A buddy and I went to the local scrap yard this morning and found some 10 gauge stainless sheets there. Ended up with an 8 foot by 8 foot sheet for $150. Just needs a little wipe down and polish and we'll be using it for our workbench tops
Scored some metal
- Thread starter btlegacy
- Start date
Potentially a stupid/obvious question that isn't so stupid/obvious to me (obviously):
Are you able to go to a scrap yard and look through everything for purchase (within their restrictions)? I always see people saying they found something to salvage but I never see anything anywhere? Where does everyone get it?
Are you able to go to a scrap yard and look through everything for purchase (within their restrictions)? I always see people saying they found something to salvage but I never see anything anywhere? Where does everyone get it?
383 240z
Well-known member
All but 1 of the scrap metal yards around me will let you walk around and buy just about anything you find. Keith
fnieto
Well-known member
why some one scraped that in the first place is a mystery. That will make a nice work bench top cover. The scrap yards around here won't sell to public.
PCO6
Well-known member
It used to be that you'd go to the scrap yard and come home with more than you took ... or at least better stuff. I'm amazed at some of the things I see dropped off now but unfortunately it's staying put, at the ones around here anyway. 
The guys around me do a lot of demolition work and they will take everything that may be at a building/site so a lot of time there will be brand new pieces that may have been in storage that have been pulled from a demo. The nice thing about my local yard is that all metals are sorted by type and size and they let you walk around and pick what you want. There are a few more pieces like this and I am thinking about picking up another one. The water stains appear to clean off pretty easily, now we just have to find a place to bend the pieces so that we can use them for workbench tops
G_P
Well-known member
Yard I go to has people drop the steel items out the back of the truck and down into a pile where it is picked up by cranes. Anything that goes in that pile is gone forever.
Non ferrous goes into a separate building but I have not yet been able to get them to sell me anything.
Non ferrous goes into a separate building but I have not yet been able to get them to sell me anything.
Falcon67
Well-known member
Both here will let you look around, at least one requires an ****** if you go into the yard.
One of them here locally does sort out some of the stuff. Good steel is put on a rack along with other stuff, like weights, they might be sold off for slightly higher than scrap price.
I asked about that when I bought 4" pipe.
It was new and sitting by new sheets of metal. They told me that a company orders metal for a job and leftovers are just in the way of the next job and the customer paid for it...
We have good yards where we can walk around and some that wont sell anything. You would not believe the new things that go to scrap!!
G_P
Well-known member
I saw a huge craftsman tool chest at the scrap yard once. All crumpled up at the bottom of a pile with tools laying all over the ground around it. Not for sale and they would not let anyone even try to get to it to salvage anything.
Some jackass just backed his truck into the ramp and shoved the full toolbox out the back and got paid scrap value for it.
Some jackass just backed his truck into the ramp and shoved the full toolbox out the back and got paid scrap value for it.
Alot of scrappers I've met are penny wise and pound foolish. Pun intended. The would rather get scrap value for some nice piece of ______ instead of selling it to someone that would use it. I've tried to buy a few things off some of the guys that circle our neighborhood. They must think I'm f'ing stupid as they "quote" scrap prices at much higher than what they are. For instance, a ~4" craftsman vise I offered a guy $25 for, he said no way as he will get at least $75 at the yard.
A high majority of people that scrap nice stuff, non industrially, ain't the most intelligent or honest folks out there.
Or another time that sticks in my mind I was at a garage sale and wanted to purchase a rusty, but OK condition old stanley hand plane. Asked the guy what he wanted and he said make an offer. I offered $5. He came back with a no way, it's worth at least $20 in scrap because it has brass on it (the depth adjustment knob). Told him I didn't think so, but he was sure.
heres a funny about how stupid scrappers are--A fella I know went to an estate auction and found some copper tubing and wire to bid on. Another guy said he was going to bid on it too so my friend offered to go sit in his truck (not bid) for $10. The scrapper looked at him like he was crazy ... so my friend ran the bid up $169. haha
Alot of scrappers I've met are penny wise and pound foolish. Pun intended. The would rather get scrap value for some nice piece of ______ instead of selling it to someone that would use it. I've tried to buy a few things off some of the guys that circle our neighborhood. They must think I'm f'ing stupid as they "quote" scrap prices at much higher than what they are. For instance, a ~4" craftsman vise I offered a guy $25 for, he said no way as he will get at least $75 at the yard.
A high majority of people that scrap nice stuff, non industrially, ain't the most intelligent or honest folks out there.
Or another time that sticks in my mind I was at a garage sale and wanted to purchase a rusty, but OK condition old stanley hand plane. Asked the guy what he wanted and he said make an offer. I offered $5. He came back with a no way, it's worth at least $20 in scrap because it has brass on it (the depth adjustment knob). Told him I didn't think so, but he was sure.
Around here, there's alot of them stealing and scrapping to meet their drug habit. Fortunately the place I started going to, requires ID and you get "on camera" if you want paid.