Ryan McFarland

Checked bags full of copper

Originally uploaded by zieak

Yesterday afternoon Kevin and I stripped wire and piled up the copper and brass that i’ve been collecting. We loaded two bags using the bathroom scale to make sure we didn’t have over 50 pounds in either. You can check two bags and carry on one and Kevin packed everything he brought in a carry-on.

We checked him in for the flight and one bag weighed 47 pounds and the other 38. The TSA employyes grabbed them off the scale and when the woman opened the first for inspection I saw her reach in and heard the copper pipes rattle. She looked over her shoulder with a very confused look and said “you guys!” I laughed out loud. She asked if we were making a still and I laughed some more. Then I told her it’s worth up to $3 per pound and she looked at the bag and said we had 47 pounds worth.

it was a great idea to haul that back… Thanks Kevin!

My projects on DIYlife have become a regular column called Recrafted. Looks like i need to get my last name straightened out! I have lots of ideas for projects and now have the incentive to keep cracking at them!

I  have been trying to send in a laptop (that i bought at Costco a number of years ago) to the Costco and Greensight electronics recycling program that i mentioned previously.  (If you want to send something in and are not a Costco member let me know - we can work something out!)  I received my quote and the confirmation email but was never emailed the UPS shipping label to mail the item in.  If you need to contact the Costco electronics recycling help line just call 866-314-2059.  That telephone number goes straight to the folks that should be able to help.  They had some glitch in my shipping label email that they said they would fix and send to me again.  That could be just short of $200 for a laptop that i would feel terrible trying to sell to anyone on eBay.  While Kevin was here we swapped out the hard drives with his laptop because the one on mine was larger.  The drive size was not a criteria used in judging the value of the return.  Hopefully i receive the shipping label email and can send the old laptop in and see what they will give me for this hot notebook.

We had no idea that our local grocery store gave two cents credit for each shopping bag you bring of your own. Cena just found out when she brought our recycled cat food bags turned giant industrial strength shopping bags to the store. If we were to shop every week and use 10 bags that comes to $10.40 a year in savings to us.  Our cat food bag turned shopping bag is much larger than a typical shopping bag so our first time using them we only saved 10 cents (five bags).  Of course, our intent is not to save money.  We really just don’t need all those plastic bags.  We have a tote completely full of them already.

On two occasions i saw rebar used for quite different purposes than keeping concrete together…

A rebar anchor was on the boat we took from My Tho, Vietnam to the border of Cambodia on the Mekong River.

A few men were working on a small addition to our hotel in Siem Reap, Cambodia.  Among their tools was this piece of rebar that had been re-purposed to a hammer and crowbar.   The owner of the tool saw me take this picture and was kind enough to demonstrate how to hammer.

 While in Phnom Penh, Cambodia we saw these kettle-like garbage cans that upon closer inspection were actually pieces from rubber tires.  Most areas in Vietnam and Cambodia did not even have public garbage cans - trash was left right on the street and picked up by sanitation crews in the evenings.

One thing i have learned about being on top of technology is that you leave behind you a wake of discarded items that just are not good enough anymore. I have used the following PDAs… Visor Deluxe, Visor Prism, Treo 600, Treo 650, Treo 680. My cell phone ancestry merges into my PDA lineage like this… Nokia 5165, Sony T61d, Treo 600, Treo 650, Treo 680. Add the computers, printers, and other electronic stuff i’ve upgraded and i start to feel bad about the pile of tech trash left behind.  Sometimes i have done trade-ins for my cell phone - send in the old one for a rebate toward the replacement.  But you’re always required to buy that new product.  Selling items on eBay or Amazon has worked for me in the past with some items.  In the case of my laptop replacement i couldn’t send it to anyone in good conscience.  There seems to be a short that causes it to heat up and the fan runs constantly.  But the components are worth something.

Enter Costco’s Trade-In and Recycle program.  Looks like they will give you a Costco cash card in exchange for your unwanted electronics.  In most cases i think you could get more money using online sales though.  But this is one more option available.