OUCH!

90 cents a pound is wrong.. if it is number 1 copper it should be over $3, the last I took in a month ago was $3.70 a pound.

insulated copper wire was $1 /lb
#2 $3 /lb
mixed brass $2 /lb

Now if this was low end insulated wire or a long time ago, then I can understand that price..

I should have been more clear. When I said I sold #1 copper for .90 a pound, that was many, many years ago. Sorry for the confusion!!!!!

FWIW, I took in another small load today.

I've said it a thousand times...I still can't believe the price of scrap these days. My tiny amount netted $35.

This makes the third trip in less than 7 days, with a total payout of the three trips of over $100.

Years ago I saved beer cans,,, and about once a year I would haul them all in and pick up enough to make another beer run. (50 miles one way) grab another several cases and take them home. As I recall the best price I ever got was 50 cents lb. not a lot of money really, and certainly not worth the mess.

Anyone ever scrapped a motorcycle?

This would be a 79-83 Yamaha 400 street bike (not a dirt bike).

I think the front wheel is aluminum. After I scrap the front wheel and battery, what else should I yank from it?

Price estimation on what it would scrap at? What would a bike like this weigh?

Front and rear wheel may be magnesium and that gets a different price..

If you are tearing it down, the side covers of the motor should be cast aluminum along with the head, but the head should have a steel sleeve, so that would need removed..

If you plan on tearing it down completely, the piston and piston arm should be aluminum, but the rings will need to come off...

If you are trying to make it as easy as possible, then I would just yank the side covers of the motor and any other alum. that is quick and easy.. Maybe the wiring also..

As to pricing I can't answer that, because it is different from place to place..

Around here pickup Load of just General Scrap get $100,Car $400,$1,000 out of Old School Bus.

Most places ask that you drain any Fluids,Gas Tanks have to have Visible Hole.

Problem is everyone is Scrapping and it a Dog Fight.

big rockpile

Wow!!!!! Thank you!!!!!

This is just the information I needed!!!!

Any idea what a Yamaha 400 would weigh?

If I remember correctly and this is difficult because I had my '79 XS400 (precursor to the Special) back in 1982. I believe it came in at about 400 lbs.

Never mind the memory here is a link to the specs for that model.

http://www.bikez.com/motorcycles/yamaha_xs_400_1979.php

Hope that helps.

I didn't realize the rims on those bikes were made of magnesium. Good to know, thanks.

I'm not positive they are Magnesium.. But it's worth checking.. I do know that some that I've taken in have been magnesium.. But they've came form newer bikes.. Like the 81 XS650 Special I have torn down now.. What parts I can't sell I scrap..

That is the bike, beowoulf.

I'm not sure if it is a 79, 80, 81 or 82. I have no idea where the title is.

I might try parting it out on ebay. A few years ago, no parts from this series (and vintage) were selling at the time...but it appears that they might be doing okay these days.

Side covers and tanks tend to sell, oh and the turn signals.. These are the items that get damaged when someone drops the bike.. That is what I've found to be true anyway.. Good luck! I hope you make a fortune!

Thanks!!!!

Too bad this bike got laid down at a slow speed, but it still dented the tank, and broke several turn signals, which got replaced with aftermarket stuff.

I'll still look into the parts aspect...lets hope there is some money to make on the bike.

Oh, and by the way, I had a very small laundry basket of scrap this week, and it sold for $23!!!!

Yippeee!!!!!

Good!

I won't take any in till Sat Aug 27.. Then everything we make goes to help a family in need.. We've been collecting since July 30th, so almost a month worth of scrap..

I did pick up an old flat belt driven saw buck on Tuesday and an all metal corn sheller and a furrowing plow (2 row) all for scrap.. My cost was $1.75.

I have dissembled the saw buck, hoping to sell the "head" to someone who will restore it, but if I can't it will becomes scrap.. The corn sheller is prety rusted and has a few holes, so I don't know if I can fix it or if it will go to scrap.. It seems to work fine otherwise, as to the plow, I don't know anyone who needs one..

Scrap is pretty slow this week. I bet I don't have enough scrap to fill a one quart Ball jar.

I had my eye on three buckets of scrap at an auction...mostly low end scrap, but lost it to a scrap buyer. I'm told he gets what the smelters pay the local yards...no sense trying to compete with that guy.

Well I have more than enough and would offer you some, but this run is for charity, so it really isn't mine..

As best as I can figure there will be at least 4 truck loads of tin/steel and one of copper, alum, computer circuit boards, regular circuit boards, brass combined, but they are in 55 gal drums. Everything from July 30 till Sat Aug 27 is going to charity.. I have spent on average 2 hours per night and 10 hours per weekend working the scrap. So it should bring a nice penny.. I am even taking tomorrow off of work so I can make sure I have enough time to run all the loads in to the yard..

I'm guessing it will be between $300 and $500, so that should make them happy. If tin/steel is still at $.11 a lbs, then I can roughly guess there is about 1000 lbs per truck, so that is roughly $400, but I'm not certain how much brass and copper there is..So we should be good..

Oh and those that want to haul some scrap.. Places to check are; where there has been a fire, mainly barn/garage fires, or auction houses, golf courses (the maintenance shop/grounds keepers).. You get the idea..

Yes it's work.. Oh another place to check is those who are moving and want to just get rid of stuff, quickly and easily.. They don't want to have to mess around with yard sales and stuff...

I have an opportunity to pick up an old gas stove, but the local yard won't pay for steel. Too bad that the closest yard is in the city, and gas is 3.50 a gallon. I wish I had more steel right now to make the run worth the time and expense.

Well here are the results of my scrap runs for charity..
Friday I hauled 3 loads of tin/steel
1st load; 1240 lbs = $136
2nd load; 880 lbs = $97
3rd load; 560 lbs = $62
All of the above was tin/steel

Sat
1st load; 1080 lbs = $119 tin/steel
2nd load; mixed load of the following;

batteries - 162 lbs = $27.54
copper #2 - 29 lbs = $92.80
brass - 38 lbs = $76
Stainless - 26 lbs = $13
Alum Radiators-clean 4 lbs = $1.60
Copper/Alum radiators 4 lbs = $4.80
Sheet Alum. 85 lbs = $42.50
Circuit boards #2 51 lbs = $7.65
cast Alum 42 lbs = $21
insulated copper wire 113 lbs = $113
Circuit boards #1 54 lbs = 67.50

For a grand total of; $881

That was more than I expected, but hey it was for charity, so all the better..

Next week I will be back to hauling my own scrap again.. So who knows how I'll do..

Wow!!!! That is great!!!!

Where are you finding so much scrap?

Beowoulf Post pics of the 2 furrow plow and the saw and sheller on ytmag.com photo ads and it will bring a good price. I just sold a 2 furrow plow for 175 for a cheapie. Id it a breaker or middle buster? is its a breaker it wil bring a good bit more. I wished I was closer Id buy the 3 of them.

I wish I would have seen this earlier! the saw head and the metal sheller are gone. The only thing I have left is the plow.. The rest went to the scrap yard unfortunately.. Oh well:awh: There will be more..

Thanks for the tip. I totally forgot about ytmag.. I'll get a pic of the plow and see it there is any interest there..There may be more items yet to come from that same auction, which haven't been picked up yet.. Who knows maybe the buyers decided not to take them and if so, I will have a chance to get them for scrap..

One place is from an auction company, another from the grounds crew at a golf course.. They don't want to have to pay someone or some company to have it hauled away and I will do it for nothing..

But also you have to understand I have a scrap yard within 5 miles of me and about 4 more in a 20 mile radius in York, Columbia PA area. So I don't have to haul it far.

Another place that I've been getting it is from a guy who is getting divorced and had/has a garage full of electronics. He doesn't have time to wait and try and sell it. So he is getting rid of everything, so he can clean up the property and sell it, to settle the divorce.. Let me tell you the garage is huge! it has 2 bay and a half doors with enough room for another bay and a half between the doors. I do have to travel about 45 minutes to get to it, but it is worth it to me. Also word of mouth has worked almost too well..
I kind of find it funny that there are ads in the paper every week offering the same services, so that tells me there is plenty of scrap around to keep me happy and to keep these small guys happy..
Another part is I take electronics that the other guys don't take..
For example if you have a plastic cased VCR or DVD player that you bought at Wally world for $30 or so.. I will take it when it breaks. I haul my own trash so my costs to dispose of the plastics is cheaper then someone who has a trash hauler. I will tear out the circuit boards and wiring and any good metals that are in it (normally alum and small copper windings on the small motors) and dispose of the rest properly..

If you have any other questions just ask.. I may know the answer, but then again I may not know also...

My small lot of scrap brought $23.50 today...I was a bit disappointed. I was hoping for about $10 more than that.

That sounds like what my scrap tin/steel run on Sat is going to be like.. Not realy, but it won't be much more than that.. We picked up 2 truck loads Monday night. Most of it is just metal cabinets so there isn't much weight.. But we will see what we can get by Sat morning.. I'm guessing about 800 lbs or so.

Unfortunately I won't get to haul any alum or copper or brass until the end of Sept.. But that pay day should be a good one.. I know I have at least 100 lbs of brass and a good 75 lbs of alum and I'm guessing about 50 lbs of copper.`So using last weeks prices as a guide;

brass - $2 / lbs x 100 = $200
Alum - .50 / lbs x 75 = $37.50
copper #2 - $3.20 / lbs x 50 = $160

So that would be roughly $400 in my pocket.. Plus I have till the end of the month to get more..:clap:
Now if I could ever get ahead, I would be able to buy the AR I have been wanting..But that will be a while yet. I still have student loans and other bills to pay off.. Also I really don't think I need another rifle/shotgun...:nana: 30 + and counting...

Most of my scrap today was insulated copper, and low grade at that. They had been paying me much higher prices for the low grades I was bringing them, but that ground to a halt today.

They did pay me for 41 pounds of scrap steel, which was mostly a very old typewriter. This is a yard that accepts steel, but doesn't pay for it. I think the only reason they paid me for my steel was because I've known the owner for almost 20 years.

I shouldn't complain about my low ticket. All of it fit into a box, and half of a small bucket. Virtually no sorting, no work, no sweat, no backbreaking labor involved. I bought the scrap at auction, and had about $4 in the whole mess. This kind of scrapping is low dollar, but it is a FAST and easy flip.

They did skin me on my tiny amount of brass...$1.20 a pound. OUCH!

I hear ya! I get a lot of scrap from an auction company.. If the item doesn't sell of is left behind by the buyers at the end of the day. I get to go through the items. I pull anything metal or anything I think I can make a buck on.. It saves the auction house from having to trash the items, so they don't have to pay for the weight in the dumpster.. Trust me people will buy a whole table lot (think 4x8), pick out the items they want and leave the rest.. So I go through it and help them clean it up and get to keep what I find..

It's a win-win situation.. They pay less in trash fees or it takes longer to fill the dumpster and I get the scrap and make a few easy bucks.. Also because of word of mouth, I have regular auction buyers who bring scrap to the auction and throw it into my truck before they load what they bought that night at auction.. Again it save them form having to pay to trash it and I get paid for it..

I was able to buy a little scrap at an auction on Saturday. When I bought it, most of it was small amounts in several box lots. I know it is hard to believe, but when I glanced at it, I wondered if I would break even...it sure didn't look like much. I had a whopping $3 invested in the scrap.

I just about fell over today, when I took my scrap to the local yard today.

$64.15

Wow...just a double wow for me. Yes, I spent about 1.5 hours cleaning and stripping the copper I had, all 6 pounds of it. But I still can't believe how well it paid for so little scrap. I still have some scrap left from that auction...about $15 worth, so I did well for my $3 buy. Too bad I can't find this much scrap every day!!!!

I hear ya!

In fact the DW and I were just talking about this.. Sat. I made $92 from scrap I got on Wed. (clean up from the flooding) I also picked up (Sat) a 1923? Standard Gas Equipment Corporation, gas stove, Model: Smoothtop. It was a cute/sweet gas stove that I got for scrap. But being that I can't scrap something like that I decided t resell it.. It would clean up easily and Once it was on my truck it never left till I sold it Sunday for $200.. That was a quick turn around, something I rarely see, but was thankful for it. Last night on the way home from work I picked up a "V" plow and a "winnowing machine", antique before I got home I sold the horse drawn "V" plow for $10, My costs were the 10 -15 mins I spent picking up the plow an winnowing machine.. I was asked to remove them from the auction company's property since the had been sold over 3 weeks ago and are now considered abandoned. So the auction company would have thrown them into the trash..

After tinkering a little I have the winnowing machine working.. It appears to have the original red paint and is marked Lancaster MFG PA We will see if we can sell it or if I have to disassemble it and save the parts and learn how it's built..

I have been ramping up my scraping, and I ran into a few items. In the past at work I just trashed transformers, due to the coating on windings. I can't seem to remember if there is a good way to get the copper off, or do you just take the transformers in?. Also I take in car/mower batteries, but what about the smaller D, C, AA, 9v batteries, do they give any $ for them?

If you are talking about the liquid filled transformers, I would take them in whole.. You may get less, but not knowing what chemical(s) are in them, I find it best to let the professionals (those set up to tear them down) do it..

I don't see any sense in poisoning myself or my property for a few dollars..

I know there is gold on computer circuit boards, but because of the chemicals involved with extracting the gold, I find it better to sell the boards to the professionals...

Just my take on it.. Some don't mind dealing with the chemicals..

As to batteries I've never taken any AA, C, D etc in.. The only types I've taken in are automotive, cordless tool, cordless phone, lap top batteries etc..

So I couldn't tell you if they would take them..

I was talking about the lower voltage transformers, metal 8 running through the coils, wrapped in paper. I had a few minutes over lunch and got the metal pulled, very easy. I was also thinking of fluorescent ballasts, I read on line that you can slpit them open and then tapping them with a hammer will just break off the tar from the copper.

Ok, I understand now..

The smaller transformer we tear down also, as to the fluorescent light ballasts and others like them. I haven't found an easy way to break them apart without burning them.. I've tried the hammer and chisel bit, but it for me it takes too long to do.. So most times I don't bother with them, unless I burn them first.. Which isn't often>

Beowoulf-

How are you doing? Picking up any scrap?

The pickings have been slim here. I took in what I had today, only to rid my truck of clutter, and it only came to $15.60.

Let's hope I run into some decent scrap soon!

Lately they have been slow here also.. Where between the end of July and the end of Aug I made and donated over $800 dollars to charity..In the last month I've only hauled in enough scrap for to pay out about $150.. That is because I haven't gotten enough / picked up enough to make it worth while..

The only advantage I have is now I have time to tear down the things I've set aside to strip down for the copper etc.. I'll fire up the heater in the garage and tear things down.. In fact I have to make another blade for my power hacksaw so I can cut apart the compressor motors (which I have about 30 -40) and electric motors (another 30-40)..

I'm hoping that tonight when I go to auction that some of the furniture dealers have scrap for me..

Prices for ferrous metals is down in this area!!!
 

Been working on and off throughout the summer, at taking down (4) corn cribs. They're the old
galvanized Belin with 16' panels bolted together, which I use for goat fencing. The sheet
metal tops are also bolted together and are removed in 3 section parts and loaded into my high
walled trailer. Had just finished filling it to overflowing and figured that I had around a ton *(the
previous owner had an extra top that he wanted removed as well) and would be taking it in to the
scrap yard, as they HAD been paying a premium for clean sheet steel; $20 extra a ton
over just plain sheet. Unfortunately, (or fortunately depending on your point of view) I called in to
get the prices on their automated system and was informed that now they were $20 LESS than what
they had been paying. Needless to say, I took the load directly home and unloaded it......money in
the bank so to speak......eventually it will go back up again and we can wait until then. The money
that I would have got, just about pays for what I paid for the cribs.....which means that the panels
are nearly free......except for the labor in getting them down.

I don't sit on tin/steel except to make sure I have a truck load.. The load I took in Sat. was only 680 lbs, and I got $.10 / lbs hence $68. But it paid partially for the new battery for the wife's car which was $100 and about 2 hours to change the stupid thing..

Let me just say that a 1996 Olds Cutlass Supreme is one of the dumbest designed vehicles in history.. In order to change the battery you have to remove a brace, the windshield washer bottle, and partially remove the air cleaner. This is just so you can get access to the battery! Then of course you have to remove the battery hold down and the foam wrapping around the battery.. Talk about a pain! But the old battery will go for scrap and a few of the left over parts I didn't put back on the car...:sing:

Oh my goodness!!!!

I have a '98 Monte Carlo, and the battery is tucked in my Chevy just like your Olds!!!!

Most people have a hearty laugh with a tone of "you are an idiot" when I tell them it takes 2-3 hours to change the battery in that car...unless they own the same model and have had to do it themselves.

I could probably change the battery in my HHR in 4 minutes...can you believe that battery is in the back of the car, inside, near where the spare tire is kept?

BTW, the last time I had to change the battery in my Monte Carlo, I walked into our local parts store and declared "Give me the best battery you have. I never want to change this thing again!!!"

$88 plus tax...I walked out with a decent battery, so far!