How much copper and/or aluminum is in a lawnmower?

i like breaking down electronics, computers, monitors and TV's. they are easy but today i picked up 2 push mowers. one of them is self propelled. are they worth the time to break down or should i just drain fluids, remove battery and put in the shred? does a push mower even have a battery? i haven't checked them out yet, will get'er done in the morning.



do these machines have much copper or aluminum? thx for helping a newbie.

Try to sell them...

i have some i'm saving for spring. I'll take em by the small engine shop and maybe do some trading. Got weedeaters etc as well ; )

Originally Posted by scrappy888

Try to sell them...

Originally Posted by Bear

i have some i'm saving for spring. I'll take em by the small engine shop and maybe do some trading. Got weedeaters etc as well ; )

perhaps i will try that first. i need to unload them a.s.a.p. though. i rent a room, the owner wants them gone. think i need my own place if i am ever going to make any real money scrapping.
thx 4 advice.

take em by the small engine place now. I was told in late autumn that they would use anything they could, they couldn't keep enough used ones around

Originally Posted by Bear

take em by the small engine place now. I was told in late autumn that they would use anything they could, they couldn't keep enough used ones around

think i will get on the phone and call a few places tomorrow morning. do you know what price i can expect? i'm not certain how much it is worth in scrap but if it all goes in the shred, i'd be happy with $30+. think they only weigh about 50 each.

it's worth 2 bucks as scrap, if you get 5 you did good, ten, even better. If you can crank it you might get 15, hek, i can't really say
like you said though, check around, hope for the best

Just dont ever scrap a true toro mower...u dont find these at menards..only from toro..worth 5x more to my buyer...im not entirely sure what to look for, but my guy is honest since I bring him so many...i do know that they have the highest grade steel on the actual grass cutter..german engineered...

You need to find a small engine guy near you. I was lucky enough to find one and he pays me $10 each, no questions asked. He knows I have no idea if they run or not since I get them as scrap but most of the time it's a simple carb rebuild and they are up and running. He wins by getting them cheap and I win by quickly flipping them and getting more than scrap value.

If you scrap it, take the motor off anf drain the fluids. The motor can be sold as dirty aluminum. Also you will have too take the gas tank off, my yard wants a hole in the block, just hit it with a hammer. I get .25# for dirty aluminum that's better than throwing it in the shred pile. my .03

assuming the parts are deemed worthless, or you dont have the time to part it out, definately pull the motor for dirty alum. you will have to check with your yard how they want it prepped. also the blades can usually go as short steel or melt or whatever your yard calls it. some decks are cast alum. some yards take the decks as short steel or melt if you take the wheels etc off them

thx 4 everyones input. i called 4 places that were near by. 2 said they didn't buy used equipment. one, i got answering machine 3 times and the last guy said he had too much at the moment but said to call him with any lawnmowers in the future. so perhaps i can do business with him at a later date. unfortunately i couldn't store it so i called the yard, said all i had to do was remove fluids. if i had more time i would have broke it down but the guy i rent from wanted me to clear out the garage.
took a load of shred, 700 lbs @ $200 per ton. the frame was magnetic but i'm still curious how much aluminum was on those engines. oh well, $70 is still good for me and now i can focus on my TV's and montiors.

Originally Posted by NWOdrudge

thx 4 everyones input. i called 4 places that were near by. 2 said they didn't buy used equipment. one, i got answering machine 3 times and the last guy said he had too much at the moment but said to call him with any lawnmowers in the future. so perhaps i can do business with him at a later date. unfortunately i couldn't store it so i called the yard, said all i had to do was remove fluids. if i had more time i would have broke it down but the guy i rent from wanted me to clear out the garage.
took a load of shred, 700 lbs @ $200 per ton. the frame was magnetic but i'm still curious how much aluminum was on those engines. oh well, $70 is still good for me and now i can focus on my TV's and montiors.

take one of them apart next time just to see whats in it. maybe it will be worth your time, or maybe you will decide certain parts are worth taking off. it depends on your time and skills, everyone's solution it different.

in most push type mowers there is less than 10lbs of cast aluminum and less than a pound of aluminum (not cast or extrusion). if it were me, i would have just removed the fluids and scrapped whole. Generaly i break every thing down, but working so many hours now, i dont have the time to be too picky about it.

Another way of looking at it. Depending on the price you are getting for cast aluminum (I get 0.25lb), with only 10 pounds of it and the 45 minutes to one hour it will take to get it all out and you will be looking at approximately $2.50 per hour for your labor.

Nope it is not worth it to me to break push mowers down. Although I must say, before I got this job, it WOULD have been worth it to me.

So I guess it just depends on how bad you need it\want it.

i get between .5 and.65 for cast aluminum