Woe is Me

[Texasmark]

I have been "living" out of my junk piles for many years, customizing what I bought and didn't like this or that aspect or just building what I needed from scratch.

Well they are pretty much depleted now and I am having to be more creative, just do without, or consider a trip to the steel marketer and pay today's prices for the stuff. Used to be some scrap yards where you could scrounge up what you needed and pay scrap prices but they have moved off to who knows where.

Woe is me.

Mark

 

[k0ua]

I know what you mean, my steel pile is getting a bit thin also.

 

[jaotguy]

you might make friends with a "recycler" ( the one that goes around and picks up curb metal ) ... he may run across some usable material and you will pay him a bit more than "scrap " prices .... win win ...

 

[mikim]

Scrap yards are closed --- thank you China. It pays more to bail it and sell it to China for so much per hundred pound than it is to have the overhead of land and the hassle of customers "scrounging" like we like to do. Now they sell it to China, who melts it down, and sells it back to us as new. You want steel? Gotta buy new simply cause ya can't find old. Arrrrgh!

 

[bd53bz2]

Know what u mean. Use to a a close friend that worked hauling cranes for a big company. He would always ask about good scrap on job sites. They would be glad just to get rid of it. Needed something he always had it. Couple years ago prices went up and he cashed in (better then 30k worth). Boy do I miss him.
PS He still asks, but they no longer give it away....

 

[California]

What does scrap steel go for now? I have maybe a quarter ton of (was) galvanized water pipe too rusty for re-use. Is it worth hauling a long way to sell, or just take it to the dump?

And what should be the price/lb to buy useful salvage - short pieces of angle iron etc?

 

[Renze]

Buy old farm equipment like manure spreaders or self loading hay wagons (if any, in the USA) and strip the straight profiles out of it, and get 20ct/kg scrap for the rest of it.

I dont know who built your junkpile, you or the previous owner of your property, but you need to add some junk to keep the junkpile at the same level...

Oh, and when your employer is reorganising or moving to new premises, its the time to scrounge as much as you want with you, home. I hauled 3 ton of scrap home in return for meatballs with peanut sauce for the whole company

 

[SPIKER]

I took a large amount of scrap scrap by piling a wrecked car full got just under 6k lbs and made 350.00 so NO scrap is not all the high just for years everyone has simply gave it away & has turned it into china shreder scrap.

mark

 

[Rio_Grande]

Wow spiker,,, that's way low compared to the Ohio river valley. Your at around .05 a pound if my math was right. We are around .10 pound for sheet iron right now and that is as low as it's been in 5 years,

 

[MossRoad]

They are paying $250 per ton around here, so typical 3000# junk car get you $375 if you take it in yourself, $100 less if they come and get it.

We used to have quite a few nice scrap yards here where you could browse for steel scraps for projects, art, etc... but no more. Partially due to them shipping it out so fast, but mostly because of liability. Bummer.

 

[dieselcrawler]

I hauled in about 6 loads for my boss back in the spring... we got $0.11/lb for car bodies stuffed with misc steel junk.

 

[bindian]

We still have a salvage yard just south of here in Conroe. I stripped my old meter pole of copper and took it to them. They took my photo. They have some awesome hydraulic grapples there!
hugs<<><>>Brandi

 

[zing]

We still have a salvage yard just south of here in Conroe. I stripped my old meter pole of copper and took it to them. They took my photo. They have some awesome hydraulic grapples there!
hugs<<><>>Brandi

You obviously have a municipal government that puts appropriate regulations in place, unlike the useless crowd around here. I am constantly hearing stories or reading news of another power sub-station that has been robbed of copper wire which ends up raising costs for consumers, even worse of another homeowner or business that has had the copper pipe cut off of their oil tank and the oil soaked into the ground. Meanwhile the response is the same, "We have no way to know where they are selling it." That is bull in my opinion. How hard is it to put in a law that says all sellers of wire or tubing at recycling depots have to provide photo identification or get their picture taken, and a transaction record kept that lists the items sold.

While I am ranting on that, how hard is it for the crackhead who is cutting the tube off of an oil tank, to turn the valve to the off position first so the owner only has to install a new tube, instead of spend 100K for restoration of oil soaked property or fighting with insurance for them to do it? :thumbdown:

 

[MossRoad]

Some of use are kind of offended by having to give a driver's license, thumb print and be photographed to cash in some aluminum cans....

On the other hand, someone steals your air conditioning condenser and gets $15-18 for it and causes you a thousand in damage... you have to wonder if it helps any.

 

[square1]

you have to wonder if it helps any.

they just nailed a cemetery memorial plaque thief here (guilty plea) because of those requirements.

 

[k0ua]

Some of use are kind of offended by having to give a driver's license, thumb print and be photographed to cash in some aluminum cans....

On the other hand, someone steals your air conditioning condenser and gets $15-18 for it and causes you a thousand in damage... you have to wonder if it helps any.

I hear ya Moss, but the thieves have just done too much damage in recent years to not try and put a stop to it, or at least slow it down. It is not so much what they steal, but the damages they do while stealing it. Telephone wire, electric wire, ripping out plumbing, and these dang AC unit thieves.. this has got to stop. and the ID thing is helping.

 

[California]

this has got to stop. and the ID thing is helping.

But isn't this another example of an unwanted government program that limits free enterprise?

 

[bindian]

Not aluminum cans, just copper.
hugs, Brandi

Some of use are kind of offended by having to give a driver's license, thumb print and be photographed to cash in some aluminum cans....

On the other hand, someone steals your air conditioning condenser and gets $15-18 for it and causes you a thousand in damage... you have to wonder if it helps any.

 

[k0ua]

But isn't this another example of an unwanted government program that limits free enterprise?

I know I know.. I sound like a darn liberal... but an illegal enterprise is NOT "free enterprise". Crime is crime, whether you are liberal or conservative.

 

[SSdoxie]

Around here it is photo ID, thumb print, and check is mailed to address on ID for copper sales. No A/C units or parts of are accepted except from person holding an HVAC license. It has slowed down the theft and damage a lot, but is a pain when a window unit goes out and have to either throw it in metal dumpster at the dump or give it to an HVAC guy for 1/4 scrap value.