Author: Andrew

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Scrapping a Modular Home

scrapping a modular home

Scrapping a modular or mobile home is a bit easier to do then say a standard brick and mortar home, but has far less payout. The reason though this article is coming into existence is, all modular or mobile homes, generally wear and deteriorate to the point of replacing, much quicker than standard homes. To make things worse, there are very few forums available online to give you instruction and advice. So scrapping a modular home is really just about separating the good from the bad, which is what scrapping for metals has always been about.

First of all, when it comes to the “why” of scrapping a modular or mobile homes, it is very simple, it always breaks down to finances. The cost to move a home alone can range from roughly $2,000 and up! The fact of the matter is, if the home is in disrepair enough where a move may be the end anyhow, then it just makes since to either out right sell it or attempt to scrap it.

The reality is that mobile homes are not terribly expensive to begin with. You can buy a decent single-wide for under $50,000 and a double-wide for under $80,000. Also, mobile homes depreciate yearly by around 3-3.5%. This means that after 20 years, 70% of your mobile home’s value is already gone just from depreciation.

The main issue with the modular or mobile home is that most, or at least older models were poorly constructed and may be fiberglass based. The good news is, much of the exterior and trim and of course plumbing and electric is scrap worthy, it will just take work and plenty of time. So the reality is, is it worth your time to get in their and tear the place a part for a few hundred dollars worth of scrap, or is it best to look at options for selling or refurbishing to rent or sell.

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Scrapping Is Not All Fun And Games

Scrapping Is Not All Fun And Games

We have all had the idea that if I just took a few hours a week, and went to the best possible spots, I could supplement my income dramatically, and maybe even enjoy it. I mean how hard could it be, take my truck, find some scrap, and take it down and get paid for it. Wrong! Scrapping is not all fun and games. I imagine, most people who do it on the regular will tell you that there is absolutely very little fun, and a lot of work trying to make money regularly, maybe even support a family doing it.

First things first! How much do you want or need to make. If it’s $50 or less you can find roadside cans and metals to sell pretty quick. Anything more in a day will take planning and some precision on where you scrap, what kind of scrap, and who you sell it to. Our best advice: find it, and sell it close to home. The largest commodity that will erode the bottom line is your fuel. Driving around town looking all over for scrap metal where it is not, is moving backwards. Then ultimately driving around and asking each and every scrap yard you can find “how much” will reduce your profitability everytime you ask the question itself.

So a few things first, come up with a plan on where and how you will acquire your scrap in the first place. If your thinking at all about illegal activity for this, you need to move on immediately. Stealing scrap metals is one of the easiest way to find yourself in hot and deep water. Next, think about businesses that may need your service to haul away scrap, you may luck into something big. Demolitions, home remodels and other large industrial projects have tons of scrap.

The most common route is basic things around peoples homes: refrigerators, washer and dryers, lamps and other electronics. It might be smart to place an ad in craigslist or other easy way to place an ad for free appliance removal.

Either way, the bottom line is have a plan that affords profitability, where it doesn’t feel like work every time you scrap.

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Recycling Rules

recycling rules

Whenever you recycle, most people think of plastic containers, newspapers, and glass containers. Besides the recycling of plastics, we should be thinking about recycle scrap metal, for example titanium, copper, aluminum, iron and others.Recycling metals (also known as scrapping) may not be the first type of recycling we think of, there are recycling rules to live by.

Many pieces of scrap metal are way too disposed of improperly. Recycling metal reduces the quantity of ore drilling around the world. Reducing pollutants in addition to lowering our carbon footprint. Scrap metals, for one example – titanium, is a high dollar alloy. Scrap yards collect many of their metals from the trade industry but welcome home owners to recycle their scrap metal too.

Before you take metal to any Tucson scrap yard for recycling, you have to separate the metal by type. To be able to collect probably the most value for the recyclable scrap , you should to be acquainted with the kinds of scrap metal and just how much they are worth.

Finally it’s wise to use a local scrap yard. Once you have your scrap metals separated and inventoried you should make sure they take the kind of metal you want to recycle. Not every yard will accept all kinds of metal, plus some metals, like titanium, can be difficult to sell off and may take time to find a dealer. So prior to going be sure that the yard you want to visit will accept the metals you want to scrap.

So before you decide to trash that old garden furniture or outdoor grill consider selling the scrap metal to the recycling yard rather than throwing it away. While recycling metal isn’t a get rich quick plan, the doing your part in the effort for an eco-friendly earth is reward by itself.

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Scrapping for the Environment

scrapping for the environment

More and more every year the is a general consciousness about the environment and how it is time to make a change. The reality is the only changes seem to be about the changes to the environment for the sake of the ozone and the possibility of a global warming catastrophe. We are not saying these things are not important, but it is time to look at other areas such as metals, and the need for us to take our old metals and start scrapping for the environment as much as we tend to scrap for cash.

Every single day, as a species, we create about 4.6 pounds a day of trash…much of it recyclable. As a matter of fact, about a third of all daily trash is recyclable. We currently recycle about 1.4 pounds per day, unfortunately, only about 33% of Americans recycle properly on a regular basis. According to the EPA recycling and composting prevented 87.2 million tons of material from being disposed in 2013, up from 15 million tons in 1980. Diverting these materials from landfills prevented the release of approximately 186 million metric tons of carbon dioxide equivalent into the air in 2013 — equivalent to taking over 39 million cars off the road for a year. That’s a solid number and something that if more people new about, would probably get behind.

Even though, we recycle scrap metals, the full mindset of recycling should be on the forefront of our minds on a regular basis, more like Germany, England and other European countries that America lags behind in it’s efforts to recycle.

Is it possible, that if we were paid to recycle more, more Americans would get involved? It is possible, greed has always been a mantra for getting something moving. The reality is though, if it’s not enough to simply clean the environment, like we clean our homes, cars and yards..there is no point.

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Scrapping At Home

scraping at home

Now, we realize, scrapping your old grill only happens once every 5 years or so. This is in no means a story of how to make a living or a side job out of stripping your home tv out of its wiring harnesses. It is however, a simple list of things at home that may be old and out of service long enough for you to decide to scrap it and get something for it. Scrapping at home is easy, and most of us have a truck load of things our local yard is willing to buy from us. Who knows, you may even get a new grill out of it.

Home computers, tablets and notebooks are quickly becoming the most clutter some in today’s households.
With the average home replacing these items every 2-3 years, where do they go. Statistically speaking they go to the dump, or out with the trash when we get around to selling or giving a way the old desk that has two computer sized paper weights sitting on it. The reality is, the average home PC that is over 3-5 years old has about $15-$20 worth of aluminum, circuitry and/or hard drives in them..and you may have 2-3 of them lying around. I know if I had $60 lying on a desk, I wouldn’t let it go.

Kitchen appliances are a must. The wear and tear on old pots and pans, as well as can openers and other items makes your kitchen into a smorgasbord of scrap metal offerings. Now don’t take what the family eats and cooks with and run off to the local yard, you might hear about that one and spend the rest of the day at William Sonoma.

The garage would probably be the first place your spouse or significant other would have told you to look in the first place. Not only will the garage boast more room, a cleaner look and look less garage like, you’ll actually put some money in your pocket. Everything from coffee cans full of nuts and bolts, to the old TV that comes in fuzzy, to possibly that Vanagon from the 1970’s, there’s always something in the garage that could use some recycling and be worth the time to remove it.

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Garage Sale Scrap

garage sale scrap

Most scrap metal pros have their daily habits and go with it. Start early, know the garbage routes, and stay one step ahead. The truly experienced scrap metal pro, will have multiple tentacles to grab scrap from. The most brilliant of all will have people calling him to get rid of their scrap for them. These aficionados generally get these people from the simplest of places, garage sale scrap.

With garage sales occurring every weekend across America, there is a never ending supply free ready to be hauled scrap metal to be found and sold to line your pockets. Garage sales are the unsung heroes of this hobby/business.

It’s best to scour craigslist or the local ads for the closets and largest garage sales to check. The best scrappers will tell you to visit twice, once early in the event and keep a list of items you want, make the lowest possible offer you can, then return an hour before shut down the next (or same) day and make a next to nothing offer. Generally at this point the sellers are exhausted and ready to pretty much pitch anything else that needs going.

Once you have gotten all you can for next to nothing, let the family know what you do. Offer them a business card and ask if there is any other items they may need removed or hauled off. Even offer to haul the rest of there unsold goods off to the dump for a small fee,especially if your scrap yard is nearby. This is all in the effort for them to remember you the next time they need a washer & dryer and/a refrigerator or something else valuable in the scrap arena. Soon, the whole neighborhood will be calling you before they even think of selling to someone else at their next garage sale.

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Scrapping An Engine

scrapping an engine

So you have a small blog 4 cylinder engine you just pulled out and replaced. Or even better, you just got a brand new car for the first time since the 1990’s and you need to scrap that old rotary engine you’ve had forever. Not a problem, sell it online? No, takes too long, tear it apart and sell parts individual? No, takes too long and have to deal with too many people who really just need a brand new part but refuse to buy them. So just scrap it right, sure.. you get one price for everything..today. Dealing with just one person. Scrapping an engine has been around forever, either scrapping to a yard, or to a tinkerer who is willing to take the time to get it fixed and sold.

The process of recovering the aluminium from scrap vehicles begins with an engine crusher. An Engine Crusher can break between 3 and 5 tons an hour, every hour – that’s up to 30 engines – enabling the different components to be separated ready for the next stages of recovery and recycling. Although the crushing force is 120 tons, the machines are very small, much like the engines themselves. Operated by electricity or diesel, the engine crusher is also adept at handling electric motors and alloy wheels.

An engine crusher will crush engines so that their different component parts can be separated for recycling. This is a compact, tough and powerful machine able to demolish engines at 3 – 5 tons per hour. Engine crushers can withstand the high forces needed to crush engines and separate valuable components. They generally operate with a 120 ton crushing force so it can demolish an engine in just 2 minutes and reduce it to small particles, which means that the aluminium is easily separated from the steel. The machines also have conveyors for loading and removal for efficiency, with magnets to separate different ferrous and no ferrous metals.

So load your block into your truck, drive it down and get paid…quick!

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What Not To Recycle

what not to recycle

We are a metals recycler. Not that we don’t think about recycling in general, but for the most part, we’re pretty busy counting tons and tons of metals, and determining where the heck to store it until it’s time to go. The reality is though, as Arizonians, we pride ourselves on conservation efforts such as water conservation, light pollution and yes, all forms of recycling in general, not just ferrous and non-ferrous metals. So we did our research and we found what not to recycle. I know at the end of the day, we were a bit shocked, but then again, we have been sorting metals forever, why would we expect anything else from the rest of the recycling industry, but here goes!

First thing to understand is, if you use the blue recycling bins, you may be recycling 90% on the money, but that last 10% where you threw in some left over McDonald’s or maybe a pizza slice or two, you have ruined that whole bin of possible recyclables and turned it into a bin of trash. That came as a shock to us, but it shouldn’t have..just like laundry or scrap metal, separate everything.

Plastic bags from Fry’s, Basha’s or wherever you shop are a huge no no, and we didn’t know know. Shopping bags and other plastic films — such as sandwich baggies, dry-cleaning bags or trash bags — can get stuck in recycling equipment, forcing repairs and stopping recycling production. While plastic films or soft plastics aren’t allowed in city containers, they can be recycled in bins found near the entrance of many grocery stores. Reusable shopping bags are another alternative, and some grocers give discounts for using them.

Want another shocker, pizza boxes. I’ve been folding my pizza boxes forever and dropping or stuffing them in the blue bin forever. Until now, it seems as though cardboard though recyclable, that was used for transporting hot or cold foods, is off the list. These forms of cardboard are not recyclable, but wax coated ones are.

Lastly, we have a bit of a confusing one (although at this point, they have all perplexed me) Styrofoam..can’t burn it, can’t recycle it. Nope good ol’ Styrofoam should not be added to the blue bins after all, it’s useless for recycling purposes.

So we’ve run into some hiccups, don’t let that stop you though, because if you get it wrong, they’ll stop for you.

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Gold in Scrap Metal

gold in scrap metal

Everyone knows that the scrap metal business can be lucrative. What most don’t know is that there are ways to increase overall profitability in our scrap. One of those ways is finding gold in scrap metal and selling that too.

If you haven’t noticed, and if you are an avid scrapper we know you have, but the price of gold has sky rocketed over the years. With that, it seems that more and more people who scrap have found that looking for gold (not mining) is another way to reap the rewards of searching and scrapping. The beauty of recycling gold, is that it is more cost effective than mining for it. So it’s in demand in any form.

Many electronics, computers and cell phones and other household items contain small amounts of gold. Gold is used as a conductor in electronics, on circuit boards and in wiring and wiring harnesses . Gold does not rust, therefore it makes a terrific contact point for electronic components. Gold plating is used in high-quality electronics, where some companies may use copper instead (which is still very valuable).

Old Jewelry is a constant standby for gold. Scrapping for old jewelry can be a chore, if you read our last article, about metal detecting, that’s a tried and true way to find gold jewelry that has been lost or discarded. Most jewelry is 18 or 14 karat, there are some 10 karats. The lower the number, the less gold the jewelry contains. You don’t have to worry about perfect scrap gold either, total weight is all that counts, it is all melted down and recycled anyway.

The most important thing to remember is that if you are scrapping as a hobby or for a living, it is important to separate all of your metals prior to selling. Plenty of profit can be lost by not taking the time to separate your scrap.

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Scrap Metal Detecting

scrap metal detecting

It’s not the easiest way to find scrap metal, but scrap metal detecting, with a metal detector can not only be a fun hobby, but can be rewarding financially as well. First things first, a metal detector is needed. Unlike scrapping in bins or discard piles or junkyards. Scrap metal detecting takes a bit of patience and time…with a good detector.

Here are the features of the right metal detector:

Target Identification: You want your detector to be able to signal you when you locate something. Most modern detectors will actually have LED screens that show you the outline of the metal it locates.
Ground Balancing:Ground Balancing helps determine that the natural minuscule minerals in the earth are not setting off your detector. It’s what we call “the worm that ate the dime”theory. Trace elements of metals can be found in the earths soils. If your detector cannot disseminate between what is worth digging and what is not, you will spend all day searching for nothing.
Tone Difference:Some sophisticated detectors can determine the ore or alloy itself. Then it relays it back to your metal detector through tone and lets you determine the next step.
All Metal Mode: All metal mode is exactly what it sounds like. If you happen to have a detector that determines different metals, you may want to keep this feature running and make a determination after signal. Sometimes though, if your detector can’t identify the metal, you’ll have to make the decision yourself which could be time consuming.

The beauty of scrapping in this way is two fold. You can enjoy doing it with others, it is far less travel intensive, fuel intensive and construction or deconstruction in this case is far lower. The best part is, not only can you find scrap metals, but you can find other things as well, that could potentially be of value.