This is one of many loads of scrap metal I've taken to the scrapyard. In this particular load is one of the two Reed lathes that I bought as a set. I had originally planned to "restore" both machines but I changed my mind since the machines were taking up so much space and I knew it'd be years before that goal is reached. It just wasn't worth it to me. In addition to the lathe parts you can see a hot water heater tank that I was planning to build a cupola or cupollette from but changed my mind again.
Here is a view of the scrapyard from the highway. It's not the best photo because I was driving while taking it! Not as dangerous as it sounds since I just pointed the camera out the window without looking and hoped the picture turned out well. Click photo for a larger view
In this photo you'll notice several large tracked machines they use to move scrap around with and the mountain of scrap iron behind it. This mountain appeared to be composed of mainly cast iron things like brake drums. Also notice the compressed bales of sheet metal objects to the right of the mountain. They have a location to dump your solid steel and iron items and another for sheetmetal scrap like washing machines and steel auto body scrap.
Here is one of the machines at the yard that has a grabber attachment. They used this machine to lift the milling machine out the truck for me. The machine was about 40 feet away on the other side of a huge heap of scrap when the operator extended the "arm" out toward the truck. There is a hydraulic gripper attachment on the end and it literally looked like a GIANT hand coming down from above (I was standing a mere 6 feet away!). As it grabbed the mill there was a massively loud shattering sound. The machine lifted the mill body out of the truck and I saw that the sound was the gripper hand breaking through the thick iron shell! I saw this same machine lift a COMPLETE machine out the back of a tractor trailer style truck and the machine must have weighed at least three tons.
I don't know what the heck this stuff is but the pile of it was huge. For a bit of size comparison, the thing on the lower right corner of the photo is the side view mirror from a van.
In this photo the red pickup truck is having metal lifted out the back by a magnetic pickup attachment on the arm of this mega-machine. You can't see the attachment but this photo is good for showing the size of these machines.
Here is another view of a giant heap of metal. Massive piles like these get built up and shipped out to steel mills on a weekly basis. This scrapyard moves TREMENDOUS amounts of scrap metal in incredibly short time.
Here is some scrap parts on my pallet jack ready to be loaded onto the pickup truck. The two electric motors are from the milling machine and bandsaw. They weigh about 75 pounds each and I got about $21.00 for both of them. The scrap yard accepts any scrap metal in addition to automotive batteries, electric motors, etc. They'll buy just about anything with recoverable metal and pay you by the pound based on the current price rates for that particular type of scrap.
Here are over 200 pounds worth of aluminum ingots as well as some other scrap aluminum and about 30 pounds of scrap brass in my Jeep. I decided to sell the ingots to the scrap yard because they were taking up too much space. I think I got $.41/pound for it which is rather low but the market fluctuates and I didn't really care. It was still an extra $100 or so in my pocket for my surplus aluminum. Fortunetly I made all those ingots with my waste oil burner (free fuel). Had I used propane to make them I'd have taken a big financial loss. The time I spent making them isn't a big deal to me because it was mostly all done while experimenting with the various waste oil burners.
But to get to the point, I cleaned literally TONs of scrap metal from the one acre property. Some of the heavy metal included SEVERAL riding lawn mowers, a garden tiller, various steel gas tanks, steel stock of all sorts, a rusted trailer, several fences, an old cast iron generator, one stove, a washer and dryer, etc.. etc.. etc... Even the old Copar Panzer tractor It required multiple trips to the recycling center with a full size pickup truck and Dodge Durango SUV. Had there been a scrapyard where I could have sold the metal for just $.05/pound (a current going rate) I'd have put several hundred dollars in my pocket! Oh how I wished I had a big-@ss truck to bring the metal down to the scrapyard in the city! It took me days to get that thought out of my head.
Here is another load of scrap metal. It turns out that you can often find a lot of junk to get rid of around the house, yard, garage and basement when you discover that someone is willing to pay you CASH for it!