household scrap?

lincroft1710

Poosmate wrote: »

it won't really cost me anything as there are many scrap yards around where I work.

That's very fortunate.

About once a year a friend has a clearout and as he buys old vehicles cheaply then scraps them when MOT expires, we fill the vehicle with any scrap we have and weigh it in. This tends to be larger items, old electric motors, heating radiators, pipes etc.

I've never saved cans, just put them in recycling bin on bin day.

wellused

A program on television the other week took some old mobile phones and computer circuit boards crushed them up and dissolved them in acid, they then had to do several chemical processes some of which were quite toxic and needed specialist equipment, the end product was pure gold to the value of £50 or £60.

tom717

paddyrg wrote: »

If your old TV is a CRT-type, do not open it to recover the copper unless you REALLY know what you're doing. Just because it is unplugged does not mean it isn't holding a whole heap of charge, and the scan coils on those operate at upto 50kV(!)

Just wanted to second this. It is very dangerous to open up a TV, even if it hasn't been plugged in for a while.

lincroft1710

wellused wrote: »

A program on television the other week took some old mobile phones and computer circuit boards crushed them up and dissolved them in acid, they then had to do several chemical processes some of which were quite toxic and needed specialist equipment, the end product was pure gold to the value of £50 or £60.

Did the programme have one of those "Don't try this at home" warnings?

Poosmate

wellused wrote: »

A program on television the other week took some old mobile phones and computer circuit boards crushed them up and dissolved them in acid, they then had to do several chemical processes some of which were quite toxic and needed specialist equipment, the end product was pure gold to the value of £50 or £60.

I've seen this done before on Youtube. If you're thinking about doing it, watch several Youtube vids before you attempt it.

Also, as per Paddy and Tom, televisions and monitors can hold a charge so it is important to be very careful when extracting the copped coils. Again, watch Youtube vids to see how it's done.

Poo

patman99

I save all my cans (in fact, my parents save theirs for me as well). I did start a thread on here a long time ago, but cannot seem to find it. It was about making money from scrap. Had quite a few followers as well.
If you can, buy a can-crusher as you can get more cans in a bag if they are crushed-up.
Also, sort them in to steel and aluminium. Add any scrap tinfoil you have (such as takeaway tins) to the ali-bag as they are aluminium.

Le_Chuck

patman99 wrote: »

I save all my cans (in fact, my parents save theirs for me as well). I did start a thread on here a long time ago, but cannot seem to find it. It was about making money from scrap. Had quite a few followers as well.
If you can, buy a can-crusher as you can get more cans in a bag if they are crushed-up.
Also, sort them in to steel and aluminium. Add any scrap tinfoil you have (such as takeaway tins) to the ali-bag as they are aluminium.

A plank of wood is cheaper.

Out of interest how much do you get for the steel cans?