Holy Scrap Metal Batman! - PeachParts Mercedes-Benz Forum

cmac2012 · #1 07-12-2006, 12:56 PM

I'm doing a remodel on a guest house that got flooded. It had a funky old sink, stove, mini-fridge unit, about 5 feet wide with a one piece stainless steel top/sink. I talked the owner into getting rid of it -- the fridge didn't work anyway, they had bought another, and the damn thing was a pain to work around, the stove was rusty.

Anyway, I needed to get rid of all the steel. I took the ferrous steel down to a place and gave it away, you need a ton to get any money, but the stainless steel is worth some $$. I'd heard that scrap metal prices are up and I had a couple of buckets of copper, brass, and alum that I've been saving. I hate the idea of throwing that stuff away. We'll just dig up more ore and ship in supertankers of oil so we can refine it anyway.

I didn't have a whole lot, I was hoping I'd get $30 or $40 to make it worth my while. I got $120. Not shabby for doing the right thing. Clean copper gets $2.60 a pound now. I used to save wire and copper from the big jobs and back in the late 90s, clean copper got about $.95 a pound.

Hang onto that stuff!

TheDon · #2 07-12-2006, 01:03 PM

their is a guy in my neighborhood that is across the retnetion ditch that picks up junk AC units of all sizes and strips them of the useful metals inside and such. i think he should get a fence and keep on keeping on

cmac2012 · #3 07-12-2006, 01:34 PM

Yup. I was afraid that would be the case. Haven't had to buy much copper lately but it has to be going up as well.

I used to fish wire and copper pipe and flashing out of dumpsters when I'd see it on top. I imagine that'll be happening less and less, that is, people throwing it out instead of saving it themselves.

Hatterasguy · #4 07-12-2006, 03:20 PM

Yep my dad saves it, these days it pays.

GottaDiesel · #5 07-12-2006, 04:08 PM

Copper is insane right now... makes me happy I learned how to use PEX. Copper for pipes... no thanks.

Wire, ugh. It ain't cheap like it was.

Dubyagee · #6 07-12-2006, 05:11 PM

I read the title and thought of this.

Pete Geither · #7 07-12-2006, 07:56 PM

I save all the wrecked rads and A/C condensors from the wrecked cars. Usually amounts to a nice sum every six months.

Dee8go · #8 07-12-2006, 10:17 PM

I put a lot of stainless steel equipment in the labs I design and install. We're getting squeezed hard because of long-term contracts and rising commodities prices.

Jimmie Rogers was touting investment in commodities several years ago and once again made a killing in the market. Now, he's pushing investment in real estate projects in China. Get yer yuan out, boys, thars gold in them thar hills!

Hatterasguy · #9 07-12-2006, 10:45 PM

Their has been gold in China for years. Guess where my money will be going after I get set up in this country.

You have to REALLY know what you are doing to invest in China though.

Palangi · #10 07-12-2006, 11:17 PM

When I first started going to Christmas Island, (1986) there used to be literally miles and miles of jacketed copper wire just laying on the ground, left over from the bomb test days in the early 60's. This stuff was about 3/8 inch diameter, and there were several parallel runs of it, which must have been close to 20 miles long. By about 1993, it had all been picked up, whacked into 2 or 3 foot lengths, stuffed into barrels, and shipped off the island. I cannot even imagine what the value would be at todays prices.

cmac2012 · #11 07-13-2006, 12:27 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Palangi

When I first started going to Christmas Island, (1986) there used to be literally miles and miles of jacketed copper wire just laying on the ground, left over from the bomb test days in the early 60's. This stuff was about 3/8 inch diameter, and there were several parallel runs of it, which must have been close to 20 miles long. By about 1993, it had all been picked up, whacked into 2 or 3 foot lengths, stuffed into barrels, and shipped off the island. I cannot even imagine what the value would be at todays prices.

Whoa, that's a sobering tale. Untold $$thousands at today's prices. You read now and then about guys who go into jobsites and rip the copper out of the walls for the scrap.

Nimrods. They'd a thought they'd died and gone to heaven if they'd seen what you saw.

I couldn't believe the stuff they were throwing into the dumpsters when I used to work the big jobs in the 90s. Flashing, wire, pipe. About every other month, I'd take it down and get about $100. It's going for almost triple now.

I hear there's some controversy about insulated wire. Apparently it's illegal to burn the insulation off anywhere in American any more. I've heard about big "chopper" machines, where they chop it up into tiny pieces, then agitate it with fans and paddles so that the metal falls to the bottom and the bits of insulation get blown off to another container.

Not sure how much that's being used. Word I've heard is that most of it gets shipped to China where they are only too happy to burn the insulation off and we get a bunch of the pollution later anyway.