Stainless steel vault doors

I may have jumped the gun and bought a ton and a half of stainless steel vault doors cheap thinking i could scrap them and make quick money. I'm beginning to think i may have made a mistake however. Would it be worth it to scrap these? Note, all of these doors are brand new....

I would be willing to bet they are not stainless inside...and most likely 301 stainless which is worth less also

Originally Posted by NobleMetalWorks

It depends on the grade of the steel alloy. They might be a vanadium/carbon steel, or another type of stainless steel alloyed as tool steel, literally they could be anything with nickel/chromium and be called stainless as there are many different grades, some special exotic alloys are use so that cutting with a torch for example is extremely difficult.

First, you should find out which grade of steel it is. I recently bought a steel anvil and wanted to make sure I was buying an anvil I could forge steel with, without causing damage to the face of the anvil. You might be surprised how many different grades of steel and iron are used in the construction of just an anvil. I ended up settling on an anvil made from S-7 grade tool steel because of it's incredible hardness once it has been properly tempered.

Second, you might serve your purpose well by checking to see what these doors originally were made for, since they are new, there might be an application you could sell them for. Meaning, instead of scrapping them, think outside the scrapper box. Most people think in one direction, which leaves all other doors closed. Thinking only in the scrapping box will cause you to only consider ways of scrapping material. But often, and I know this for a fact because I have come across many scrappers whom I have purchased equipment from and then built out or altered for my own use, equipment might be useful to someone else if only you can make that connection.

Re-marketers are a good place to start, as they have a lot of experience purchasing equipment and re-selling it to someone who will put it to work. You could also contact the original company that made the doors as it seems they would have the ability to disassemble these doors and perhaps put them to use in the construction of new doors. Or contact the company that created the original semi-finished produce, meaning the sheets or blocks of metal that were used in the doors construction. Many times, companies that make things out of stainless steel, most times in fact, are purchasing a semi-finished product from a metal producer. These companies will already have the equipment in place to re-purpose or de-manufacture the metal in such a way that it might be worth more to them than what you could get for at scrap prices.

Part of doing business is researching, in this case you should be able to find out where the doors came from, by contacting that company and speaking with their asset recovery department if it exists (and if you do ask them if they have any other assets for sale as well) or their buying/sourcing department and find out where the metal was originally purchased from. With that information in hand, you can contact the company that made the semi-finished product and speak with their asset recovery/sales/purchasing department (always, when speaking with these companies, ask what they buy and sell you might be surprised that there could be other business opportunities for you to exploit).

In short, you most likely didn't make a mistake in purchasing the doors, only in how you might best serve your bottom line, and in researching. Although you seem to be on the right track, asking questions here, if I were you I would think about the potential value in different ways, you stand to make substantially more profit if you do so.

Scott

Thanks for pointing me in the right direction, I've been looking for methods of classifying steel, are there any you would recommend? I'm also now focused on finding remarketers in my city but the hunt isn't so fruitful yet, they are few and far between.

I will try all of your suggestions, thanks again for helping me with this. I'm going to think about this long and hard, i have about 10 days until i need to remove them so i hope the solution comes to me by then

Originally Posted by miked

Scott hit it on the head. Half the job is finding "it" the other half is selling "it".

My wife and I were very successful metal detecting in Hawaii. I found lots of men's wedding bands my wife found lots of ladies rings(not wedding bands). I sold most of my rings for scrap gold price and my wife sold many of her finds to friends and others for 3-5 times scrap gold price. Of course we had to learn how to buff the rings she sold to get them looking good again but that's part of the second half.

Today most of my income from scrapping is from the reselling of used parts. 73, Mike

It definitely is an excellent post, just the type of info I needed. That's a really good point you're making, thank you for your input. I hope fortune is on my side this time

Got pics? Gun safe doors? Freezer doors? Secure room for parking the Harley? :-)

301 is still a 18-8 stainless steel. I sale my 301, 302, and 201 with my 304 and never had a problem. All the other's go as HNR, (High Nickel refinery) The only stainless I seperate is 309, 310 and 316 which pay's more.

Those are very thick pieces of stainless steel. I have to wonder if a metal artist would have a use for them. My first thought was someone that builds custom motorcycles?

Well, it is just another thought. You may want to spend some time browsing Etsy which could open your mind to other uses.

They are far too pretty for freezer doors.
I'd say they are some sort of security lockbox door for use inside bank vaults.

I was expecting to see huge narly bashed around pitted and scratched freezer doors.

What I see is something out of a Hotel or Casino or in a fancy brass and marbled bank vault.