Hi from Melbourne Australia

[WEEE Ben]

Hi all, I been trying to get access to this forum for ages, always comes up with 403 error forbidden?

I don't think i've ever been here before and it seems my ip address may be the problem?
I finally found a way to come in and sign up but I need to use an ip mask thing.

Is this a common issue or is it just me?

anyway, I''m a scrapper from Melbourne interested in learning more about refining PM's from e-waste.
I scrap full time, selling most of my stuff to commercial refiners but do keep some items like MMLC's and lately tantalum capacitors.
also eprom's, gold connectors, plugs and everything else that's removable without de-valuing the boards too much.

Aside from scrapping stuff I don't have any experience in refining so I probably don't have much to offer here appart from enthusiastic interest.

 

[jason_recliner]

Hey Ben.

Welcome to the forum. Good to have another Melburnian on board.

 

[WEEE Ben]

Hi Jason, thanks.

I'm based in the west, always knee deep in e-waste.
are you a refiner? i'm looking for a refiner to refine my stuff on a regular basis, know anyone?

 

[jason_recliner]

I'm not your guy, I'm just beginner hobby level. But I might be interested in maybe buying a little high quality scrap to play with though. Especially if you have bucket loads of pins or RAM and stuff.
I currently have a loungeroom full of old but functional computers and disks, but rather than raid them (no pun intended) for gold, I rebuild whatever I can into working systems for kids who need something but have nothing. There's not a lot left here I can't use.

 

[WEEE Ben]

No worries mate.

I send some stuff to men's shed, if you know of a family in need of a basic computer to get them online etc then send them here..

I prefer to keep my smalls to eventually get refined as I like to stack metals, motherboards though take up a lot of space and if your wanting mobo's at market rate ($4.50 kg) then I can supply you although i'm not sure how much value you can extract from a mobo, i'd imagine refining on a hobby level requires most your material to be free.

Try local schools, they usually have a technician that is contracted to 3 or 4 schools so contacting them for e-waste can be an excellent source of e-waste for your hobby.
I have recommended others to do that and it's proven to be very rewarding for them, sometimes they call me to help 'cos they didn't expect such volumes.

Because most e-waste recyclers actually charge to pick-up e-waste, free pick-up's opens a lot of doors, especially schools that can't afford to pay for a recycling service.

 

[jason_recliner]

That's great. I'm glad there are places providing this service of reusing before recycling. But if I can establish a legitimate need, I'll rather continue to give away mine directly for free, than give to someone who then sells them - admittedly at a low nominal price, less than their installation time is probably worth.

It's tough picking the truly needy from the parasites though. I had one guy tell me he needed a PC for his young daughter. When he and family arrived in his brand new $90,000 car and skis on the roof-racks, I saw his only child was about 18 months old. Another guy, ostensibly needing one to look for work, picked up a system then dumped the half he didn't want in next door's front yard. I found it a week later, full of snails and rain; that's junk now. The rest probably went to cash converters for ~$15.

Getting back to the topic of refining, I'm not so keen on motherboards in my low volume, but I am definitely interested in high-gold-content scrap should you decide to let them go for a fair price. At some point I might even ditch e-waste and try to contact a few jewellers.

 

[WEEE Ben]

Men's shed is a not for profit org', what it is for is a place for men who are generally loners to go and socialise with with people and have something to do as in putting pc's together, they may sell one a month and give away 20 a month. there's certainly no profit being made.

Yes well, when you said you fix pc's to then give to kids, I hear that all the time, it's amazing how many people say that but I generally can see right through 'em.
It's nice to finally meet one that's genuine so good for you.

well, if your ever in the west give me a buzz and pop in and check out my set-up, I could probably spare a bit of the better stuff to keep you going.