Scrapyard score

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Paul Amaranth 22 years ago

Sometimes it's dangerous to go wandering around a scrapyard.

I was over at my favorite yard today to pick up some aluminum sheet ($1.50/pound for Al, btw) when I noticed in the corner of the yard a Bridgeport dovetail ram base, minus the head. A little inspection showed it to be in seriously good condition (scraping marks visible, table in good shape etc) except for a little surface rust. Well, I have a round ram Bridgeport that is in need of rescraping and a head transplant is a lot easier than a rescrape and I've always wanted a dovetail ram, so I went over and asked how much.

"You're serious?" he asked. Yep, said I. "Well, we gotta weigh it." After weighing in at 1891 pounds he said "OK, $275" Go ahead and load it, I replied.

So, for 15 cents a pound, I now have a really nice Bridgeport base sitting on my truck. It'll go into storage tomorrow until the new shop is finished and I have time to play around with it. Worked out great, I was happy and the scrapyard guy was happy, he tripled his investment over a couple days.

Morale for the day: ALWAYS have a couple of hold down straps in your truck when you visit a scrapyard :-)

As an aside, the place was a zoo. Usually nothings going on, but half a dozen trucks were bringing in stuff while I was there. Pallets of dies were getting 5 cents/pound and there must have been some preproduction stuff from the Chrysler Hemi engine project, they had valve covers and some partial engines as well.

Paul

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ATP 22 years ago

A scrapyard is charging you $1.50 a pound for aluminum? Should be much less than that, I just bought a 115 pound 14' x 2' loading ramp for a truck for $85 on Friday.

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Jake in Escondido 22 years ago

You are lucky you didn't get that ramp in SoCal. Scrap yards near me are PAYING $1.40 a pound for aluminum cans.

Jake > Paul Amaranth wrote:

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Grant Erwin 22 years ago

There isn't a scrapyard in Western Washington or Oregon I know of that sells aluminum anywhere near as cheap as a buck a pound let alone less. Most places around here are $1.65 or more.

Note that items MADE from aluminum stock e.g. a truck loading ramp don't count. I bought 2 heavy welded aluminum sawhorses from Boeing Surplus a few years back for $20 for the pair and they easily weigh 30 pounds apiece. We're talking aluminum *stock* not something made of aluminum.

Grant

ATP wrote:

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ATP 22 years ago

I pay the same price, whether it is aluminum scraps, bar stock, sheet, or something made out of aluminum. It's a scrapyard, and they sell it all as scrap. They do not take the time to organize it and save rounds, etc.. It goes in a bin and something good might be there when you come by. My regular new aluminum supplier told me he's only getting about 50 cents a pound for his scrap, but I'm not sure how up to date that number is.

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Wayne 22 years ago

Wow anything over $1.00 a pound here seems high. I will be looking at a bunch of the Aluminum stock this weekend at .50 per pound, and it is labeled as to what type of aluminum it is.

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Lennie the Lurker 22 years ago

Jeez, you guys are making me jealous. I'm still paying $.50 per pound for solids, $.65 for sheet. Mostly 6061 T6511. Scored a couple of nice 1" x 2" x 18" chunks of 1018 this morning, $5 for the pair. $12 for the 12" x 52" piece of 1/4" AR plate. Last week, $70 for the nice tool box full of old tools, including several micrometers, and some really old stuff. I should demand to be charged more the market price.

(Wanna buy a bridge?)

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Jim Stewart 22 years ago

It's a small price to keep you in a good mood :)

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Wayne 22 years ago

Just picked up 100 pounds of stock must is in 3 to 6 foot lengths many are

1/2 to 2" diameter. If anyone needs 5/8 6061 he must have about 20 6 footers, I could grab it if someone has a need

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