OK done with doing steel iron heavy metal scrap.
Why you ask? Heres why. Year ago we got up to 11.5 cents per lb for light steel and 13 cents per lb for Cast iron which you can tell it's cast by wacking a few times with heavy hammer it cracks.
Today current they dropped again to 4 cents a lb and 5.5 for cast.
This means per ton YOU now lose a whopping $150 .holy chit thats a weeks pay net after taxes for half of mini wage earner's! ok sorry was wrong with that amount but at least half of work week.
MY van wasn't large but at times was able to get 2000 lbs in it like all heavy pipes 8 - 10 feet long 50 - 100 lbs each.
So now i only do copper wire from contractors where i simply go to them and buy it for 10 cents more per lb than what scrap dealers pay them.
Got two of them thats an easy 200 lbs per week of thick romex wire. Yards pay only a putrid .70 per lb on it.so i get 100 lbs for $80 strip it with new wire stripper in 2 days get paid $1.98 per lb for it about 80 lbs clean.
$158 per 100 lbs.
profit is $78 thats huge almost 100%
Just hope i get enough every week ............ when they do a full demo house wireing it's like 300 lbs insulated a large office full re wire i seen 400 lbs come out but some of that old BMX has steel casing on it which i get for .30 cents per lb.
A pain to remove that steel casing using a roto strip cut off a foot at time on both ends until it's loose enough to pull rest of wires through.
The alumnium casing is loose and most times just open up ends pull the ground wire through then just slip the 2 or 3 wires out.
Thats only about .35 a lb so i can get that for .45 a lb ..
I just don't get it why the prices dropped like 7 cents per lb. IT almost back to the 80's prices 1.5 to 3 cents per lb
Gas is still ave. 2.40 per gal ...............i learned That China controls the prices on all scrap so because they are going down they aint paying as much.
Imagine you bust your butt all day long for $80 picking up whatever to jam into truck.
Fridges dont weigh that much maybe 150 lbs and YOU cannot fit 15 fridges into a truck 8 foot bed.
Then if you have tools and help you break off the copper tubes and wiring plus the condenser which can weigh like 50 lbs and the sheet aluminum and get way more cash per fridge.
BUT if YOUR solo with no help 1 fridge will take 2 hours to rip apart.
Gain about 12$ total.
however if i had to still do the scrap work heavy steel i just would get large truck van with a 12 foot cargo space and a 6 foot ceiling.
Because thats faster money just pick it up n bring in next day $80 a day X 5 days = $400 per week. OUCH my aching back .... load and unload 1 ton thats 4000 lbs you lifted and removed ...
20,000 per week.....
Gas and maintenance cut into profits at least $85 per week.
Still thats a nice pay per year tax free.
$16,380 just the steel.
Add in non ferrous money -copper aluminum brass bronze lead stainless steel your at $35,000 per year or more again depending on how much you can do.
Couple i know work in teams just two have large trucks with the high cages 4 feet above the cab roof max height i think it is by law.
They drive around from like early morning 8 or 9 am till 6 or 7 pm night untill they cannot fit anymore into truck .
BUT if they took time to break the pieces down they could carry more by reducing space 80% of air.
I always did large furniture frames all steel heck slice it with power saw easy to lay flat in my small van instead of stacking it that took up half the space.
Sure it took time to do but now i had more room and could do two or 3 more and thats at least 800 lbs of heavy steel.
Maybe find a contruction site where they have those heavy beams supports laying on ground.
Tough to lift but just one side into van then using knees and arms slide it in.
Sometimes though they were too heavy like 250 lbs each and i had to let them lay there.
OOOO well thats all Scrapping today is just harder YOU need a large cargo bed i think 8 foot or 10 foot and with boards up on sides and the back when done to make sure it falling off when driving to unload.
Why you ask? Heres why. Year ago we got up to 11.5 cents per lb for light steel and 13 cents per lb for Cast iron which you can tell it's cast by wacking a few times with heavy hammer it cracks.
Today current they dropped again to 4 cents a lb and 5.5 for cast.
This means per ton YOU now lose a whopping $150 .holy chit thats a weeks pay net after taxes for half of mini wage earner's! ok sorry was wrong with that amount but at least half of work week.
MY van wasn't large but at times was able to get 2000 lbs in it like all heavy pipes 8 - 10 feet long 50 - 100 lbs each.
So now i only do copper wire from contractors where i simply go to them and buy it for 10 cents more per lb than what scrap dealers pay them.
Got two of them thats an easy 200 lbs per week of thick romex wire. Yards pay only a putrid .70 per lb on it.so i get 100 lbs for $80 strip it with new wire stripper in 2 days get paid $1.98 per lb for it about 80 lbs clean.
$158 per 100 lbs.
profit is $78 thats huge almost 100%
Just hope i get enough every week ............ when they do a full demo house wireing it's like 300 lbs insulated a large office full re wire i seen 400 lbs come out but some of that old BMX has steel casing on it which i get for .30 cents per lb.
A pain to remove that steel casing using a roto strip cut off a foot at time on both ends until it's loose enough to pull rest of wires through.
The alumnium casing is loose and most times just open up ends pull the ground wire through then just slip the 2 or 3 wires out.
Thats only about .35 a lb so i can get that for .45 a lb ..
I just don't get it why the prices dropped like 7 cents per lb. IT almost back to the 80's prices 1.5 to 3 cents per lb
Gas is still ave. 2.40 per gal ...............i learned That China controls the prices on all scrap so because they are going down they aint paying as much.
Imagine you bust your butt all day long for $80 picking up whatever to jam into truck.
Fridges dont weigh that much maybe 150 lbs and YOU cannot fit 15 fridges into a truck 8 foot bed.
Then if you have tools and help you break off the copper tubes and wiring plus the condenser which can weigh like 50 lbs and the sheet aluminum and get way more cash per fridge.
BUT if YOUR solo with no help 1 fridge will take 2 hours to rip apart.
Gain about 12$ total.
however if i had to still do the scrap work heavy steel i just would get large truck van with a 12 foot cargo space and a 6 foot ceiling.
Because thats faster money just pick it up n bring in next day $80 a day X 5 days = $400 per week. OUCH my aching back .... load and unload 1 ton thats 4000 lbs you lifted and removed ...
20,000 per week.....
Gas and maintenance cut into profits at least $85 per week.
Still thats a nice pay per year tax free.
$16,380 just the steel.
Add in non ferrous money -copper aluminum brass bronze lead stainless steel your at $35,000 per year or more again depending on how much you can do.
Couple i know work in teams just two have large trucks with the high cages 4 feet above the cab roof max height i think it is by law.
They drive around from like early morning 8 or 9 am till 6 or 7 pm night untill they cannot fit anymore into truck .
BUT if they took time to break the pieces down they could carry more by reducing space 80% of air.
I always did large furniture frames all steel heck slice it with power saw easy to lay flat in my small van instead of stacking it that took up half the space.
Sure it took time to do but now i had more room and could do two or 3 more and thats at least 800 lbs of heavy steel.
Maybe find a contruction site where they have those heavy beams supports laying on ground.
Tough to lift but just one side into van then using knees and arms slide it in.
Sometimes though they were too heavy like 250 lbs each and i had to let them lay there.
OOOO well thats all Scrapping today is just harder YOU need a large cargo bed i think 8 foot or 10 foot and with boards up on sides and the back when done to make sure it falling off when driving to unload.
