Keeping interesting thread on swarf going

[silversurfer]

This discussion is old but worth revisiting. Have a look at this article and see how the precious metals market does it:
https://www.ft.com/content/0512638c-...e-a1acd97f622d

[Maverickhawk]

I have always enjoyed these types of stories. Nearly a decade ago I had a small one man dental lab and once a year I would collect all the dust grindings from all the alloys I made crowns & bridges with. My monthly alloy bill would be around 1k a month. At the end of the year I would get back around 1500. The cool thing about it was they would send cash. Their take would be 30%. Recently I found two 1oz silver liberty`s. The refiners would include them as an enticement to use them. Back then the value was almost $12. Get this ,I remember back then palladium was about $150 an oz. I got burnout doing dental work so I started playing around with jewelry. I needed some sheet silver and went to an auction that had some 18g sterling. I freaked out when I realized I just paid $200 for 4 sheets. I was too afraid to cut it up so I never used it. Then in 2009 or 2010 after a bankruptcy we were selling anything to survive. I sold two sheets of that sterling for more than $175 apiece.
Now we are debt free with decent jobs so I am collecting and hoarding noble and non-noble metals. Scrapping is my therapy. I love copper.

[t00nces2]

I find it hard to believe the amount of PM's they were pulling out of some of the items. In some of the cases, multiple ounces would have to be pulled. Perhaps I am naïve, but it just seems to be too much to be believed.

[silversurfer]

I suspect that it depends on just how busy these jewellers are. It does appear to be a reputable article so I hope that weren't exaggerating numbers to boost reputation. The whole issue of recapturing swarf and lemil makes me wonder if all workshops and jewellers are this efficient and whether there is still room for more players in reclaiming their metals for a commission?

[silversurfer]

Great personal story buddy! I hope to have some valuable scrap metal laying around for my children to fight over when I am gone. ��