Stainless steel

**Torker Man** · 11-06-2011, 03:36 AM

so then there is Ferrous and non ferrous stainless?

**rca987** · 11-06-2011, 05:45 AM

Originally Posted by Torker Man

so then there is Ferrous and non ferrous stainless?

Yes.

**WeWillPrevail** · 11-06-2011, 07:36 AM

Originally Posted by rooka21

I recently salvaged some stainless steel running boards, when I took them in expecting to be paid for stainless, they said they were magnetic, therefore not stainless, just worth iron price. Is he correct or did I get screwed?

Bring a magnet when checking these things. If there is even one iron bolt on it, they will pay you iron. Make sure all steel is removed to get the stainless price. The reason is they have to pay me to remove your steel and make it clean stainless. I use a plasma cutter, and it gets expensive.
We have a huge water tank out back that they paid iron for, I cut like 4 water ports out of it and used the plasma to pop some nuts off. We turn it in to out mother-yard and we get paid stainless price. That's called an upgrade.

**Troybud** · 11-20-2011, 07:38 AM

cool thanks

**rewire** · 01-14-2012, 07:32 PM

I thought it was the six series that was magnetic, maybe it is 4 series. Just remember many yards play everyone for a fool. the only difference between 201 ss/304 ss is 4% nickel. Those metal analyzing guns are the cats meow, makes any buyer comfortable in what he's buying. Troy bud you can contaminate stainless buy using a cutoff wheel/grinder on steel and then ss.

**wayne** · 01-15-2012, 04:22 AM

Originally Posted by rewire

maybe it is 4 series

The 4 series is definately magnetic.

**myekem** · 01-15-2012, 05:13 AM

Troybud... if the stainless is welded check and make sure they never welded it with steel.. If so you will have to cut it off. And the bottom of some sinks have a metallic type of coating.. I have ran into this numerous times when buying stainless at my scrapyard.. I usually let it slide as stainless until the place I sell to complains. Some stainless will even rust if left in the elements too long. and there is a 20-40 cent difference (where I am anyways) between 304 and 316.. If you come across thicker stainless check it out because a lot of 316 stainless is marked on machines. Just rambling on so I will stop lol..

**12oclock** · 01-18-2012, 07:05 PM

Just a quick tip. Get the magnets out of HDD's (hard disk drives) and use these for all those questionable items. If you don't have access to these, you can find others on ebay. they are neodymium magnets and will be magnetized to any ferrous material.

**wildbillhappy** · 01-18-2012, 08:05 PM

Rooka 21 Ibuy lots of stuff from auto body shops and sure enough you can have two running brds lok just about alike and yep one is ferrous and one is stainless . I would not have believed it had i not checked with mag.

**Ditchdigger** · 10-31-2017, 06:06 PM

The last time I asked about it at the yard I go to (which was quite a while ago), they told me that, if they were to buy it as such, the magnetic stainless was worth less than plain old light iron. They told just to not bother separating it.

**CopperMiner** · 04-27-2022, 09:14 AM

I got that S/S sink and after removing everything ferrous (brackets, drain...), the main part is some kind of mixed alloy. Some parts are totally non-magnetic and some are lightly magnetic. It is totally random. I guess that yards will say that it is ferrous, because magnet sticks in some spots, but I feel like it is not full 100% right. Around here, dirty or ferrous stainless steel all go with shred. Your opinion?

**greytruck** · 04-27-2022, 09:59 AM

Originally Posted by CopperMiner

I guess that yards will say that it is ferrous, because magnet sticks in some spots, but I feel like it is not full 100% right. Around here, dirty or ferrous stainless steel all go with shred. Your opinion?

If you bend stainless 304 it will become magnetic. Thats why some sinks have magnictivity (is that even a word?) where they press the sink part into the flat sheet at the factory. i have bent some SS b4 and it became magnetic and some does not become magnetic. I always sell mine as clean stainless but because of my reputation at the yard they don't even check them.

Plus i learned at the new yard that lightly magnetic SS is considered just a different grade of stainless cause the magnet does a hard pull to steel compared to a slight pull from SS.

**JJinLV** · 04-27-2022, 01:49 PM

Nearly all stainless is faintly magnetic but it's not always obvious. 304 is faintly magnetic as a rule. If you have a magnetic that hangs let it hang very close and you'll see. It's not enough to feel the pulling force, just to see it visually. And like greytruck said it can be become more magnetic in some circumstances. Industry standard is less than 2% ferrous contamination is fine for clean stainless. After all, iron is the larger part of the stainless alloy anyway. Yards that grade it different than that are either doing it wrong - honestly or dishonestly - or they deal with a buyer that grades differently than industry standards (which is possible, for example SA Recycling has Painted Al Sheet and Al Sheet 95% instead of a single Old Sheet category because they do aluminum a little different)