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Thought this might be a lot of fun. I do a lot of dumpster diving and find all sorts of odd ball stuff that not all scrappers would bother with.


I'll start off with a mid 90s type writer, No photos of the whole type writer but I have a photo of the board and will update the post with photos of the other goodies too.

Time spent pulling the board 5 minutes
Time spent pulling everything out of it about 30 minutes

The type writer was held together by two screws, after taking the tow screws out the top came off, under the keyboard was a high peripheral board, to take it would I had to remove two clips and a few screws. the board is about 6.5oz.
the board

Inside the type writer there was 3 transformer, about 8oz to 10oz in total, a power cable and some wire, about 5oz with the end and about 2.5lb of steel. there a also a small piece of pot metal but it was less then 1oz.

high peripheral 6.5oz
transformer 10oz
steel 2.5lb
wire 5oz
pop metal less then 1 oz

As off 5/15/26 that is $2.80 or $5.60 an hr if I sent it all to board sort.

You just stole my gig! lol.

Have fun.

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The best item I ever found, still have, is an airplane that apparently was a limited run. Only around 3000 made. Child's toy that someone toss into a commercial dumpster on public streets outside of a house renovation.

Found that, 2 computers, and a whole bunch a plastic tote containers which I now use for separating my metals.

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Learning to grade or grading to learn.

Was that typewriter a Smith Corona? Just curious.
Also. That term "Pot Metal". Haven't heard that term for forever. Also. Heard "White Metal".
So. My example. For fun and education. I was doing some decent scrapping of some electronics. Some made in USA. Others in Germany. Same type of housings. Looked the same. But. Nope. The German housings were not like American. You could not tell the difference visually. But. I learned one was Cast Aluminum. The other was Die Cast. So. My inquiry. What was "Die Cast" versus "Cast Aluminum". How to tell the difference?
A Youtuber. Cuscrapping. Made a video using Zep Root Killer in solution in a spray bottle to help tell the difference. Good video. Title. "Identifying Cast Aluminum vs Die Cast.
I just bought the active ingredient. Blue Copper Sulfate. Copper Sulfite Crystals. Blue Vitriol. All the same product under many names.
I bought the smallest amount. Made a solution in a spray bottle with only water. It worked wonderfully.
My technique. Using a file. Scrap the housing to remove paint. Exposing the metal. Then spray some solution on it. If it turned dark. Then it showed the zinc that was added. If it remained bright color. No color change. It was Cast Aluminum.
Guess what? Or do you know? The German made housings all were Cast Aluminum. The USA housings were for the most part Die Cast. Good old American manufacturing.
HERE TO LEARN LIKE EVERYBODY ELSE.
HAVE FUN SCRAPPING.
Thought I would post this to possibly help anybody to sort Die Cast from Cast Aluminum. I could not venture to say it pays to separate or not. But. The technique works. Very effective.

I pulled out all the copper wire from an AT&T renovation that they dumped in a dumpster along with some new old stock servers still mounted to dunnage for shipping.

Wish I still worked in the building across the street from there so I could see when they throw out more ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

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Here to learn more so I can recycle more
My grades are my own opinion and not an official grade from Boardsort

@Catwhisker i'll have to pull the shell out of the trash, ill find out later.

I use the term pot metal for any cast zinc/aluminum/magnesium alloy.

going to post a CD player i found on the side of the highway on Monday and maybe a AC unit or radiator too.

You may want to check out my what’s inside it series before you go through weighing anything I’ve already done.

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@Catwhisker you're spot on with the brand of the typewriter! it's a smith corona

I also have a industrial dehumidifier i might scrap if i can't fix it, and a large laserjet printer too. but those would probably be next weekend's project

What laser printer (assuming laserjet generically).

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