what would you buy from a scrapyard to take home and breakdown?

[copperhead]

I work at a scrapyard. My boss will let me buy stuff, take it home, dismantle it and pay me full value when I bring it back. What would you buy? I can get gaylords of electric motors or aluminum steel mixed that we call irony or number one or number two insulated wire to strip.

[PistoneScrapProcessing]

It depends on what you feel like cleaning and how much time you want to dedicate to cleaning it. It also depends on what kinda customers and industrial accounts he has. What does he have in his inventory that you have been eyeing up if you don't mind me asking? Remember you are competing against the chinese for motors and wire and they are paying 2 dollars or more for high recovery insulated wire and over 60 cents for AC motors and a 1.25 or more for DC. I don't pay attention to prices to much because non-ferrous material is my enemy at work ferrous is how I make my money. I laughed though when they told me how much they were paying for copper 3.94 for barebright. WOW. You also might want to just try to buy something from him that he has a good flow of it coming it in and buy a single piece of it and find out how long it takes to clean it and weight up every single piece and figure out how much you would make from buying a gaylord or truckload and then you would know how long it would take you to clean and how much you would make off of it. Just a thought as to where to start.

[miked]

I really like Pistone's suggestion. Nothing replaces experience. If they take in ewaste as in towers are just tossed in the shred pile I would get all those I could.

There's lots of threads here involving how to break down various things. In particular there are several dealing with electric motors. I buy motors from my next door neighbor for .20lb and extract the copper. I do ok with it but you might hate it. So go beat the copper out of something and let us know how you like it. Miked.

[decjr2006]

i would start with things that rookies throw in the steel pile like air conditioners and computers or anything you can easily remove copper from. I dont think i would mess with there irony aluminum doesnt seem like there would be much money in it and a lot of work. Transformers are somewhat easy to breakdown and payoff well

[copperhead]

I've been doing electric motors. Actually my girlfriend of ten years who I sometimes refer to as my wife did four of them, turned in just the copper and we got $36. I still have the steel and the aluminum end pieces. I hope to eventually have something like a granulator to strip #1 and #2 wire. I can use the wire stripper at work but it isn't a good one plus I can't take it home otherwise I'd just strip copper all day at home. We get about a half a gaylord each day of motors. If I could get a faster way to pull the copper out I would be rich. I cut one end off and then pull the other end to get it all out. She'll get a better way soon.

[ScrapperNJ26]

Definitely computers, not as dirty or time consuming. Just need a few boxes or bins and be good to go.

[hobo finds]

Wht do you pay to take items? Steel price?

[copperhead]

I get the motors for the price he sells them in bulk for, $.30 per pound.

[freonjoe]

Do you get to sort out the motors you want?

[metaljacket]

What are the current scrap prices for the whole motors in your area.

[metaljacket]

Also what are some sources to buy motors in bulk to break down?

[copperhead]

I think he pays $.20-25 per pound.

[redcrossnj]

Insulated wire
Air Conditoners
TVS
Computers
Appliance Compressors
I will post a thread on how to get the copper out of tvs then get rid of the rest legally for free?

[copperhead]

Cool. I can get a gaylord of insulated wire. BUT, how hard or what's the best way to strip it?

[copperhead]

I stripped some insulated wire from an extension cord using a potato peeler. It was easy. It was a bit time consuming. I wish I knew the ratio for insulated to clean to see the difference in price to see how much I would have to strip per hour to earn $9 per hour.

[Mechanic688]

I think CMNH just posted in another thread about building his own homemade wire stripper, didn't cost anything but time to make, and I can tell you it does work cause we have one in the garage also.

I will post a thread on how to get the copper out of tvs then get rid of the rest legally for free?

That has been posted on here repeatedly also.

[decjr2006]

copperhead i really think that your best upportunitity for profit is things out of the shred pile people throw stuff in there that contains brass and copper daily, paying tin price for an air conditioner and breaking it down would probobly net you atleast 15 an hour.

[DumbD]

The scrapyard I go to JUST started buying AC compressors...I was telling the employees a while back to buy them at cost and
sell them elsewhere. Now they buy them though.

Besides that, Had my eye on an aluminum boat for a while (that they may sell me at cost).
It has a minor hole I could repair , but the biggest problem is it would need to be registered, and I don't know if it could possibly be stolen originally...so don't want the hassle.

Oh, other scrapyard was going to sell me an OLD Honda motorcycle I liked for $80 ...but I hesitated because it had a shaft drive. (shaft-drive is very good, but it can't be used very easily if the motor is switched to a "chopper" frame is all).

I see enough at the yard I go getting tossed in the steel , I think I could earn my keep IF they'd hire me, but I've applied already...atleast the one boss told me he "saw my app. , didn't have work, BUT when they get calls for pick-ups (they don't do)," and he "knows I'll bring the stuff there ONLY" ...
He would "call my cell phone"...Better than working there IF it works out!!!
EDIT: perhaps you could do "pick-ups" on your off days is my idea? is all.

[copperhead]

We talked about me taking a day of and just going freestyle through everything. Not sure if it will happen.

[decjr2006]

i could make a fortune just helping people unload all day and taking stuff that i wouldnt normally throw in the shred pile would end up with a massive load of grill lids computers and airconditioners among other things