Is Scrap Metal Worth Your Time? 2023
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Today we talk about if its worth collecting used parts/scrap and making any money off of it based on the time you spend collecting, sorting, loading, and unloading all the metal based on the scrap prices in 2023.
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I have lived through times when my scrap pile was my only savings account.
Me too, brother...me too.
As we speak the end of every month my scrap pile get me a loaf of bread at least Social Security's not near enough to survive on and keep a roof over your head
@@tomtroy3792 is if you own the roof, outright.
@@tomtroy3792if you can scrap, you can work.
Me two would have went hungry several times if it hadn't ' been for my scrape
I've been doing scrap metal for about 15 years. You left money on the table by not weighing out after unloading the rotors and drums. Always weigh them out separately from the tin or shred steel. Save your scrap wiring harnesses and separate them, they pay decently. Electric motors such as starters or alternators sell for a different price than tin, separate. You might've made as much as an extra $150 had you separated the materials properly.
For me I just didn’t have the time to go that detailed into separating. For me it was….get rid of the pile so I at least tried to clean the aluminum up. Otherwise if I did this regularly I might separate everything further
@@MotorCityMechanic i like the video i follow you 💯 from #YSW 🇨🇦 respect back to you 🙏 .
The scrap metal yard I deal with allows me to buy stuff at 2X of current scrap price, anything from steel to make things to lawn tractors that need a thing or two they are all 2X scrap . Tires are free, aluminum wheels are $ 20. Many times there are a few months old batteries there so a 90 % discount on a battery ( paying $ 15 ) is worth my time.
I recommend you have somebody come get that out of your shop every couple of weeks while the pile a smaller and don't waste any time on it yourself You basically broke even and lost 50 ft.² of your shop floor for two years Turn wrenches and stack up the labor hours on repair jobs that's where your money is
If you run a business, it often costs you more in lost time doing all of this than you could make doing your trade. Never saw a scrapper that made good money, usually it is just survival wages. Stepdaughter's significant other followed in his family practice of scrapping. They gathered the materials up and brought it to the farm to prep, like you were talking about. Yes it looked like they made $300-400 on a load. But when you factored in the fuel and time simply collecting the scrap, next breaking it down and sorting, then reloading suddenly they were working for about $1.50 a man/hour. I would often buy at about double scrap rate items from them, do a repair/restoration job on it in a few hours and make quite a bit of cash. Guy I worked with before I retired had a Son that had a well respected second-hand shop, he went around on those community clean-up days, yard sales and such and collected what others considered scrap for pennies on the dollar, do a professional restoration and sell it for a tremendous profit. Stepdaughter's significant other, grasped he was working for nothing and quit the profession, now is driving a truck on day run deliveries making good cash.
What you do is have separate bins and "separate it" as you go. Then it's already done for you when it's time to scrap.
Yup touch it only 1 time any thing else depreciates your final profit.
So glad you did this video. I don’t think people even know they can recycle these old parts. $400 is nothing to sneeze at….. 👍
For sure! Just money sitting around.
heah, but that $400 how long it took? a couple months. So forma shop i dont think is worth it to lose shop time to sort and go to a scrap yard.
Everyone knows this
400$... still not worth it
If he would've just put those rotors in that bin then just loaded the bin in the truck with a forklift he could've saved hours. If the bin was in the back of the shop he would've always had extra storage space.
I tried doing scrapping just because it seemed like an extremely low barrier to entry. Then I realized I was competing with meth addicts who would literally steal copper out of the ground and dig through private dumpsters looking for anything worth money. I just can't compete with that level of motivation.
Yes that's what I found out most of the meth addicts would steal aluminum or copper or anything like brass or any metal just so they could buy more meth or crack
I hauled scrap for many years on the side to make some quick cash. Always enjoyed it.
Around here, we separate the sheet steel from the auto cast. The sheet steel currently is $140 a ton and the cast is $240 a ton, and you had mostly cast (rotors, cams, cranks, etc.) so that first load of 3500# would be almost $400 by itself!! Also, Aluminum breakage (odds and ends of mixed aluminum) at $.11 = $220 a ton, is only marginally better than steel prices, so if you can quickly separate it from the steel or others parts, you could make a little bit better money for it, but I'm usually like you and just get rid of it, unless I can break it apart with a hammer or maybe just a bolt or two!! I for one always like getting paid for cleaning up the shop or the scrap pile!!
Where do live where those are the scrap prices?
This guy messed up majorly you should separate the wrong rotors short Steel seat iron and he should clean aluminum radiators got more money for them
I’ve been doing this for a very long time and have been schooled on the many categories and its value, however, I certainly wish I knew when the prices fluctuate. I can’t find out from word of mouth where I can get that particular piece of information or updates
I remember around 2007 when gas was around $5 a gallon and sheet dropped through the floor under $10 a ton.. Tough tough times..
The secret to scrapin' (and business in general) is to never do anything (that don't pay) twice, have a metal bin for each type of metal and move it 1 time.
S C R A P P I N' NOT SCRAPIN
I use to love when the scrap guy came by the shop and paid us for the scrap metal......and the catalytic converters we made plenty🎯
I did A/C in Phoenix for over 20 years. My boss would just let the crane operator haul away to old units until he told me he made bank scrapping the old units, so I had my boss have him load them in the back of the truck and on the way to my house we would dump them an my back yard (I had an alley access). On my "down time" usually winter I would go and separate steel from aluminum form copper etc. When my wife would get yappy about the "mess in the back yard" (you couldn't see it from the house) I would load up my truck on a Saturday morning and run to one of the local rip off scrap yards and cash them in and come home and give her $100 and she would be happy (I usually made $500 or so with a couple of loads). I mad the mistake of mentioning to my boss how much I made and he tried the "well HALF of that is mint and his wife jumped his ass and told him he just sat around drinking beer all weekend and that I did all the separating and hauling so SHUT THE F. UP. So I made certain I never told him how much I made. I also kept VERY ACCURATE RECORDS of the make, model, serial number and location it was removed from and how much refrigerant I recovered. THAT saved my bacon because I complained to the "honest Juan's Scrap Dealer" that they WEREN'T checking ID'S on the Hispanic guys rolling in with OBVIOUSLY NEW rolls of copper tubing and brand new condenser and evap coils that the probably swiped form construction sites. ME, I had to show my ID, my company information, phone numbers and truck license plate. I questioned that I had to give all that info but the Hispanic guys just got the old wink, wink, nudge, nudge and off you go. I turned them in to the local PD and told them to just sit there in an unmarked van and video all the goings on, confiscate the BRAND NEW PROBABLY STOLEN items and check with theft reports. Of course the PD wouldn't do anything, instead came knocking on MY door. Since I had ALL SORTS OF DOCUMENTATION, they couldn't touch me. I am long since retired and don't have anything to do with maintenance or repairs any more, but DO collect cans and scrap aluminum that gets thrown into alleys. AND I donated what money I made to one of 3 animal rescue groups on a rotating basis. So, if it becomes unwieldly and time consuming to you, just have a local charity come and pick it up and they can do the separating and recycling. I think they would be SUPER APPRECIATIVE.
You got a good workout out of it, helped keep valuable resources out of the landfill, and made money. Wins all around.
If that's your hustle in life than yes definitely!
Any money is good money…..how ever you can make for sure.
Thank you for this video!! It’s was informative, to the point and best of all you showed what the payoff was ! Keep up the great work !
I recently hauled off my several years of accumulation of scrap metal pile. Made similar money. Was surprised as well.
Years back I did the same scraping my warehouse. Never punctured a tire Found it amazing how they shred the metal into little pieces
Great vid and welcome back!
Thank you for your help! Our scrap dumpster at work is completely over filled and I wanted to attempt it myself since it fascinates me. Very insightful video.
Remember, It's not always about the money. Recycling is good for the environment.
Yes be sure to recycle those tires that get damaged as you back out on the scrap pile to get unloaded..
@@SegoMan just let the scrap guy take it. Their always good guys, and appreciate it.
@@haulingfuel4759 We no longer have a scrap guy he died about 10 yrs back..
Recycling is actually very expensive
Hi David…nice to see you again…👏👏👏👏👏
Thank You David for all your very informative post. Keep some sports drinks for those extra hot days, it will give you a boost and replace any electrolytes you may have lost. I fell better within 10 mins. I use hydralyte brand, can be purchased at most pharmacies and Amazon. A little pricey but when I have to keep going it’s a life saver and best of all I feel good after work.
Wow. This is a great video! Nicely done sir. Well done.
Great job, God bless you man 🙏
I make that everyday buying and sell from Auto shops and more from trade shops. I show the exact tear down, plus scrap tickets! Great video buddy! Keep them coming!!!
Thanks for new video David
Like you're saying. Everything depends on the situation. If you have the time and room to pile it up and semi separate it as you go as you stay busy on your regular job at hand, it can come in handy if and when business gets a little slow. Yes you could make more from the scrap if you have the time to break it all down, but you just have to weigh the situation out in that moment of which will be more beneficial.
Congratulations!
Good info, I go around collecting in my area and go home separate everything. Stock up for a big haul of each of the different metals and then take it in for a good payday. The only thing is that I too have to accumulate a lot of stuff to make it worth it for me. I spend the time to break everything down. So it pays better and yes there is a lot of time vested to make that pay check even bigger. Thanks again for the time spent to make the video.
When I was a kid in the Boston area during the 60s my dad new the owner of what was called back then a junk yard, l remember seeing all those junked cars from the 40s and 50s. If these cars were still here they'd be called classics. Thanks for the video.....
Using a bespoke scrap trailer speeds things up: you don't have to transfer everything to your pickup.
More videos please
Great video and thanks for sharing.
Nice video and nice little chunk o change. My back started hurting for you when I saw you bending over to pick up those rotors...glad you decided to start unload standing ground level...OUCH!
Thank you
very informative thank you from Germany
One thing you left out David is the wear and tear on your body plus the risk like you said. Since you work on cars last thing you need to do is hurt a shoulder tossing that junk around. I say no it's not worth it. Any damage to your shoulder would lay you up to 6 months.
It does show you how out of shape you are. Glad it’s over lol.
@@MotorCityMechanic You are not out of shape. The older you get and working on vehicle is a tough job. Reaching overhead is tough on shoulder and the whole body doing car work.
And a lot of people pay to go to the gym. Use it or lose it. Get paid to use it or pay to use it. Guessing you can figure out how to not hurt yourself after a life of doing things. Harder on the body and spirit to sit still and be safe all the time. Not saying anyone should work unsafely. But throwing weight around until you are winded is a good thing, not a bad one.
i use old 5 gal buckets from my drive way sealing project and separate as i generate the scrap. All the small steel parts go into the buckets like brake pads , tie rod ends , ball joints ect , and the cast rotors go in a pile outside. Aluminum water pumps , motor mounts ect in another bucket. Then i wheel the buckets on my landscape trailer with a hand truck when i go to the scrap yard.
It's definitely worth your time. Very cool. Just remember, like others have said, go weigh after unloading the prepared steel! You separated it for the scrap yard, but they paid you straight tin-shread since you didn't re-weigh. You have already realized it by now, so no need for viewers to beat you up, but hopefully new scrappers will learn from your vid and from polite input from the comment section. Thanks for sharing!!!
That wasn't bad I liked your video so I gave it a like and I subscribed keep them coming
Haven't seen you in quite a while. You're still on my favorites list so I don't get your videos. That often may be having put me out. But good to see you that you're still alive. And kicking. COVID didn't take you out.
Excellent thanks
Good video!! Wish you'd made FAR MORE!!
I'm sure there are many people that don't know you can even do this ! Very good video. Surprised to see the outcome.
I’ve been scrapping since 2007, it’s definitely a game of being on your grind daily. But to be really honest, I probably made as much money from can and bottle redemption, mainly because I would photocopy barcodes and attach it to legitimate items that can be put in the machines to be redeemed for the same value. I was able to average close to $400 a week without killing myself.
I did a run to my buyer today. Not this amount of metal, but I remembered all my work and hard language to change those parts. Had some issues to leave some of it. But they will do better than take up space in the garage. :)
Great video very interesting. Thank you!
The number of people that come by the shop I work at asking for our scrap ..... it has to be worth it. they give us $2 a rotor plus all the other stuff.
Depending on your scrap yard you might be able to get more for prepared steel.
As a first time viewer, I must say that I find the content of your channel very informative and useful! I should have heard of you sooner,as I live in Detroit! Anyways,great channel and keep up the great work! Consider me subscribed!! Oops,I just noticed that your address is in Georgia! My bad,when I see "Motor City" I just assume Detroit! Still,great channel!
A lot of those rotors look like they are still in great shape.. I'd be coming to you to buy them for my truck if I was close. :) I live in Oklahoma though.
That was enjoyable to watch David. Thank you for sharing. I'm familiar with scrap yards myself. 👍
As a workshop it really depends on a few things- if you have room to spare for scrap to sit for long periods, your workload because if youre very busy, your time is better spent working on cars because it pays way better. And then you might think it's worth it to pay christmas bonuses with or for an end year celebration. You might think to give it to a local scrounger as payment for general cleaning of the workshop yard etc. And if it gets given to an eager yard cleaner as payment, you wont need to sort it or clean it.
Yep, I got a flat once. But my yard has a magnetic lift crane that does the unloading.
You're right not too many people go around and buy it I do and I live in Columbus Ohio. I'm a core buyer as well
I have recycled for decades and it always makes me feel good to reclaim something that would otherwise be lost forever in a landfill. This is good for our planet and our health. Great job sir. Keep it up.
Yep, I've always said that metal should never go into the garbage.
Good Job🍺 Beer Money!
Also for that small stuff use buckets or a 30 gal drum so you don't have to waste time loading one piece at a time . Also when unloading the heavy stuff like rotors get as close to the pile as possible you did way more work then you had to throwing those thing as far as you did . That just why more work to do.
Yes
Here’s a quick tip on large brake rotors, a lot of people that build homemade forges will use those in a home built forge and that is the best way to sell those and the bigger the rotor the easier they are to sell,, you can get several bucks a piece out of those like that
Clean up the scrap as you go, then it's just a junk yard run without all the labor. Also, 3 separate bins.
I scrap,micro scrap.I make decent $ to keep doing it.Right now in ariz we hit 113 and Im the only independent scrapper out there in the heat but,I love the heat,its good therapy for me.I been scrapping 5 yrs,the last 2 yrs full time.U gotta wanna do it and enjoy doing it.
I scrapped for 15 years here in Cincinnati. There can be real good money in it if you don't scrap everything. For example, truck tool boxes fixed by replacing broken locks. Lawn mowers that needed a blade sharpening and a tune-up. Steel filing cabinets. Pieces of steel and aluminum stock that hobbyists can easily find use for. Air conditioners that the owners thought were bad, because they no longer blew cold air most of actually only needed a good cleaning and they worked fine. I never had to buy an air conditioner and working ones sold fast at the flea market. And my best find, a portable truck scale which I sold directly back to the manufacturer for $7,000. Garden tools with broken handles. And don't forget to check those boxes and bags because you never know what you'll find. One person throws out a decent item. Three or four different neighborhoods add up to dozens of re-sellable items. I would take a truck load to the local flea market and sell 95% of it. And when scrap metal was over $200 a ton, I made a killing. By the way, I was working a full-time job and scrapping part-time and weekends. One place I stopped at to pick up some appliances were throwing away a garage full of antique furniture!!!! It's hard work but it can really pay off.
Its all in how you manage the scrap. I collect and do some light separation as i collect. I can take a load when i am going that direction anyways. The more you break down stuff to its one metal.. the more its worth.
🎶 Out in the country past the city limits sign Where there's a honky tonk near the County line The joint starts jumpin' every night when the sun goes down They got whiskey women, music, and smoke It's where all the cowboy folk go to boot scootin' boogie I got a good job, I work hard for my money When it's quittin' time, I hit the door runnin' I fire up my pickup truck and let the horses run I go flyin' down that highway to that hide a way Stuck out in the woods to do the boot scootin' boogie Yeah, heel toe, docie doe, come on, baby, let's go, boot scootin' Oh, Cadillac, Black Jack, baby meet me outback we're gonna boogie Oh, get down turn around go to town boot scootin' boogie The bartender asks me, say, "Son what'll it be" I want a shot at that redhead yonder lookin' at me The dance floors hoppin', and it's hotter than the Fourth of July I see outlaws inlaws crooks and straights All out makin' it shake doin' the boot scootin' boogie Yeah, heel toe docie doe come on baby let's go boot scootin' Oh, Cadillac, Black Jack, baby meet me outback we're gonna boogie Get down turn around go to town boot scootin' boogie Oh, heel toe docie doe come on baby let's go boot scootin' Yeah, Cadillac, Black Jack baby meet me outback we're gonna boogie Yeah, get down turn around go to town boot scootin' boogie I say get down turn around go to town boot scootin' boogie Oh, get down turn around go to town boot scootin' boogie 🎵🎶
I'm always interested in this subject purely because I had a couple guys come once and clear out all the scrap metal on my property. This was around 2008 when the financial crisis hit and there was no work anywhere around. Took them two days filling a pickup several times. I had a couple trailers so they brought a cutting torch to speed things up at one point. I call them nowadays once in a while to come haul much smaller piles away but have always thought about what it'd be worth to me to haul the smaller piles myself. I brought my first GMC Safari to a wrecking yard. It was weighed the same as your heavy metal and I got $500 cash for it. This was a few years ago when metal was worth quite a bit more. Recently I had a guy who bought used cars for scrap come and take my second Safari. I got $350 on that one. When my current Chevy Astro finally dies I'll take it myself to the scrap yard to try and get the best price I can, but I'm smart enough now to realize I should make some inquiries to figure out what I can get both ways to get the most for it. I gave my first Dodge B250 to a local body guy in exchange for replacing the windshield on my second Dodge B250. That was before insurance paid for windshield replacement. I've watched some of your videos previouslay and always learned something useful, so thanks for that! In return I'd like to put an idea in your head about working smarter, especially since you've got a long working career in front of you yet. At 76 I've done several things for a living, including framing and building 6 houses with a buddy, carpentry, leatherwork (English saddler I learned in England for two years), sailmaking/rigging/yacht brokering. For going on 14 years I've been a baker doing bread and pastries and for the past two years I've been teaching myself small engine work to flip, repair, etc. In all those years I've always thought about reducing the physical effort or taking it easier on my body so it will last longer and not get damaged. An example is your loading of your truck. Removing or lowering your tailgate and getting the vehicle right up as close as possible greatly reduces the height, time and distance necessary to load about 2 tons of metal. Backing up as close as possible to the offloading pile reduces how far you have to throw brake rotors. I think in terms of the gross weight and what I can do to eliminate height, time and distance every time I have to move large objects or amounts of materials. I also think about the stress on my back (with a ruptured L5-S1 disc, now 20 years on), so I try to not lift loads out away from my body any more than necessary and also try to not lift off the ground whenever possible, but always using leg strength to lift instead of back muscles. Later on in life it'll become much more obvious how important all these things can become. I've moved pallet loads of 1/2 inch to 5/8 inch plywood, literal semi loads of cedar shingles, etc., so I know what it means to be a stevedore and do grunt work! Just some things to think about when trying to work smarter instead of harder. ;-)
no one commented so i thought i would but i can say i read it all and you’re one smart old man
@@jamesmatthew899 Thanks!
I have 5 gallon buckets that I throw bits of cooper wire, cooper pipe and brass into over time. Last week I turned it in 1/2 bucket wire, 1.5 buckets brass. 1 bucket cooper pipe. 234 dollars in my pocket for tossing in a piece at a time. At todays gas prices, that gave me 1/8 tank of fuel. LOL
respect
Small loads 8-10$ checks make you feel like it isn’t but half way through the year or end of year if you save your checks count them up.. it’s always surprising once you start adding it all up
I was a scraper for 3 years back in my early 20s. I had a little 1990 ford Ranger and with that little truck I made 1,000s dollars with it being as low as 3$ per 100lbs. No one else was doing it so I was the Scrap Master.... Until my back got too bad.
BEEN DOING SCRAP FOR 4 YRS NOW ON THE SIDE I GET ZIP FOR WHERE I GO 10 MILES FROM ME THE OTHER PLACE I WENT TO IN THE NEXT TOWN WENT OUT OF BUSINESS ITS FUN BUT LAST SMALL LOAD I GET 15 -20 DOLLARS WITH MY LATE DADS SMALL TRUCK TIRING
I went to one in Essex CT, name was Calamari. There you back up to a dropoff and throw down into it. Lot less risk of flat tires that way
Great video 🎉
Its hot down here in the south!
For sure….all about that humidity for sure!
YUP 👍 Your right about having enough scrap to make it worth your time. I'm not in the scrap hauling business so I would just as well give all loads away. I had a mess of this scrap that I hauled myself. It totalled to around $1000.00 bucks once finished. I managed to get a big mess cleaned up and made a few bucks. I've been working on another load just like it. What makes it worth my time is the heavy semi trucks I've cut up to haul. This last haul should have all the scrap mess gone. Yippee 👏
Great effort all round mate. 😊👍🇦🇺🇦🇺 Whatever the return the rewards of doing a solid days work, cleaning up your work space and getting money for things that often you have to pay to get rid of whilst recycling, is valuable. I get called a “Tip Rat’ a badge I wear with pride! 👍🙏🇦🇺🇦🇺💲
Supposed to say GREAT EFFORT ALL ROUND! Sorry 😂 fat fingers and spell check got me! 😂😂
Im a scrap yard supervisor and ive seen prices go sky high as well as bottom out. You can make dam good money IF you know your metals and separating them. The rotors go for short iron here . But you would make bank if you do it right. Good luck!!!
We keep metal buckets to fill with clean aluminum, dirty aluminum, and heavy iron and light iron then have a pile of rotors and big stuff. Usually a year of accumulation gets us 250-350 and it usually only takes an hour to take two loads. But the recycle yard is a mile up the road. Oh and they mag stuff out of the bed of the truck. Takes no time to unload
Yes it is worth it! As long as you live close by to a recycling center. But I think about it as an on-going savings account. Stock piling is key.
I use to collect aluminum back in the 90s every Sunday getting it out of business dumpsters. But then something happened to cause the price to stop climbing slowly upward. Not sure why it stopped but it did. After like two years of the price staying level at .25 cents I stop seeing it worth my time. I could never seem to catch the local recycler when they had a finish the load price hike.
I think that if you want to see it as doing the right thing and Recycle it was well worth it.
I've worked apartment maintenance where I've just thrown metal onto the ground outside of the dumpster because I knew the scrappers would just dig it out. Not worth having to clean the trash up off of the ground from them digging it out. A lot of times someone would roll up and ask for it and I'd say they could take it.
Glad you mentioned the flat tires. You can’t pull in and out with a semi without getting one.
If heard drivers refuse to haul scrap cars out of florida. One flat and your making minimum wage.
my dad 40 yrs ago use to install alum storm doors and windows and 99 % of the homeowners wanted us to haul off the old stuff ,so we stock piled it alongside of our garage, till dec then we would break out the glass and remove the splines and then we also had to remove the steel rivets and screws that held the frames and tracks together so it would be considered clean alum... Christmas was always a great time for our family
Have a great Independence Day 🇺🇸
most business owners tell me it isn't worth their time, most yards pay more for brake drums so (if you have that many) it's worth it to reweigh, tell them up front they may want to check your load. $8/100 lb isn't too bad for summer time steel shred. what's interesting looking at your receipts is how diff yards pay, i live between two and they rarely pay the same so i take diff. things to each.
Back in the 80's I use to fill junk cars with all the scrap metal (iron) and drag it down to the recycler $1per 100lbs. There were guys who came and bought everything back than including waste oil. 55 gallon drums were good for brakes shoes, pads , drums and rotors. Another for cats, Junk cars were good for shocks, struts exhaust pipe and mufflers. Beats throwing in the dumpster that you pay for! The biggest commodity at the shop was aluminum cans! 35¢ per pound at one time, good for beer and cigarette money!
Just a tip to clean radiators from plastic, Get a wood chop saw and cut along the edge of the crimped plastic water jacket, You lose some aluminum but it is quicker.
Nice chunk of change. I guess if you had an old trailer, you could save a lot of time and labor by tossing in the steel to haul off when full vs loading into truck to begin with. Same with aluminum, sort as you go to eliminate sorting later.
Clean and dirty makes a difference , i cleaned the rubber off old copper welding cables got 2 or 3 hundred bucks for a 50's Buick radiator got 70 bucks - aluminum cans did well on those but your right time and travel with a small amount or ferrous metal not much money
Great vid, I use a sawzall to take the tank ends off just run it down an 1/8 away from the plastic and it will.glide through like butter and way faster
A few of those things you might be able to find local knife makers and blacksmiths willing to come buy and pay for. Like springs, tie rods, etc. You might be able to get one to do the labor of sorting for you, in exchange.
Was there much difference in dirty aluminum and clean aluminum? The added weight might make it more sense to leave it dirty aluminum when you factor in the time to clean and separate it all
I used to keep all the aluminum and when I got a enough to fill the truck, would make a run. It ended up being a couple hundred a month.
I did this for years and learned to separate everything, take everything worth taking apart apart and going to the right scrap yards that actually pay for individual types of metal. It's definitely a learning curve if you want to get paid and you can get really fast at it with the right tools. Just watch your tools like a hawk in scrap yards. Thieves are everywhere. Always park close to the pay window if possible.
I work at a scrap yard definitely don't mix auto cast brake rotors with other metal it's worth more than. Double, definitely bring in rotors separate
Awesome, i dont know where exactly where your at, but as far as i know, last i knew, Denver wont buy catalatic converters, great job more PLEASE, 😁👌👌
A few things, Whats your time worth? Whats the space you have it in worth? What time of year will you take it to the scrap yard? This matters the reason is a lot of foundries shut down certain times of the year others don't. So the value your scaps worth changes. Spring and mid summer are the best times but not always. Also tonnage matters more scrap better prices.
Scrap yard is on the way to town from my house (about 5 miles). I always save on gas, by filling up the car/truck and just selling it all as scrap steel. No extra work, no going out of our way, pays for gas and then some. No need to lose money/gas on wasted trips.
Take a sledgehammer to the sides of the radiators the plastic will break off or completely and make it clean with one good swing with a heavy
am in the UK but when we pick any good load like that we would have done a deal with you like giving you 25% of the money it made
One thing you have to look at is the labor you have in it. Normally a mechanic gets about $50 an hour minimum, so if you do it in 4 hours you have $200 invested, now since you lost that same amount of cash in revenue incoming, now you are at a $400 cost, then add in the transportation costs, remember fuel is north of $3.50 a gallon. Around here the scrap yard is about 20 miles away so you are at $15 or more. You make money, just a small amount after you factor in your labor costs.
I was in my mid 50’s when I started watching this video, I’m now 96 and writing this comment from my nursing home 🧐
It's getting crazy with the price of metal or lack there of. I've seen plenty of people giving away metal. Never thought aluminum cans were worth more than scrap metal!! Thank you for sharing.
aluminum cans are scrap metal, are they not?
Too bad there’s a bunch of idiots who really messed up the catalytic converter game, a lot of scrap yards are extremely timid about taking those things as they don’t want the authorities to come down on their businesses for taking stolen ones