Hardware from ceiling fans

[wayne1956]

I have picked up several ceiling fans and most of the casings were steel. Here is my question. Some of the brackets that the fan blades screwed on to are non-magnetic. I took a file to reveal the metal beneath the paint, and it was a silver color, so they are not brass. Any idea what the bracket is probably made of? I am thinking pot metal, but did not know if the brackets were commonly made out of pot metal.

[Scrap man]

I'd guess aluminum

[hobo finds]

They go as die cast by me and I am getting .10 a pound for them...

[rca987]

They go for sheet aluminum here; .75/lb

I have come across a few that were steel, too. (magnetic)

[Saroro]

That raises a good question for me. How do you tell the difference between pot-metal and aluminum since they are both non-magnetic?

[Scraplogic]

Scratch and/or spark tests.

[hobo finds]

hit it with a hammer pot metal will break

[fiat128]

Most of these are die cast zinc plated with brass. Die cast zinc is what alot of people call "pot metal" (it's actually a series of alloys called Zamak or Mazak) . The easy way to tell them from aluminum is that they will be heavy and aluminum is light. Also, die cast zinc gets a grayish color to it as it oxidizes. If you know what color an unpainted matchbox car is then you know what color zinc is.

Getting a fair price for zinc from a yard is hard to do as almost nobody knows what it is and they can get away with screwing you. Spot price for zinc right now is about $0.94 lb. I have been putting it in barrels and when I accumulate a ton or so of this I'll go shopping it.

Usually if you can fill a gaylord with anything you can negotiate for a fair price.

There is a huge amount of stuff made out of this but many people can't recognize it. If you've got cast alumunum that seems too heavy to be aluminum it's probably zinc.

[IdahoScrapper]

I better dig out the fan hardware I tossed into the aluminum pile. Thanks for the info.

[redcrossnj]

there zinc i did a thread on them , search what items contain zinc . hope this helps

[zakmattingly]

My yard takes 'em as cast aluminum even though they know they're not. They don't have a price for zinc there so I'll have to check around. Didn't realize I was losing money on 'em. I heard the pieces inside the corners of screen windows are zinc too.

[Pinkyverma]

My father told me Hover is the best ceiling fan supplier in India.

[JJinLV]

My father told me Hover is the best ceiling fan supplier in India.

Psssh. Everyone knows it's Crompton.

[auminer]

Holy old thread, Batman!

Lots of desk lamp bodies are zinc, too.

IIRC diecast goes for 30ish cents around here.