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Falling Scrap Iron prices

Old Doug

Senior Member
Joined
Oct 16, 2013
Messages
4,484
Location
Mo
If i had a Dollar for every hour i spent trying to figure were to go with stuff and when to sell.
I thought i would haul to a different place the last 2 loads i should have called around. The first trip i got $90.00 a ton second 4 days later i got $80.00. I was talking to a buddy and he said he got $100.00 at the place were i was going that would have been enough more to pay for my fuel. He also told me about a way to get there without going through the town it is close to thats the main reason i dont like going there i dont like going through that town.
 

Old Doug

Senior Member
Joined
Oct 16, 2013
Messages
4,484
Location
Mo
I hauled a load of non ferrous Monday to a place 60 miles away . They also buy steel but have never been any more than the local places i haul to but i ask and they were paying $40.00 more a ton?
 

Old Doug

Senior Member
Joined
Oct 16, 2013
Messages
4,484
Location
Mo
I hauled a load of shred to the local place $100.00 a ton . I wish it was higher but i am hauling some real crappy stuff . I am getting rid of it and i haul 2 tons or so a trip. It cost around $30.00 to make the trip not counting wear and tear but my trucks were worn out along time ago.
 

gwhammy

Senior Member
Joined
Nov 20, 2013
Messages
602
Location
missouri
I have a large pile of shred on the school I'm tearing down but it isn't worth them paying me to haul it off. Might as well leave it piled till I get the rest of the buildings tore down. It might be cheaper to just give it away, it's bar joist and rebar so really hard to get much of a heavy load. I might see if the dumpster company will haul it in the 40 yard cans I get for dump material. They are right accross the road from the scraper. Even if the city breaks even they are money ahead.
 

colson04

Senior Member
Joined
Apr 11, 2016
Messages
2,057
Location
Delton, Michigan
Hauling grain the other night, I drive by a neighbor's house for the 4th time that day. Between loads, they must have cleaned out the garage and now there was a pile of miscellaneous metal at the end of their driveway, including a shiny snowblower. I'm guessing the engine wouldn't start. I parked my grain truck, grabbed my pickup and went back to grab the snowblower and there was a guy with a tandem landscape trailer piled with scrap loading everything up already. Less than 4 minutes had passed and air already missed out. My stepdad or brother could both use a good snowblower too. I find most of these small engine issues are dirty carburetors or broken wires that people don't know how to diagnose themselves.

Edit: I've been so dang busy with harvest that I haven't even touched the scrap pile at my house yet. Harvest is busy, but going well so I'll probably still have time once we're done to get my yard cleaned up.
 

Old Doug

Senior Member
Joined
Oct 16, 2013
Messages
4,484
Location
Mo
I hauled a tank wagon bed off yesterday it was from the 50s. The marker lights were glass witch i saved. I only got $60.00 a ton for it i had been wanting to get rid of it for years but i wanted to take some stuff off of it . I am very glade its gone and it makes me fill like i am getting something done.
 

Birken Vogt

Charter Member
Joined
Nov 30, 2003
Messages
5,305
Location
Grass Valley, Ca
Hauling grain the other night, I drive by a neighbor's house for the 4th time that day. Between loads, they must have cleaned out the garage and now there was a pile of miscellaneous metal at the end of their driveway, including a shiny snowblower. I'm guessing the engine wouldn't start. I parked my grain truck, grabbed my pickup and went back to grab the snowblower and there was a guy with a tandem landscape trailer piled with scrap loading everything up already. Less than 4 minutes had passed and air already missed out. My stepdad or brother could both use a good snowblower too. I find most of these small engine issues are dirty carburetors or broken wires that people don't know how to diagnose themselves.

That's why you stop and find a way to Beverly Hillbilly it onto the big truck. Done that once or twice, then there is no need to go back.
 

colson04

Senior Member
Joined
Apr 11, 2016
Messages
2,057
Location
Delton, Michigan
That's why you stop and find a way to Beverly Hillbilly it onto the big truck. Done that once or twice, then there is no need to go back.

I had a full load and nothing to use as rigging with me. I had a flash of a thought of parking in our field next to their driveway, but reasoned my truck was close enough I could get it quick.
 

Birken Vogt

Charter Member
Joined
Nov 30, 2003
Messages
5,305
Location
Grass Valley, Ca
I was at a customer and saw they were getting rid of some gas cylinders, batteries and misc treasure. I thought the sheriff would stop me on my way back with all that treasure, for hauling garbage to the dump without a cover. The truck was already full at the time but no way I could leave that treasure to be scrapped.
 

colson04

Senior Member
Joined
Apr 11, 2016
Messages
2,057
Location
Delton, Michigan
I just ended up with a scrap o2 cylinder. My dad had a 48" O2 bottle in his barn forever. I dug it out and took it to the local gas supplier to see if I could exchange it. They showed me the dates. it was manufactured in 1937, last hydro test 1996. I paid to have the tank hydro tested ($35) and see if it was still good, just got it back this week and it failed. It had severe rust pitting in one area and failed visual. Given how it was stored, I guess I'm not surprised. I brought it home. I'm going to use it to practice my torch skills on, and then make a bell out of the upper portion.
 

Old Doug

Senior Member
Joined
Oct 16, 2013
Messages
4,484
Location
Mo
I got 2 oxy cylinders at a yard sell one was usable the other was pitted. I also bought a co2 bottle on a keg setup it was full i used it on my mig. I need to send the co2 cylinder in and get it checked and filled i now have 2 migs. One mig is small i found a small cylinder at the dump years ago i looked at it the other day and its pitted.
 

gwhammy

Senior Member
Joined
Nov 20, 2013
Messages
602
Location
missouri
You sound like my kind of guy Old Doug. I scrounge things all the time. Just bought a 500 gallon lp tank and traded for another one. I know one of them is good I'll clean it up and use it but the other one is going to be a diesel tank. Both of them might be. 350 dollars for a 500 gallon tank was a no brainer. Both are the same place I just pushed a house and buildings in. I have to dig a small hole for the other one so I can pick them both up at once. I have a whole bunch of channel iron on that were brick lentles on the school I'm taking down and can get them for scrap or less. Man never has to much good iron laying around.
 

gwhammy

Senior Member
Joined
Nov 20, 2013
Messages
602
Location
missouri
Last new iron I bought was a couple strips 3/8 by 2 twenty footers was terrible. I don't see how you can build anything at those prices.
 

Old Doug

Senior Member
Joined
Oct 16, 2013
Messages
4,484
Location
Mo
I am building part of a tool box the frame is scrap stuff but i built 1 drawer . I have $60.00 in the 1 drawer. I have a hard time trying to figure out the cost of stuff when it comes to buy or build . I could have bought a old tool box and cut it apart cheaper. I think for the most part the days of custom built stuff is about over.
 

hosspuller

Senior Member
Joined
Aug 27, 2014
Messages
1,869
Location
North Carolina
December 5, 2022. Just cleaned out the barn... Shredder steel paid $5 per CW ($100 / ton) at a local major scrap yard. Pittance, but the barn looks a lot better.

And the traffic at the scale was light. When price was $12 per CW, the line around the scale was agonizingly long.
 
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