Separating Grades? - Page 2

I actually saved the heat sink bottoms for later scrapping, I will try to bash those motors but they look thick.

So I think I'm getting better at this but curious of really how for to take my sorting? I know everyone puts a different value to their time but all things equal, is it better to sort stuff down as far as possible? Example... aluminum by quality or thickness? Copper Wire by thickness? Steel by cast etc?

Again, I apologize for my newbie terminology

Cheers.

Originally Posted by recyclocan

So I think I'm getting better at this but curious of really how for to take my sorting? I know everyone puts a different value to their time but all things equal, is it better to sort stuff down as far as possible? Example... aluminum by quality or thickness? Copper Wire by thickness? Steel by cast etc?

Again, I apologize for my newbie terminology

Cheers.

I would say that sorting, like most things, depends on what your customer wants to buy. whenever I'm not sure I leave the stuff at home, but for a small sample. I show it to my customer (the guy at the yard who gives me money) and ask him how he wants to buy it.

I have found it all depends on your yard, I was separating sheet aluminum from casted, dirty, etc but my yard only gives me a set price for aluminum regardless what form it's in which means they take the lowest quality pay rate and apply it to all; you loose some money on your "better" aluminum at my yard.

Originally Posted by eesakiwi

You need a face sheild & glasses & sledgehammer to bash them apart.
The cast iron breaks easy like with a sledge hammer. Or just use a carpenters chisle & hammer to cut thru the copper wire loops on one end, then pull the rest of the copper wire out.

The pics of the sheet metal surrounded motor, bash the outer casing at the point where theres a gap between the sheetmetal & the laminations, that'l make is squarer & loosen it so it may slide off.

I tried and this did not work, it only crushed the sheet metal housing and began folding. Now its more oval shaped so I need a new method....

for just aluminum there's only two choices here, one separates it and the other don't. I make sure to know what they're paying before I go though. A simple call first can sure save you some headaches

It's the best yard within a 20min drive which works for my bed size and profit amount, it's a matter of loosing a few cents per lb not like I have that much aluminum that is super clean and in solid block form anyway. Trust me, you just have to get back at the yard and cheat them back within toleration

its hard to tell you how to seperate as many yards class things different.here in southern ohiothere are 2 aluminium prices.regular and aluminium wheels.now we need to seperate our cast from sheet but the price is the same.on the steel if your area is like mine anything as thick as a lawnmower deck pays better than the thin shred items.we call them shred/tin/appliance.anything that is thick enough and is no more than 2 feet wide by 4 feet long is called short iron,so i seperate that,any thing the same thickness but longer is long iron.in the recent years long iron often pays the same as shred so i always call to see the difference in price befor i seperate,or to decide if i want to cut the long down to short,also to be short or long iron grade it needs to be free of wood,plastic,aluminium or anything else.around here they wont mind a touch of aluminium or something thats really fused to something as long as its 98 percent clean.it will take you time to learn what your yard wants.i read in hear earlier someone telling you to bust those motor casings,thats what i do also .any cast iron will break fairly easy.also on our wire if it is shiny or bigger than a pencil lead we get number 1 if not number 2.and that means not varnished,painted,or coated.we just recently have been outlawed from burning the wire in my state.so our copper grading is in the process of changing drasticly.anyhow i hope this may help you a bit

So I have been getting pretty good at this over time, now I want to expand

It dawned on me...when I tear things apart trash costs $ to dispose of and the town takes all plastic away for free and you can drop as much of it as you want off for free at the landfill so plastic in bulk must be worth something somewhere?!?

Also it has come to my attention that some scrap yards also buy circuit boards? That would be an awesome nitch to get into, the TVs and Computers I take apart all have circuit boards and some places pay per dead motherboard or by weight. Any recommendations/thoughts??

Rather then pulling motors apart for the copper now I just bring them as is and they have a class/price per pound for electric motors that is high enough for me to not bother dissembling them unless they have an aluminum case, they take everything from a bucket of drill motors to large industrial motors for factory machines all the same price!

For the power supplies with copper heat pipes running through them, I keep those separate from the rest of my aluminum and get 'Alum/Copper rads' price for them, usually .80-1.10. If you get a bunch of them you'll see the difference in your pocket.

What power supplies with copper pipes, you mean PC power supplies with that tiny piece of copper in their heat sinks?

Wow those threads are a bit complex, I thought grading could be done by color and size of components on the board I will deff have to check with my local buyers to see how simple they want things!