ideas and places to extract recycled goods for our building purposes

[picmacmillan]

One of the primary things i try to do is incorporate as many recycled materials as i can while building here. I have a few tips and suggestions on where one could look, and what to look for...I would welcome any others suggestions as i am sure there are lots of good ideas floating around that i,(or others)havent thought of...fire away!  lol pickster

-Dumpster diving is a good place to find everything of course..i have found 100's of feet of good wire..some of it very heavy welding wire, and very good..i have found lots of metal parts etc in there too and all kinds of things, too many to mention here.

- the other day i was thinking of where i could find something that would make a good magnet template(similar to danb's aluminum one), that would aid in the arranging of the magnets on to the metal plates we use. I found this in the way of a nice chunk of plexiglass that was thrown out at the local hockey arena, from a broken sheet they were throwing out. It is about a half inch thick and 4' square and most importantly, non magnetic, so i can make multiple pieces with it..it will also make some handy coil winder material and who knows what else, maybe a tail???...so hockey arena is a good place to look(who wooda thunk it!)

-fellow enthusiasts have helped me with not only ideas but materials they had a surplus of such as tower pipe, and computer software (thanks fellas')

-i actually found a ton (literally)of tower pipe, and bracket building pipe from a building that was being torn down..they gave it all to me(well, actually thumbnail hooked me up to go get it) ..hundreds of dollars worth of pipe..great find!

-i had purchased a mill for my log home business, so now i am able to cut my own boards for blades, and i donate wood to anyone who needs a nice set of blades..if you dont own a mill, i bet someone you know does, and i find, soon as people know what you're doing with it..they are very happy to be part of the process..if they dont give them to you, they surely will be cheaper than the store..

-well, thats all i can think of off the top of my head, but there has been one down side to this whole thing..truth is i spend more time looking at garbage at the road and it is embarassing to my kids when i stopped the car to remove an old power amp from someones trash.(they are made of aluminum and make a great heat sink)i may need some help soon if it gets worse..hapy new year...pickster

[Phil Timmons]

Great post.

I was thinking about starting a post asking where are good places to find surplus and/or used mirrors?

I have tried FreeCycle (a yahoo group) with no response, and am thinking about the "I Want" section of  Ebay.  Anybody else have some good tips?

Maybe here, huh?  I am looking for any mirror -- and a lot of it.  Anything that can salvaged to at least 12" X 12"  Old, cracked, and odd pieces all ok,  No frames or hangers needed, but ok if they are already attached.

Thanks.

Anything else anyone else is looking for?

[georgeodjungle]

craigslist.org has been very productive for me.

[SmoggyTurnip]

Not sure what you whant to do with the mirrors but maybe you could use mylar reflective material instead.  I bought some of it to make a solar concentrator but never got around to starting the project yet.  I got side tracked by my windmill project.  Anyway the mylar material I got is as reflective as any mirror and it is cheap $30 per 100 sq ft i think.  I bought mine at http:\www.bustan.ca

[terry5732]

You can get mirrored 12 x 12 tiles for a few bucks a piece at the home store. I got half a dozen left-overs from a project at a garage sale for a quarter. Some day they might be a collector/ concentrater. I've only been hanging on to them for 15 years so far.

[Phil Timmons]

Hey Smoggy and Terry.

Yeah, a biggie-sized solar concentrator is the plan.

I have started some smaller stuff from scraps, etc., now to go to the big-sized (3000 sq. ft. plus) means it is time to think cheap.

I have looked at Mylar, and considered its two downsides as:

1.  Still needs a smooth soild surface backing to mount to, and
   
2.  Seems to be less durable than glass -- dunno.  Might do some side-by-side tests on that.
   
   

The tiles around here go for around US $1.50 per square foot at Homer Depot or Lowes.  I am trying to get down into the 25 cent or less per square foot range.  Makes the cost recovery MUCH faster.  

So far the scrap guy that gets my scrap metal and wire has been bringing me what he finds.  Normally mirrors are just tossed -- no salvage value.  I am just looking for a way to get mirrors re-directed before it hits the landfill to me for useful purposes.  

[Laylow]

When I was planning on installing a hydronic radiant floor heating system I thought that I was going to need a whole lot of foam board insulation.  I found a place where you could get it used for real cheap.  http://www.conigliaro.com/products/insulation.cfm

They have other products too.  I don't have any more links but by pursuing this lead I found out about other recycling programs that had their own specialties.  There is a place in Kansas City that I still need to visit that is supposed to be 5 floors of office equipment.  Here's a link with some contacts: http://www.greensage.com/RECYCLERS/recyP_bldgMat.html

Habitat for Humanity usually has a store where you can get building materials and appliances.  Goodwill and Salvation Army is good for cheap electronics, pots and pans, and books.  Garage sales.  Hood's is good if you have one of those.

Lots of times cabinet makers, carpenters, and welding supply places will let you have scraps.

[Laylow]

Ask your glass supplier.  You would be surprised at how cheap you can have custom mirrors made; especially if it doesn't have to be very thick.

[maker of toys]

Mylar on (painted) masonite?

Mylar on scrapped campaign signs?  (they tend to be printed on a weather-resistant corregated plastic material-  and they're free for the taking the day after the election. . . or, if you don't like the guy/gal/issue; BEFORE the election. . . <G>)

Mylar on scrap glass?

Mylar on garage-sale cookie sheets/ plates?

Mylar on scrapped computer case sides?

Mylar on panels off scrapped appliances?  (dishwashers often have an easily removable door-front panel to ease changing the color of the dishwasher to match the decor)

Aluminum foil on any of the above? In any case, spray adhesive is your friend.  or you can use paint-  roll the mylar on the surface while it's still tacky but not wet.

Aluminum roll flashing cut to convienient lengths and held directly on suitable framework? (every now and then I see some in the scrap yard. . .)  A poly clear coat on the aluminum might be good.

[willib]

If # 17 gage wire is what you need for a particular coil try your local Automotive Alternator repair place , a guy a few towns over gave me about 20 or so starter relays, large industrial ones , but you have to take them apart , i've gotten pretty good at it.they are wound with two gages of magnet wire, a thinner gage on the outside with #17 gage on the inside..the best part is he was throwing it out any way , go figure..

[maker of toys]

oh. . . and keep a look out for people tossing those mirrored closet doors and medicine cabinets. . .  Remodelers/ contractors are another good source.  (wonderful things can be had from job-site dumpsters. . .)

[Don Cackleberrycreations]

If shipping wasnt so high Id send you the 2ftx4ft mirrors I picked up dumpster diving

they are 3/8-1/2 plate glass.

I always cabage on to free stuff , managed to find some nice display cases for work shop cabinets from a store being remodeled. Also got 80 plus pounds of 3/16 aluminum plate from the same place.

   I got 400+ steel insulated door 36"x 80" for $20 paid to the trash truck driver to dump them at my place. They make quick storage sheds and chicken houses.

    Im looking for old 8ft satelite dishes I dig some up before long .

[willib]

what are the other dimensions of the aluminum plate?

[Don Cackleberrycreations]

They were 8" X 10ft

Now they are firing system switch panels  50-100- and 200 cue  For my real job

Lead Pyrotech

[nothing to lose]

 12" X 12" mirror can be cheap, watch for boxes at Big lots or salvage stores.

Carnival suppliers were cheap once also. Remember the real mirror joints, not poster under glass! 12"x 12" mirrors 50 cents or less, defects like scratches even cheaper.

 Check "Amusement Business" magazine if you find one, for suppliers of real mirrors and contacts to buys from.

Real mirrors behind the glass, silk screen logos on front of glass. You can remove that  budwiser logo on the front real easy for a plain glass mirror!!

[nothing to lose]

 Hmm, maybe good ideas there. How many square foot of flat sheet metal in in a dryer or washer case? 3' tall maybe 3' wide? 3 sides for a washer, 2 sides and a top for a dryer. 3'x3' is 9 sq' x 3 sides = 27sq'??

I plan to use the flat sides for alot of building projects!!

[PaulJ]

   Don't use the plexiglass for a tail, I used some I recycled from a solarium and after a few high winds it cracked at the mounting points and flew off. Nobody injured, but lesson learnt.

   As for embarassing the kids by going through roadside garbage, it is a parents DUTY to embarass them. Go for it!

   Paul.

[SmoggyTurnip]

3000 sq ft - WOW! - tell me more!

[wdyasq]

It might be you didn't properly drill and releive the holes.  Acrylic requires special bits and edge treatments.

Ron

[willib]

also the bearing/motor of an old 5.25 " HDD makes a nice bearing to do any small project that requires spinning.

[dinges]

After reading this thread, I feel less ashamed...

Yes, I'm one of those idiots that likes to dumpster dive (esp. in hi-tech dumpsters...) This habit has given me a nickname while back in engineering school, but it was less worse than the nickname I used to have before

Plenty of hi-tech scrap around (e.g. engineering school/university, local scrapyard (even found a TIG torch there, that only needed a bit of TLC to get back to fully operational; just what the doctor ordered!), welding electrodes, cable shoes, thick welding cable, heavy duty coaxial cable (with 7/16 connectors!), new, unused. Plus the usual bits of aluminium and stainless pipe, plate and profile, industrial fuses/circuit breakers, bar bus, timers, switches, etc.

As for the rest: in our family, we haven't had to buy a television/radio/vcr/sat.receiver for over 15 years. If the things were defect, it was usually a matter of minutes to get it back operational; if not, it went in the part bins. And it's not as if our house is a mess with old, 2nd hand damaged stuff; if it isn't in mint condition (e.g. damaged housing, scratched, or otherwise not pretty), I usually don't even bother repairing it.

An example: my milli-ohm meter I published a few days ago in another thread, the power supply was from a defect DVD player, and the house from an old modem (found in the hi-tech bin of our Dutch phone operator/installer KPN).

And after a while, you even begin to develop a routine, when on the usual errands through town, of passing by the correct dumpsters. Now, I'm usually dressed in slacks, shirt and tie, and you DO get funny looks when in that outfit you start to go through a dumpster. Never mind

Peter,

The Netherlands.

(anyone has a dumpster that needs diving?)

[maker of toys]

I once pulled a couple (!) of complete small gas turbines (!!) out of a dumpster. . . one has less than 30 hours on the clock.

living close to silicon valley, you have to be sure that you're not encroaching on someone else's dumpster territory. . . here, it's not unusual at all to spot a pair of slacks and $200 shoes flailing around as their occupant tries to retrieve some cast-off treasure from a bin . . . pretty entertaining, actually.  (I tend to go in jeans and steeltoes;  the aforementioned turbine did a number on my left foot. .)

[dinges]

Gas turbines?!... I'm definitely diving the wrong dumpsters!

BTW, I always carry a full toolbox, steel-nosed shoes, hard hat and over-alls in my car too (not for dumpster diving, but hey, if the loot is good enough and the dumpster dirty enough...)

It brings back memories of pictures I once saw of a glider with two mini gas turbines mounted on them (probably in the USA somewhere). I did check out prices on them, but alas  What did you use your turbines for? At the time (10 years ago), I started construction of my own jet engines (pulse jets, much simpler than turbines); I'm still in the construction phase

And what the h*ll was the idiot thinking who threw away those perfectly good turbines? (or perhaps he was expecting to pick them up himself after hours?)

Peter,

The Netherlands.

[ghurd]

Some of the newer GM cars have 100W(?) inverters in the dash. Shouldn't be too long before some are in junkyards.

Years ago, I lived about a block away from a cable TV installer. Every garbage night he put out 4 or 5 big wooden spools. All had coax still on them. 100' to 500' of RG6 or RG59. I still have thousands of feet of it.

No wonder my cable bill is so high.

G-

[maker of toys]

right now, they're paperwieghts. (with a stratospheric cool factor, I might add)

they're turboshaft engines, so the possibilities are endless.  Rover 1S60 with a 3600RPM PTO and silencer,  and some mil-spec Garrett model I can't recall off the top of my head. . .  but it's in the 30-60kW range.  I think they got dumped because they were hanger-sick and wouldn't run. The Rover's compressor was crudded up something fierce; a little time, some wd-40 and a whole mess of rags, and it spooled right up. I haven't gotten to the Garrett yet.

eventually one (the Rover) will run on filtered WVO and turn a genset for the shop i'm gonna build-- power and process heat. I'm big on steam powered gadgets (whistles, engines, etc.), so I figure I can bottom the turbine by ducting the exhaust through a fire-tube boiler and recover some of that heat. . .  My neighbors are gonna hate me; even with a 'silencer,' that turbine whine really carries.<G>

the Garrett will probably be torque for the thrust prop/s on a hovercraft. . .

What the guy was thinking, I dunno. . . but after watching me struggle for 45 min to get them out of the dumpster and into my truck, he dug up a forklift and loaded them for me.  How cool is THAT?  (or maybe he figured I was serious when I started rigging an a-frame and tackle out of the scrap lying around . . . and he probably didn't want to deal with the mess if I'd mis-guessed things. <G> A motivated engineering student with a truck, a pile of rope and some scouting experience is a dangerous thing.)

-Dan

[cyplesma]

I took a box of those 12 X 12 mirrors and just splashed them on a couple of walls in an apartment, very nice effect.

don't have them anymore.

[willib]

OMG !! that is funny and cool ..

what do those puppies weigh?

[maker of toys]

they're about 100-125 kg each, plus or minus-  two people can lift one, but it's not fun.  I haven't wieghed either of them yet.

[healerenergy]

If you want a good reflective surface cheep use plastic potatochip bags with the shiny surface inside. If it goes bad peel it off eat some more chips and paste it down. That is what I intend to do in the future.

[Phil Timmons]

Hey Smoggy.

Nothing magic about 3000 ft^2, just sort of a nominal size for a pole barn or shop roof.

We could use another, so I figured why not make the roof work for it's living by making it into a rather big concentrator?

It does not seem to violate any building codes, and as long as I do not drop any airliners from the sky with it . . .   . . .  [note to NSA Gestapoes -- I am JOKING -- no one can drop an aircraft with a solar concentrator -- would not think I would have to put the disclaimer, but I do not want to wind up as the next guest at Gitmo]

My intended plan is to run a steam turbine/electric generator with the first stage, and an alcohol fuel still with the second stage (where the steam from the turbine condenses), and extract building and water heating with the final stage, before the fluid hits the boiler to repeat the cycle.

By actually making the roof and supporting structure an RE device -- the whole mess and most of the building should be exempt from property tax, as well -- I really like optimizing a design.

I will put the details in "My Diary" here on the site as it progresses.

[TomW]

Phil;

I don't know about airliners but supposedly Archimedes burned a Roman fleet with solar concentrators [shiny shields].

With sophisticated tracking and a couple acres of reflectors I think you could cook an aircraft. Of course you would need some sunshine which we haven't seen here since December 23 last year!

Just an observation.

T

[Phil Timmons]

Hey Tom.

Yeah, I was regreting putting that part on not too much later after I hit "post."

The Greeks setting the ships on fire still has some controversy to it.  But in chatting with folks, I do use it as an example, too.

The real deal is that sun will mis-focus from a mirror at about 120 X the width of the mirror.  Bince the sun is not an actual "point source" of light but rather a disk, the reflections from the left edge and right edge cross on a reflection and dispurse at a distance.

Using 1 foot X 1 foot mirrors gives me a max focus to 120 feet.  Any airliner in that range has bigger problems than a solar concentrator.  One way I heard the Greek story was some hundred/(s) polished shields -- about 5 feet each -- means the ships had to be within 600 feet, if true.

That is all presuming flat mirrors.  There may be additional range by creating a very long concave focus to each mirror, and then using many mirrors together, but it would create a set focal length to the whole rig because of each mirror.  Means a aircraft would pass through.  Might take out a sattilite?  I guess a counter-measure weapon could be a bunch of rocks?   (to throw at the mirrors -- just joking).  Makes me think of Einstein's prediction that we will be back to fighting wars with sticks and rocks.

Anyway, I suppose a bunch flex-focal length mirrors might be used, but this is getting way beyond a general-purpose (and cheap -- my thing) solar concentrator.  The fles-focus mirrors I have reviewed are for ground based (very large) telescopes to cancel out the effects of the atomosphere.  Maybe I should look up DARPA's dream list to see if they are doing anything flex-focus mirrors.  Everything old is new again -- in the world of weapons, too.

PEACE, Man!  

[ghurd]

Greeks. History / Discovery channel had a show that tried it. IIRC. They got smoke on a decent size model in a pond, with a dozen(2 dozen?) guys on shore. The figures they chose to use 'proved' it was possible. Looked good at the time.

Also, something about Greeks using 100 and 1000 sort of interchangably, depending on when it was rewritten. That can put a kink in the math!