Scrapping everything

[Thumper68]

I have had a bunch of PM's about how to make extra money from scrapping so I thought I would just start a thread on it.

First off you need a source of things to scrap, there are a couple of ways to do this the easiest and least labor intensive is to watch the CL free section, and just go pick stuff up.

You can put your own add on CL asking for stuff then answer all the calls and go pick stuff up.

The hardest way is to drive around, soon you will figure out what the trash pick up schedule is in different areas are and be able to get stuff off the curb.

One thing that I do is hit a few of the low income apt complexes the night before trash pick up, and there are always a few things next to the dumpster, car batteries being one .20 a pound here so they add up quick.

Once you have some stuff that needs to be stripped you need a few things to make it go easy.

Bins or boxes, I like plastic totes they hold a lot of small stuff and you can stack them out of the way when not in use, I have one 20 gal that is full of the small screws from electronics that is on a HF dolly tote weighs around 200 pounds and will go to the yard the next time I take steel in.

A selection of screw drivers, I use a BD screw gun small and works well for backing the small screw out of plastic.

BFH that I use to break up small plastic stuff like phones. One or two hits and you can just pull the shell apart.

a wire stripper like this, for copper wire around here right now sheathed copper is .90 a pound, clean copper is anywhere between 2.45 and 2.85 so worth the time to strip the jacket off.




I made this one out of scrap, some 3/4x2 alum the set screws from something I scrapped and the blades are the guide rods from old cd/dvd drives.

 

[Thumper68]

Copper, steel, alum, brass go to the local scrap yard, gold and other metals go to online buyers.

For good vids on how to do this search scrapper steve on youtube he also has links to where you can sell and where to buy a wire stripper if you can't make your own.

I make anywhere from a few hundred to a few thousand a month, depending on what I find/ is given to me and how much time I put in.

Everyone wants to do the gold, and has been asking where to find it in a computer so I will address this.

In the case there are a few parts that contain gold, the biggest 2 and where you will get your best return are the ram sticks and the cpu.

On the ram sticks it is the contacts where the ram plugs into the socket.

To recover this you will need a few things:

A glass (Pyrex) dish
31% muriatic acid
hydrogen peroxide
baking soda
wood or glass stir stick
rubber gloves
eye protection
coffee filters
water
waste container ( I used a old plastic coffee can)
strainer

Most of the online instructions say to use tin snips to remove the contacts from the ram, to slow and labor intensive for me I use my bandsaw and just cut them off.

Once you have some ready put them into the dish and add enuff acid to cover them, then add an equal amount of peroxide, now let them sit for 24 to 48 hours, the liquid will turn green, that's the copper being dissolved, I stir the mix a few times during this step. you will know when its ready by seeing most of the gold flakes floating in with the green board.

This must be done in a well ventilated area!!

Next step is to sepperate the gold, acid mix, and the green board.

Place your strainer over the coffee can and put a coffee filter in it, carefully pour the acid mix and the gold and boards into the filter, let drain. remove the strainer and add baking soda to neutralize the acid, here you can then discard the acid mix.

Now rinse the stuff in the filter in water until it runs clear. Once it is ready you can pick out the gold flakes. I submerge everything in water and pull out a few sticks at a time and shake in the water to removes the gold leaving it in the water. Some flakes will need to be scraped off the sticks, I just use a clean stick to loosen them then shake in the water. once all the refuse has been removed I use a clean filter to strain the water away and set it aside to dry.

At this point you can take it a step further or you can sell the gold now up to you, I don't like to do the steps with sulfuric acid so I sell mine at this point.

The cpu's are a little more work and I have just been saving them for now and haven't actually processed them yet so I can't give you a step by step on them yet.

 

[Highbeam]

Cool! so you try and collect old computers?

 

[mooseracing]

How well does your stripper work? I have tons of cat3 that I have done nothing with since it is so small, but if your device works good I may need to make one. Are your rods just sharpened to a point?

 

[volvo]

...
Thanks for the write up. I know that cleaning your metals is not an easy job. You forgot the possibility of a million dollar reality show?

 

[Diesel Dan]

You forgot the possibility of a million dollar reality show?

It would most likely get shut down and/or fined for clean air violation for chemically stripping metals without proper ventilation/filtering.

Many reality shows have been fined over the years for various violations that people were not aware of or did not care.

 

[Thumper68]

How well does your stripper work? I have tons of cat3 that I have done nothing with since it is so small, but if your device works good I may need to make one. Are your rods just sharpened to a point?

It does not work well on cat cable, it will strip off the outer sheathing but the wires inside are just to small. The cat cable I collect just goes to the scrapper as telecom cable, right now at .90 per lb

It would most likely get shut down and/or fined for clean air violation for chemically stripping metals without proper ventilation/filtering.

Many reality shows have been fined over the years for various violations that people were not aware of or did not care.

The "chemicals" I use are the same things that you use to acid etch your garage floor, clean brick etc, that is one of the reasons that I don't process the gold any further.

 

[Thumper68]

Tonight I scored about 250 feet of rg11 cable with a copper shield and a copper core, this stuff just gets tossed by the cable co's because the scrap yard will not buy it. in about and hr I stripped it down into about 25 pounds of #1 bright shiny worth about $70.

 

[littletoes]

Can a guy get anything for old Christmas lights??? I'd gladly give them away!

I had several garbage bags worth....can't imagine it being worth anything, through them away in my garbage trailer, and it's not worth the time for me to mess with. I'd bet well over 100 lbs though, maybe 200 lbs.

 

[GTO]

What about older TV's,anything inside worth scrapping ?
Thanks

 

[Thumper68]

Can a guy get anything for old Christmas lights??? I'd gladly give them away!

I had several garbage bags worth....can't imagine it being worth anything, through them away in my garbage trailer, and it's not worth the time for me to mess with. I'd bet well over 100 lbs though, maybe 200 lbs.

That should be around .90 a pound at your local scrap yard and if $90 to $180 isn't worth your time for just dropping some stuff off I want to change jobs with you..

What about older TV's,anything inside worth scrapping ?
Thanks

There is but I haven't done any. Thinking about getting the next one that pops up on CL and seeing what I can make out of it.

 

[Tallted]

Subscribed. I just did some research online and youtube. TONS of info out there guys. Lots of "how to scrap X" videos. Trying to decide if the wife will kill me for bringing home a lot of junk or if I will survive long enough to show her I can make money off of it...

 

[Bull]

This is a pretty awesome thread.

There are two scrapyards in my area. One was pretty scary the last time I was there, many years ago, with my dad. Urban area with lots of tough looking customers. Maybe I should try the other one and see what the experience is like.

 

[BJ42LX]

I save up general leftover metal bits and pieces in the garage and go to the scrap yard about once per year.

I just went last weekend. I tried a new place that's open on Sundays'. I got there at 12:30 on Sunday. Since they close at 1pm I figured that was plenty of time. There were 33 cars in front of me! I barely made it before they closed up shop.

Current prices in Western NY:

Aluminum wheels: $0.59/lb
Aluminum sheet: $0.44/lb
Electric motors: $0.20/lb
Tin* $0.114/lb

* I don't know why they call it tin. It was just some random iron/steel bits.

 

[Vegaman_Dan]

How much does it cost to throw away all the unrecycled bits? The insulation, plastics, pot metals and other stuff that you separated from the metals? For my area, the cost to dispose of all that would cost more than the money gained from salvage.

While it's not for me, I am curious.

 

[senor fozz]

Can a guy get anything for old Christmas lights??? I'd gladly give them away!

I had several garbage bags worth....can't imagine it being worth anything, through them away in my garbage trailer, and it's not worth the time for me to mess with. I'd bet well over 100 lbs though, maybe 200 lbs.

There is a town in china dedicated to "recycling" them according to NPR.

 

[Playwme]

How much does it cost to throw away all the unrecycled bits? The insulation, plastics, pot metals and other stuff that you separated from the metals? For my area, the cost to dispose of all that would cost more than the money gained from salvage.

While it's not for me, I am curious.

If you're sneaking around apartment complexes the night before garbage day then you just chuck all that stuff in their dumpster. Cost - free.


We just had 3 months worth of renovations done and had a skip in the driveway most of the time. There was moe than one occasion at 9pm when I heard a noise in the driveway and found dodgy looking characters with flashlights going through the skip looking for scrappable stuff. ****** unnerving considering it was well on our property and right next to my work truck which I often leave stuff in.

 

[malibu101]

I don't scrap much material but some falls into my lap on occasion.
This is what my local yard pays- http://www.gmrecycle.com/pa-scrap-metal-recycling-price-list.html

Someone above mentioned scrapping X-mas lights. This yard pays 12¢ a pound.

 

[Shadowdog500]

How much money do you really make doing that?

I give all my scrap metal to a guy who scraps a ton of metal. He has a couple acre lot in the woods that he fills with metal then takes it it when metal prices are high. The guy seems like he is barely making a living.

Chris

 

[creativecars]

How much money do you really make doing that?

I give all my scrap metal to a guy who scraps a ton of metal. He has a couple acre lot in the woods that he fills with metal then takes it it when metal prices are high. The guy seems like he is barely making a living.

Chris

Be careful with that notion.
I know a guy who did quite well scrapping. He got a nice looking newer truck and was painting it with a brush. I asked him what the he!! he was doing. He explained that if he has a nice looking vehicle people want him to pay for thier junk/scrap, but if he looks to be down and out they will give it to him. A business man who knows his customers...

 

[bgarrett]

* I don't know why they call it tin. It was just some random iron/steel bits.

Semantics. The word 'tin' suggests it is low value.
Its just like those advertisements wanting "old" "broken" "unwanted" gold

It helps if you remember that 50% of the population is below average

 

[bad_idea]

I enjoy metal fab as a hobby, also fiddle w/ cars. These two hobbies generate plenty of scrap. I pile it up in a discreet corner of my yard, it really is discreet, a cubby around the corner that you don't see unless you walk around the side of the house. When the cubby is full, it is between $75-$150. Not much in the scheme of things, but worth the investment (a little bit of my time). The night before I take the scrap in I cruise around town looking for other scrap to toss in w/ it. No where near a living, but it's fun.

 

[jeffmoss26]

I keep buckets at home for steel, brass, and copper wire. When working on locks I generate a decent amount of brass...old keys, worn out pins, broken lock housings, etc.
Also plenty of scrap wire from doing voice and data cabling. So much abandoned wire gets left in ceilings...

 

[PFSard]

The "Scrap Metal Forum" is a pretty decent site to find info on scrapping.
http://www.scrapmetalforum.com/

Another is the "Scrap Metal Junkie"
http://www.scrapmetaljunkie.com/

 

[BJ42LX]

How much money do you really make doing that?

I was in line last week (seem my post above) with a chatty guy who was collecting over $200 from the cashier. He said scrapping is his second job - hard work but worth it. No idea how long/hard he had to work for that $200.

I agree with Bull. The regular scrappers look like hard working, rough-around-the-edges folks.

 

[scrumpy]

I also have a number of buckets in the garage and turn it in on occasion. Usually when I have a day off during the week and I am not really doing anything that day as the yard is not as busy and I can take the time to get the best prices.

Just a few tips on separating metals when turning it in. I know I get a better price for aluminum extrusions vs. sheet aluminum so I break it out but I have to watch one of the guys cause he will try to combine it all under sheet. Also if copper has any solder on it at all he will call it dirty and give a lower price so I always cut it off and throw it in a separate bucket. And I have a wire brush in one of my bench grinders to take off any paint as they will ding me for that also.

-Scrump

 

[Thumper68]

When I first started dong this 20+ years ago I was amazed at how much I could make for doing nothing but separating the junk that I was left with at the end of projects, like some of the others here it was just putting all the scrap bits in different buckets then taking it in when I had extra time.

Now I do it as a side line, some months I have lots of extra time and CL is good to me, others I don't have the time or a source of stuff to pull apart.

I will clear several hundred to several thousand a month depending on what I find.

What got me more into it a few years ago was getting the contract to remove and bring to code a large hospital, I will be pulling old abandoned cable out that building for years to come.

Construction skips aren't what they used to be, back in the day you could get several hundred pounds of copper out of one on a large remodel project, now the sparkies and plumbers know to keep the scrap and turn it in themselves.

When scrap steal was at its highest a few years ago I know a guy who bought a towing company, trucks, building and the storage lot, he hauled enough vehicles from the lot in to pay for over half the purchase price. The old owner was just keeping them stacked up and had no idea what the scrap worth was.

 

[thrillho]

Hey Thumper hope you don't mind if I swindle your wire stripper design:

While I certainly don't make the kind of $$$ you do, I have been scrapping stuff that collects up and make trips to the yard about once a month. Super convenient too since it's near my office so I can do it at lunch. Stopped in today on the way home and got $30 for this months pile.

I am however getting the rep as the "scrap guy" so I have been getting more donations from people in the neighborhood and work lately which I gladly accept. Might need to get more bins for the side yard...

 

[Thumper68]

Hey Thumper hope you don't mind if I swindle your wire stripper design:

While I certainly don't make the kind of $$$ you do, I have been scrapping stuff that collects up and make trips to the yard about once a month. Super convenient too since it's near my office so I can do it at lunch. Stopped in today on the way home and got $30 for this months pile.

I am however getting the rep as the "scrap guy" so I have been getting more donations from people in the neighborhood and work lately which I gladly accept. Might need to get more bins for the side yard...

please do, If you want any info on it please pm me.

Yeah once people know that you will take stuff it does seem to just show up.

Today was a good day at the scrap yard, we loaded up what we had from the last 6 weeks or so from work, 443 lbs of telecomm cabling. we didn't take any of the heavier stuff that needs to come home and be stripped.

 

[Mustang1167]

I pick up scrap I see from A-B when I'm out, and keep the garage scraps I make throughout the year. I can pull about $150 a load about twice a year. I will not take apart computers though too much work for the small return IMO. I tally up all My time. Copper and aluminum parts get torched,cut or smashed apart quickly. If its stubborn it goes in the dirty steel pile.
It your not used to scrap yard do not let them rip you off on the tin prices may be a scam because your a new guy and they know it. Since I've been going to the same yard I get better prices and the materials get better grades.

 

[dirtmister16]

i just went about two weeks ago myself. mower parts, mainly heavy iron. i had 1620 pounds of sheet iron. paid 135 p/t. also had 500 pounds of aluminum breakage. i had a check or $200 bucks.

still have some breakage and small iron and tin left to get rid of. but its small stuff at this point. i had to make room for winter time. probally have more again this summer. always something going to pop up. save all your screws they add fast.

also my yard takes plastic for recycling so i just give him all my plastic that id rather not throw out.

to be honest the scrap is nice, but small change compared to the loads im used to with the old man we would haul 4 ton or so of scrap per run. man those were the good days when the price was up. sure made some money when i was i high school.

also, ive been scouring the back roads for beer,soda cans and save them up and will be taking them in next year when i have enough. when the snow flies that will slow down, but its worth the time when im out for the weekend cruising around.

 

[slip knot]

I keep several buckets in the shop. each one gets its own scrap. One is clean copper one for dirty copper, one for baling scrap or steel, one for insulated wire and several for different grades of aluminum. As I take things apart I put the items in thier buckets . When the buckets get full I haul them in. My biggest haul to date was $1400 for a truck bed full of copper.

Find out what tour local scrap yard pays for and segregate it out and you'll get premium money for it.

 

[littletoes]

Boy, some of you guys would have a heart attack if you knew how many brass valves and copper pipe I gave away each year. I can't even tell you how many I change out in a day, let alone a week. Or the brass pumps or water meters....relief valves etc. etc. etc. I won't even get into the amount of steel pipe...too much to haul.

On one job, I decided to salvage all the brass valves....it ended up filling a pick-up truck bed plumb level to the top of the box...that was just brass. Can you imagine? I should have taken a picture of that! It was a heating remodel job on a small town Hospital....

 

[Thumper68]

I pick up scrap I see from A-B when I'm out, and keep the garage scraps I make throughout the year. I can pull about $150 a load about twice a year. I will not take apart computers though too much work for the small return IMO. I tally up all My time. Copper and aluminum parts get torched,cut or smashed apart quickly. If its stubborn it goes in the dirty steel pile.
It your not used to scrap yard do not let them rip you off on the tin prices may be a scam because your a new guy and they know it. Since I've been going to the same yard I get better prices and the materials get better grades.

I know a few guys who will just take the ram hard drives and the cpu's from ones they see on the side of the street, It's really not much work at all, 10 to 15 min to strip them down.

Then again I do it while watching the tube.

 

[Vegaman_Dan]

If you're sneaking around apartment complexes the night before garbage day then you just chuck all that stuff in their dumpster. Cost - free.


We just had 3 months worth of renovations done and had a skip in the driveway most of the time. There was moe than one occasion at 9pm when I heard a noise in the driveway and found dodgy looking characters with flashlights going through the skip looking for scrappable stuff. ****** unnerving considering it was well on our property and right next to my work truck which I often leave stuff in.

Call the police for trespassing. When you let people near your dumpster, then *you* are responsible for them being injured. It becomes the case where the dumpster is an 'attractive nuisance' and you get in trouble for it.

Plus, if those guys are going through your stuff, there's a very good chance they are doing it illegally on job sites or breaking in and stealing such as well. The police want to know about them.

 

[bcradio]

Be careful with that notion.
I know a guy who did quite well scrapping. He got a nice looking newer truck and was painting it with a brush. I asked him what the he!! he was doing. He explained that if he has a nice looking vehicle people want him to pay for thier junk/scrap, but if he looks to be down and out they will give it to him. A business man who knows his customers...

This makes absolutely zero sense to me... why would the guy not just get a beater work truck and keep the nice one for around town?

And yes, that is a rhetorical question.

 

[Jay @ C and L Machine]

I guess my view is skewed a little since every Tom, **** and Harry are looking for free scrap. It pisses me off that somebodies living is dependent on me giving them scrap.

I have no problem with people who get stuff when it's put out on the curb.

 

[colt zantop]

I scrap any metal I can get. I use to have piles in the garage but now I collect in buckets. My biggest haul was about 6 years ago. We bought a house that had aluminum siding and old aluminum windows. After stripping the siding and windows..the scrap paid for HALF of the vinyl siding for the whole house!! Combine that with getting a huge discount on the siding from a lumber yard going out of business and we sided the house for damn near free.

 

[Rory Bellows]

There is a tv show on National Geographic called Melt. It is all about people looking and finding precious metals. Gold, silver, platinum etc. It is pretty interesting. You would be surprised where precious metals are and how much $$$ they get.

 

[scrumpy]

Thumper,

When you scrap the telecom cable do you strip off the outer sheath leaving the smaller insulated wires? Do you get a better price this way or do you just turn it in as is cause it doesn't make a difference?

-Scrump