RogueRose
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Local hardware store good source for free batteries of all types!
Of the 8 local Tru-value, Ace and similar stores close to me, they all have a battery (and electronics) drop off recycling program where you can drop
them off for free, be they non-rechargable (alkaline, lithium, zinc carbon) or rechargables for any and all devices - most often power tools.
I got to know the manager of a store and told him I do electronics projects & a little chemistry and asked if I could dig around in his battery
donations. He said take whatever I wanted. First time I left with 25+ Li-Ion Dewalt, Makita & Milwaukee packs (3 or 5 ah packs). 6 of them were
still fine, 5 of them only needed one wire resoldered inside the pack and 10 packs were low voltage with maybe 1-3 bad cells - the rest were perfect
and they are all name brand batteries like Samsung, Sanyo or Panasonic. You have to be careful b/c a bad pack can damage a charger, so you have to do
a little testing first.
I've also gotten a few hundred lbs of sealed lead acid batteries (computer UPS's) that I can scrap for $.20/lb.
There are TONS of NiCad and Ni-MH batteries too. More of these are dead, but even in the dead ones, I'd guess that 1/2 the cells still have full
1.25v charge. Many packs have a loose connection/wire or the "spade" plug that goes into the power tool has been worn out/broken or is simple covered
in corrosion or goo.
There are often times old tools there as well, parts of tools, etc. If the store rents tools, they may give away broken/worn out tools. I always get
these and keep the motors, gearbox and trigger switch (which can be the most expensive replacement part).
Some of these boxes that they ship out have 65-75lbs of batteries in them so this has to cost them a pretty penny, especially when one store said they
have about this much every day.
There can be a lot of cool stuff that they are throwing out, even old appliances like microwaves, toaster ovens, toaster, blenders, all kinds of stuff
that is either returned on warranty (and manufacture says dispose of) or they are scrapped because the customer bought a newer item. The toaster
ovens often have either ceramic or quartz heating elements that I have yet been able to melt even running on 220!
Just thought I'd share this and see if anyone might find this useful or have any insight about this that might come in handy.
PS, stores like best buy, lowes, home depot, walmart, etc all have a battery drop off as well. IDK if they would be willing to give items though b/c
they are more corporate than a privately owned Ace/TruValue.
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LearnedAmateur
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Location: Somewhere in the UK
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If you ever need the green 18650 type batteries (used in the bigger laser pointers, vapes, and LED flashlights), you can dig 6 of them out of old
laptop batteries or even some wireless vacuum cleaners. These usually go for about £3-£5 a pop when new, and chargers for them are quite cheap, I
have a Nitecore charger with an LCD display that cost me about £10, and I think you can use it to power/charge other devices using the battery via
USB but I never figured out how to do that. You should be able to find laptop batteries at the drop offs, and apart from physical damage and dead
cells, the individual batteries inside are pretty much ready to go once you pull off the connections.
In chemistry, sometimes the solution is the problem.
It’s been a while, but I’m not dead! Updated 7/1/2020. Shout out to Aga, we got along well.
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RogueRose
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Registered: 16-6-2014
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Quote: Originally posted by LearnedAmateur  | | If you ever need the green 18650 type batteries (used in the bigger laser pointers, vapes, and LED flashlights), you can dig 6 of them out of old
laptop batteries or even some wireless vacuum cleaners. These usually go for about £3-£5 a pop when new, and chargers for them are quite cheap, I
have a Nitecore charger with an LCD display that cost me about £10, and I think you can use it to power/charge other devices using the battery via
USB but I never figured out how to do that. You should be able to find laptop batteries at the drop offs, and apart from physical damage and dead
cells, the individual batteries inside are pretty much ready to go once you pull off the connections. |
Yeah, I forgot to mention the laptop battery packs in there as well. I would be places like Best Buy and Walmart would have a lot of those in the
drop off boxes.
Also, the Li-Ion's last a LONG time when being stored on the shelf, but they have to be stored charged for best results.
I'd like to build a charger that that holds 8 - 16 cells that charges individual cells. This way I can charge any type of 3.6 or 3.7v Li-ion battery
and it will automatically stop when that cell gets topped off at about 4v, so if one of the cells is a 1800 mah and another cell is a 3200 mah, then
they can all use the same charger and will shut off when it senses the correct voltage.
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VSEPR_VOID
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Would that be a cheap source of lithium metal, old batteries?
Within cells interlinked
Within cells interlinked
Within cells interlinked
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RogueRose
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Well I've been told that it can be extracted from the Li-ion's - the ones used in laptop batteries, power tools. These are the 3.6 of 3.7v. There are
also LiFePO4 batteries that are 3.2-3.3v and I'm not sure about extracting it from these.
From what I have read, a standard 18650 Li-ion cell will yield about 1-1.5g of lithium. I have taken these apart and they are an outer steel case and
inside is a rolled "plastic" film that may have a thin black layer (carbon/graphite?) on it as well as another thin layer that looks copper color (on
a plastic film), but IDK if there is copper in these batteries. There is some electrolyte impregnating the battery, saturating the rolled sheets.
I need to take one of these apart again. I'll do that sometime soon and post some pictures.
Then there are the non-rechargable lithium batteries (the ones people were stealing to make meth supposedly). These are available at grocery stores
and such and I've found a few of these in the recycle bins but have yet to take any of these apart (to do list as well - pics coming). Now I've been
told that in the fresh, unused state, the thin sheet of lithium can be harvested from these batteries and used "as is" but once used, I'm told "it is
no longer useable" which leads me to believe it would be some salt of lithium such as a carbonate, chloride or whatever, and with a little work I
assume that it could be converted back into a usable form.
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charley1957
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Registered: 18-2-2012
Location: Texas
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Yes I’ve gathered dozens of Li-ion 18650 cells from Home Depot battery recycling bins. Other types as well. I’d really like to know how to extract
the lithium from them. I’ve extracted a good bit of cobalt from them. I’ve read the polymer separator strips are suitable semipermeable membranes
for various uses but I haven’t tried them yet. There’s lot of ultra-pure copper in the Li-ion 18650 cells also. These cells are a gold mine. I’d
say that 99% of the ones I’ve brought home still had a full charge in them. Only one, two at most in a battery pack are ever bad. There are lots of
Ni-Cad batteries in those recycle bins too, as well as NiMH, alkaline cells and sometimes even carbon zincs.
You can’t claim you drank all day if you didn’t start early in the morning.
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Metacelsus
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Registered: 26-12-2012
Location: Boston, MA
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Lithium ion batteries don't have lithium metal, although you could isolate lithium salts.
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