What do you do with fouled up beyond all repair (FUBAR) power tools?
We have a scrap dumpster at work, one for copper and one for general mixed scrap. I generally throw them in the mixed dumpster, even if they are plastic bodied. This way the copper and metal get recycled.
What is the item, and whats wrong with it?
Our city has several recycling depots and a metal recycling company. The depot takes anything electrical or electronic. It gets disassembled and the various metal sold to further processors. In the absence of such facilities, you simply junk it.
Send them in for repair or put them in the scrap metal bin.
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I have 30+ years worth of roughly-used power tools that I wish to avoid sending to the dump.
Ah yes, I also forgot to mention, even in the small city I live nearby (15,000 people) there are three metal recycling facilities. They would probably take something like this for free, maybe even give you a few cents for it. Its debatable if its worth the gas to drive there.
Just some ideas-
At times I have seen trade in programs at home depot for certain power tools where they give a credit if you trade an old one in. Home depot will take the old rechargeable batteries anytime if its a defunct cordless power toll.
There is one Tox-away-day a year in our county, I believe they may accept stuff like this as well.
If you live in a city or an area that gets alot of traffic you could set it by the curb, someone may take it to tinker with it or scrap it themselves.
Put them on craigslist for free, someone will come take them.
If they’re FUBAR and you don’t want to send them to the dump then list them as a lot on Craigslist.
Possibly someone will jump on them and you can make a few bucks.
One man’s junk is another man’s treasure. I’ve got a 40 something year old Black & Decker metal 1/2" industrial drill that still works fine, looks like utter garbage, and would have no hesitation buying something like that.
I don’t know what it’s like where you live, but around here every auto shop has a scrap metal bin or barrel. The “scraphounds” (metal recyclers) come by regularly and empty it. Some of them make decent money doing it too. Ask your local garage if you can put your stuff in with theirs. Shouldn’t cost you a thing.
If they run, you could have a garage sale or get a stall at a neighborhood flea market. The buyer might get a few years use out of them and then it’s their problem. Or you could donate them. Call the charity first to see if they will take the power tools. The charity might even pick them up at your house.
I always donate any worn out or FUBAR power tools to my local Vo-Tech school.
If you have boxes for all of them to fit in, and you live on a well traveled street, write FREE on the boxes and set them by the street. Pretty sure they’ll be gone by the time you get up in the morning
Thank you for the information. I looked around for some local metal recyclers and found one that quoted me $0.05 per pound for scrap steel. I ask myself the question, “should I save it because the price might go up or sell it and save the money?”
We have a local electric motor / small engine shop here that advertizes repairing power tools too.
I take mine to them and tell them to either ; use them for parts, recylcle , or scrap correctly with all their other similar items.
High-end tools like DeWalt and others may actually be repairable at one of these places.
I try and fix them, or have somebody fix them. There is an electronic motor guy in our town that can get anything running like new, motor brushes or whatever. The only one I have yet to conquer is a hedge trimmer that does not cut, sharpened and straightened blades, runs fine but cuts nothing bigger than a leaf stem. More blade work I think, it was a hand me down from FIL and never worked since day 1.
I would sell it and save the money. No sense hoarding the tools if they are no use to you. You could try putting them on craigslist as a lot if they are old robust types.
My $79 electric 3/8 drill. It has a habit to make holes that are completely useless to anyone else and which the holes will be eventually filled up with something that is purchased with useless pennies.:>)
Hello, I brought a lot of tools to some recycling collection areas. We donated some of the tools to an organization. We gave a few tools to a friend and we gave a few tools to a relative. -Melissa
P.S. I am not an English Major.
Boy that’s a good question. I bought a replacement wire feed/mig welder last week and have been wondering what to do with the old one. I don’t want to just throw it out since there may be some good parts on it but I’m not about to put it on CL. Its a 20 year old 85 amp Century wire feed/mig if it had gas. It just wasn’t putting out power anymore but the torch is good and I have the gas valves, extra tips for the Tweco torch, etc. Maybe someone who knew what there were doing could fix it but I’m not sure why they would want to. It was only $200 20 years ago. Still its pretty heavy so must have some copper in it and the torch itself is $100 and the gas valves, who knows? I was thinking about seeing if the local welding supply outfit would want it for parts or something but don’t want to get laughed at.