What's new
What's new

OT; Recycling Specialists closed in San Jose.

rons

Diamond
Joined
Mar 5, 2009
Location
California, USA
It was a huge operation. At times they had bins of Baldor 25Hp motors stacked four feet high. Wire and aluminium all over the place. Now gone.

I drove there last week to see the yard vacant and the gates closed. Drove to another recycling place on they didn't want ferrous metals.
 
2 salvage yards close to me have shut down in the last few months... The other ones I've heard are only paying $40 a ton ...
There have been hardly any shipments of scrap metal on the railroad through here recently, either. Used to be 20 and 30 car blocks of nothing but scrap metal going south... Now there's nothing.
Looks like we're winning the trade war.
 
It was a huge operation. At times they had bins of Baldor 25Hp motors stacked four feet high. Wire and aluminium all over the place. Now gone.

I drove there last week to see the yard vacant and the gates closed. Drove to another recycling place on they didn't want ferrous metals.

Interesting!
I’ve never gone there. Too bad it’s closed.
I’m assuming you’ve been to Sims.
I’ve heard that metal prices are way down.
I’d love to find good sources for:
-square steel tubing for welding
-machinable steel, aluminum, stainless billet plate, roundstock, ...
 
Alco Iron and Metal in San Leandro. New metal sales and a pretty efficient scrap operation as well. Also for scrap sales is Custom Alloy Scrap Sales in Oakland.
 
Is triangle machine? still up there? I think in san jose. All kinds of great stuff there IIRC, but its been 20 yrs or so.

Triangle closed long ago.

Many of the surplus places with store fronts have closed up and/or relocated and are Internet only.
There is a place in San Jose called Excess Solutions.
 
Triangle closed long ago.

Many of the surplus places with store fronts have closed up and/or relocated and are Internet only.
There is a place in San Jose called Excess Solutions.

Triangle closed around 2007-2008.

HSC closed Jan this year. HSC was a great place for new old stock but their website never reflected that.

Excess Solutions bought HSC's inventory.
 
Interesting!
I’ve never gone there. Too bad it’s closed.
I’m assuming you’ve been to Sims.
I’ve heard that metal prices are way down.
I’d love to find good sources for:
-square steel tubing for welding
-machinable steel, aluminum, stainless billet plate, roundstock, ...

You should go to Allen Steel in Redwood City. All kinds of material and they just charge $1 per cut with a bandsaw running coolant.
Down at Sims the cuts are done with a torch, quick and dirty.
 
With the cost of land and reduced manufacturing I am surprised any thing like that is still open after 2008 or so.
I think the similar one in Stockton closed ten years ago or more.
Bill D
 
Nucor buy literally millions of tons of scrap a year, at its various mills around the country. My local yard sells a few 40' trucks a week to a nucor mill. It is MUCH more profitable to just keep sending those 20 ton loads down to the mill, rather than paying taxes insurance mortgage and labor for ten acres of scrapyard, waiting and hoping for a grumpy old man like me to come buy a hundred pounds for 30 cents a pound.

the mill in Seattle uses close to a million tons of steel a year. Thats pretty much all the scrap steel of Washington and Idaho and half of Oregon. The Schnitzer mill in McMinnville melts and rolls another half million tons.

So the issue isnt that there isnt a healthy steel scrap industry- its just that they cant afford to just let it sit- the money is made by keeping it moving, always- many yards these days move scrap steel and iron thru in a week or less. Auto scrap yards often scrap cars after a month. Overhead is a huge beast, snapping at your ass, and you cant afford to look back.
 
You'll see quite a few yards close up with these metal prices.

Any yard who's bread and butter is iron/aluminum (which is what most were surviving on), is hurting pretty bad right now.

A lot of rolloffs are now costing manufacturers a trucking fee, that is no longer covered by the metal contained therein.

As for shopping in the yard, there's not much coming through that's worth taking home.
 
Anybody know where in the SF Bay Area, or Internet with cheap shipping I can find some good deals on good condition surplus/used 3 phase panels, preferably with breakers.
I want to put in 2 panels off my RPC: 240V 3ph and 480V 3ph
 
Interesting!
I’ve never gone there. Too bad it’s closed.
I’m assuming you’ve been to Sims.
I’ve heard that metal prices are way down.
I’d love to find good sources for:
-square steel tubing for welding
-machinable steel, aluminum, stainless billet plate, roundstock, ...

It's worth driving down to Allen Steel in Redwood City. Sims Metal looks like a garbage dump in comparison.
There are two buildings and a yard which has a lot of stainless in new bars and recycled parts.
There is also some electrical parts inside one of the buildings.
 
It's worth driving down to Allen Steel in Redwood City. Sims Metal looks like a garbage dump in comparison.
If you are looking for it in the phone book, I am pretty sure it's spelled Alan Steel and Supply. They are right off the freeway on the east side a couple exits south of the blimp hanger. It is (was) a neat place, lots of stuff.
 








 
Back
Top