Scrap metal was down a lot for a while, I think it went down August '08. Its gone back up a fair amount since then.
I scrap a lot of metal. Its in NZ$ & Kgs so its all weird compaired to US$& Lb's or British pounds.
I will take apart almost anything made from metal.
I pick up cans I see on the side of the road & theres a guy who finds them too & gives them to me in exchange for any large Beer bottles I find.
Theres also a shop that sells coke cans etc & I have a rubbish bag there for the emptys, I get NZ$5 for each (Large!) sack I get (they save by not having to put them out with their rubbish).
Any copper pipe I find I add to my pile of copper.
Theres a car wreckers close by & I go there at night & rip the wiring looms out & take them back home & cut the plugs off, strip the other tape/tubeing off & fill a sack with the plastic coated wire, then take that to a secret place & burn off all the plastic at night.
I know what I'm doing & theres no way you could burn off the plastic in a built up area.
Theres also best ways to burn off the plastic while saving as much metal as possible.
I used a old wire bed frame as a grate to put the wire on, I cover it with a sheet of roofing iron & build a fire under it to warm the wire, then light the plastic coated wire at one end so the smoke goes thru the fire & ignites again (less smoke, more flame)
As I said its in a area away from people & theres trees around & the place in under ground level so no one sees the flames.
The open area surrounded by trees dilutes the smoke then shealds it from the nearest people (traffic).
It burns for 10 mins +, then goes out, after that I take it home, spread it out on a sheet of iron & cut off all the left over plastic (not much) & then wash it with slightly soapy water to get the carbon & black stuff off.
Actually the proper black stuff is Copper oxide, so its not a problem to leave it in with the copper when you sell it.
I save it up & want to see if I can electroplate it back into copper. Theres about 20Kg of it in a bucket at the moment.
I will use old car battery sulphuric acid to do that. Its a intrest of mine to see if/how I can do it.
10Kg of looms makes 8Kg of cleaned plastic coated wire, which makes 6-7Kg of Copper.
Thats worth NZ$6 a Kg. or US$3.50Kg.
The scrapmetal dealers pay NZ$1 a Kg for looms right of of under the bonnet, all greasy & covered with plastic, I add value to it by doing all the rest.
I worked out I make about $5 a hour doing all this shit, less than 1/2 what I'd make working, & its dodgy, stealing looms (sorta, they are not going to get money from them anyway) then burning off the plastic (dodgy, end up with someone calling the Police of fire brigade, has happened, one of each! was OK & I found better ways of doing it)
But its all spending money, no tax to pay, comes in a lump sum.
I get under the bonnet where the motor was. Strip all the loom out. It normally runs around the front of the car past the headlights/indicators, past the fuel injection/wipers/carby etc, under the wheel well, thru the firewall, under the dash & across it, into the fuse box (don't forget the fuses!) into the steering wheel/ignation. dash etc, down past the doors & inside lighting & door switches, into the boot & arouns the rear lights/switches etc.
I use plyers, crowbar, garden snips to cut bunches of wires & loppers to get the big bunches of wire (ie cut at firewall & pull wire thru, start on other side again).
Screw drivers etc, you have to look for earths when you pull the looms thru, they get caught up on them, best to follow with your hands (cuts skin all the time!) find the offshoot & snip it.
As I do it in the dark I use a 'LED headlight' & switch it off when I don't need it.
Truck cabs are great, have done a few in complete darkness.
I use a hammer to smash the plastic around the heater core out & get the core.
Find that by figuring out where the two brass pipes come out in thru the firewall. Then go back inside & smash it all out sideways. They were worth NZ$3 or $4 each, now probably $3 at the most.
But if you do 10 cars, every bit adds up.
Use EYE protection, you only have two eyes & you need both of them.
We have public Healthcare so we don't have to pay for hospitals....
Under the bonnet theres still the Ali tubing from the air con & also the radiator core for it, under the dash theres another Ali core for air con.
Under the bonnet theres also the battery earth straps, because they are thick copper I slice off the insulation & put that aside.
I know you can get more for it (Bright copper is worth NZ$1 Kg extra?)
but if you sell it seperate & you only have , say 5 Kg, it can upset the weight & you don't get any extra,ie
10Kg @$5Kg + 3Kg @$6Kg = $68
BUT if each amount weighs 700gms each over the Kg,
you actually had 14Kg @ $5Kg = $70! see how?
I have a shitty 12Kg spring scale, great for weighing sacks of metal up to 15kg.
Over that I want bathroom scales to weigh it.
But I put a long pole thru the wall of the sack at the 1/2 way point & balance one end of the pole on something & put the scales at the other end & double what the weight on the scales is.
So I get about 20Kg of Ali in a coal sack (NZ$20+, was about NZ$30+ before it dropped.)
I'm putting aside all the brass clips of the looms, intend to burn off the little plastic thats on it & pour it into the copper radiators (They are a mix of Copper & Brass) & hammer over the hole to close it up.
I'll probably get another NZ$20-40 doing that. Worth it in the long run.
I will use a microwave door mesh to burn it out on, in the backyard, on a small fire.
Brass is worth about NZ$4Kg, so you get a sorta average between copper & brass prices for radiators.
Clean brass gets its own sack/bag.
Car batterys are worth NZ$0.30 cents Kg, a good car battery (300 cranking amps)is 15Kg, so its worth NZ$4.50 each, a few added up, add up...to $$
Stainless steel, if its shiney & hasn't rusted & you touch it to a magnet & it dosn't stick, its stainless steel, and you can get money for it.
Its non-magnetic because it has a high amount of Nickel in it, nickels worth money, nowhere as much as it was, & it hasn't went back up much (neither has Aluminium) but its still worth $.
You start to figure out what is non-magnetic by what its used for, anything thats hot & has corrosive stuff next to it is probably high nickel content.
Dishwashers & oven parts, specific parts mind you. Easy to figure out.
Copper again.
Electrical stuff has copper wire in it, the best thing is microwave ovens, they have a large transformer in them, also several small trannys.
Rip off the outer case & look at it, theres a large tranny, a small tranny, a electrical motor for the plate, maybe a electrical fan, maybe a electrical motor for the controls.
http://www.kellerstudio.de/repairfaq/sam/mwoven1.gif
Theres a metal box the houses the "Magnetron". Wow! Now you can use Magnetron in a sentance & impress everyone...
Theres plastic coated wire, rip all that out. Smash the small tranny out.
Bash the box (magnetron) out (pull it out the first time, so you can see whats its made from, there two very strong magnets you can get money for in there) I bash the ceramic bit with the two wires on the side, in to inwards into the galv box first, then bash it sidways to remove it.
Then I grab the loose galv box & pull it outwards, theres two thick copper wires that undo off the ceramic choke (little black rods) & you can bend the wire to break off the ceramic bit, then do the same to the other end to save the copper wire from it.
Then remove the thin galv disc on each end, then the two magnets, then the magnetron, theres some Ali fins stuck around it, like in this pic
http://tuopeek.com/images/magnatron.jpg
Later you can fit the magnetron over a metal pipe & bash the magnetron (see, used the word a few times now, eh?) thru with a hammer to remove the Ali fins.
Later, save up a whole bunch & grind most of the stainless steel end of & peel it off using a long but sturdy metal pin (electric motor spindle) & clean up the end with the grinder again, they weigh 80gms each, the SS is Very sharp & I have the lifelong scars to prove it.
Thats that.
Most trannys have interlocking 'I's & 'E's. Microwave trannys don't.
Pull one out & look at it, there a thin weld down one side, bash at it with a cold chisel & it will break apart, rip back the stacked pile of 'I's.
Put the main part in a open bench vise with the bared end up & using a hammer & punch, punch the center part of the 'E' down & out of the copper coil.
The copper coil will fall off & theres two coils with insulation around them, rip off what you can, its OK to leave the varnish but get rid of most of the cardboard shit.(thats about 1 Kg of Copper there)
Theres a smaller copper coil with coloured material insulation around it, put that aside, its glass fibre insulation & won't burn off in the fire. I have a bunch of them aside, they can stay there.
You don't need to burn the 2 coils in the fire, just throw them in your copper sack as is.
The fan & plate motor,
http://www.pmcoppack.com/shop/images...nMotor_660.JPG
http://www.partselect.com/assets/par...108321_1_M.jpg
depending on them, you maybe able to bash the coil & inner iron core out of the motor, Thats the above sort, pop it off & push the core out of it, or its the other sort
& you will need to cut thru one side of the copper coil with a hammer & old wood chisel (or use a meat clever with the hammer) cut thru the coil & pull the now loose copper wire out & chuck it in the sack (50gms copper)
The small timer motor, rip it off & pick off the backing plate, pick out the plastic gears & the next plate, pick out the copper coil with its plastic former out & give it a little bash & the plastic breaks & the fine, very nice looking, copper wire can go in your sack again (25gms. (thats 40 of them to the Kg, but it all adds up...).
Cut the clips off the wire & put the coated wire in with your 'to burn off wire'.
Electric motors, you get them every where, vacuum cleaners, dishwashers, car parts etc.
Some of them have a magnesium casting on each end, for some reason magnesium is not worth as much as Aluminium, so I put it all in a sack & now its nearly full.
Otherwise I'd just put it in with the Ali as most Ali has magnesium in it anyway.
Its also got other stuff in there with Aluminium, like Copper for some reason, that Ali soon mounts up weight wise, the scrapmetal dealer was real happy when I brought in a load I stripped off a Architects drawing board, $50+!
Most of the time you can bash off one end (or unscrew it) of the motor, remove the inner shaft etc & then using a wood chisle cut off the loops on one end of the outer chassis of the motor.
Then pull the rest of the Loop out using a metal pin etc.
Some motors have copper coils on the armiture part, same deal.
If theres lots of varnish around the coils they might not come out, time to save them all up & then make a bonfire & chuck them in when the fire gets real hot.
I know, its shitty messy work, but the copper comes out easy, its soft now too, best to cut the end off the loops before the fire though, and use gloves...
Car engines & transmissions.
They are mostly Ali with steel parts inside.
Get a socket set & hammer & cold chisel & gloves & glasses & hearing protection.
Gloves for your hands, scars stay there, look bad all your life.
Glasses protect your eyes, hearing protection lets you bash the shit out of anything without a care in the world.
It won't take much to loose some of your hearing, bashing metal is the quickest way to do it.
With earmuffs (I like that word, Muffs... Harry Muff, Heary Muff, Earry Muff, Muff Muff..) you do save a LOT of time, its worth it , don't hold back.
You Have to get rid of all the steel parts, that means having drifts (or punches) to punch out the metal bits, I use motor armiture shafts, they come in a range of sizes, are cheap, if you loose one, who gives a shit.
Take every bolt out you can, studs (double ended bolts, two threads) screw on a nut, screw on another, tighten them up against each other, undo the bottom nut & the stud should unscrew too.
If it won't, give it a good Tap on the end with a hammer, when metals in close contact with other metal it can sorta weld together & a good tap may break that weld.
Or if its close to the edge of the casting, smash the casting away from the bolt/stud & it may then come loose.
Car motor heads are about 10Kg each, you need to drive the valve guide out with a punch, this is not easy untill you figure out the best way, ie, what direction is easyest, size punch etc.
Before that you need to get the valves out, harder than you thought & you can very easyely loose a EYE doing it.
Theres a special tool for valve compression, slip off the 'keepers', undo the compressor, easy.
Also some heads have a valve insert under the valve head, I use a cold chisel from the port outlet & push the valveseat out that way.
Pistons, have a steel ring cast inside them, so don't put them in with the Ali castings.
The engine block, theres a steel tube inside the bore, I take the engine apart & strip off all the bolts/studs etc, then I get my big angle grinder & cut a slot each side of the bore & smash it apart & knock the steel liner out.
You can use a axe, be carefull, its not that easy but it is dangerous.
Some car differentials have large Ali castings, easy but dirty work here.
Collecting Cans, Bottles, and Scrap Metal
Re: Collecting Cans, Bottles, and Scrap Metal
