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Scrapyard score

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

Reply to
Paul Amaranth
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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.

Reply to
ATP

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:

Reply to
Jake in Escondido

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:

Reply to
Grant Erwin

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.

Reply to
ATP

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.

Reply to
Wayne

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?)

Reply to
Lennie the Lurker

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

Reply to
Jim Stewart

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
Reply to
Wayne

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