What Are The Smallest Metal Items You Scrap? - Page 2

First off great advice from everyone. God I love this place. And trust me any newbie can learn a lot from this forum. I have learned more about electronic scrap in the past month than I have learned in the past 6 months before I stumbled on this site. As for the smallest things....well...some of the screws out of electronics are pretty small. Throw them in a plastic dog food bag, like the kind of dog food u get from the dollar store, and when they get full the scrap yard will buy them as short iron. Which is usually about 20 or 30 dollars more on the ton than shread,or light iron, or tin as some places call it. If I am in my house and taking stuff apart I use my empty dip cans. When they are full they usually weigh about 2 or 3 lbs each. Only the lids are metal, but when they full of screws the yards around here take them. I mix them in with my crushed soup and vegi cans in hundred pound feed sacks and dump them out in the shread pile or the bailer at the yard

After reading this I just realized I sound like a redneck. Haha

I usually find old rusty toolboxes and put the screws and nails in them until they are full. I HATE driving over them in the yard!!!

Originally Posted by JohnC4X4

I was going to say Saturn's BUT you said Metal So I have to go with Kia's

You don't crush Saturns. You melt them down. Lol.

beer bottle tops, appliance screws, car keys.

"Most keys are brass"....I too have found this to be the case: however, if not brass they are either stainless or aluminum and very rarely steel. Also keep an eye open for those chrome plated brass house keys.

Originally Posted by hobo finds

twist ties and the metal thing from floss

That's serious scrapping right there.....

Who says ya can't scrap a Saturn.... I'm guessing I have scraped at least a hundred over the past few years.... As far as small stuff to scrap I try to save every little thing I can.... I have boo whoo's of ties and small screws .... I will start saving my metal lids and caps....

Originally Posted by nuttingbutjunk

Who says ya can't scrap a Saturn.... I'm guessing I have scraped at least a hundred over the past few years...

I think you mis read
I scrap many and many a Saturn
But it IS one of the smallest cars I scrap, and lets face it, LOTS of plastic including the fenders
Question was >> What Are The Smallest Metal Items You Scrap?

Not sure if the Saturn counted because of all the plastic, I moved onto the Kia

The little gold balls from dip switches

I put my screws and small pieces of steel in cookie tins and tape the lid on and through them in with the shred. I get alot of cookie tins from the thrift store that I pick up scrap from.

Screws, nails, tiny ball bearings, metal off disposable lighters, zipper heads and metal buttons off old clothing (even non metal ones get saved up by me and sold off in big bulk lots to crafters for couple bucks).. old matchbox cars.. and yep even guilty myself of twisty ties and chinese takeout handles..
If it's metal I don't care how small it is, in the coffee tin it goes.

staples and paperclips for me.