Mobile Wire Scrap Yard- Need Advice

I was kicking around some ideas of future scrap endevors and the idea to start a mobile wire yard came up.

I would go to local business with scrap wire and offer them a percent of what the wire is worth to me. They would have some type of container and every week (or every two weeks) I would come and buy the wire onsite and write them a check that day. I am thinking pay them $.60-$.70 on the dollar or so? Thoughts on that? I would also strip the wire that I think is worth stripping and sort the other wire by grade.

Nobody to my knowlege offers this service.

Let me know what you think, I am young and ready to learn. I currently run a F150 and 7000# dump trailer doing mostly ferrous with some non-ferrous here and there but with school it is hard to make that work. My thought is with a set schedule I should have time to do this in my spare time.

Thanks!

Works for me in the E Waste business, best part for them is when they work regular hours, that often interferes with scrap yard hours and nobody like waiting in line just to get weighed and waiting again just to get a check.

If you really wanted to one up, MOBILE GRANULATING, I can promise you if you live within 250 miles of me I would have you out here every month.

I like the mobile granulating service, but who would this be marketed too? E-waste people? Scrap Yards?

I am currently not in any postition to purchase that type of this of equipment but would be interested in this business. I have seen them for $20,000 upwards? Is that right? How much could you charge to pay off this investment? I am open to any ideas, but I think currently I should stick with the local wire route part time. Maybe if it is successful enough I would be able to buy a granulator.

What percent (at least ball park) do you pay?

Thanks Again!

All of the above, the low level scrap yards would love it. Chances are they'd want an after hours service, don't want to give away their secrets but the way I look at it, if I can give you 4,000 lbs a month of wire and you can give me back 2300-2500 lbs of chops and a bill for 500 bucks I'd be all over it.

I would literally buy a 48 foot trailer, a nice used volvo, get my cdl, have a 400 lb an hour granulator installed INSIDE the trailer and the genset installed behind a bulkhead in front of that.

I figure you'd want 200 grand to get this going, come up with a prospectus then bring it to your bank. Seriously man, risk is what it is, just money anways.

The Granulator Demon can do 1300#-2600# a day, so $500 a day wouldnt be to bad. It wouldnt take THAT many contracts to pay it off. If I had 6 places I would be able to pay it off in 7 months or so. I just need to get $20,000. Hmmm

$200,000 is a little bit much for someone that drives a '98

Consider the obvious...can't do this on your own, but the bank might back you. Nothing gained just sitting on your hands, go sell your ideas man.

Where in the midwest are ya?

I'd start small. I'd go with a pickup and trailer, box van, or school bus (Seriously, it would work). Save the Kenworth money for when you get to that size. Too many businesses fail because they over-invest in equipment. Stay cheap, and you can offer more on scrap. Most people won't care what your setup is, if you can provide more money.

We used to have a rig similar to the one below.



We delivered hay and straw- a lot to "horse people". You know how many people acted offended at the rig? One. It allowed us to offer better prices, and people responded positively to that. The same thing can work here. Start cheap, and build up when you have a good client base.

I think there's a market, though. Run some numbers, and see where it puts you. It could be a pretty cool idea!

I don't want to rain on any ones parade but you have to understand, when you are dealing with dealers and yard owners they equate selling wire by the container or trailer load 40,000 Lbs Lots, so when you are going into yards to try to make deals keep that in mind, also don't most yards have a wire stripper? I had Three.

I was actually thinking a school bus for a bit, that would be much cheaper than a semi. I am in Minnesota.

If I started with a school bus and a smaller granulator I am pretty sure I could get enough to get going. It would be more in the $20,000-$30,000 range.

armygraywolf said charge like $500 for 4000#. How much do you think would be agood per pound fee?

Thanks

Wouldn't the companies buying the copper for end use want chopped copper? Also, the granulator would be more efficent for small gauge wire. As far as I know most yards ship the wire to offsite recycling facilties.

Apparantly I'm not the only redneck here

School Bus= Box Truck with Narrower Rear Door. They're also cheap. Very cheap. If you go this route, make sure to get one under 26000#, or you'll need a CDL. If you get one with a wheelchair lift, you now have a lift gate.

You'll need a lot of space for bins of different sized wires.

As for demand, only you can gauge that. If the money is there, though, it could be a good service to offer. It sounds like it's time to crunch some numbers!

I could in theory process 40,000#. It would just take longer than a day. 800lbs/hour. 10 hours a day, thats 5 days give or take. But I think what army graywolf was saying is to do it for smaller yards. A lot of large yards around me are owned by large compaines that own their own chopping lines. A lot of the smaller yards are independent.

Also, I did some math and depending on grade, wouldn't they be making $.50-$.75/pound if it is granulated instead of ICW?