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Metal Chip Storage and Control

munruh

Hot Rolled
Joined
Jan 3, 2011
Location
Kansas
Just wondering what some of you are doing with your chips......A couple years ago they took my roll off away because I wasn't filling it fast enough. So we have been using 55 gallon drums and a scrap metal guy picks them up. This has worked somewhat, but they damage the barrels at the scrap yard when they tip them over and its not the best situation for storing chips and loading them onto a trailer. So we had this great idea to use the 275 gallon chemical tote containers with the top cut out. We can dump 4-5 barrels into one of them. However, they are not built very sturdy, and after one trip to the scrap yard the one that we have came back somewhat damaged. The metal crating around them plastic just isn't very heavy duty. I believe we are filling on average 3-4 55 gallon drums a week with 90% being mild steel and the rest split between aluminum and stainless. Scrap price has went down considerable in the last year.
 
A lot of that storage capacity you have now is used for air. A compactor would reduce the storage needs and make things easier to handle.[/QUOTE
also compacted chips sell for a higher price than chips they are considered semi-solid
 
I keep thinking about building a chip briquetter, dont know if I ever will or not. Did a test the other day, a column 2" dia by 4" tall of some fairly dense aluminum lathe chips, pressed with 40 tons went down to 1" tall. When dropped from a few inches nothing falls off. So I guess thats about the right amount of force, would just have to figure out a way to feed the chips in and eject the pucks. Not sure how to handle stringers, other than also need a shredder to run them through before pucking.

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For now I just store aluminum chips in 275gal totes and steel in barrels. Talk to some other recyclers I know some that use like 4'by 4' by 2' plastic stacking, forkliftable bins that they give you and when you get them full they come and exchange however many for empty ones and send you a check in the mail.
 
I know some that use like 4'by 4' by 2' plastic stacking, forkliftable bins that they give you and when you get them full they come and exchange however many for empty ones and send you a check in the mail.

This is what we just switched to. We were using 35 gallon barrels and then renting a Uhaul and taking them in when we had 30 or so filled. It was a major PITA and not really worth it unless we had a bunch of aluminum or brass to go with it. The place we switched to is paying us more per pound as well and also breaks it out by grade of material instead of just generic steel or aluminum.
 
I was using the 275 totes but had the same deal with the scrap guys busting them up. so I am switching back to the 55 plastic drums ,,, they are kinda small and hard to load when I carry 24 at a time with truck and trailer but there $10 each and the scrap guys don't seem to screw them up ...
 
It does get messy. We find a big problem has been the fact that for chips the scrap people will reduce the cost per pound if any different chips even minor amounts are mixed in. Unless the machines run one material it seems something makes it through.
 
I got the same BS from a local scrap guy about a few steel chips being in my alum ,,, guy cut my price by about half then went and dumped them in the "CLEAN" alum bin ... I switched scrap buyers and was told they can have up to a couple percent mix ... Bottom line is there just trying to make a buck and most well do about anything to make it. I call them and get a price before taking them in and every time they try and cut the price they just gave me by 10cents of so when I get there.
 
We had a buyer try to tell us that out Gaylord full of stainless was contaminated, and the solid scrap ( stainless) was not stainless. It was clearly labeled by the bar supplier that it was 304l. Still had the laser etching on it, and he rejected it. They also claimed a magnet stuck to the chips in the Gaylord. I grabbed a mag base from the truck and stuck it in, not a chip came up. We were asked to leave and not come back. Sucks because they were one of the better paying yards around.


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A lot of that storage capacity you have now is used for air. A compactor would reduce the storage needs and make things easier to handle.

I looked online and it seems they are few and far between. Amada looks like they have a nice one.
Any idea on how much a decent compactor costs?
 
the few puck machines I have seen were south of 100K ,,,

I have seen a couple shops try and build compactors but non worked out good... getting the chips to feed seems to be the tricky part. I think one would have to shred the chips before feeding them .
 
I've thought of building something similar to a chemical tote or metal trash dumpsters would work also.
 
I got the same BS from a local scrap guy about a few steel chips being in my alum ,,, guy cut my price by about half then went and dumped them in the "CLEAN" alum bin ... I switched scrap buyers and was told they can have up to a couple percent mix ... Bottom line is there just trying to make a buck and most well do about anything to make it. I call them and get a price before taking them in and every time they try and cut the price they just gave me by 10cents of so when I get there.

One place I worked I had clean brass in 6 containers where I cleaned my lathe before each long run of these part very clean. The scrap outfit was known for lowballing over nothing so the owners son took those barrels and dumped all the chips on flat tables taking his time to pick out anything not brass for a month off and on. Guess what the scrap outfit cut the price per pound! The owner straightened that out it seems the lower guys do not want to get chewed out so they err for their employer. So when you know you did good hold your ground and haggle.
 
When the scrap guy starts that crap, tell them to load the barrels back in the trailer/truck and that you are going to leave. The look on their face is priceless. Amazing how fast the price goes back up.
 
We make about 2 - 4 dumpsters (used garbage dumpsters) of aluminum chips a month and our scrap guys rotate them out for us. I could probably get a couple of hundred bucks a month more if I shopped around but these guys do a good job and don't screw with me about contamination bs.
 
I looked online and it seems they are few and far between. Amada looks like they have a nice one.
Any idea on how much a decent compactor costs?

The ones we have for steel chips are basically trash compactors hooked to roll-off containers and were supplied by the recycling vendor. (We generate several truck loads of compacted steel chips per day.)

The aluminum pucker was about $100k best I remember, but the ROI was about 6 months in our case because of less flash loss when running chips back into the melt furnace.
 
A large shop I visited had a couple briquetters for their aluminum chips. One bonus thing they mentioned was that they recovered a substantial amount of coolant as the chips were compacted.
 








 
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