what is in an old light ballast?

[Markbo]

The older, heavier type. I just had to replace 2 fixtures. Just curious what they are made of... anything we'd be interested in??

[leadman]

Usually copper wire, maybe an iron core. Most old style have a hazardous type of oil in them. These can be hard to dispose of.

Can't think of anything in them we could use for boolits or reloading, other than recycling the metals.

[odfairfaxsub]

alot of balast are made of copper coils, a steel core, and wrapped in pbc soaked and dried paper.

[lwknight]

Scrap yards pay good for balasts

[DukeInFlorida]

The copper in them is worth a lot.

The scrapper will pay for them, and have a scrap rate definition for them.

[zuke]

Sound's like a trip tpo the scrapyard's in order here!
But when you cash out see if you can buy lead off'em.

[DLCTEX]

Wow! I should have known they were valuable scrap. I throw away lots of them. Into the recycle pile now.

[Sonnypie]

Burned out electrons. :bigsmyl2:

Just pullin your leg.

But there is very little worth messing with.
For one thing, unless it is marked clearly: NO PCB's
Then it likely has PCB type insulating oils used in it. Hazardous materials, could be a can of worms if opened.
Next, most of the weight is steel laminated core which forms the laminate for the transformer.
Lastly there is this itty bitty wire that is wound in coils.
Most of the scrappers I know of want the insulation stripped from the copper. Since the wire inside transformers is coated with insulating varnish, most have to burn it off.
All in all, it is a LOT of work for a small amount of copper to sell.
And like I said, if it is PCB laden, could bring a lot of trouble down on you.
I would quietly dispose of them... [smilie=1:

[frkelly74]

I got what they called reclamation rates on some I took in. $.10 a lb and they did check to see if they were pcb type ballast. after that I left them in the carcass of the fixture and got un prepared steel rate. $.10 a lb. same rate less work.

[lwknight]

Even if you only get 10 or 15 cents per pound balasts it's still a good way to get rid of them.

[whd45]

My scrap dealer will not take them.