Hello,
I just stumbled upon this forum. I am new here, but haven't posted in the 'Introduce Yourself' section because I don't really have much involvement in
scrap metal other than this specific topic. So please pardon the 'newbie' question. I'm not in the business, and I have browsed around these forums without finding an answer to my questions.
I am in the food manufacturing business. I have quite a few pieces (maybe 20) of equipment that is no longer usable to me. Either because it is old, or obsolete, or broken/malfunctioning. There is little to no market for this stuff as it sits, so it is scrap. I would guess there might be a few tons of metal.
My issue is probably not uncommon. The machines have a lot of stainless steel (all food contact surfaces). There is some aluminum. The motors would have copper windings. The motor housings are cast iron. Most of the guts of the machine would be steel. Some machines are sitting on custom-built stainless steel stands; other stands are aluminum or steel. I also have some stainless tanks, a few pallet jacks, and some racking. The racks are either all stainless, all aluminum, or all steel.
Last time I explored the possibility of scrapping them, I couldn't decide on a course of action, so the equipment has been sitting for a long time. It's probably time to make something happen with it.
At the time when I last looked into it, I made some calls, and a few local places were willing to offer me a 'mixed metal' price for the machinery as it is, which was understandably less than the price of any of the other metals alone.
So I am hoping to get a little advice from others who have had similar experiences (as either a seller or buyer of scrap). I am trying to decide whether I should simply take the 'mixed metal' price, or maybe put someone on my payroll (probably $9-$10/hour) to disassemble the equipment and sort it. Clearly the mixed metal option has the downside of the lower price, but with the upside of sheer simplicity - one shot and done. The disassembly option becomes somewhat involved, but possibly much more lucrative, I guess. I can't decide whether the higher price I can get for the sorted metals is worth the time, effort, and cost of disassembly, sorting, interim storage of the metals while the project is underway, etc...
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