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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.

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!

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.

How to Melt Your Own Scrap

Warning: We do not recommend doing this as part of your scrapping technique, but if you want to know how to melt your own scrap.

First things first, separate all of your scrap appropriately. This is important for many reasons, the main reason is that metals all have different melting points, and for consistency purposes.

Secondly, put all of your scrap into a receptacle that is large enough to accommodate the scrap. You may want to clean your scrap with baking soda first to remove loose corrosion.

Next, take a torch and adjust the heat according to the type of metal that you are melting. Copper, brass and gold, for example, will melt between about 926 degrees Celsius and 1,100 degrees Celsius. You should always verify the melting points of your scrap.

For safety, use a pair of welding work gloves and direct the torch’s flame towards the receptacle. Once the scrap metal has melted into a liquid form, it is ready to pour into a mold (ingot). You can expedite the process by having a second person hold a second torch to the receptacle , basically doubling the heat output.

Lastly, once the metal has been liquefied into molten, you can pour it into an ingot or other type of mold in order to create whatever shape you want. For safety and to avoid burning yourself, use high heat tongs to move and pour out the receptacle.

You can repeat the same procedure for each of the different scrap metals that you have to sell. If you are taking the melted scrap to a scrap dealer, it is recommended that you place the liquefied material into a cooled form (as this are easier to weigh and transport). This makes the material easier to handle and to be sorted and weighed for best results.

Scrap metal is everywhere you look, either in a residential home and even on farm land. Usually someone who scraps will spend most days scouring areas and driving to pick up different scrap components from individuals who need it to be removed. Ever wonder what scrap metal machines are used to facilitate the process?
Scrap is usually brought to a facility like Amceps, where it is processed for resale. Other yards, like a junkyard or auto yard usually resale their scrap as a whole for lower amounts. Most scrap metal sellers have sorted their scrap themselves for a better pricing model.
The largest custom piece of equipment is a scrap metal shredder. A scrap metal shredder assist in the separation of different metals, and is used usually at yards like Amceps, who take Ferrous and Non Ferrous materials. Some examples are cars and household items such as refrigerators, ovens, washers and dryers and so on. These items take a ton of time to separate, a shredder can easily separated out these pieces magnetically. A non-ferrous grouping requires hand techniques to sort.

Shredders allow large sums of scrap to be sorted, therefore allowing companies to save on man power and time. Scrap metal shredders can be equipped with different types of cutting systems such as horizontal shaft, vertical shaft, single-shaft, two-shaft, three-shaft and four-shaft cutting systems. Though these technical aspects vary, the main point of the modern shredder is to add value of the scrap being sold. Ultimately, increasing the overall amount scrap metal dealers can payout and of course increasing profitability. As technology advances we’ll find other products in a scrap yard which will increase productivity and profitability such as metal bailing systems, scrap shears (for cutting large pieces into smaller ones), drum crushers (for crushing large drums) and most importantly metal analyzers that speed up the separation process for each new load brought in.

Without going into a long drawn out list of what our yard takes and doesn’t take, we thought we would explain why we don’t take one specific product, beer kegs. Why? Well, at some point, common sense has to take over. Cars without titles, explosives or machinery with serial numbers and no owner documentation are these type of common sense items we’re talking about. Anything that smells stolen or dangerous has to be omitted for practical, safety and CYA reasons.

So we’ll go straight to the point, on our website it list three items we don’t accept…beer kegs, plastic or paper and cardboard. Odd list, they really don’t go together at all, but paper, plastic and cardboard do get recycled and some folks often mistake all recycling vendors as the same, as if the process across the board is no different. That’s fine, we live and learn.

Beer kegs on the other hand is a recyclable product we could accept, but do not. Why? The answers not totally simple as I’ll explain, but after a bit of reading and research it should make sense. The number one reason is that most people, and I mean almost all people, don’t own, or would never need to own a beer keg. Fine, that’s acceptable, but that doesn’t explain why it can’t be sold for scrap. It actually does. Those beer kegs are generally sold by individuals who have forgotten or just plain refused to return the keg to the retailer that they rented it from. The beer is purchased, but the keg is merely the distribution method used to distribute the beer out to the masses. Those kegs cost about $150 to create and the retailer or the beer distributor actually owns the keg. Even if you paid a deposit, lost it due to negligence, the ownership still stands with someone other than yourself. Just like a car, you couldn’t sell or scrap a rental car after you were finished renting it.

Beer keg theft is rampant, the average keg will get $15-$30 when recycled. Many restaurants, bars and taverns and started demanding that local scrap yards check ID when accepting kegs for cash. With that, Amcep has decided to not accept kegs overall as part of our policy in discouraging keg theft in the first place.

Ultimately it’s up you in your decision making process, either way you’ll pay more in the long run by not returning the keg back, and trying to recoup $15 of your deposit back. It’s far better goodwill, to return it back to the retailer you rented it from.

There are different types of ferrous metals, iron and steel scrap, also referred to as ferrous scrap, comes from end of life products (old or obsolete scrap) as well as scrap generated from the manufacturing process (new, prime or prompt scrap). Obsolete ferrous scrap is recovered from automobiles, steel structures, household appliances, railroad tracks, ships, farm equipment and other sources. The largest single source of obsolete ferrous scrap in the United States is used vehicles, and R.L. Polk & Co. estimates that nearly 11.8 million vehicles were scrapped in the U.S. in 2012.

Today, ferrous scrap is the most recycled material in the United States and worldwide. In the U.S. alone, the U.S. Geological Survey estimates that 72 million metric tons of iron and steel scrap were purchased in 2012. While domestic ferrous scrap market participants have been facing heightened competition for available feedstock in recent years, expanding economic output in general and the recently improving conditions in the automotive and construction sectors in particular should bode well for future ferrous scrap supply and demand.

View historical data on U.S. iron and steel scrap consumption, producer stocks, and production.

How Is Ferrous Scrap Prepared?

While a small proportion of unprepared obsolete ferrous scrap can be directly used by consumers, the vast majority of purchased iron and steel scrap is sorted and processed by the scrap recycling industry. Scrapyards use a variety of processes including sorting, shearing, shredding, torching and baling to sort and prepare ferrous scrap to commodity-grade specifications.

The process of shredding, which was developed in the late 1950s, allows for whole cars, appliances and other end-of-life products to be quickly shredded into fist-size pieces of metal, greatly increasing scrap processors´ ability to handle large items and to separate nonferrous material. In 2013, more than 350 shredders were in operation in North America, up from just 120 shredders in the early 1970s.

In addition to shredded, ferrous scrap can be grouped by prime scrap (including busheling, bundles and clips), cut grades such and heavy melting steel, and foundry and miscellaneous grades such as machinery cast. To assist members with the buying and selling of their materials, ISRI has developed standard specifications for scrap commodities including more than 100 ferrous scrap specifications. ISRI´s “specs” are regularly updated and published in the ISRI Scrap Specifications Circular. For more information, visit www.isri.org/specs.

Rumor has it (if you believe those sort of things), the US ferrous scrap market price is gearing up for robust trade, with sellers inspired by the prospect of increases in the cards while buyers are trying to talk some steam out of the market.

Sellers and buyers do agree that the market is moving higher, but whether all grades will rise in tandem in each region remains to be seen, as well as whether prime continues to outpace secondary grades like shredded or if the reverse will occur in some areas.

buyers in the Midwest and South said that sellers are unwilling to attach a price to their scrap, leaving buyers unclear on how much dealers want for August-shipment material.

Throughout the country, the numbers being thrown around are that the market will increase in a range of $10 per gross ton to excess of $20 per ton, depending on the grade and region.

A combination of an unplanned outage at a direct-reduced iron (DRI) plant in Louisiana owned by Nucor Corp. will add pressure to an already tight prime scrap market, while secondary grades are facing their own set of dynamics as the export market flexes muscle at attractive prices. The latest export deal reflects shredded scrap is up at least $30 per tonne compared with early July deals, making the export market an attractive option for sellers who generally sell to the domestic market.
Mills remain busy, with operating rates currently at 75.9 percent.

Export activity from both coasts is strong, the national broker said.

“After export, (the) Chicago market is the next-cheapest market to go and pull scrap,” this source said of Chicago prices being lower than many other areas, which could make it ripe for offers from the larger national mills.

Lets hope this is good news for the rest of us, there’s always hope.