computer power supplies? scrap value?

[Exibar]

Hi guys!
Has anyone sold any computer powersupplies to salvage yards? ow much per pound did you get for them? Did you have to strip them compeltely first?

thanks!
Mike B

 

[donald236]

are you talking about the power supply box inside the tower ? if you are then you'll need to strip them first there good for several things . first being aluminium , some copper (not much at all ) then the steel oh and of course the coated wire . now for the aluminium you'll get around $0.75 per pound, copper will bring $2.50 per pound , coated wire will bring around $0.50 per pound and lastly the steel will bring around $8.00 per hundred pounds
i hope this helps you out
Donald

 

[silversaddle1]

Last load of them I hauled in they gave me .30 cents per pound, as-is. Now you can tear them apart and separate out the different metals, but it's harly worth your time unless the power supplys are from huge racks.

 

[Exibar]

Thank you both for the replys!

.30 a pound isn't too bad at all... as is without having to strip everything out.
when you guys strip the PSs, do you just go in with clippers and clip away? and throw the cases into one pile, the wire in another and the rest in a third?

Coated wire, is that insulated wire or epoxy coated?

Steel over here in Mass is getting $200/ton, and I have a crapload of equipment I just picked up from someone's house. A whole roomfull Took me two full loaded trips in my Avalanche to haul it home, you guys should have seen the look on my wife's face too... I'm sure y'all have seen it before though!

thanks guys!
Mike B

 

[donald236]

just clip , clip away till your hearts content . just make sure that the aluminium is clean and by clean i mean that theres no steel or any thing on it other wise they will conceder it arny . meaning its goy steel on it .
coated wire is just how it sounds coated . in other words its just like any thing that you wold plug in to a wall and you cut the cord and sold the cord as is thats coated wire.
i hope this helps
donald
p.s. pm sent

 

[tyoon21]

Exibar you may want to check out this website. It talks about the componets on a power supply from a computer tower.

http://www.c-realevents.demon.co.uk/comprecyc/comprec.htm

Basically, here is what I do with power supplies:

1. Clip the wires (copper)
2. Save the connector (not sure what to do with these yet)
3. Discharge and remove all capacitors.
4. Remove the transformer and save. Some scrap yards will pay 0.30 per pound for these alone.
5. Remove the filters and check for copper wiring. If there is some on there i'll remove it and save. Otherwise they go into a large pile in which I don't know what to do with just yet
6. Remove the aluminum heat sink if there is one and sell as extruded aluminum (make sure it's clean)
7. Save the case and screws for steel

I don't know what to do with the capacitors and the remaining board just yet. I heard the capacitors have aluminum in them but it's not confirmed.

Hope this helps, cheers!
Tom

 

[Exibar]

excellent stuff all! Thank you very much.

That's pretty much what I figured, but just wanted to check in with y'all to make sure I'm not missing something in them

right now I have two 55 gallon drums full of PSs from that huge pickup I did this saturday.

My son and I are having an absolute blast going through it all

thanks everyone!
Mike B

 

[Rag and Bone]

Got paid 25 cents a lb. for a load of power supplies. Anybody else doing any better?

 

[donald236]

yes you'll get a lot better if you seperate all the stuff like wires , steel etc.

 

[Exibar]

I've started to separate out all the parts from the power supplies. I'll take pictures tonight of what I get out of one supply and ask for comments from the experts.

One question, what about the large capacitors? Are they worth any scrap value?

What are ppl getting per pound for the transformers too?

thanks guys!
Mike B

 

[Rag and Bone]

yes you'll get a lot better if you seperate all the stuff like wires , steel etc.

I see that method as doing alot worse, once you factor in the time it takes to dismantle everything. It was 800 pounds of power supplies.

 

[Exibar]

Here are the pics of a typical powersupply teardown for me. If the experts here could chime in and comment on what I've done and if I can improve please let me know.
Is there any further breaking down that I have to do for anything in thelast pic?
Anything else that I should save?

not counting the time it takes me to break the stuff down, is it really worth the effort in money gained at the scrap yard?

Thanks all!
Mike B

 

[Platdigger]

Well, if your time is worth nothing, then I supose it would be worth it.
But 30 cents a pound whole sounds pretty good to me.
Randy

 

[Exibar]

It's not that my time has no value, its just that I look at this as a hobby. The time I spend pulling these things apart is all relaxation time, and time I spend with my son, so it's quite enjoyable time

But, I also want to make sure I'm doing the right thing. If I'm going to go through the trouble of pulling these things apart, I want to make sure that I maximize my gain at the end and not hurt my gain at the end.

Mike b

 

[Platdigger]

Well, I am sure the "gain" is not a whole lot. But, you haven't hurt your gain either. You should be able to get a bit more for your transformers, and of course the wire and Al is now worth more per pound. Iron is way up, so, if you had thousands of these to do it could be way worth it.
The only thing I am not sure about is the boards with nothing more than capacitors and such left on them. But I will speculate that they will even give you something for these at the scrap yard. As long as you have enough of them. If nothing else they should just take them for nothing.
Randy

 

[Scott2357]

Some electronics folks on ebay might buy the ferrite donuts in img1655 to tinker with. They are made compressed iron powder.

 

[Exibar]

should I take the copper wire off the ferrite donuts? they certainly are quite heavy

 

[Scott2357]

I would try to segregate iron, copper, aluminum, etc. and recycle as sufficient quantities accumulate. The ferrites can be used to filter line noise interference in electronic equipment. Just loop a power cord once or twice through the hole. Also used to make your own high frequency transformers.

 

[Rag and Bone]

If somebody has the time...

You might dissasemble an average power supply and segregate all the components. Weigh each type and see what the actual value of the entire power supply would be at spot. It wouldn't be hard to create a spread sheet to know the value of a PS at any given time.

 

[Exibar]

I'll hapily do the weighing, if someone else can put a price to the separated items weighed out.

I have the perfect scale for it too, 2kg max scale, with .1oz increments (or .1gram if desired).

I'll try to get this done tomorrow when I get home from the office.

Mike B