Test it before you Scrap It!

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A big mistake that many have made when dealing with electronic scrap is the assumption that everything that they get is nothing more than junk. I too was guilty of this same assumption until one day I did something that changed the way I look at the items I pickup.

When I first started dabbling in e-scrap flat panel monitors were getting hot. My wife had one thanks to her quick thinking and use of the Yahoo Freecycle groups but I was still using the old CRT monster. So I got a call from one of the computer repair shops that I deal with and was told that they had a load for me.

When I arrived there was several towers, a laptop and a flat panel monitor waiting for me. When I got the stuff back to the shop I decided, I still don’t know why, to test the monitor.

It had now come with a cord but it only required a standard AC plug so I dug one up and plugged it in. I was shocked to learn that it worked. From that point on I decided that I would check things that I received just to be sure.

These days I have some minimum standards for what I will test and then try to sell. When it comes to desktop computers I require that they be at least Windows XP with a 512mb ram setup.

The beauty of this is the fact that I can sell a very basic tower running Windows XP and capable of running on the net for about $50. This is just the tower and the price goes up if I decide to offer the monitor, mouse and keyboard. Around this area people snap them up rather quickly.

That leads us to laptops. I have received several working laptops over the years and a working laptop is a valuable laptop. Even if the laptop is older it can still be sold because they are so popular.

However, even a non-working or damaged laptop may have some value. The way we operate is this….If we get in a laptop that has some problems or maybe will not even turn on my wife will do a quick eBay search for parts laptops. If it meets the minimum that we have placed on time versus value then it will be listed. Even a broken laptop can sell for over $100.

Do the same with the flat panel monitors. We have sold a lot of them over the time that we have been involved with e-scrap and many of them didn’t work. But there are some savvy people out there that know how to work on the flat panels and who will give you a good price for them as long as the screen is intact.

Furthermore, it is surprising how often you will get a working tower with nothing more wrong with it than a virus. Many computer repair shops charge a hefty sum for ridding a computer of a virus and many people will simply tell the shop to keep the computer and get a new one.

With the internet you have the opportunity to clean these machines out and get them back on track for some fast cash. Normally just a virus removal program downloaded from the net is enough to clean a computer out and get it back on the road.

To make things easier for testing I have a station set up in my shop. There is a monitor, mouse, keyboard and standard power cord for the tower sitting on a work bench. So when I get a tower that looks promising I just plug it in and see what happens. If it is something that is simple enough and will not cost anything I will get it going.

But there is something important that you should do. Always make sure to wipe the hard drive before selling it. Data destruction is a big part of the e-scrap world and it is the responsible thing to do.

Scrapping the Dreaded CRT Monitor for Cash

Image by 謝一麟 Chiā,It-lîn via Flickr

Whenever people find out that I own and operate an e-scrap company the first thing that they always ask is how I deal with the CRT monitors. These units have gotten such a bad name because they were built without the environment in mind that many believe that they are the worst possible thing to happen to the e-scrap industry.

I tend to disagree with that assessment. While they are not high in value, if you have enough of them you can make some decent cash with very little hassle along the way.

So let’s take a look at how I have turned the dreaded CRT monitors into cash.

For most CRT monitors the heaviest thing is the tube and it is also the most difficult to get rid of. The tubes are leaded glass and some other elements inside, which makes them a problem for the environment.

It is important to note that you should not break the tube when you are tearing apart the CRT monitors. Breathing in the stuff from inside can be a very bad idea. I will outline how I tear them down without breaking the tube. (Yes there are a lot of videos on Youtube that show guys breaking the tubes that claim there is no harm but they are sidestepping the truth.)

The first order of business is to get the plastic casing off. In many instances this means taking out 4 screws and then just taking it off. However, some units have just 2 screws and then tabs. Nonetheless, it is not difficult to get the casing off. The plastic should be set aside and then sold to a polymer company. ABS, the plastic used to make the cases, sells for roughly .10 per pound and can go much higher if you have a lot of it.

Now that the case is off you will see the insides of the monitor. The tube comes to a point and there will be a metal covered circuit board attached to the fine point on the tube. This is where a lot of people make a mistake because they twist that circuit board off of there. You should actually just lift straight up and it will unplug itself from the tube. Set that circuit board aside.

Now you can easily see the item that provides the biggest money in CRT monitors, the copper yoke. These are very easy to remove. There will be two ring collars around the tube above the yoke that are held on with screws. Simply take those screws loose and remove the collars. At this point you should grab the yoke and twist. The adhesive that is holding the yoke will come loose and the yoke can then be slipped off of the tube. Set this aside for later disassembly.

Now it is time to remove the circuit board. As I have mentioned in other articles, this board is a low grade brown, which is the lowest on the scale of circuit boards. They sell in the area of .50 per pound to many scrap metal yards. Getting the circuit board off is simply a matter of looking for screws or pulling apart a couple of tabs. You will likely have to clip a few wires along the way.

Now all you have to do is remove the screws holding the tube to the front part of the case and then slip off the large loop of wire that is wrapped in black tape.

At this point you have a few decisions to be made concerning the circuit boards. There are some items that have a bit more value attached to them. There are transformers and cast or extruded aluminum pieces that are mounted on the boards. You can pull these off and separate them but this is a time consuming and not very rewarding process.

The wires can be clipped off with ease and sold with the rest of your wire.

For the copper yoke the disassembly is very easy. There is an iron ferrite collar that can be pried off and then thrown in with your scrap steel and iron. From there the plastic that holds it all together can be broken apart and you wind up with a pile of clean #2 copper that is ready for the scrap yard.

As for the tubes the process is very simple. There are several companies around the US that are now accepting the tubes as long as they are intact. They will not buy them but they will not charge like some were doing at one point either.

The rest of the material from a CRT can be sold for cash.