. Was 20c lb now done to 15c

**eesakiwi** · 10-23-2011, 11:44 PM

OMG, I just scrapped a bunch of ballasts (3) some had 2 trannys in them, weighed up to 4Kg. US$20. Easy as..

If its got 'No PCB's' on its capactor, theres no PCBs.

If it hasn't - then it has PCB's.

I would LOVE to get a line of flouro ballasts........A whole shop full, specially the old ones, fulla tar. Ankle deep in pitch & $$