Had my first real "dumpster dive" today!

Hope everyone had a successful Saturday! I have to share this because I couldn't stop laughing the entire way home and then I realized after looking at all my "treasures" i found today I had a question, so figured I would post this story first. I have a dumpster that I go to every week and always find great items. The guys that are there, sometimes on Saturdays, have seen me before because they have assisted me in taking some stuff from their dumpster. Today I couldn't reach what I wanted to get, so I thought, "okay, well get in there". So I did and thankfully I had a friend with me because he had to help me get out. Needless to say, I got what I wanted but the security people who monitor there property ought to have a great laugh on Monday when they watch the scene-lol. So after all that, can anyone tell me if yards give a different price for clean sheet metal? or do they just consider that with the general scrap metal? I got a good 30 pounds today of sheet metal scraps and don't know if I should take them in separate or throw them in with my general metal scraps?? Thank you and Happy Saturday!

I'd say toss it with general scrap, unless it's aluminum or stainless.

IdahoScrapper,
Could you please tell me how I would determine if it is aluminum or stainless? I would appreciate it.

My yard has a #1 sheet price. Not sure if other yards do. They consider any sheet metal without anything attached to it # 1. That's one reason I complety break down all my appliances.

Also get you about a 3 - 4 foot long dowel rod like and old wooden handle or something and screw a hook into the end of it. It really helps out with reaching things in a dumpster without gettin in!

Originally Posted by scrappinmom

IdahoScrapper,
Could you please tell me how I would determine if it is aluminum or stainless? I would appreciate it.

Magnet wont stick to alluminum or stainless (well some stainless sticks to magnet but most yards dont pay stainless price for this type)

Originally Posted by scrappinmom

IdahoScrapper,
Could you please tell me how I would determine if it is aluminum or stainless? I would appreciate it.

Omigosh! You have to get a magnet! My yard gave me my first one but I also save them from microwaves and keep some in my truck too for handy spot checking!

What PTS said. I will also add that if a magnet doesn't stick, you can then hit it with a grinder. If it sparks it's stainless. If not, it's aluminum.

I'm going to assume if you dont have a magnet you probably don't have a grinder either. Try scratching it with a piece of what you know to aluminium. Aluminium will scratch aluminium but it wont scratch stainless and instead leaves a streak. Non magnetic stainless is also denser than aluminium.