Scrapping Kinda Sucks

BOOT said:
Only time i seen the local yard use a grapple, was years ago. When i took cars on a trailer, to this one yard that i think is closed now. They use to swing it into the ground and knock the tires off for yah too.
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They have a big ball of fencing they use the grappler to push the scrap into a pile in the unload are
 
I had to work this morning for an hour or so .
I finished up about 6:30am and instead of going home I striped some rolls of wire my son brought home.
Here is a pic of how I did it . I put the drill powered stripper in the vice the way I always do when stripping regular 12 , 14 or 16 wire . If you zoom in you will see that I put a piece of pipe in the drill press table clamp and set the spool over the pipe and the wire fed/got pulled into the stripper. The spools were 500' when new , some were 1/2 used up and others were still 3/4 full. .I did 4 spools and have 4 more to do another day . I got about 1/3 of a 5gal bucket worth in an hour and a 1/2.

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Think I'm gonna make a stand for my stripper and mount a corded drill(have a few) also to it. Well if i don't get that far or fancy, I have an old wood end table, I'll just mount them both to LOL

Twice I've seen the shafts get bent by YTers because the drill wasn't mounted. Might of been they were in too much a rush or doing some heavy gauge or not very straight stuff. Most the stuff I have will not be newer and beat up/used.
 
I pretty much only mess with copper and brass since I do a lot of electrical and plumbing work. Aluminum sometimes for a big job but never steel I give that away to a local friend that takes it.
 
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So I went to Apex Recycling in East St Louis this morning and they set me up as a business customer. I get a slightly higher price than someone that comes in off the street so-to-speak. For aluminum wheels, it was an increase of $0.08 ($1.38 vs $1.30)

27 wheels. 660 lbs.
$1.38/per pound.
$911 cash money.

I still have 2 sets of Jeep wheels, and a set of newer Ranger wheels out back. I couldn't bring myself to scrap them because they're in such good shape. I'm going to put them on MP for a couple weeks. I'll scrap them if no one bites.

In order to sell cats there I need to get a business license. I'm not sure what that will cost, or even how to go about it. I guess I have some research to do.
 
AutomaticWeapon said:
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So I went to Apex Recycling in East St Louis this morning and they set me up as a business customer. I get a slightly higher price than someone that comes in off the street so-to-speak. For aluminum wheels, it was an increase of $0.08 ($1.38 vs $1.30)

27 wheels. 660 lbs.
$1.38/per pound.
$911 cash money.

I still have 2 sets of Jeep wheels, and a set of newer Ranger wheels out back. I couldn't bring myself to scrap them because they're in such good shape. I'm going to put them on MP for a couple weeks. I'll scrap them if no one bites.

In order to sell cats there I need to get a business license. I'm not sure what that will cost, or even how to go about it. I guess I have some research to do.
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Wow that's great! Herd you can get better prices with larger loads, why I'm hoarding as well. But kinda doubt my local yards will do that, seems most the good stuff i hear don't apply here.

Far as cats, idk may be worth finding someone as a middle man??? Or again saving them up and traveling a bit, depends if you or someone else yah trust, is gong that way at somepoint.
 
Just going thru a box of nails that i got from this lady not long ago. Like the third time a widow said, "eh like who really needs a box or nails/random-hardware or other things like old axe/hammer heads". Each time i pull out good stuff. Like bits of copper, alum n brass. But also some of the hardware! For example that box had 30 or so new 1-1/2 gold zinc washers(7/16 or metric hole).

I think it's because they never had to make a hardware store trip, for random bolts, nuts n washers and walk out $30-50 poorer. I'll gladly bag n hang onto those washers LOL idk how many times I've needed 10 or more for some random project. Shit adds up!

[edit] I don't keep rusty hardware but anything new or new-like :)
 
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Gotta scrap my dads old hoard of hardware, mostly used n rusty or old type. When my friends n I were young n broke, idk how many times we dug thru this large tool box of bolts n nuts, that my dad had saved. Thing has to weight close to 100lbs LOL but it's old stuff, lotta weird sizes. Was grateful when i could afford new hardware and partly why i have saved so much stuff that I've taken off cars/things, that was in good condition.
 
@Mixed up - How many tires were you able to cut off with the same blade? Did you count? Today I had a marathon cutting tires and I got 10. The last 2 were kinda a struggle, but I was determined to get 10. I started out with a freshie. I'm using Milwaukee Torch blades. Maybe there are better blades out there, idk? It's not like these blades I have were cheap. I just feel like cutting through rubber and aluminum shouldn't dull blades so quickly.

@BOOT - Per the PM about the angle grinder. I been thinking about that damn tool all day. I could easily blast through the beads in 2 seconds, but, I'm afraid too much material will get lost due to the wide blade/disk. The way I'm doing it now, I'm losing about an inch of material, the width of a sawzall blade. I doubt it even registers on my scale. Those grinders have a fat ass disk on them and the loss could add up quickly.

I took 32 tires to a spot outside of town that my neighbor told me about. I'm not sure what they do there, but, they have a spot outside their gate for people to leave tires for them. I was more than happy to oblige. :)

I have another set of wheels lined up for tomorrow morning. 18s of a newish Ram truck. 32 lbs. each according to Google. I'm taking a chance on these. I offered the guy $80 (~$100 profit) and he came back at $130. I told him I can't go that high and offered $100 (~$75 profit), and he accepted.

I'm hoping this deal tomorrow goes smooth. If it does, I'll be taking 702 lbs. to the yard tomorrow or Monday.
 
New Lennox blade i think I got thru 2 or 3 tires I gave up and started using the cut off to go thru the whole tire .
I did like the video boot posted on tire removals. The part was cutting the tread it flexed to much and would break the blade .I think thats why I seen guys at the tire recycle cut the tire all the way around about 1 inch from the bead with the sawmill and use the cut off on the bead and rim that sound like a good plan for my next try when that happens
 
AutomaticWeapon said:
@Mixed up - How many tires were you able to cut off with the same blade? Did you count? Today I had a marathon cutting tires and I got 10. The last 2 were kinda a struggle, but I was determined to get 10. I started out with a freshie. I'm using Milwaukee Torch blades. Maybe there are better blades out there, idk? It's not like these blades I have were cheap. I just feel like cutting through rubber and aluminum shouldn't dull blades so quickly.

@BOOT - Per the PM about the angle grinder. I been thinking about that damn tool all day. I could easily blast through the beads in 2 seconds, but, I'm afraid too much material will get lost due to the wide blade/disk. The way I'm doing it now, I'm losing about an inch of material, the width of a sawzall blade. I doubt it even registers on my scale. Those grinders have a fat ass disk on them and the loss could add up quickly.

I took 32 tires to a spot outside of town that my neighbor told me about. I'm not sure what they do there, but, they have a spot outside their gate for people to leave tires for them. I was more than happy to oblige. :)

I have another set of wheels lined up for tomorrow morning. 18s of a newish Ram truck. 32 lbs. each according to Google. I'm taking a chance on these. I offered the guy $80 (~$100 profit) and he came back at $130. I told him I can't go that high and offered $100 (~$75 profit), and he accepted.

I'm hoping this deal tomorrow goes smooth. If it does, I'll be taking 702 lbs. to the yard tomorrow or Monday.
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They make diff thickness/material disk(even for smaller air grinders and thickness matters really for those or they bog down), thinner ones wear faster obviously tho. I got a cheap pack of amazon that i split, was $30ish for 105 disk, so $15 for 52. Bulk online is always the way to go for consumables.

Good sawzall blades tho are a must. When i cut up all those tires, i broke many HF blades but that was long ago and i wasn't paying for them ;) Years later when i got some Good blades, I was like omg I wonder how many less blades it would have taken. Not all blades are the same thickness either, some b end easy and why i like longer blades as well ;)

The angle grinder i shared EATS batts(I'll make the review vid soon), use a corded grinder for tires(like in the vid corded tools are the way to go). I only shared that grinder, for on the road type deals, IE when i find something too long/big for my box and need a cut or few to make it fit. Paid for itself 2x at least already.
 
Cutting into the wheels is not much alum lost, we are talking pennies. It's time you save VS cost in a lot of scrap things. Sure some things i will make the extra effort but also if you don't have the time to spare and time is money for some.

I once cleaned up a pile of brass dust from cutting some pipe, like not much in a cup. I spilled that cup 3 times and just tossed it out LOL The amount of time i spent scooping it up and then re-scooping up the spills ugh....

For copper i wanna try clipping the pipes to remove the solder joints vs cutting but if it's too much a pita, I will cut them.

[edit] Trying cutting the wheels over a matt or dropcloth, then collect the alum and see if it's worth your time.
 
Mixed up said:
New Lennox blade i think I got thru 2 or 3 tires I gave up and started using the cut off to go thru the whole tire .
I did like the video boot posted on tire removals. The part was cutting the tread it flexed to much and would break the blade .I think thats why I seen guys at the tire recycle cut the tire all the way around about 1 inch from the bead with the sawmill and use the cut off on the bead and rim that sound like a good plan for my next try when that happens
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Like all things, takes practice to get a feel for it. I usually find my own slightly altered method based on others. Not cut any off wheels yet but when i cut those tires in half, the first tread cut was easier as the tire was more ridged. I'd try cutting the tread before notching the sidewall. Plunge into sidewall and go right across the tread.

[edit] Tall sidewall tire deff be easier but for short sidewall angle the blade is prob the way. Again idk not done it myself yet.
 
So, I met the Dodge wheels guy this morning at his storage unit. He opens the door and there are wheels/tires stacked everywhere. We made a deal and I bought 210 lbs. of wheels for $140.. I made $150 on the deal. Best part, only one wheel had a tire on it. :) I'm hoping to score some more before Monday.

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This is my current pile. 784 lbs. This is going to the yard on Monday morning. It's gonna be a nice payday.
 
BOOT said:
Trying cutting the wheels over a matt or dropcloth, then collect the alum and see if it's worth your time.
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Oh, shit no. I'm not looking to collect to collect the aluminum dust.. I just don't want to cut more out the wheels than I have to. I didn't realize there were different width disks for angle grinders, I thought they were all like a 1/2" thick. I might go to HD later and see what they have. Whatever I get, it will be corded. Sawzall works great for tire tread and sidewall, it's getting through the bead that takes all the time.

BOOT said:
For copper i wanna try clipping the pipes to remove the solder joints vs cutting but if it's too much a pita, I will cut them.
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Is it possible to reheat the joints and slide them apart? Then wipe off whatever solder is there when it's still liquified?
 
There are guys who buy larger lots of aluminum wheels, they scrap some and some they sell to businesses who "refurbish" wheels. Mostly to sell to body shops for insurance jobs.
 
The thicker cut off last longer I had 10 of them and broke 1 but I cut up 8 tires but like I said the side wall has no metal in it and cuts real easy so I would try the method of cut around the side wall on both sides with sawsall then cut the bead you might get away with just prying it off instead of cutting the rim and bead with a cut off
 
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