metal from the sticks

This will eventually be the story of rural scrapping and the daily adventures. I am trying to learn how to download pictures and could not delete the thread after failing. The intent is to create a thread in line with the "Community Water Tanks", "Scrappers Dream," "A Tumbleweeds View of Scrapping," "Christmas Gifts from Scrap," etc. All of these threads were destroyed compliments of Photobucket. When I figure it out, I will share.

This is the first successful download attempt. It is a picture of the most used hauling equipment. The main tow vehicle is a 2000 F 350 with a 7.3 turbo charged motor. It has over 280,000 miles on it and used to haul horses as well as scrap. The blue flat bed goose neck dove trailer has three seven thousand pound axles with six fourteen ply trailer tires. It is rated at 10 1/2 tons. The tub (my name) trailer on top is actually a 30 ft. stock trailer that I modified to haul scrap. Old timers will remember the first attempt to haul with this trailer when it exploded on the highway five miles from the scrap yard.

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This is a better picture of the tub trailer, the country I scrap in, and a picture of my one remaining scrap partner. My other partner died of kidney failure this spring. Their only job is to stay out of the way and keep the varmints out of my scrap.

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A few pictures of a variety of jobs that were completed as I was learning how to post pictures on the forum will be shared. Picture taking was limited because there was no use for them at the time. First is a waste water plant that I dismantled for a local community. In return I got all the steel, stainless steel, and aluminum.

Gear of breakdown pit.



This is a picture of the catwalk running over the top of the breakdown pit that is 30 ft. in diameter.

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The grinder weighed over 1,000 pds.



A view from inside the tank.

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Total project - 20 tons of steel, 800 pds. of stainless, and 350 pds. of cast aluminum.

All of my projects are one man jobs. I like the challenge and excitement.

Taking down irrigation pivots is another source of scrap. Most pivots in this part of the country are a 1/4 mile long with electric motors and wiring. The fastest way to dismantle them is to tip them on their side and torch them. This is the start of a load.

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You will notice two chains and a cum-a-long towards the front. It is actually one chain coupled in the middle to a cum-a-long on the other side. The cum-a-long you can see on this side is hooked the same way to a chain on the other side. After chaining up the back of the load there will be six tie downs on each side using four chains and four cum-a-longs. This setup is used to haul up to four vehicles or a combine as well. Loads can be secured up to 10 ft. high using this system.

A farm cleanout resulted in this load. You can compare the size of the swather to my truck and trailer, to the grapple, or to the truck in the background in the second picture. The same tie down system was used on this load that was shown in the last post.

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Looking forward to following along. I don't think you have to use the Image button on the tool bar cuz the code you copy from Imgur already has everything you need for the pic to show up.

Originally Posted by KzScrapper

Looking forward to following along. I don't think you have to use the Image button on the tool bar cuz the code you copy from Imgur already has everything you need for the pic to show up.

Thank you for the information and welcome back to the forum. You have a wealth of knowledge to share and just proved it once again. How did you know the method the pictures were posted?

I was just down in your neck of the woods visiting family and checking on my next adventure in the oil fields in Wyoming. Hope you plan to stay around awhile.

Thanks Patriot...One of the pics didn't post and it had Imgur.com next to it. I switched to Imgur since Photobucket went bust and find it faster and easier to use...if you have the App on your phone it works nicely for uploading then getting the code when on the desktop.

Another item that is fairly common to scrap in this part of the country is bale elevators. Many times you have to remove them from the barn before you can scrap them. Some ran off the 3 pt. hitch on a tractor and some have an electric motor. The trough can be sold for feed bunks for cattle. The chains are sold as prepared iron and weigh between 500 and 1,000 pds.

These large steel items appear clean do you get unprepared steel price for them? Or do they want to pay sheet iron price for them? With such large items I can see that it would not be worth it to make the item prepared steel. And my yard always makes me park in the mud bog! LOL But they don't unload it for me make me get my boots muddy!

Originally Posted by hobo finds

These large steel items appear clean do you get unprepared steel price for them? Or do they want to pay sheet iron price for them? With such large items I can see that it would not be worth it to make the item prepared steel. And my yard always makes me park in the mud bog! LOL But they don't unload it for me make me get my boots muddy!

I get unprepared clean iron for this type of load. The chain is cut in half and rolled with a skid steer so it meets the prepared criteria. The trough was given to a neighbor to use as a feed bunk because he has helped me out of a few jams. If the yard did not unload my items I would be out of business because I could not do it by hand. At the same time our yard collects every drop of water for miles around so I end up using muck boots in the yard.

Originally Posted by wildliferacer

How much is it to rent this beast?

Small hay bales are hard to find with the large round balers. They are worthless unless you use them as an ladder like this one was or as scrap. After looking at the picture closer this is one used for grain and these were replaced by augers. In this part of the country it would not cost you anything, most farmers would loan them for an evening of beer (politically correct individuals which I am not - adult beverages.)

Originally Posted by Patriot76

I get unprepared clean iron for this type of load. The chain is cut in half and rolled with a skid steer so it meets the prepared criteria. The trough was given to a neighbor to use as a feed bunk because he has helped me out of a few jams. If the yard did not unload my items I would be out of business because I could not do it by hand. At the same time our yard collects every drop of water for miles around so I end up using muck boots in the yard.

That's good. I have been looking at prices around the country and some places pay less than shred/sheet iron for unprepared cast, torch steel and chain link fence...

Originally Posted by recyclersteve

Yeah you've got your wastewater treatment plant scraps and irrigation pivots, but can you haul a Hefty trash bag full of aluminum cans?

Actually, this is a very interesting thread. Thanks for the info.

No I cannot haul a hefty trash bag. Give me a machine and I will haul one of these. A 4 x 4 x 4 chemical tote is used to store non-ferrous and they are heavy when full.

On Tuesday I picked up a five ton grain truck. The wire was already loaded in the box, so my job was to get it loaded on the trailer and hauled sixty miles to the yard.