What's there in a demo worth stealing?

We are a very small electrical contractor. When we rewire a building we save copper, aluminum, steel. It takes a couple years, our last haul to sell scrap was $2,100. Steel also accumulates, last haul was 20 cubic yards, 80 miles with the dump truck, brought in $600. Factoring labor, it certainly is not worth while, but we have already done the work, might as well get something for it. Here, some buildings have slate roofs. Used slate sells for $500. a square (100 square feet). Old lumber, hand hewn, sash sawn, or even old is valuable, rich people pay a lot extra to get worn out old flooring. If old enough, lumber might be old growth, very wide boards. Mortice & tennoned house frames sell for big money. Old window sash become picture frames, or mirrors, wall decorations. Hobbiests use old sash as frames for stained glass art. I'm inclined to think you're dealing with scavengers who think this crap has more value than it does.

Willie B said: We are a very small electrical contractor. When we rewire a building we save copper, aluminum, steel. It takes a couple years, our last haul to sell scrap was $2,100. Steel also accumulates, last haul was 20 cubic yards, 80 miles with the dump truck, brought in $600. Factoring labor, it certainly is not worth while, but we have already done the work, might as well get something for it. Here, some buildings have slate roofs. Used slate sells for $500. a square (100 square feet). Old lumber, hand hewn, sash sawn, or even old is valuable, rich people pay a lot extra to get worn out old flooring. If old enough, lumber might be old growth, very wide boards. Mortice & tennoned house frames sell for big money. Old window sash become picture frames, or mirrors, wall decorations. Hobbiests use old sash as frames for stained glass art. I'm inclined to think you're dealing with scavengers who think this crap has more value than it does. Click to expand... Where do you take scrap? I used to go to Rosen and Berger. I've heard of Hubbard's, but not been there.

They test the septic for meth? I've never heard of that before!

Willie B said: We are a very small electrical contractor. When we rewire a building we save copper, aluminum, steel. It takes a couple years, our last haul to sell scrap was $2,100. Steel also accumulates, last haul was 20 cubic yards, 80 miles with the dump truck, brought in $600. Factoring labor, it certainly is not worth while, but we have already done the work, might as well get something for it. Here, some buildings have slate roofs. Used slate sells for $500. a square (100 square feet). Old lumber, hand hewn, sash sawn, or even old is valuable, rich people pay a lot extra to get worn out old flooring. If old enough, lumber might be old growth, very wide boards. Mortice & tennoned house frames sell for big money. Old window sash become picture frames, or mirrors, wall decorations. Hobbiests use old sash as frames for stained glass art. I'm inclined to think you're dealing with scavengers who think this crap has more value than it does. Click to expand... I remember as a kid in my pepere's barn looking at the boards... was built with stuff 1-2ft wide. Not many trees around making usable 2ft wide boards now!

IceHole said: I remember as a kid in my pepere's barn looking at the boards... was built with stuff 1-2ft wide. Not many trees around making usable 2ft wide boards now! Click to expand... Plenty of 2' wide trees. These days most mills make a cant. Based on the small end of a log, and the curve, they cut it down to a square. In most cases they throw away half the log. In an earlier day, they sawed a log through & through. A 3' diameter breast high log made 3' wide boards at center. The earliest buildings built with sash sawn lumber might have bark edge planks, no studs. Plank walls would be nailed to the horizontal members of a timber frame alternating wide on top, then wide on bottom. The plank walls got covered outside by clapboards or shakes, inside might be hatchet lath & plaster, or left raw.

Those wide planks from the old days were quarter sawn and with good grain. The reason they make the cant’s is because it’s junk wood. Where I lived in TN, you would see Cypress or Poplar come in big enough that you could quarter saw it, other than that, we would just run it through the head saw and resaw. The old growth had tight enough grain, you could plank it, on a circular mill.

One might quarter saw for top quality lumber, plain sawn lumber will yield a few very wide boards. Earliest sawn lumber mills were sash mills. a straight saw blade was held in a frame like a window sash. They were water powered. Houses were timber framed, hewn. Fewer studs, joists etc was more efficient. My land was logged in 1986, I now have many 30" - 36" DBH sugar pine, a few 4' DBH. Nothing so rare about a big log, I don't often see a 4' wide board.

Willie B said: One might quarter saw for top quality lumber, plain sawn lumber will yield a few very wide boards. Earliest sawn lumber mills were sash mills. a straight saw blade was held in a frame like a window sash. They were water powered. Houses were timber framed, hewn. Fewer studs, joists etc was more efficient. My land was logged in 1986, I now have many 30" - 36" DBH sugar pine, a few 4' DBH. Nothing so rare about a big log, I don't often see a 4' wide board. Click to expand... Dunno where that is, but 3ft dbh trees that are lumber worthy in northern Maine aren't very common anymore. Definitely not common that you'd use the boards for a barn too... Shoot even 30 years ago it was "don't see that anymore!". Barn was built late 1800s, early 1900s.

Meh, very rare to see anything over 30” on a truck these days but it does depend on where you’re at. I hunt a couple areas that have a lot of big hemlock and pine but most of the land left around here is going into a SELT trust. We did just have a good 500 acres logged, with some big stuff, anxious to see what their plans are.

IceHole said: Dunno where that is, but 3ft dbh trees that are lumber worthy in northern Maine aren't very common anymore. Definitely not common that you'd use the boards for a barn too... Shoot even 30 years ago it was "don't see that anymore!". Barn was built late 1800s, early 1900s. Click to expand... Come to VT, they aren't so very rare. Not many years ago I was putting a horizontal beaded wainscoating in a new house, wanting it to look old. It was to be hand planed. I hoped for wide boards, one piece even better. I went to a local mill able to handle big logs. Owner said: "Yeah we got them, you don't want to pay for em." I said "Try me." I came home with my boards.

Willie B said: We are a very small electrical contractor. When we rewire a building we save copper, aluminum, steel. It takes a couple years, our last haul to sell scrap was $2,100. Steel also accumulates, last haul was 20 cubic yards, 80 miles with the dump truck, brought in $600. Factoring labor, it certainly is not worth while, but we have already done the work, might as well get something for it. Here, some buildings have slate roofs. Used slate sells for $500. a square (100 square feet). Old lumber, hand hewn, sash sawn, or even old is valuable, rich people pay a lot extra to get worn out old flooring. If old enough, lumber might be old growth, very wide boards. Mortice & tennoned house frames sell for big money. Old window sash become picture frames, or mirrors, wall decorations. Hobbiests use old sash as frames for stained glass art. I'm inclined to think you're dealing with scavengers who think this crap has more value than it does. Click to expand... I haul scrap iron so i save about everything that can be recycled . One thing I think and look at stuff is its a big country/world and there are alot of people and a lot of stuff going to land fills that could be recycled or reused. What will happen if instead of recycling stuff like copper wire it gets used then thrown in a landfill ???? Will we run out of copper someday??? I know its work to recycle and sometimes there isnt any money to be made and some times it cost to recycle but what about the future ???

Old Doug said: I know its work to recycle and sometimes there isn't any money to be made and some times it cost to recycle but what about the future ??? Click to expand... Landfills will be the mines of future.

We operated a c and d site for waste management. It was their property their permits. It was only a couple miles from our shop. They used our scales and we would push stuff over and bury it once a week. There were pickers that went there steady. It was just a gate. Easy to get around with a 4 wheeler. After a couple fires WM installed a better gate and fence. They would cut the fence so we used rocks and old dumpsters. Then they tore the gate off.. Finally the boss caught them in the act of un bolting the gate. Never had another problem. He gave them a key. If you need in there that bad here. Make sure the gate is closed when you are in there, and locked when you leave If there are any more problems. I know who you are. Nothing was ever damaged again

cuttin edge said: We operated a c and d site for waste management. It was their property their permits. It was only a couple miles from our shop. They used our scales and we would push stuff over and bury it once a week. There were pickers that went there steady. It was just a gate. Easy to get around with a 4 wheeler. After a couple fires WM installed a better gate and fence. They would cut the fence so we used rocks and old dumpsters. Then they tore the gate off.. Finally the boss caught them in the act of un bolting the gate. Never had another problem. He gave them a key. If you need in there that bad here. Make sure the gate is closed when you are in there, and locked when you leave If there are any more problems. I know who you are. Nothing was ever damaged again Click to expand... That's similar to what we do now with our equipment - leave all the doors and compartments unlocked. If they are going to steal the batteries at least I don't have to buy new batteries and a new door + lock. Same with the cabs - if they are locked they'll bust the glass to rummage through to find nothing. Leave them unlocked and hopefully the glass stays intact.

CM1995 said: That's similar to what we do now with our equipment - leave all the doors and compartments unlocked. If they are going to steal the batteries at least I don't have to buy new batteries and a new door + lock. Same with the cabs - if they are locked they'll bust the glass to rummage through to find nothing. Leave them unlocked and hopefully the glass stays intact. Click to expand... Locks only keep honest people out. There was no loss as to what these guys were taking. It's being buried. The damage to the fence and gate was really no loss for us, more of an inconvenience. Giving them access solved the problem. No damage no mess and no fires

CM1995 said: That's similar to what we do now with our equipment - leave all the doors and compartments unlocked. If they are going to steal the batteries at least I don't have to buy new batteries and a new door + lock. Same with the cabs - if they are locked they'll bust the glass to rummage through to find nothing. Leave them unlocked and hopefully the glass stays intact. Click to expand... I've never owned a camp. In my lifetime I've had the pleasure of using three. In each, the keys were on site. One you had to know where the key was. In winter it was obvious. Another, the key was hanging from a nail beneath the lock. All three had a log book on the table. It was an honor thing to sign in with date & time. I'm not aware anything was ever stolen. On a few occasions, someone ate non perishable food, either a promise to replace, or cash was left. I kind of doubt that everyone poking around heavy equipment is that honorable. Some aren't honorable at all!

Willie B said: I kind of doubt that everyone poking around heavy equipment is that honorable. Some aren't honorable at all! Click to expand... No their not Willie - not at all. Best we can hope for is they rummage through and go along their way.

We tore down a big building that had a lot of steel beams. Piled the beams and put the excavator bucket on them. Probably a couple tandem loads of steel. Come back the next morning they were all gone. The excavator bucket up in the air. They used torches to cut them up. Neighbors just let them at it.

In the 5 or 6 times I can recall batteries being stolen, only once have they cut the wires. Every other time they have unbolted them. They once hit the crusher and took all the cables. One of them must have been an electrician as they took the time to cut the control cables and leave the labeled parts

One time they butchered our D5G when they stole to batteries. Cut the cables all the way at the back inside. If anyone has ever changed batteries in a D5G it can be a pain then try splicing the cables back together in there.