Only a scrapper would understand

My local yard is really just a transfer station. They just transfer customers scrap to a real scrapyard. As such their prices aren't top, but I put up with it because they are close and will take small amounts. There is one employee at the transfer station that shall be called Fred, short for F-head. The guy certainly is smarter than anyone else if you ask him, and is a loyal worker, but he is a prick to talk to and will always try to short the customer. There have been times in the past that I have seen him working and chose to not do business there that day.

A couple weeks back I got a bunch of scrap and headed to the big scrapyard. There I attempted to turn in a large bin of stainless steel with other materials. The attendant told me that my stainless had aluminum mixed in it and I needed to put the grinder to the items to sort it. I thought I had it sorted pretty good, but brought the items home and took his advice. If there were 100 items in the bin, then 85 of them ended up being stainless, 12 of them were aluminum, 2 yellow brass (plated to look silverish,) and 1 piece of copper(plated to look silverish.) Al, brass, and copper all pay more than stainless, so I think the guy should have just taken the bin, but whatever.

After grinding and sorting the items in the bin I bring it in to the local transfer station along with other materials. My cart is laid out nicely with Al on one end of the cart, stainless on the other end of the cart in a bin, and a few electric motors and ballasts in the middle of the cart. Upon wheeling onto the scale Fred approaches to begin working my cart. I tell him exactly what is on there. He takes my cart away to their stainless gaylord and unloads the stainless. And also unloads some of the aluminum in their stainless gaylord. Upon him returning my cart to the scale I inform him that the stainless all showed sparks when I hit it with the grinder, and that the aluminum he just put in his stainless gaylord did not spark from the grinder. The manager was nearby working another scale and asked that I repeat what I had just said. Then Fred and the manager went over to the stainless gaylord and they both spent 5 minutes bending over trying to pull my aluminum from it. Fred didn't say much after that.

I owe a big thanks to the attendant at the scrapyard. He made me money, and maybe helped humble Fred a bit.