Man, this thread is on fire. you guys are awesome!
Business update!
got my first 'paycheck' for my stripped copper. (not gonna trade in the aluminum just jet till I have a bit more)
$17.40 for 7lb's (1lb #2 6lb #1)
bought some HCL, I have most of the other chemicals I need already from my circuit board etching stuff + older science experiments.
I spent the day getting some more stuff. not the best haul, but, I'm way to early into this to be picky. money's money.
1 microwave. (I'll be using the transformer in it for myself)
1 inkjet printer (I'll probably sell/keep the stepper motors intact. worth more that way)
1 xbox 360 (as I mentioned before)
1 box of Christmas lights (not ideal, but hey, it's to early for me to complain, I'm just glad I got something ^.^)
+ (not really e-scrap, but I decided to take it anyway, since it'll get me some extra cash for this endeavor)
about 0.5-1 tonne of scrap steel that has some copper+aluminum mixed in.
+1 gas oven
- this weekend I'll etch off the gold fingers off my boards (already have them removed) and sort out that pile of scrap metal.
but I'm also gonna help a friend out with his lawn-care business thing (but the money from that is not going to this business, it'll be used for the food on my table)
so. I consider this as my first step over the start line =D
solar_plasma
ha, yeah, I can see how it sounds like that, but no worries, I'm taking this one step at a time.
I'm not discouraged at all
butcher
no worries, I'm well aware you guys are not trying to be discouraging. you guys are helping me out. and it's greatly appreciated
I just said that thing to alexxx because it was a nice change of pace, but I definitely would not want everyone to be like 'yeah, go for it!' even though it's nice. it's not very useful other then for encouragement. but encouragement without context can be dangerous. so I truly thank you guys for giving me context, and I truly thank alexxx for giving me pure encouragement. it makes everything well rounded =D
Pantherlikher
Try to refrain from the internet lingo. lol is not good here. There are people from all over the world and that would confuse most as it wont translate to thier language.
whoops, better edit this post then.
... smiley faces are ok though right?
I always feel like a stiff 2d person if I don't show my enthusiasm. i suppose I could write in poetry.. ha, I do enjoy to jest my good sir!.
Everyone here has had visions of riches as anyone with the gold bug has had.
The sooner you realize reality, the sooner you will be better off at reaching your dream.
course, but a lot of them seem to leave it as a dream, and not even try, or quit as soon as they have to do a bit of labor.
I admit, this is not my first business venture I've tried. but I do hope this will be my first success. even though my previous ventures have been failures. I've learned a lot from them. like what I'm good at, and, more importantly, what I'm bad at.
Don't try to reinvent the wheel. Do several searches up in the google search. I'm guessing you will find your process well explained here
not trying to re-invent the wheel. it's more like a different mode of transportation. it won't be able to process as much as, say a sluice box or similar, and needs a much better particle size separation. but it'll be much more refined with no need to clean it out when your done using it.
and the reason I'm keeping this one idea hidden for now, is because I haven't yet seen a separator like this. and, believe me, I've looked. from sluices, to reverse helix's, to gold wheels, to underflow systems to blue bowls, Centrifugation, ect ect ect. the only thing I've found that's close works for separating individual atoms (hardly the quantities I would like) hopefully in ~2 weeks I can show a prototype to you guys. I got some other stuff I want/need to do before then.
Search here and learn from ground 0
I have been, and I see that posted here a lot. and I would like to challenge that by saying.
reading is good (necessary, in fact. in this field)
but reading will only take you so far. at some point, you have to stop reading, and try it.
(not trying to be rude, just saying they way I think about it. I fully acknowledge that I can be wrong)
(and as a side note, I've been reading on this subject for ~ 2 years. and I know it doesn't quite show, but that's because I'm more of a tactile/visual learner. reading can only take me so far, and my understanding of what I've read usually increases 10 fold after I actually try & experiment myself for a while, then re-read all the stuff again, so then I have a better understanding of what they are talking about)
Thank you for your post & insight!
steyr223
I got 2 words for you "dumpster diving"
aye. that's how I got a lot of this stuff
, heck the first computer I ever had I made myself from parts scavenged from the dump
now however regulations are a lot tighter and dumpster diving is apparently a crime (to many people getting hurt it seems)
understand any metal is worth money
I make 80% from steel
I do know this
that's why I accepted that 0.5-1 ton of steel from my next-door neighbor
and thanks for sharing how you strip your scanner keypads!
spaceships
Butcher and Joub and completely on the money with their initial comments here. Take them as encouragement with a whole heap of realism thrown in for good measure.
I think pretty well everyone who has posted is right on the money
and I do see them as encouragement, with a healthy dose of insightfulness/realism.
but as an optimist, I encourage myself to do things by focusing on the positives. I do take note of the negatives so I don't hurt myself (or more importantly, others)
but if I think to myself 'ohh, there's not much pm's here, and I don't have a steady supply of stuff' I'll never get started. so I tell myself 'hey, I have enough pm's here to learn! and I better start meeting some more people who would like to get rid of some stuff so that they will be willing to give it to me!'
same thing, but from a different angle, an angle that motivates me.
The scale required to make a good living is far far higher than a lot of people realise
aye, I'm realizing that. but however, I only need ~8k a year to survive on my own (done it before, and I can do it again if need be (thanks to me being single & living in a really cheap part of the country))
and if I might make a couple of suggestions?
NO! I posted on this forum so you can all bow down to me! MUHUHAHAHAHAAAA!!!
erm, I mean, of course you may
Take that day job and build up your inbound stream of kit and box clever. Trade on the stuff that's not worth your time processing and refining, and cherry pick the good stuff. That way you'll end up with plenty of refinable stuff at no cost (if you're lucky) and minimal cost otherwise.
I am taking any work I can get. but I would like to have this whole endevour to be self supporting.
why? it's a challenge. and challenge == fun. and fun == drive to do it. (I understand it will not always be fun. but that's life. and I can deal with that)
and I will cherry pick at a later date, but as i mentioned before. since right now I don't have to worry (much) about bills, I'm using this opportunity to learn.
this is like a 'self apprenticeship' I'm doing this to learn, but I'm giving it a business aspect to help me learn even more (and more quickly) and generate a bit of income while I do so.
You really need do need large quantities of IT kit to get good yields on your personal refining, and a lot of people when they first see boards assume far higher returns that are really there. I know I was guilty of this at first too!
I am guilty of this too
and an quick way to get over this is just to look at some youtube vids, and do some math.
you'll see a basket of gold fingers, and then a nice nugget. wich looks all very spectacular.
but then you do the math.
(this is one vid I watched that I happen to have the numbers right beside me, though I forget what video it was)
100 ram sticks worth of fingers (that's 25 fully filled computers (probably more since a lot of computers only have 1 or 2 sticks in them)
and even old computers often will sell for $20-40 each
and the 0.8g gold bead that looks nice, is only %0.5 of the starting weight, and that was with a high plating density (no IC's and very little extra pcb)
wich is ~ $40
so after stripping a wall full of cases for ram, you can make ~$40 not counting the cost of chemicals & labour & gas to pick up those towers etc etc.
but. I'm still not discouraged!
Thanks for your comment!
joubjonn
Nice haul then
but yes, this is what I'm doing, I'm not going over the top yet, I wanna see what I can handle first. and I don't want to clutter up my parent's place to much (yeah, I'm back at my parent's place again. in return I help them fix up their house, and do odd obs for them & whatnot)
but once I know what I can handle & am back in my own place I'll go all out with asking/phoning/emailing people & placing 'will pick up your unwanted electronics' ads and such.
