Passenger Elevator

The Counter weights are interesting
LOTS of weight in a small space

We use them as counter weights on the snow plow trucks

Originally Posted by BurlyGuys

Just remember: Scrap removal is free, demolition is not.

it's on the roof, right up those stairs ; )

Umm, any chance you can send me some info/pics of those? Are they a newer style elevator or an older style? Is it possible to remove it so that its reusable? I could use an elevator, four flights of stairs is getting to be a bit much, especially going up carrying surplus parts.

Kristi

Schindlers lifts........



Ok, its a old one.

Make sure you know where you have to pick up the pieces from! The hoist mechanism is usually at the top and it will be made with lots of cast iron!! (=very heavy) So if it is on the ground, you are fine. At the top of a 6 story building might be problematic.

It all depends on how old the elevators are, as to what kind of things to watch for as in valuable, or to watch for as in getting financially burnt!!

If the hoists are worm gearboxes, the wormwheels will likely be big brass gears. Open an oil filler plug to make sure. The motors may be DC motors or AC motors--the DC motors will probably have a bit more copper in them, since the rotor will have copper windings and a copper or brass commutator. Sometimes you can get the copper out of a big DC motor if you want to fight with it a bit. However, the chances of getting the copper out of an AC motor will be pretty low since the wire is pretty much glued in.

If the drive is a DC motor then you may find a big DC motor controller which is heavy and will have more copper in it. If it is old it will be a "motor-generator" where a 3 phase AC motor drives a dc generator that in turn runs to elevator hoist motor. Updated DC drives will have an electronic drive full of circuit cards and some heavy electronics, which can be worth some money.

Look closely at the copper cables that run alongside the elevator car with the lift cables. Very likely they will have a steel cable liner that support the weight of the copper as it runs up and down. Some scrap outfits have a classification for this type of cable (usually called "elevator cable"--they aren't very creative) and will pay you a reduced rate allowing for the steel. If you have time you can consider cutting this steel cable out and probably making a little extra.

The control panels for the elevator can be just about anything, depending on the age. I've seen old relay control systems with zero electronics and some of the early '80's electronics cards that used custom CPU's and digital logic chips. Most of this stuff had little scrap value, other than the wiring and few control transformers. I didn't see much in the line of gold parts on the old cards. There are usually a few stainless panels in the elevator car but it was all pretty light stuff.

The elevator lift cable is supposed to be pretty special stuff and they replace it often, so any cable you get could be resold if there is any market for it in your area. I was keeping my eye out for bulldozer winch line but the biggest elevator cable I've seen was around 3/4"--that's a little small for anything but tinkertoy cats. It might go good on a scrapper trailer winch!

There should be a lot of smaller electrical cabling from each floors control panel to the main control panel. It will be all no. 2 insulated but there should be many hundreds of pounds of it. (more modern elevators will have eliminated this with computers and single coax runs between floors.)

I don't know anything about the mechanical stuff in the cars and the vertical tracks that guide the cars. But it should be all decent scrap steel.

Hope this helps,
Jon.

Here we go... Few things here....

Ok, Counter weights, Prepared iron to the the tune of thousands of pounds. Beautiful!

Machine rooms can be in any area. It depends on the elevator type.

"Spinal Cord" = that funny traveling cable with all the signals.

What type of elevator? Hydro? Cable? Quite the difference there.

As for Schindler type How is that old? They are still active and building elevators.

Rails weight quite a bit. Nice prepared iron. At the moment I'd happily demo it for free. Been chasing the elevator trade for 8 years. If they are in fact dismantled then there probably isn't thousands of pounds of counter weights floating in the air. I'd bet if anything you are picking up the carcases cars and or the hydro set up. I'd call it a score. That is one trade where the mechanics aren't hell bent on scrapping their own junk. Over here they make 50 an hour straight time. No need for some copper wire. Congrats on the score. hope it works out well. My good friend gets made fun of for collecting scrap left over for jobs. Thyssen sent an extra 4.4k of counterweights for the job. He was happy. Older will mostly be bulky DC motors. New age has brought slim AC motors. Congrats and Enjoy