# how to scrap out an HID ballast



## erics37 (May 7, 2009)

I don't bother doing that. I just chuck 'em into a big tub and get like 8 cents/lb or something for them. Whatever.

But if your kid is doing it, good plan :thumbup:

My kid has a metal detector and when we go up shooting he tromps around and finds buckets worth of gun brass and scraps that.


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## Jhellwig (Jun 18, 2014)

I bet a meth head could do it faster...

I have chucked so many ballasts in the trash along with big fuses. A lot of copper in the trash. Wish I could have saved it.


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## ponyboy (Nov 18, 2012)

Jhellwig said:


> I bet a meth head could do it faster... I have chucked so many ballasts in the trash along with big fuses. A lot of copper in the trash. Wish I could have saved it.


Me too. When you 600+ MH taking up storage space you don't get too sentimental about them


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## 220/221 (Sep 25, 2007)

We end up with about a dozen a week. I stripped a few of them like that and decided it was not worth the dirty nasty effort. We get like 25 cents a pound for them intact.


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## Norcal (Mar 22, 2007)

They go in the electric motor pile, quick & easy when you start considering how much abrasive cut off blades, & gas, (oxygen, acetylene) costs, the pay off for cleaning them is pretty meager, for the hell of it decided to extract the copper from a water cooled condenser off a ice machine, know that I spent more for gas then ever got as scrap. Sometimes it is just easy money to pile it up as-is then get rid of it when you get tired of looking at it.


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## jza (Oct 31, 2009)

Could at least get him a grinder with a proper guard on it.


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## chewy (May 9, 2010)

jza said:


> Could at least get him a grinder with a proper guard on it.


Ditto, people dont understand how [email protected]$#ing dangerous that is when a disc disentergrates.


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## sparky970 (Mar 19, 2008)

jza said:


> Could at least get him a grinder with a proper guard on it.


 And some gloves


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## Jlarson (Jun 28, 2009)

**** a bunch of safety guards. None of my personal shop grinders have them lol.


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## Southeast Power (Jan 18, 2009)

I looks like if you had a band saw set up on a long table, one guy cutting them open and another guy husking them, it could get productive.

A nice band saw blade would last through quite a few cuts if you know where the sweet spot is on the transformer.


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## LGLS (Nov 10, 2007)

It's a shame how much copper ends up landfilled. I wonder if we'll ever run out, like with oil?


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## erics37 (May 7, 2009)

IslandGuy said:


> It's a shame how much copper ends up landfilled. I wonder if we'll ever run out, like with oil?


Technically no; I mean we're mining a lot of it but it just winds up in a building. So if we run out of it from the mines, then you just have to decide, "Well how badly do we need this building?" and then you can get all your copper back :laughing:

The fossil fuels are a bit more difficult to deal with as the vast majority of them undergo a combustion reaction that renders them into various unreclaimable constituent molecules.


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## Southeast Power (Jan 18, 2009)

IslandGuy said:


> It's a shame how much copper ends up landfilled. I wonder if we'll ever run out, like with oil?


Aluminum is nice too


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## Going_Commando (Oct 1, 2011)

jza said:


> Could at least get him a grinder with a proper guard on it.


Oh for crying out loud. You know how dangerous bicycles are? Better make sure the kid is wearing a football helmet, shoulder pads, knee pads, elbow pads, and boots that lace up over the ankles!


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## chewy (May 9, 2010)

Going_Commando said:


> Oh for crying out loud. You know how dangerous bicycles are? Better make sure the kid is wearing a football helmet, shoulder pads, knee pads, elbow pads, and boots that lace up over the ankles!


Wow...


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## Bad Electrician (May 20, 2014)

I believe in recycling, scrap any and all steel, copper and aluminum. I do not go to extremes to get the scrap, just take as it is.


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## 220/221 (Sep 25, 2007)

I think it's great that he is showing/letting the kid do some work! It's good money for the kid and it shows him the value of his labor. He is turning $.20 a pound into maybe $2.00 a pound. It's more productive than playing video games.

I was only commenting that my time has become more valuable in my advancing years so I don't do it. 

****ing disks do scare me though.

I started to design a hydraulic press that would break the ballasts apart but then got distracted by, who knows what.


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## Joefixit2 (Nov 16, 2007)

Chewy is that a Harbor Freight disc in the pic?


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