Scrap Tungsten Prices?

I have accumulated a decent quantity of scrap tungsten (wire, and pure W) over a number of years, and I want to sell it, but there are very few scrap metal dealers around who can cope with the stuff. More of them know about tungsten carbide, but that isn't what I have.

Anyway, I have no idea what this stuff should bring per pound. I have done searches till google is coming out my - well, you know... The last time I sold this, I was at the mercy of the dealer for what it was worth, and though I know all scrap metal guys are kind and totally without avarice, I'd still like to know how well I'm faring with their quote. Sorta gives me some room to negotiate, as it were.

A reasonable estimate is that I have about 400# of the stuff.

Does anyone have any idea what this should bring per pound, in the quantities I have? I know the middleman has to make a profit - I just don't feel he needs to make a killing at my expense. I'd be willing to accept 50% of what he gets - seems fair to me.

Joe

Reply to
Joe
Loading thread data ...

Be careful of scrap metal gypsies (they look like East indians from India and sometimes speak with a slight funny accent). They know how to screw people like you. Call a few scrap places. I would think that you can get $10/lb. I can give you $5/lb if you arew local to Chicago.

i
Reply to
Ignoramus20906

You might contact

formatting link
see if they know of scrap buyers. The company linked is a finished products house, but they finish tungsten and may know of scrap buyers.

Good luck,

bob prohaska

Reply to
User Bp

Google "refractory metals scrap dealers"

Reply to
Denis G.

Try these folks:

formatting link
They've treated me well selling carbide scrap. I asked them at one time about tungsten metal and they said they will buy it. My recollection is that they like to do some sort of assay on the material and I didn't have enough to make it worthwhile.

Current price on tungsten carbide scrap is $9/lb. I expect tungsten metal is considerably more.

Reply to
Ned Simmons

Did you use his scale?

i
Reply to
Ignoramus4117

I too used to accumulate a nice pile of W scrap each year. This was our Christmas drinks fund in the lab. Mostly lamp electrodes and filaments but still in the order of 70 kilos per annum. We sold it to a metal alloying firm (our scrap dealer put us in touch with the from directly). I seem to recall getting £11-£15/Kg back in the early '80s. Never was sure it was a good deal or not.

JB

Reply to
JB

*He* used his scale. His results were pretty much the same as what I read off of my ancient Fairbanks scale.

He, like the other dealer before him, used a hand-held device to determine the content of the scrap. I'm wanting to say it used X-ray diffraction spectroscopy, but I don't think that is quite right. I do remember looking up one of those devices, and the cost was about 30 grand. Not for the casual tinkerer.

Joe

Reply to
Joe

Thanks! I didn't realize Altavista still existed. It was the only decent search engine many years ago. They used to handle straight Boolean searches, and had a really neat operator "near", which prevented hits based on one of the key words being "just anywhere" in the page.

Unfortunately, their search returned numerous hits that did not include every word that I specified; in fact, there were more false hits returned than good ones. On the positive side (more or less) it did outperform google hands down. I know better than to try the bing cherry search, though.

Joe

Reply to
Joe

Joe wrote in news: snipped-for-privacy@4ax.com:

I saw a demo of this at Eastec a year or two ago. I think it was ~ $5k to $10k:

formatting link
Very slick device.

Doug White

Reply to
Doug White

Use the "advanced search" it's got the good stuff. The regular search has been dumbed down a bit like googoo.

Reply to
Pete C.

Just got IMTS related ad for a Thermo Scientific version of those handheld analyzers (booth E-5242), no price of course. I believe they use a cap-discharge arc to burn a spot and do the spectrophotometry thing. Something I'd love to have if they ever get down to ~$500 or so.

Reply to
Pete C.

Gee, I'll bet that would even outshine a spark test on the grinder, huh? Yeah, cool tool.

-- Happiness comes of the capacity to feel deeply, to enjoy simply, to think freely, to risk life, to be needed. -- Storm Jameson

Reply to
Larry Jaques

Yeah, I always use the advanced search, and still got the nonsense.

The most egregious instance of garbage returned from a search, IMO, was when I got a MRI of my brain, and one of the observations was "white matter lesions". Wanting more details, I did a 'goggle' search for that exact phrase, and one of the sponsored links loudly proclaimed "Find the best prices on white matter lesions!". No thanks, I've already got some.

My neurologist suggested using their "scholar search", but every hit it returns is to an abstract; the full article is available only to subscribers of the journal, or to anyone for a fee.

Anyway thanks to the searches and to some of the links you guys suggested, I've got some promising avenues to persue. As always, I appreciate your help.

Joe

Reply to
Joe

PolyTech Forum website is not affiliated with any of the manufacturers or service providers discussed here. All logos and trade names are the property of their respective owners.