A Tumbleweeds View of Scrapping - Page 8

Originally Posted by ChildhoodDream

I would think that those that do larger scrap art would be interested in many of the interesting looking parts. Think of the stuff a artist could do with the tracks and those drive sprockets.

I would think that push blades in usable condition could be retrofitted for using on large pay loaders and such. I know that the farmers around here make all sorts of attachments for their big pay loaders.

Your idea of selling the material for art work is already in the process. A friend of mine is into the steam punk art and is contacting individuals to see if there is interest. I might see if I could mount one of the blades to my Massy Ferguson C 10 loader. If not others might be interested. Thanks for the ideas.

Originally Posted by DakotaRog

P76, you never cease to find interesting projects to tackle!!! Just think of what that 125+ tons cost new coming off of semi flatbeds!!!

These dozers were built originally for WWII. Today ten year old D 7 bring between $ 100,000 to $ 500,000. I cannot adjust for inflation, but I am sure I could have retired off their value in their day and time.

Originally Posted by MattInTheHat

any chance of creating even one working machine with parts from the others?

Three of the machines are running. Two more could be restored with the salvaged items. Just got a call from Wyoming for the lot. We will see where it goes.

Abuilder, thanks for the information. I will be contacting them on Tuesday. I will let you know how it pans out.

There are a couple of companies that sell, salvage and scrap farm and construction equipment. Adams is one, I should have there numbers in the office, it will be Wednesday before I go back to work though. I would pick one of these companies to do this, as they do more than just scrap equipment, lot's of money in parts, with these old machines still!

Today became a milestone in my second career. I finally had to admit I am not a full time scrapper anymore. A lot of time is still spent preparing loads, but since the price for unprepared dipped to $ 20 per ton it does not make sense to focus on scrapping when my time could be better spent training horses, hunting and fishing. Still stock piling, but the focus has been redirected to survival instead of recycling.

It is disappointing the amount of scrap that is headed to the landfills instead of being recycled. The best guess is, it will only increase the value of scrap in the future. For those full time scrappers out there, congrats, good luck, and keep on scrapping, For those of us on the sidelines. hopefully the times will change.

Went to an auction yesterday owned by a local scrapper. He had tractors, loaders, and gooseneck trailers that were sold. I bought two chemical totes and a huge tank. I will use the tank to build a fencing trailer and the totes for copper. At the end they asked for bids on the scrap in the yard. I did not win the battle, but won the war. The winning bid was a big time scrapper with finances and storage space. He has over 100 vehicles on his property waiting for prices to improve. He has to haul it over 100 miles to stockpile this cache. He has a semi, loader, and skid steer.

I could have done the job, but did not have room to stock pile and given my age and scrap prices did not want to gamble. He told me to take everything left behind at no cost. The best part is the property will be sold and if everything works out right I will be hired to return the property to original condition.

Now the icing on the cake, the owner of the scrap yard hired me to scrap all the machinery he had bought at auctions throughout the county over three decades without time limits. The challenge will be finding all of it and waiting until prices start to improve.

Since scrap prices have rebounded recently, I am back in business and decided to recycle this thread. I am a full time scrapper that has stock piled the metal for the last two years. Many on the forum advocated for turn and burn instead of stock piling. My strategy was lock and load and now it is time to fire the warning shots. Neighbors are amazed that I could hold out without cashing in, but they are impressed with the strategy. Please understand this strategy will not work for everyone.

If the technology will be cooperative, you will see the latest efforts to this goal.

Scrap still down here why sale now?

Originally Posted by mikeinreco

Scrap still down here why sale now?

Scrap is up to $ 100 and $ 120 a ton here instead of the $ 10 or $ 20 over the last year and a half. I now have my semi tractor and trailer so I get a bonus on top of my business price. I have a good relationship with the yard and the manager has toured my operation and stockpiles. When he is low on a certain commodity to finish a load he calls with an even better price because he knows I can provide it within 24 hrs.

The ability to haul 30 tons with the semi instead of a limit of six tons on my other trailers makes the 100+ mile round trip more economical. Six farms are stacked with iron the owners are tired of looking at and I have picked up three new farms. If nothing else moving this iron will be positive PR. Now the real reason, I am bored and miss the lifestyle.

Gotcha!!!

What about all the other good stuff? Are you holding on to the non ferrous? I am glad that the steel price has gone up enough for you to move it. Will you start to stockpile steel again after you have removed all this stuff from the farms? And we should have a contest of how many tons of steel you will bring in!