Recycling

[RogerWalker]

Over the years, I have accumulated a large collection of test gear and workshop equipment with a view to restoring it to its former glory and either using it or selling it or swapping it for interesting items. I have successfully restored some items but have amassed an increasingly large pile of 'no-hopers' that I have been unable to fix - or that I have found to require parts that are no longer in existence or prohibitively expensive.

Having turned 76, I am finding a distinct lack of my former 'vavavoom' and have reluctantly decided the no-hopers have to go, along with a similar-sized pile of 'whyonearthdidIbuyits'.

And here's the rub: If I turn up at the recycling centre with a car full of gear they cry "commercial waste" to the sound of the loud tinkling of cash registers. If I offer it to scrap metal merchants they want to charge me too.

I have dismembered a few pieces of gear down to metalwork, hard plastics, and printed circuits/loose components. I have been able to lug these down to my local recycling centre and leave without them - but they always query why I have boxes of PCBs and ask whether I am sure that it isn't commecial waste. If I have to do this to everything in the two piles, I will still be dismembering when I get my telegram from HRH! Does anyone on the forum have a similar problem and have they found an affordable way to save the planet?

Of course, the easy way out would be to hire a skip, lay it all out on the bottom, and cover it with old bricks etc. Is there no way to be a responsible citizen without being penalised at every turn?

[paulsherwin]

The attitudes at local authority recycling centres do vary a lot, as do the charges, but I think the key is to bring stuff in in reasonably small quantities over weeks or months.

Don't forget you can dispose of stuff via Freecycle/Freegle, or even sell it on eBay collection only with a 99p start. You can also list stuff here for disposal if it's FOC.

Old test gear is popular with 'upcyclers' who like to turn it into table lamps, coffee tables etc.

[Sinewave]

Offer them on the forum FOC, some bits may be useful to someone.

[Refugee]

Offer it all FOC in the items for sale section.
You should be able to shift quite a bit.

[David Simpson]

Roger, Under the EU Directive on WEEE, Council skip site staff cannot stop you depositing Domestic WEEE in their designated Container. If they mess you about - contact your nearest Enviroment Agency Office & lodge a complaint.
However, & its a big HOWEVER - please dont dump anything in the skip site yet - before you've exhaused all avenues of disposal amongst the vintage radio fraternity. Firstly, as Sinewave & Refugee recommend - give Forum folk first refusal. Other folk & myself recently have urged "Re-Purposing" of Test Equipment. For a number of years I've been making my own T/Eq. from such as old AVO, Marconi, Laybold, etc. items. Its not rocket science, just re-purposing of mostly analogue parts or cabinets from Sig Gen's, Valve Testers, PSU's, VTVM's, & so on.For example - the removable stabilised PSU out of a Marconi TF995 Sig Gen lends itself to building a great bench HT PSU.
Once, I greatly hope, the Corvid Pandemic is over, many of the BVWS Swapmeets will recommence, plus a variety of VMARS Auctions, and local ARS Club sales, & so on.

Regards, David

[Bazz4CQJ]

Did anyone see the old Avo8 which was "upcycled" in a TV prog a few days ago. They turned it in to a Bluetooth receiver and it sold for about £200. I think it had the meter jammed in mid-scale, so wasn't working. If you can find the right restoration people, they may be happy to buy anything you show them, whatever state it is.

B

[woodchips]

Provided you have a reasonable quantity, 250kg and up, then any scrappy will take it and pay as irony aluminium. As long as it looks moderately aluminium content then ok. If it goes as scrap, no money, then they will take anything.

[David Simpson]

Here is a picture of Recycling or Re-purposing of old Test equipment. Parts from an old Roberts Valve tester, an AVO8 Mk1, some old refurbished wafer switches, small sheets of Paxolin left over from another project, and so on. I try to dump as little as possible. I've also given heaps of stuff to other Forum folk over the years. I'll do anything to avoid the dreaded "Skip" !

Regards, David

[high_vacuum_house]

Just to add that test equipment PCB’s from all equipment categories May contain now unobtainable semiconductors such as IC’s and discretes. It is worth if you insist to dismantle such gear to metalwork, to tie all of the boards together with a note saying it is from a Tek 475 for example, and put this on a spreadsheet with a column stating other parts saved (I.e transformer, CRT, knobs ECT.) this shouldn’t take up too much room and could easily save many other models from staying as door stops or scrapped themselves.

Christopher Capener

[Paul Stenning]

In my experience supply vastly outstrips demand for this sort of equipment. There will be plenty of tyre-kickers but nobody will actually take it away. Look how many offered adverts here get minimal response unless the stuff is almost free, and even then delivery costs put people off.

I have tried selling test equipment in vintage radio auctions. In the RWB auction last December I had about 12 lots including sig gens, oscilloscope and a big box full of useful kit including test meters, megger, graphic equaliser, etc, and most of the lots struggled to get £5. Not worth the time and effort to sort, photograph, get listed, store it, load it into the car and carry it into the hall. In future anything else like this will just go in the communal refuse bins at these flats (in black bags, just after collection day so at the bottom).

There may be valuable parts within some of the equipment, but nobody else will pay on that basis, and the time and effort of dismantling, removing and selling the parts (as untested) will never recoup what they might sell for.

I would suggest listing it here as free, collection only and see what, if any, interest you get. Then try to find a local scrap merchant who will collect the rest (hopefully for free) to weigh in as scrap metal. In some areas you could just leave it outside and passing scrap collector will take it sooner or later.

You could perhaps list it as a job lot for 99p collection only on eBay, or for free on Facebook and Freecycle.

If you live in flats with communal bins then just dump some in them each week/fortnight. Not practical with individual household bins though.

If all else fails, hire a skip and pile it full (there is normally no real limits to what you can put in them as long as it isn't hazardous waste). The problem is that you have to pay to get rid of it, so it is a final resort.

Sorry to be doom-and-gloom but that's my experience with this sort of stuff and with seeing test gear, nondescript radios and boxes of workshop tat in auctions.

[factory]

What have you got? Some of it may be useful for helping restore other equipment, sometimes the damaged obsolete parts can be replaced with other parts.

Anything repaired is better for the planet than sending it to the tip & buying new stuff that service info isn't available for when it breaks. I can't help think that not much is recycled out of E waste other than recovering the metal maybe someone knows better than I do.

I'm also rather fed-up of seeing nice old test gear being turned into crappy lamps or being plundered for vacuum bulbs or time display parts.

David

[AC/HL]

... but if no-one wants it the alternative is oblivion, shredded and reduced to it's constituents.

[The General]

Ah, but if you wanted to buy any of it on ebay then it's invariably silly money. In my experience, anyway.....

[The General]

BTW Roger, another vote for listing it all on here as foc, buyer collects. You might find it solves your issue, or helps anyway.
Mark

[Paul_RK]

If you've an ordinary auction room at all nearby, I'd suggest dropping a carload of anything at all intact and presentable off there. We've one in this little market town, a fair amount of workshop stuff including some electronic gear turns up there and very little doesn't sell. Some things may be subsequently turned into steampunk tat, but satisfying that demand surely helps keep the old testgear that folk want to collect, restore and use accessible to purchase.

Paul

[David Simpson]

Sadly, in recent years, I've noticed an increasing number of "Silent Key" sales, plus the sad demise of several vintage radio enthusiasts. Also, a number of folk over 3 score years & ten, myself included, have been downsizing. This can only result in an excess of unwanted &/or u/s test equipment.
Thankfully, due to holding a WEEE Exemption Certificate (Paragraph 47 of the EU WEEE Directive) for a number of years, I gained experience in dispersing mainly test equipment. At one time, 5 Freelander full loads of ex college lab equipment was acquired in a six week period ! A lot of it was anually tested & in good nick. I had to submit annual "In & Out" WEEE returns to SEPA(EA in England), & my records show an eventual WEEE skip disposal rate of approx 10%/annum over the years. That means that 90% was either kept by myself or local vintage chums, or dispersed into the ARS & vintage radio fraternity.
If I could do that in the remote NE of Scotland, then youse Forum folk down South should have no bother. Admittedly, Corona Virus has halted all Sales & Auctions, etc. for the time being. Plus even meeting up with other VR chums in one's houses. Hopefully, fingers crossed, 2021 will be a better year.
However, as Paul & others have said - offer stuff at just a nominal amount or for free on the Forum. Or request folk to donate to a charity of your choice. Meet folk(carboot to carboot) in an open carpark or layby, chosen for convenience. Any petrol costs you incur could be reimbursed by recipients. Anything is better than the dreaded skip solution.
Recycling/Re-purposing - - Yes, Yes. See that AVO8/1 in the top R/H corner of my picture - - picked out of a Council skip in Aberdeen. The bakelite was cracked in one corner, but brought home & tested - - - spot-on calibration-wise. I once found a HP 8000 series Spectrum Analyser in a nearby junk shop. Filthy dirty, covered in crud. Cost me £20. Brought home, thoroughly cleaned, PAT Tested, Calibration tested - spot-on. Flogged on Ebay for £300 ! Feedback - customer extremely satisfied. No doubt, if the junk shop owner hadn't been able to flog it - off to the skip it would have gone. I'm sure many other Forum/BVWS/VMARS/ARS T/Eq. enthusiasts can relate similar experiences.

Regards, David

[electronicskip]

Even steampunking it is a better alternative than the crusher/tip although I'm not a fan of it myself I do see some sense if all other avenues have been explored and failed.

[paulsherwin]

A lot of vintage test equipment is just junk unless you are interested in collecting it for its own sake. It's big, heavy, power hungry, difficult to maintain and not very accurate by modern standards, especially if it's not been calibrated for decades.

That's why there's such limited interest when it's being disposed of, as described by Paul Stenning in #10. It may have cost the MOD the price of a house in 1953, but what is someone going to do with it now?

[David Simpson]

Right enough Paul, lots of vintage T/Eq. is big & heavy. The Marconi TF995A Sig Gen for example. I've an excellent 995A/5 for bench use, but acquired a gash 995A/2 from a friendly Forum chap, plus later - an empty cabinet. Both spare cabinets were re-purposed into a) My DC Valve Tester, b) the two channel(180V & 600V) HT PSU which is sometimes used with the DC tester. I also acquired another 995A cabinet & thats just gone recently to another "re-purposing" Forum guy who is building a Valve Tester/Curve Tracer.
More heavy huge Marconi gear - the TF144G & the heffing 801B. I'll agree that the 144G is made of heavy brass & worth a few bob from a scrappy, but the internal mains rectification circuitry could be re-purposed. Likewise - the 801B could be a donor of internal gubbins.
Me - I'm stuck with a small workshop with limited shelf space for storage. Hence, luckily having an understanding wife, 4 vintage 'scopes from the early 40's through to the 60's occupy the top of a former TV shelf unit in the livingroom.

Regards, David

[ex seismic]

As and when they start up again, amateur radio rallies are good places to shift your sort of gear. Don't expect high prices, hams are notorious skinflints! But at least it will go to people who want to use it.

Gordon