How To Deal With Your Scrap Metal

[Mud]

When you figure this one out, please let me know.

Phila is 1-1/2 hr away from me in a car. I've had 3 scrap dealers from Phila call and offer to give me gaylords for my chips, and then come pick them up when a truck is on a regular run in my area. Maybe looking farther away would be productive?

I had a scrapper pick up my chips and split the $ with me - big truck, he supplied gaylords, etc. He does pretty well, can't read or write, but drives a new Escalade and has a late model Mack. We loaded w/forklift. I ran the numbers from a big load and decided to go back to doing it myself. I acquired some sizeable bins so I can haul 3000 lbs of aluminum or more at one time, clears $800 or more for a 1.5 hr trip, and I don't have to keep corrugated gaylords indoors. For steel, the chips go in the dumpster as posted earlier, and i have a steel forklift bin for car parts, fab scrap, etc.that gets hauled once a year or so - holds 3 to 4K lbs.- $200. Drums got old REAL fast. Take up too much room and too hard to handle. If you have something a forklift can handle the scrapyards all have a way to dump them with a rotator or to just flip them over and right them again.

 

[powerglider]

When I had my shop in Bradenton FL (it was a small shop with small amounts to bring to the recycle, mostly aluminum cut offs)I had a different experience than you guys had. I brought my scrap/recycle at the time (2000-2007) to a company called Suncoast. The guys running the scales were actually polite and ran them fairly. They did handle the riff raff accordingly (the riff raff being the junkies that would fill any void in aluminum or a container they could with water, dirt or whatever else they had to tilt the scale in their favor). I did influence perhaps their interaction with me by always trying to find out what drink or candy the handlers liked and always brought them and their helpers some. Grease the system and see what happens?

 

[dkmc]

Hey, that might be the "other use" I've been trying to think of for the
Harbor Freight electric log splitter. I don't own one, but keep thinking
it's a low cost 5 ton self contained hydraulic power unit....

Briquetting makes them more valuable, but is costly to do.
I have wondered about making a small version to adapt to
a logsplitter, maybe using 2"-3" pipe, with a funnel on
top. Something simply welded up, and bolted onto the
ram.

 

[moonlight machine]

A scrap dealer here got busted by the bureau of weights and measures for having a switch on the truck scale, it would weigh incoming trucks light and outgoing trucks heavy. They screwed me out of a thousand lbs once that I know of. I weighed at a grain scale on the way there and at the same scale on the way home.

 

[billzweig]

I do not bother with steel (which I do not have much anyway), sell only the non-ferrous - and separated by metal type. Once I accumulate a truckload I take it on my way to town. Never had any problems with the scrap people.

 

[Garwood]

I give all of my steel and al chips to a stand up local scrapper. He picks up free cars and crushes them hundreds at a time. He uses my chips to pack the car bodies to increase weight. He also has rolldecks and semis and puts on a few local motorsports events. Has been a good guy to know so far. Has brought me some good repair work to do and also warned me which businesses don't pay their bills.

 

[72bwhite]

steel chips just go in the trash scrap yard doesn't even want them

took 3 barrels of aluminum chips and a bag of plastic CA redemption beverage
bottles got a whopping $27 for the hassle that was my monday

 

[HOMESTEAD]

Typical scrap yard experiance.

I will say that the average person they deal with is bitter, angry, ugly, argumentative, and in this area some type of addicted thief as well.

Couldn't agree more. Most scrapyard employees would probably be abrasive sobs even if they weren't dealing with three toothed lowlifes all day long, but I'm sure it doesn't help. The guy I deal with when I take a load in comes off as kind of a jerk when you first meet him, but if you act half civilized and have your scrap organized when you come in, he treats you pretty well.

As far as making anything off the scrap, well....I basically look at it as free disposal. I can't believe anybody would try to make a living scrapping.

 

[adama]

Me i do the odd subcontract job for a bigger shop and they get there ferrous swarf hauled out for free, presumably the scrap yard must make enough to make it worth there while and the big shop just like me is more than happy to be shot of it. hence they let me chuck mine on in there and in some ways its great, its local im often passing within a 100 yards etc, its just convenient and easy. I tried hauling a load to a scrap yard once and its just more agro than its worth for small quantities even with a 1/4 ton of saved up assorted non ferrous stuff.

If theres a few local shops it might be worth ganging together and have a shared skip.

As to it all burning off in the melt i have a issue with that concept, sure no doubt a lot oxidizes but it must be better than starting with raw ore?

 

[Greg White]

the biggest scrap yard here(just outside Deetroit)got busted with the switch deal on his scales, in its hay day semi's were lined up full of dies and molds,machinery,tractors. The owner was cheating these semi's, front page on his bust, he laughed and paid the fine, his house looks like one of trumps.
My scrap goes in plastic barells cut in half,one of my custmors is a large fab house near GM truck an bus, they unload it from my truck, when i deliver details, they supply my mat., so I give em what I cut away ,all of it.
Gw

 

[SND]

I put my stuff in regular plastic garbage bins, got about a doze of those, 20gal size I think. Thankfully I mostly just do various types of stainless/nickel alloys so its sometimes almost worth the trip, but at first they just wanted to give steel price for 17-4 and 2205 "cause its magnetic"... thankfully they ended up checking with the gun each time when they figure I know what the stuff is and I'm not some guys who goes around pick other peoples scrap. Now they often don't even bother to scan it anymore, I keep my stuff pretty well sorted and do a pretty good machine cleaning with each change over.

For steel I just throw it in the steel pile they got, don't even weigh it, a few weeks ago I had probably 30-40lbs of HSS bits/drills/taps and such, called to see if there was a price for HSS, got told its just steel for a cent a pound or whatever, so I dumped that there too. So if you get steel plate/bar with some hss bits in there, you're welcome.

 

[eaglemike]

I guess I have a screamin deal going on here. There is a SoCal company, Specialty Scrap, that treats me very well. I have mostly 6061, and keep it as clean and separated as possible. They provide barrels, and pick up/are in the area every Wednesday. They have a scale on the truck,and pay cash. It's used to buy lunch for the help a few times. If it's mill chips that I can tamp down, more return per barrel of course. Stringy lathe chips, not as nice. They sell to mills in SoCal, I believe. Stainless and stell almost not worth it, but better than throwing away.
OP, you need to find someone like this. Good Luck.

 

[B-Mathews]

I have a local guy brings me empty barrels and hauls the full ones away. He pays for solids and I give him the chips for free.

I call him when the barrels are full- no hassles, no fuss.

I use the same guy!! It has been great s far

 

[Bobw]

Steel chips go right in the dumpster..

Most aluminum chips go right in the dumpster..

When I do have a big pile of ali chips, my cleaning guy takes them (he also
takes the cans).. He puts half of his "take" in the gas tank and the other
half goes into his grand daughters college fund account... AND I don't
have to deal with it.

Solid aluminum is stored, along with carbide.. I consider that my "retirement fund"

Solid steel drops and scrap.... A guy across the street will get rid of that for
me... He stockpiles scrap, disassembles it, organizes and waits for the price to
go up.

I HATE scrap yards.. There is one here that is sort of honest, they pay fair and if
they don't know how much it should be, they make a call, or take a sample and send it
to El Paso..

The other scrapper... ASSHOLE, when I was green he told me scrap carbide
was worthless, but he would be a nice guy and throw away the 40 lbs box I had so I wouldn't
have to take it back to the shop.... Also had an employee stop there once to ask for directions
to the other scrap yard and he asked how much for the ali bronze chips (100s of lbs).. 3 cents,
got 84 cents at the other yard(clean, with certs, 84% copper).

Being out in the boondocks and not on the coast really limits your options.

 

[Guest]

I may use to keep track of current material prices(raw or scrap)?

-Craig

Your local scrap places don't have their own website that lists prices? The ones around me do. The prices seem to change quite frequently. As for attitudes at a scrap yard I think I only got one once, he claimed all stainless was magnetic, he didn't want to be educated that he was wrong.

 

[Wild West]

98% of my chips are aluminum and I have a guy come by, pick six full barrels up, drop off six empty barrels and pay me $.40/lb for them. Easy and he is one of the nicest people. Steel chips go in the dumpster but they are rare.

 

[Newman109]

Typical scrap yard experiance.

I will say that the average person they deal with is bitter, angry, ugly, argumentative, and in this area some type of addicted thief as well.

Dad to 12 year old son: "Would you like to be a businessman like I am when you grow up?"

Son: "No dad. I want to be a counter man at a scrap yard. It'd be way cool".

 

[eaglemike]

98% of my chips are aluminum and I have a guy come by, pick six full barrels up, drop off six empty barrels and pay me $.40/lb for them. Easy and he is one of the nicest people. Steel chips go in the dumpster but they are rare.

Sounds like my guy......

 

[TedinNorfolk]

No excuse at all for them to offish with you,it is business after all. By the time you bring in something they might really want,you might have gone somewhere else that's a bit nicer to deal with-and it would be their loss.

 

[david n]

I have 4-1yrd bins and 4 smaller 1/2 yard bins. They are easy to move, easy to load and easy to dump. Every 3 months or so I load them up and haul them in. Usually around 3K lbs. I only haul my aluminum chips. A local scrapper has been swinging by every 6 months or so when my 55 gallon drums are full of steel. He's a good guy and I have been dealing with him for the last 4 yrs or so.

My local scrap yard is pretty easy to deal with. They know me and they know I what I bring in. I call in advance and talk with the owner and I usually get a price higher than what going rate is as he knows all of my chips are clean and coolant drained. The amount helps too. The guys that bring in a few hundred pounds don't get the price I get.

One time I dropped off scrap and when I got paid it seemed low. 3000lbs+/- should have got me my usual $$$$. This time it was short by quite a few bucks. Didn't think much of it until I got back to the shop. Ticket said I only brought in about 2200 lbs? I called up the owner and tell him it was way off. He looked back into my account and said he would get to the bottom of it. Seems my ticket was wrong, but his computer system said I dropped off my usual 3k lbs. Stopped back and he paid what I was owed. My best guess was the gal in the office was changing weight when the ticket was printed but left the correct weight in the system. Paid me what the ticket said and then she pocketed the rest. Most guys haulin' in scrap would have never known the weight was off. How would you know the exact weight of a trailer load of iron or what ever? The only reason I caught it was I bring in close to the same amount of weight every trip.