4' flour light fixtures from the 60's

[crapscrapper]

I've got 40 4' 2 bulb fixtures in a pole barn w bulbs
any major health concerns to be aware of ? It's very well ventilated

[BRASSCATCHER]

If they are that old i would watch out for the ballasts that probably have pcb's in them. now go and use search button and read up on what you got. ballasts and fixtures have plenty threads on here lately. After you do that read about everything else you want to scrap before asking another question. Just an fyi,the guys and girls here, who are the experienced scrappers are sick of answering questions when the answers can be found if you just put some time and effort into it.

[BurlyGuys]

A little harsh, but accurate. Welcome to the forum.

[BRASSCATCHER]

Not really, hopefully got the point across.

[crapscrapper]

other forums i use bring up related topics after ya put in your thead title so you can reference without a post. sorry if unfamiliar with the forum yet. i did browse the topic before posting and was amazed i found nothing related and if your tired of noob's don't respond. as people use something new they become more proficient. did ya never ask a dumb ?

[newattitude]

If they are that old i would watch out for the ballasts that probably have pcb's in them. now go and use search button and read up on what you got. ballasts and fixtures have plenty threads on here lately. After you do that read about everything else you want to scrap before asking another question. Just an fyi,the guys and girls here, who are the experienced scrappers are sick of answering questions when the answers can be found if you just put some time and effort into it.

Not really- I don't mind answering the same question more than once if I happen upon them. This is the kind of attitude that the forum and especially a newbie doesn't deserve IMO.

[BRASSCATCHER]

Crapscrapper-I ask dumb questions every day of my life---ask my wife. As far as browsing the topic before you posted like you said...I call b.s. You intro yourself at 11:25 a.m Your first post was at 11:31 a.m. This of course is my time zone but I am reading this right off the top of your posts. So you took all of 6 minutes to try to look something up.
Newattitude- I answered the question at 7:18 p.m. Almost 8 hrs after he posted and the reason I answered is because 1-the silence to his question was defeaning 2-he may have been dealing with a ballast that had pcb's so I didnt want him ripping into it and getting exposed to that stuff. So although I may have been a bit harsh, which I didn"t mean to be, I hope he realized why it took someone so long to answer.
Crapscrapper- my apologies if you were offended, things sometimes get lost in translation when you are "speaking" on the computer instead of in person.

[scrappy888]

I for 1 do agree that the search function could use some tweaking..somewhat difficult to find info..its usually there but takes quite a bit of time..sometimes it doesn't help at all..just sayying...he obviously didn't put the work in..hence the six mins...but I've searched for over 30 n not found what I was looking for..a lot of unrelated subjects..just saying..could use some tweaks admin

[waredu]

Not sure why everyone goes on about how bad the search function is. It works fine. And from my experience running forums, the admin can't do much about it.

As an example, using Brasscatcher's post earlier - the term

my apologies if you were offended,

was used. If you go to the search box and type in

were offended

, it tells you the keyword is offended and gives 3 pages of results. But, if you type in

"were offended"

(with the quotation marks) you get 1 result - this thread.

Not trying to jump on anyone, I've been around enough forums to know that I should read, depending upon the size of the forum, the last few weeks or months of posts before I ever post anything myself. A forum like this is full of information and anyone new here should take the time to try and find information on their own. That being said (and this is my age talking, I guess) - the generations behind me seem to have been raised with a sense of entitlement that I wouldn't dream of sharing. So, it could be a generational thing too I suppose. Kids these days and all that. Again, not trying to step on any toes, I have no idea how old any of y'all are. Just my two cents and I'll go back to my corner now.

[bejak]

But, if you type in were offended (with the quotation marks) you get 1 result - this thread.

Thanks waredu, always wondered if the quotation marks thing would work here, never tried it. Use it on google all the time when searching there, works awesome on two or more words and searches only for the word in the sequence you type between the marks.

[happyscraper]

The yard I use buys the ballast even if they have "pcb"s .20 cent a lbs. I would be more concernd about the bulbs braking, just don't open the ballast.

[scrappy888]

Thx waredu..I would have never thought you needed to use quotation marks..you don't need to on google..know what I'm saying..then again im never really on the internet n am not tech savvy at all..even though i am a youngin..but thank-you..

[injunjoe]

There are other search tricks you can use to bring up better results.

I am off to work now but will try to find and post these search tools. If I know Idaho he will have found and posted them before I return! lol

[waredu]

Here's Google's page on how to use operators (similar to what Ma Bell used to have - "Hey Flo, get me John" and she knows to get John in your town and not John in New York) while searching http://support.google.com/websearch/...1265&ctx=topic

Princeton put together a nice little pdf http://www.princeton.edu/as/LNL/pres...0908Google.pdf Some of only works on Google, but the idea is there.

Ok - so I'm officially a geek.

[injunjoe]

Yes this is what I was talking about. Thanks

[mrbillbus]

So I used the search function and put in PCB ballast. This thread came up on top complete with the admonition about using the search function. But no where in the thread is the answer to how to tell the difference between with and without PCB ballasts (which is what I am searching for).

What would be the proper way to get the search function to find such information?

If nothing else, this thread will come up the next time someone searches for search function! ;-)

[mrbillbus]

Even better, I went to google and put in "how to tell if a scrap ballast has pcbs" and this thread came up first for this forum. And I still don't know the answer. Maybe I should use the search function.

[Craasher]

The answer isn't always in the subject or in the first few posts. I too was looking for how to tell the difference a little while back and searched and ran across the thread in the link below. I used the same search criteria you did.

http://www.scrapmetalforum.com/showt...light=ballasts
Towards the bottom it has BRASSCATCHER saying "They should as long as they say non-pcb somewhere on them." This leads me to believe that the ones with PCB's in them dont have this marking. Now I dont take it as a hard and fast rule because there could be one without PCB's that doesn't have this marking but its a place to start.

Lots of time you will find a post that someone says "Hey I found some ballasts and got rich off them" Then further down someone else will say something like they found some that were just like those and you could tell they were the good kind because of X. Think of your search as bringing up every post that contains what you are looking for but the more you look through it the more you will find.

As another example I was looking to buy a scale to weigh my e-scrap. So I searched scales and passed up all the people talking about the scales at the yard that seemed to be off (but earmarked to pay attention when I go to the yard), passed up the posts with people talking about the scrap scales that they picked up, and eventually settled on two or three good posts about different kinds of scales and who is using what scale. Now I have in my mind the scale i want to buy but I had to dig for it.

[waredu]

Using [pcbs in ballast of fluorescent lights] as my Google search term, this was the fifth entry http://www.pcbdisposalinc.com/images/pdfs/ballasts.pdf

It was easy to tell that the first four entries (from the State of New Jersey, the EPA, the State of Missouri, and OSHA) were just warnings about the dangers of PCBs.

HTH
Roy

[BRASSCATCHER]

Ok in a previous post regarding a company that I may be doing business with I stated that they are doing retrofits removing the magnetic ballasts and replacing with the new electronic ones. The ballasts that are being removed were non-pcb type which are supposed to be clearly marked on the spec sheet that are attached to the ballast. The ballasts if not marked that way or the paper being missing or unreadable I will not take due to the fact that the yards I deal with have stated " if one ballast in the lot is not marked as non-pb we will not accept the entire load". As far as telling the difference if they are not marked I have no idea. The op asked about ballasts from the 1960's. I answered that anything that old that he should watch out for the pcb in them. If you are going to scrap ballasts you should call your yards to see what they accept. Check out waredu post above and the link he attached. That's a pretty good list that is on there.