I bought some barns that came full of junk. I have a lot of metal to scrap. The steel and cast iron is pretty straight forward. There is some other stuff I'm not sure about. There is some heavy aluminum electrical cable, maybe 2-0 or 4-0 that still has the insulation, aluminum house awnings that have some steel brackets, cast aluminum fan blades that have steel hardware, etc. I want to get the building cleaned out in a timely manner, so efficiency is more important than squeezing every last dime out of the scrap, but I dont want to throw away money either. So I guess my question is is it worth it to take the time to make the aluminum into "clean aluminum "? Are there any tips or tricks to maximize my profit without spending too much time?
I haven't been to a scrap yard in ages, but I've heard that everything is down, steel in particular is super low right now.
A good yard should have a dirty aluminum price, which will still be better than steel/unprepared price. I wouldn't waste time breaking apart assemblies to get clean aluminum, but I would sort dirty aluminum from clean aluminum. Same with wire, it's not worth your time to strip insulation, but do sort different wire types as some pay way more than others. I want to say you should separate cast iron and heavy sections from light unprepared steel, as I had seen in the past yards with higher prices for heavy section iron, but I just checked one yard and it's actually the opposite right now.
Getting any steel out of the aluminum pretty much triples the price around here. If it takes a couple of minutes, it's worth it. Definitely separate straight aluminum from mixed aluminum/steel.
Call a local that scraps. Get them to give you a price they'll pay based on their guess and them doing all the "work". Even if they give you 10% of what they think they'll sell it for you'll be ahead. Spend your time doing more important things and take the risk of injuring yourself out of the picture. Price of scrap is so low now everyone I know is just piling it up because it isn't worth the labor it takes to load, transport, and unload.
Steel's so low right now if I need something out of my way I just bring it to the recycler and give it to them, not even worth me waiting the time it takes to weigh it. But at least I feel like it's better for the environment.
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This is a channel I just discovered.
Nice family who are very value oriented and live in northern Michigan I think.
I commented on yt that I was posting it to a car site but not which one.
