What's A 10ft Dish Worth For Scrap?

[Lone Gunman]

Before you have a heart attack let me explain.

I ran an ad in our local trader paper "Your Message Board" last week wanting a 10ft or larger mesh dish. I got two calls last weekend and I can tell that both those guys are going to want money for them. I'm not above paying something for a 10 footer but IMHO they're probably not worth anything over what scrap price would bring if I've got to take them down and move them 50+ miles to my house.

So having said that, anyone got any idea what the scrap price would be for a 10ft mesh dish?

Thanks

 

[Magic Static]

There is very little aluminum in my Laser C/Ku. It's mostly iron/steel. Total about $15 maybe. My Winegard is all aluminum dish and iron mount, maybe $60 total.
Thinking high end here. A car is worth $150~ $200 maybe.

 

[FaT Air]

And that would be if the owner takes it down, cuts it up, and delivers it to the scrap yard. If that's the route they go, and if they have to hire someone to do the labor, what's left? Little to nothing or worse.
If they really want to get rid of their eyesore, if not hired(and paid) to remove it, maybe a $20 - $50 'thankyou', that's about it. That could go higher, depending on ones desire for a particular model, if that exists.
Got to remember, in a lot of cases, you're going to also have many hours invested in re-hab.
I spent a $20 on one 1.2m, only because they stated it was destined to become a sign. Figured $20 would get them some plywood, primer and paint.

 

[Anole]

just my opinion

Fiberglas? Just the metal in the mount.
Not much user value, unless it's something like a molded Andrew or Prodelin.

Spun aluminum or a nice perforated aluminum?
Probably the most.
One of each in my signature.
You'd be a damned fool to not pay $100 for each, yet for scrap, I'd doubt you could get $50 each.
Probably same for 10' Zenith/Winegard perf BUD.

Mesh? Only value is mount, unless the panels are aluminum.
Does mesh come in steel and aluminum.?

I'm thinking $20-50 max, delivered to the recycle center.
But that's just a guess.

 

[Lone Gunman]

Important lesson learned today! Never trust someone elses' definition of "usable" where satellite dishes are concerned.

The one furtherest away was a total loss. The guy has pulled it out of the ground with a back hoe and just horked it up beyond belief!! Shame I couldn't have gotten hold of that one two weeks ago before he destroyed it! FYI it was a SAMI I think as it looked very much like the second one that I'm going to post pictures of which also looks very much like my 7.5ft SAMI here at the house.

Problem with the second one is the guys kid shot BB holes all in it?? And I mean A LOT OF BB HOLES! I do think this one is salvagable but not real fond of the polar mount as it looks kinda "cheezy". I think I can take the mesh panels off and straighten a good number of the BB problems but not sure if that polar mount is up to snuff. Was thinking that I "might" be able to use the mount from my 7.5 foot SAMI though but won't know for sure until or if I decide to bring it home. The Von Weise dish mover is toast as well as the shaft seal is gone and it appears to have filled with rain water and frozen up bursting the gear case. I do have a spare one of those though and also if I replace the SAMI I already have I could use that Super Jack on it.

Ennywho, I'm probably going to go ahead and pick that one up if he'll take $50 for it.

CRAP, the pictures wouldn't upload?? Oh well!

 

[Anole]

A lot of junk dishes may yield useful parts to the experienced FTAer, like yourself.
Doesn't sound like these were worth the gas to go look.

And a lot of times they post useless or incomplete pictures, too .
It's a catch-22 'cause you don't want to miss something good.

 

[Lone Gunman]

A lot of junk dishes may yield useful parts to the experienced FTAer, like yourself.
Doesn't sound like these were worth the gas to go look.

Well, the one furtherest away was about 55 miles one way and I drove my 91 Geo Metro so that was about 45 MPG for the trip. The second dish was about 25/30 miles out of my way to the other one so it wasn't as bad as it could have been. Round trip was about 135 miles. Have to take the truck and trailer back if the guy will sell it but that trip is only about 25 or so miles one way.

I've got a Bridgeport milling machine here in my shop and also the knowledge to use it so if the polar mount on my SAMI won't fit this other one, I may be able to modify the existing mount on the new to me dish and make it more to my liking. We have the technology!!

Can anyone identify the make as there's no markings on it that I could find.

And BTW, I think the same guy installed both dishes because the owners bought those systems around 1985 or so, they're made exactly alike and weren't that far apart.

http://ftrdesign.com/pics/dish1.jpg

http://ftrdesign.com/pics/dish2.jpg

 

[Magic Static]

I've seen that quad panel design on a few makes, Echostar, Sami, Winegard, The Winegard had a round tube thru the panels to help support the mesh, a ring about 3 1/2' from center on a 10' dish. I've not seen the square tube feed supports though. They all used the same round center plate. The mounts were varied.

 

[Lone Gunman]

THERE IS JOY IN MUDVILLE TODAY!!!

I got a call about a half hour ago from a guy that had a dish for sale. Turns out he's within 5 miles of my house so I went to see what he had. It's a UNIMESH 10 footer with a Super Jack mover and that dish is in near perfect condition except for two bullet holes that are in it. The mesh on it is in better shape than my Winegard as it's sitting under a large maple tree that obviously shielded it from hail damage. It's a button hook LNB deal and my first one of those BTW, but I'm sure it will be OK.

Ennywho, I gave the guy $100 for it and I'll try to move it early next week.

I guess this should have been posted in "Adventures In Dish Hunting" hey!

I guess my next project will be to try to find a 12 footer to replace one of these 10s!

 

[KE4EST]

Congrats on the find. That is the way my Unimesh was, it looked like it had never been touched.

 

[castle rock kid]

I had a 10.5 perforated aluminum dish that I had disassembled and took to the scrap dealer and got $75.00 for it. This was about 4 years ago so metal prices might not be the same.

 

[toucan-man]

The Unimesh tend to look better preserved than some of the mesh competition.

 

[Lone Gunman]

I had a 10.5 perforated aluminum dish that I had disassembled and took to the scrap dealer.

Well, I do hope it wasn't usable if you scrapped it?? Today that thing would probably bring over $100 as the price of that stuff has gone up a bunch in the past few years.

 

[navychop]

Do you repair the holes or the dish is fine with just a few?

 

[Lone Gunman]

Do you repair the holes or the dish is fine with just a few?

Nah, those holes look like 35 caliber (or around 3/8" diameter) and won't matter. My Winegard dish has one hole like that in it too. I don't know how many it would take to have a negative effect on performance but two "shouldn't" be an issue. That damage is much less than the hail damage I have on both my SAMI and my Winegard dishes.


Anyone close to Lynchburg, Va interested in a 7.5ft SAMI dish?

 

[navychop]

You live near my daughter. She's not into FTA, though.

 

[joshrr]

Good grief whats with people shooting all these dishes!!?? Im all for going out shooting but shooting a mesh dish (huge and already full of holes) doesnt seem like much fun.

 

[toucan-man]

Good grief whats with people shooting all these dishes!!?? Im all for going out shooting but shooting a mesh dish (huge and already full of holes) doesnt seem like much fun.

Agree. Many creative things to do instead, such as this timeless tradition,

 

[ChrisW6ATV]

I had a 10.5 perforated aluminum dish that I had disassembled and took to the scrap dealer and got $75.00 for it. This was about 4 years ago so metal prices might not be the same.

I sold the pieces of a 10-foot perforated aluminum dish a few years ago for $84 to a recycler. That was only after I had replaced it with a better-condition 10-foot dish made with expanded-metal panels (that is "mesh", I am guessing). The first one was an odd dish. It had to have been manufactured for use on the East Coast, and the motor was integral to the mount. Here in California, it could not move east enough to see several of the satellites. I had modified it later by removing the motor and installing mounting locations for a Von Weise actuator that I bought, but it was never right (it always lost counts and the whole arc had to be reset often).

 

[Anole]

You trashed a 10' perf...
...and neutered a Horizon-to-horizon mount?

I'm not sure you're our kind of people.