What do with with lbs and lbs of scrap AL

I buy aluminum from a scrap dealer near those prices- and that's for choice pieces that I want, like clean diamond plate sheet, truck ramps, the occasional round bar for lathe work, nice chunks for milling, etc.. I've heard of aluminum fabricators getting .50 to .60 per pound for very clean cutoff scrap, that was about a year ago, may be different now. No way you're going to make money trading scrap. Those guys are a special breed, anyway!

My son recently hauled about 9 aluminum awnings off his house (ya know, the old green/white striped kind) to the local metal junk yard and got (IIRC) about 46 cents/pound. It certainly wasn't "clean" as it still had assembly bolts, etc mixed in but he was very happy that he more than paid for his time/fuel to get it there, and was rid of the mess. Ken.

Took a load in just last Saturday....all 6061....turnings .37 / lb and solids were .47 / lb.

OK, I'm ignorant. define turnings and solids, and why the price diff?

Where do aluminum castings, such as engine block and transmission cases fit in there?

Rex B

Around my neighborhood, turnings would be machining swarf, chips, bird's-nests, whatever you want to call the residue from boring, turning and milling. It brings less because it's usually contaminated with coolants, has a much greater surface area than chunks and when melted it's got a higher loss rate to oxide. Offcuts, extrusions, castings and machined parts would all be considered heavy scrap or solids. You get more metal out of the stuff when you melt it down. Aluminum oxide has to go back to the reduction cells to get made back into aluminum and there's usually a fair amount of metal entrained in it, too, that no amount of fluxing will get out. Short answer is the price is related to the amount of metal that can be gotten out when the stuff is melted.

Stan

I agree. I am only seeing the answers to your posting, which suggests that some news servers are dropping it in the bit bucket -- either because the article is so old (based on the "Date: " header that it looks as though it was resurrected from a system restored from an old backup, or more than a day in the future. Both are reasons for a news server to discard the articles.

So -- if you want *everyone* to see your articles, instead of just those on sites which don't have draconian date enforcements, you probably should fix the date.

All I am seeing of your postings are what is quoted in followups by others.

Enjoy, DoN.

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10 weeks future. His message headers (less some whitespace) included:

NNTP-Posting-Date: Tue, 28 Jun 2005 18:40:18 -0500 From: "Steve Koschmann" Newsgroups: rec.crafts.metalworking Subject: What do with with lbs and lbs of scrap AL Date: Fri, 9 Sep 2005 17:40:41 -0600 NNTP-Posting-Host: 24.8.181.112 Xref: number1.nntp.dca.giganews.com rec.crafts.metalworking:715827

-jiw

Yeah, check the date. We can expect to see it until September.

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Kind of a disagreement between the two dates.

And that is certain to keep *my* sever from accepting it.

If he wants everyone to read what he posts, he does need to fix that date. :-)

Enjoy, DoN.

HI Gang:

Here is a question.. a local manufacturer local scraps 150 - 300 pounds per week of 6061 and some 6065 AL.

And I mean scrap... almost all the pieces are of custom, lightweight, THIN wall extrusions less than 6" long. Oh yeah, I would have to take all the chips from the milling and sawing operations as well.

I can get all the scrap I want for .60 -.75 cents per pound. Including the chips. Nothing thick enough or long enough to do any real projects that I can see.

Now, I can melt some in my foundry, which I have done. I have melted 'bout

100 pounds of AL ingots-- now just sitting in the back 40.

The question is there any money to be made in buying/selling/ melting/???? this scrap? I have looked at one commercial foundry, but they are not interested in this small amount. Plus there is no guarantee that it is all

6061 or 6065 (mostly true, but one never knows).

First, any idea what is the latest approximate price one can get selling -- not buying -- scrap aluminum?

Second, is .75 per pound a fair price to pay? (For my once or twice melting use, yes... but to make any money for me to haul it away and resell?? I don't know..

Any other ideas? I really don't have time or the inclination to melt 300 pounds of AL every week..

Steve

Thanks for all of the replies... it is just as I figured... there is no money to made here and not worth delving into any further.

Steve