Fresh Ideas on Where to Find Scrap Metal

Storage Companies
I've contacted probably 30 or so storage places and have got a response from approximately half of them wanting me to come get stuff. Mainly its customers who haven't paid their bill and when they had an auction and didn't sell the storage units at auction they just want to get rid of the items. Just contact the manager at the facility and see what they say. A lot of them don't have dumpsters on site so the customers cant use them. So to save them money on dumpsters and keep recyclable stuff out of landfills call them.

Where I live, the schools will host a recycling day once a month on a saturday till noon. People can bring in their paper, plastic, cans, cardboard, etc and give it to the recycling company. If the schools are so big on recycling, maybe they would host another day for recycling of just bigger metal items, i.e appliances, if you have the transportation for them. Plus the kids at the schools offer up the free labor to do this...gives them a sense of helping the earth to be a better place. Might be something to look into.

In the township I live in the twp has a recycling drop off at a local college near me 4 times a year but I doubt they would let me take anything. And they also have drop offs at the local twp building all year long.

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Originally Posted by wayne1956

Are you talking about compressors in AC units? I have cut a couple of them open and found that the windings and the string holding the windings have some sort of heavy varnish coating, which makes them a royal pain to remove. Do you remove the coating, and if not, how do you go about removing the windings? I remove the windings off of the motors inside compressors from refrigerators easily because they do not have the heavy varnish coating, but have found the AC units to be difficult.

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Yes compressors from Ac units. I cut one end of the wire off with a sawzall then flip it over and run my grinder over the strings. The trick to getting the wire out is a pair of these babies! http://www.harborfreight.com/hand-to...per-38496.html
I start with just one set of wires after you pull the first set out the rest get easier as you go. A large vise makes it easy also.

I was thinking about this thread and thought of a couple things that might help someone getting started. As has been pointed out several times, advertising on Craig's List gets flagged off a lot. But a couple years ago, I had good luck watching for people posting that they wanted to get rid of stuff - typically in the "FREE" section. A couple were people just wanting junk cleaned out of there yard, but wound up with a couple tons. Another was a couple who'd just bought a place. The previous owner repaired bicycles - I would up with an 18' trailer loaded down with bicycles.

Another place that worked well was a hospital. There was an associated Assisted Living complex next door. I would collect both monthly and usually get some wheelchairs, walkers etc. Got a couple hospital beds (very heavy and have HD motors). That was where I also got a street lamp I sold within a couple hours for $100 (probably could have gotten more but really just wanted a quick turn around).

I was wondering who would you contact at the hospital to pick up that kind of stuff?

Joe

There should be a maintenance section.

Something I thought about today...Most people move in/out of houses in the summer time (kids out of school etc) .. Bulk trash days should be better than the rest of the year.

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Originally Posted by rca987

Something I thought about today...Most people move in/out of houses in the summer time (kids out of school etc) .. Bulk trash days should be better than the rest of the year.

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If you live ANYWHERE near a College/University, you must keep track of when the semesters end. Kids move out they throw EVERYTHING away. I work in West Philly and the stuff these kids throw out is amazing.
ScrapperNJ26, I'm down in Swedesboro, but its worth the commute over to Philly for some of that stuff. Just be forewarned, its crowded with other scrappers. If you have ANY friends who work at a college, get in good with them and you'll be suprised at what they can get you. The aluminum cans from fraternities ALONE will get your car payment paid...lol All the best.

man , you were reading my mind on that one. I called my local shooting range and just from shooting there myself I have seen thousands of rounds (large caliber stuff....223, 7.62x39, 308, etc, etc, just laying around in the ground, So I called and said i was a shooter up there and was wondering if they, or anyone was collectikng the used brass, and to my surprise they said yes they were now picking up all the thousands upon thousands of casings embedded in the dirt at the firing line. Now the sense I got was that I must have been the umpteenth caller on the bras casings subject because I know a guy who shoots up there almost daily and he said that they are picking up only the really good reloadable rounds like the .338, .308, and on. So, I just think it was to pacify my interest in the cartridge situation, so I guess that avenue is shot (no pun intended)

Around where I am at, there are quite a few metal fabrication shops, one where I worked for 20 years and then got laid off because of the economy. But, I have asked other metal shops ( smaller shops, better chance they will let you go through the dumpster), and I have come out of a few of those deals with heavy duty cardboard boxes **** near full of aluminum slugs from a CNC punch press, they had to load it with a forllift, and all it cost me was a fishing trip on my boat for the company owner and a couple of his buddies. Now this was a few years back and the boat is gone, but the idea remains that if you knock on the door of a manufacturing plant that is small enough where they really can't afford a dumpster service to pick up and maintain for them a dumpster for the scraps.
it is definetly worth a shot and if you get your foot in some of the stuff you'll come up with is like Christmas morning.
happy hunting!!

i got a problem that i just cant solve!! i get metal shavings everyday and its a pain! there are these wads of strug together pieces and they are just in the way. what i want is under it. i want the actual shavings and shaving dust. thats where the weight is. i fill up a 4 regular size trash cans and make around $65.00. can someone please help me. i just bought a cordless saw saw.......cant wait to try it

You'd probably do better making a new thread. Where are you? (Hint: there is a place to enter your city and/or state on your Profile)

Welcome to the Forum. You'll find people here pretty helpful. Just let us know what you need.

Ok, I just saw on your next post - your in the Ft Worth, Texas area. Little bit far for me to drive.

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Originally Posted by NJSouth

If you live ANYWHERE near a College/University, you must keep track of when the semesters end. Kids move out they throw EVERYTHING away. I work in West Philly and the stuff these kids throw out is amazing.
ScrapperNJ26, I'm down in Swedesboro, but its worth the commute over to Philly for some of that stuff. Just be forewarned, its crowded with other scrappers. If you have ANY friends who work at a college, get in good with them and you'll be suprised at what they can get you. The aluminum cans from fraternities ALONE will get your car payment paid...lol All the best.

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Thanks for the heads up. Haven't been on in a while. Problems with child support lol. It's pretty stacked where I'm at as well, I stopped by a friends house on a trash night and saw at least 10 other people driving around. That was about an hour or so. I decided not to waste the gas. I saw a posting on CL one night a guy in mullica hill was throwing out a roll of copper wire that was 47 lbs, a brass horse that was about 80lbs and 2 washers. needless to say i was flying to get out there and had somebody show up about a minute later. He was pissed but I had a scale n he bought the copper from me @ $3 a pound. That was cool though I made $140 n didn't do anything. I know this is rare but if you come across beer kegs, grab them and take them back to Canals (any of them) and tell them you had it in your garage from a party they will give you the deposit back which is $30. That's a lesson I learned the hard way.


Joe

I believe kegs are stainless steel too, not sure how much they weigh empty..

Kegs are aluminum. They run 25-30 lbs empty

i live in the philly suburbs on the main line and have about 25 colleges within a 20 minute drive of me. most are closer than that though, and the stuff they toss is ridiculous. i dont scrap professionally but i make "artistic" items out of the copper i glean from crap people throw away so im constantly noticing the excessive waste around the end of semesters. im beginning to wonder if my time would be better spent just scrapping the copper im gleaning instead of pouring hundreds of hours into a wireframe elephant or something just as esoteric...

If you live near the shore, you should check the party towns. I am constantly getting chairs and aluminum cans from people's houses. It is worth the gas.

Yes, to add to poundigity24 I scrap around neighborhoods in the suburbs, and get nothing compared to the shore towns. I can fill my 4x8 trailer in no time at the shore. Air conditioners are the best because they are so small but so valuable.