Two things came up. One - I picked up this 2" steel round bar and wanted to buy it. I was hoping they would just call it steel and let me have it for $.45 a pound, but this other guy came over, plopped a magnet on it (it was magnetic), and said 400 series - $2.50 a pound. That got me wondering what you pay for materials at the scrap yard. Here is what I have to pay per pound:

$0.45 - any steel except stainless
$2.50 - for any stainless
$3.00 - for any brass
$3.50 - for any Aluminum

What do you have to pay?


Then there was this in the attached photos if I can get them to attach. Just thought someone might find it interesting.

Wayne

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I have bought a few pieces of 6061 round recently. Scrap was .55/lb , I paid .75/lb.

I was at another yard and hit the mother load - aluminum plate from some test fixtures - 1/2" x 12 x 12 with some kind of micrometer parts installed- wouldn't sell them to me. Said they don't sell anything-ever!

PS- check out the Tooling For Sale forum, as there is some nice stock pieces still available (Al + 303 Brass)

Id like to have that shaper.


Other then that I have not found a yard near me that will sell to Joe public.

I like that shaper, it has the much sought after universal table and the original vise. Rusty but restorable.

Our scrap prices are similar but the aluminum is much lower and the brass is a bit higher. I do buy brass pretty regularly but I havn't bought any aluminum in a while.
We don't have too many scrap yards to choose from here on the island. Some don't sell any non-ferrous. Some are great to deal with and some are idiots. One place in particular gets some good scrap in and proceeds to overprice it and then after it has sat around for months rusting they chuck it in the grinder. Oh well, you
can't tell someone how to run their business.

Michael

You ought to find out what you can buy the vice for. I would be interested in buying it - but I suspect the shipping would be prohibitive.

Before I get flamed for not saying to buy the whole thing...

No way to know if the rest of it is salvagable with any reasonable amount of work- but I know the vice is, and could be used for other things than a shaper vice.

It would also be a lot easier to move just the vice.

Looks to be about a 20 in shaper
I happen to have a shaper which could use a vice that size as a second "lighter" vice.

If you find out it worked until it got sold- by all means buy it or pass on the info so someone who wants it can. The universal table is a nice thing to have.

A friend, from this forum, alerted me to a couple steel bars at the local scrap yard. He had just bought one plus a pulley. They were 2" OD and a total of 112" long--weighed 97 pounds and scrap yard fellow sold them to me for $29--right at .30 per pound. They were marked with red on one end but don't think that is enough to identify them as many steel dealers have their own coloring system. Cuts like butter and will be great for my "learning" projects.

$0.45 - any steel except stainless
$2.50 - for any stainless
$3.00 - for any brass
$3.50 - for any Aluminum


The LCS may be cheaper than new, but the rest of the prices look like prime costing. And you would pay prime at the scrap yard?

Actually - that alum looks to be 2x prime. ???


---------------

Think Snow Eh!
Ox

Simple answer: Find another scrap yard

Shaper is late enough to have chromed ways on ram, but at their prices probably silly to buy.

John Oder

Most yards in TX have stopped letting people buy stuff. Which is stupid as walk-in guys provide a quick source of under the table cash. I attribute this decline in society to two things:

1) The ever-tightening world of insurance, laws, and regulations. Every day the US beocmes more like France, Germany, and the UK, where everybody has their nose stuick up someone else's business.

2) I'll bet 50% of the walk-in guys were always too stupid to know their boundaries and generally made pains in the asses of themselves. I've seen guys ignore safety regs, bitch about prices, try to return scrap, try to hide shit in their toolbox, etc.

At those prices or if you had to pay a little extra, you could buy new and at least know exactly what alloy you are getting.

Have a G&E made in 1954 just like it .It has rapid traverse up down and across.Hard chrome ways pressure lube and is a fantastically smooth and quiet machine to operate.Well worth the effort to restore it. Ian>>>>>>>>>>>>

at the local scrap yard here the

15 cents per pound for any steel including magnetic stainlees
$1 per pound for 304 stainless 316 is usualy about 25 cents more
$3.50 per pound for number 1 copper .
Brass , not sure of current price but I would expect about $2.50

For what it's worth - a few months ago I wanted to buy some steel scrap to practice welding. I went to one of the big yards in the industrial section of Oakland and told the yard foreman what I wanted. He sent me over to a big dumpster full of ferrous scrap, with a workman to help me pull out what I wanted and keep me from hurting myself.

I got some rebar, some angle iron from old bedframes and some bigger angle iron, some steel pipe, and something that was mostly 3/16" plate - about 50 pounds of miscellaneous stuff in the back of my Explorer. I asked the guy where I should pay and he just smiled and waved me on my way. I guess maybe it wasn't worth it for them to write up a purchase that small, plus they were really nice people.

Patrick

At Steel Supply just south of Hobby, I pay $.25/lb for A-36 which is mostly what they have. They have some big alloy bars, but I haven't priced them 'cuz they'd crush my SB 9A. I'm told they're REALLY hard as well.

And they don't mind people walking through the scrap yard part of the place. But it doesn't take very long for the guy in the forklift to drive up and ask to help you find something.

Did you happen to ask what they wanted for the shaper?

I have some interest, since not too far away and it does have the original vise and is a universal table model.

Dave - I'll go back in the next day or two and see if they will haggle any. I don't think they will and even so, there is a language barrier. Are there any additional pictures that you would like?

Waynw

I was at the scrap yard last summer looking for some brass. The yard worker told me he had a 5 gallon bucket of some short pieces someone had brought in a few days earlier. Turned out the bucket was full of 13" sticks of solid and cored Bunting 660 bronze. These 13" "scraps" ranged in diameter from 5/8" to 2"cored. I got the whole bucket for $2.20 per pound. Sometimes it's fun to go scrounging!

you guys are lucky that the scrap yards allow you to scrounge. Most of the ones out here don't let you in for liability reasons.

we are down to one yard here in tacoma, and it has historically been a pain to deal with, they bring in NOS and want new price for it, which is their perogative, but
when it doesn't sell it is left to weather in buckets full of water for months, until it is a solid blob of rust, and they still want near new price for it.
the reasoning is , hey it will clean up if you put some effort into it!

ya right, if i put as much effort into working i can afford to just buy two new ones for the same amount of time spent.

lately they have gotten a bit better on most stuff, except

i found an old 3phase 600amp welder rusted to hell, buried under tons of crap, knee deep in mud and black berry bushes, so i decide to take out 8 jumper lines 2/0 and 3/0 with ends, all about 4ft long

it took me over an hour, and risk of tetnus to get the damn things out of that old relic.

they then wanted 2.50 per lb for the copper, because that is what copper scrap is worth!

ok, but you can't get 2.50/lb for an old welder, and the only way you can get the copper out is you have to invest the time to get it out!

that was lost on them, they just couldn't grasp the concept i guess.

they finally gave in a sold it to me for 2.40/lb

i know for the time invested and what i paid for the jumpers, i could have spent the time making money and bought new, and probably had change left over.

live and learn i guess

my biz partner went back later and recovered the 3phase rectifier bank, and they sold it to him for 2 bucks plus tax! there must have been 30lbs of aluminum in the damn thing! let alone 12 huge rectifiers that go for an average of 10-20bucks each on ebay.

i sure miss boeing surplus here in seattle!

bob g