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Scrap metal prices

Started by mike_van, August 30, 2006, 07:02:58 PM

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mike_van

I took a load to the junkyard today, got .48 lb for aluminum, 1.70 for copper, and poor old steel, the most used metal in the world, was .05.  I was hoping to get gas money out of the 20 mile round trip, and I did pretty good, coming home with 262.00  :)  
I was the smartest 16 year old I ever knew.

submarinesailor

Mike,

The price for your copper sounds a little low.  Was it what they call class 2?  I throught that class 1 was going for about $3.50 plus per pound.

Bruce

mike_van

Not sure Bruce - It was mostly an old tank, really green, soldered up - Not clean & bright by any means.
I was the smartest 16 year old I ever knew.

submarinesailor

If it had soldered and other "stuff" on it, it's class 2.

gary

Number one copper was 3.50 a lb. Now in large gaunities 1 ton or more I get $2.50 a pound.The price of steel will be going up the beginnig of sept. The price for your aluminum was a little low unless they were cans. You should not sell scrap at the end of the month the prices are normally down at that time.

mike_van

Thanks for the tip Gary - You learn something every time here - The aluminum used to be a camper - I was [still am] looking for some Dexter wheels, used on these in the 70's, I found 2 last Sat., only the deal was I had to take the camper too - There's 170 Lbs of aluminum on a 12' Coast Inn model,  a really nice 3500 lb trailer frame under it, and 50 lbs. of mouse turds in between !!  :D   It probably will be cans next week - Hope they wash it  first -  :D
I was the smartest 16 year old I ever knew.

PawNature

I took off 168lb of #2 Copper last friday and fetched me $357 and some odd cent. (2.12 lb) I probably got another 1000 lb just dont' have time to get it ready.
GOVERMENT HAS WAY TO MUCH CONTROL OVER OUR LIVES!!!!

getoverit

with steel bringing $.05/pound, I wonder why it is so DanG expensive when you want to BUY it?
I'm a lumberjack and I'm ok, I work all night and sleep all day

logwalker

Hey getoverit,

That reminds me of the story of buying the oats for two prices. One before the horse gets 'em and one after he is through with them.  :) LW
Let's all be careful out there tomorrow. Lt40hd, 22' Kenworth Flatbed rollback dump, MM45B Mitsubishi trackhoe, Clark5000lb Forklift, Kubota L2850 tractor

getoverit

:D :D :D  Point well taken !!!
I'm a lumberjack and I'm ok, I work all night and sleep all day

leweee

just another beaver with a chainsaw &  it's never so bad that it couldn't get worse.

easymoney

with the price of scrap metal so high and few jobs for the drug addicts theft is a problem. i have heard of a t least 2 cases of loggers leaving thier skidders and trailers in the woods overnight and finding the batteries, radiators and wireing stripped by thieves. in one incidence they climbed a communications tower and stripped about $15,000.00 worth of copper line in a night. i have sold over $3,000 in scrap metal this summer from where my house and shop burned this spring. still have some to go.

metalspinner

A story on the local news yesterday was of a guy that electricuted himself stealing copper wire from a utility substation.  That was the second time that has happened.

I would think the scrap yards should be a point  of interest for the police.
I do what the little voices in my wife's head tell me to do.

leweee

Quote from: metalspinner on August 31, 2006, 11:17:07 AM

I would think the scrap yards should be a point  of interest for the police.

the easy money is on the highway.....IRS is interested in who cashes in scrap...so they make sure you pay income tax....scrap is hard to track source of origin. ::)
just another beaver with a chainsaw &  it's never so bad that it couldn't get worse.

MemphisLogger

Copper's got so high that the crackheads came down the industrial drag my shop is on and cut all the grounds off the utility poles flush to the ground and about 10' up--I figure it was one doper standin' on another's back  :D

The utility came out and replaced it all with bare shiny new copper--solid #4--and it was gone again within a week. The latest batch has been up for a couple weeks now but I bet it dissapears soon too.  ::)   
Scott Banbury, Urban logger since 2002--Custom Woodworker since 1990. Running a Woodmizer LT-30, a flock of Huskies and a herd of Toy 4x4s Midtown Logging and Lumber Company at www.scottbanbury.com

LeeB

I know what you mean about selling at the end of the month. My wife had called the scrap yard and told them about all my junk I needed to get rid of so we can move. they said sure, briing it by we'll buy all you got. I finally got around to them at the ned of the month and they didn't want it then. I just gave it to them because I really needed to be rid of it. It was way cheaper than taking it to the dump and I didn't really want to see it just go to waste. LeeB
'98 LT40HDD/Lombardini, Case 580L, Cat D4C, JD 3032 tractor, JD 5410 tractor, Husky 346, 372 and 562XP's. Stihl MS180 and MS361, 1998 and 2006 3/4 Ton 5.9 Cummins 4x4's, 1989 Dodge D100 w/ 318, and a 1966 Chevy C60 w/ dump bed.

mike_van

I got paid in cash - green $$$$ - the IRS can dig a while to find that money.  Does anyone know what lead is bringing? Someone asked me today.  Metalspinner - That dudes family will no doubt sue the utility co. for not having a better fence - or not having the WARNING signs in 6 languages - probably win too, how sad is that?
I was the smartest 16 year old I ever knew.

metalspinner

They may have stolen the fence the week before! :D :D :D
I do what the little voices in my wife's head tell me to do.

gary

Around here they have had a few deaths from stealing copper wire. Now they want the scrap yards to get id and take your picture.  I always get paid buy check. I am going to check on the price of lead I just got about 15 tons of it. But it is the end of the month and I will sell this direct to a foundry so my price will be way different than yours. I would say it is probably around .10 a pound

mike_van

Gary - where do you get 15 tons of lead? Radiation shields? They don't "glow" do they?  :D                                                                                                                  I remember reading somewhere people were stealing road signs & guard rails for scrap due to the price of steel. At .05 a lb, thats a lot of work. Risk of going to the slammer too. How dumb some people are.  ???
I was the smartest 16 year old I ever knew.

gary

These are counter weights off of furnace doors. sometimes i get elavalator counter weights.

Larry

Where ya been UL?  Glad to see posting. :)

I have maybe 4 or 5 dead motors in my scrap pile.  One must be the first 5 HP single phase ever made, and weighs I would guess 500 pounds.  What's the best way to sell them?
Larry, making useful and beautiful things out of the most environmental friendly material on the planet.

We need to insure our customers understand the importance of our craft.

scsmith42

I guess that it's time to share my "copper theft" story...

In 1990 I supervised the construction of a cellular tower site in the "Watts" neighborhood in downtown LA.  Yup, the same neighborhood that got burned after the Rodney King trial.  It was a real garden spot, to say the least...

The tower site was in a back alley in a particularly bad section of town.  The first time I visited the site the hair litterally stood up on the back of my neck (had never had that experience before or since).  Looking around, I started to notice hundreds and hundreds of used lighters on the ground, and looking closer I noticed a similar number of used syringes - with needles still attached.

Seems that the cell site was located right in the heart of the drug district.

I hollered for the rest of the crew to "freeze", and back out of the site.  We hired a crew to bring in a Bobcat and a dumpster and haul off the top 6 inches of the site.  I sure didn't want one of my crew members to trip, fall and end up with hepatitis, or something worse.

Anyway, on to the copper story...  one afternoon, as we were finishing up the site, the electrician was running the grounding wire to connect the ground ring inside the shelter with the ground ring outside.  He had a spool of #2 bare copper on a reel stand inside the shelter, and he started feeding the copper wire through a hole in the shelter wall.  All of a sudden, the wire started reeling itself out real fast.  Seems that one of the local homeys had grabbed the wire as it came out of the wall and just took off running down the alley with it! 

I sure was glad when we finished up that site. 
Peterson 10" WPF with 65' of track
Smith - Gallagher dedicated slabber
Tom's 3638D Baker band mill
and a mix of log handling heavy equipment.

Woodwalker

Utilities have problems with copper thieves on a regular basis. It's worse with copper going for around $3.00 #. We are losing not only pole grounds, but copper neutrals off rural lines, truck stock off the trucks in the yards and the sides of the store room buildings cut through to get to the copper stored inside. The theft of the copper is bad enough. Problems created by a lack of earth grounds or open neutrals cause major headaches and safety issues for the utility.
It may sound callous but (in my opinion), some crack head stealing copper out of a substation and finding out that opening neutrals on an alternating current system kills.... Justifiable self-homicide.
Just cause your head's pointed, don't mean you are sharp.

PineNut

If the effort some of these crooks put into stealing something was put into legitimate work, they would make much more money. Some people have the mentality that they just have to steal to get something.

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