Slim pickings, down to scrounging rebars

Been pretty slow in my neck of the woods as most of the construction jobs have been finished. In an effort to find something to scrap, I was looking around the many "illegal landfills" where people just dump old concrete rubble. These areas are picked pretty clean but I did start noticing a large amount of rebar sticking out of chunks of old curbing and other stuff.

Now, I've had this vintage 16 lb rock breaking hammer for years and most of the debris is pretty thin so I took it to the dumps and discovered with a single whack most of the time I could shatter the old concrete. It took no time to fill up the truck with rebar, which if I cut in 3' sections is #1 prep.



This is more exercise than I usually use to find scrap but I probably need it. Mind you, I'm not going to work on anything thick or large for this but if you got curbing, it shatters off the rebar real easy.

I've scrapped a few mattresses before but that's really scrapping the bottom of the barrel. I have these German Knipex wire cutters that go through stuff like that like it's Romax.

If you're doing recliners, go after office chairs too. You get the main cylinder and the the arm and back rests cough up three pcs. of #1 prep. Takes about 30 seconds to scrap one with a power screw driver. I think I find one of these in every roll off box.

I'm doing the same thing now. I've gone from just metal to anything with metal attached and it seems to be working out pretty well.

Originally Posted by Kris Kringle

Yeah I could See scrapping matresses and chairs and Couchs When and if we ever come off of the Burn Ban

I bet they make a nice fire. Just make sure you don't do S'mores on it!

I've burned chairs for the metal before but the amount of metal that was left after the nasty black smoke cleared made sure I'd never do it again.

I was cleaning out my barn and there was a stack of about 10 old mattresses and 10 box springs that had been sitting uncovered for years and had bat and bird droppings all over them along with 4 or 5 recliners. since the garbage company wouldnt take them and they took up so much space, we really couldn't do anything else with them but burn them. there ended up being around 300lbs to 350lbs of shred left once it burned out. way more than i would have expected.

Been pretty slow in my neck of the woods as most of the construction jobs have been finished.

I have a list of places that we have not approached yet, If I would now I'm afraid it would snow us under.

Originally Posted by rca987

I don't burn them. Just take a knife to it. Cut around the edges of the mattress and the springs basically come out like you're taking the lid off a container and emptying the contents. the foam padding is usually zip tied to the springs with cheap plastic and pull off easily.. Just wear gloves if you're afraid of bed bugs.

Oh man, I am such a germiphobe when it comes to certain things...... these being one of them. If I don't have gloves and a way to burn it as soon as I get to my place, I don't touch them. It's funny that I love to scrap so much when I swear I can feel germs crawling all over me when I touch certain things LOL. But i learned early on the value of scrapping things like this...... definitely worth it.

Recliners are fairly easy to disassemble instead of burning. While the details of each may vary they tend to follow the same general assembly.

The back is often on two rails and held on with either a small latch that you flip or hand screws. Once it is loosened you simply lift it up and off. The sides of the back will have one part of the rail assembly attached with screws. Lifting the material on the outside of the back firmly will often pull out the tack strips holding the sides of the material in place. These pieces are thin and light with numerous spikes that are hammered into the wood. With the outside back material flipped up the springs in the back will probably be visible. These springs are held at both ends (top and bottom) with clips. Pull/pry/cut??? Overall not much metal in the back.

The base usually has a lever or handle/latch for the footrest. Lever will need to be removed (unscrewed/smashed). Handle/latch will be connected to a cable that needs to be disconnected. Footrest will often unscrew from reclining mechanism on the bottom. Reclining mechanism is screwed to frame (square bits frequently). Only focus on where the mechanism mounts to the frame because dismantling the mechanism is usually hard. It should drop out the bottom at this point. Springs in the seat similar to the back but placed closer and/or heavier gauge.

You might even check with local upholstery shops to see if they want your salvaged mechanisms or to collect their damaged ones.

Back to the OP. (Not that a discussion of furniture and bedding isn't informative, but I don't find much of that on the jobsite. Rebar on the other hand...)

which if I cut in 3' sections is #1 prep.

While I've been paid for it the same as the other iron at one place, I've been told by another yard that they didn't even want rebar (sometimes), and at other times they've paid way less for it. This was even for 3'-4' prepared pieces. Their explanation was that it's a lousy grade of steel to begin with. Anybody have a similar experience?

Originally Posted by fiat128

I've scrapped a few mattresses before but that's really scrapping the bottom of the barrel. I have these German Knipex wire cutters that go through stuff like that like it's Romax.

If you're doing recliners, go after office chairs too. You get the main cylinder and the the arm and back rests cough up three pcs. of #1 prep. Takes about 30 seconds to scrap one with a power screw driver. I think I find one of these in every roll off box.

I looked up those cutters on Ebay and they arn't cheep. Going to have to look into getting some!

I scrap a lot of metal which is a part of something previously. I do things like mattresses also

Originally Posted by rca987

Just taking a guess here, but I would think they say that so you don't bring in rebar AND concrete, since most used rebar has concrete attached to it in some way.

No, this rebar was clean. I wouldn't show up with it any other way.

They were paying 6 or 7 bucks a hundred when clean tin or heavy iron was twice that. Last time I took any to that particular yard they said to unload it quick so the boss didn't see it, cause he didn't want any more at all. (I've since seen more there, but I don't bother taking it there any more.)

Also steel poles with the concrete base no one likes to deal with.

As far as concrete filled poles, I'll dig one up every now and then, and just bury it again. haven't ever found a cost effective way to get the concrete out of them. If it's only the base that's filled, I might cut the empty portion off with a torch, but pretty often they're full all the way to the top. Fence poles, I'll cut off the filled end and take in the rest.