Things change and not always for the best..

[John Hill]

It was time to get some material stocks so I went looking for the scrap yard.  Several that I knew from years ago are long gone but I did find one.

Not a yard exactly just a big building with trucks going in and coming out.  So I went to take a look with my nutating engine in a bag in case I got a chance to show it.  Well the chaps were pretty interested alright but they had almost no scrap!  Trucks dumped stuff off which was mostly sheet metal, steel and aluminium but also copper, all worthless for what I was looking for but I was invited to look at the pile out the back (that sounded interesting), not!  Hardly a decent bit to be seen just tangled water pipes, a few smashed car engines (mildly interesting) and stuff like car and truck cross members.  Apparently they 'process' just about everything as it arrives, it is sorted, crushed and baled or ripped to shreds and packed in containers to go to somewhere (China maybe?).

So I went out of town a bit and found another place I remembered, only a fraction of the land it once was with almost no piles but several skips being filled, this was more like it but pretty much the same sort of stuff.  Some could have been interesting but if it is at the bottom of a skip there is not much I could do.  I must visit them again one day and hopefully they will have something available.

On the way home I called in at my neighbour Carl's place, he is somewhat of an artist and a clever man with metal. Please look at his work at http://www.flickr.com/photos/differentperspective/sets/72157594551949221/
and at http://carlucci-land.blogspot.com/
He is building some sort of park with junk and clever constructions. Carl gave me some information and I was able to obtain a scrap of 20mm plate that I was looking for.

[Darren]

Sad isn't it John, that's exactly what I've found to date with all the scrap yards I've visited. Just cars, caravans and washing machines and not a lot else.

Glad you found your bit.....

[PTsideshow]

Yes it isn't much different on this side of the pond. The bean counters and lawyers/insurance agents. Along with the just in time delivery system of parts in industry, has carried over into the land of scrap. It goes out as it comes in usually with in two days here. CASH flow or so the guy that owns the yard says ( well his mom owns it, he is the front man) mom looks to be to much of a scraper (fighter not the metal kind). Plus the fact that selling to people isn't worth the storage square footage of building use.

The only one in the area that sells stuff, has aluminum,brass and copper bar stock and sheet and some angle. Prices some times are higher than at the small length supplier.

With the way the prices of the scrap are going up and down. He said they don't like to keep it around. He still remembers last January, when the largest steel buyer in Britain set the buy price of steel to £0.00 per pound. That put the fear or getting stuck with a yard of worthless scrap.

[rleete]

Find a machine shop.  Ask for cutoffs or scrap.  They'll charge you scrap prices, and you'll usually find the pieces are perfect for the small stuff we do.

Take your engines, and look for the oldest, grumpiest looking guy there.  They are usually the most appreciative.  Avoid the young CNC operators.

[John Hill]

Take your engines, and look for the oldest, grumpiest looking guy there. 

Someone like me you mean?

[John Stevenson]

Things are changing in the offcuts as well.

Whereas before bar feeders on auto's and CNC's saved the last bit many have had them altered to use all but the last inch up.

The brass guys are on contract for all the chippings and bar ends to go back when they deliver new material.

I'm still well in with a couple of scrappies but last month I asked them to keep a lookout for some stainless bar or various sizes, at one time this would have got me 20 odd assorted lengths, last week it got me 3 pieces about 2" long ?

I think I had better hang onto this ?



John S.

[andyf]

John, is it just my eyes, or is that machine levitating?
Andy

[John Hill]

John, is it just my eyes, or is that machine levitating?
Andy

Dont be silly Andy, it is hanging from a nail in the rafters!

[dsquire]

Andy & John

At first glance I too thought that it was hanging there. Upon closer inspection it realized it was an illusion. 

John

If you have the room to store it I would keep it. It is never going to get any cheaper. If you don't have what you need sometimes you can always swap some out with someone that has what you need.

Looks to me like there are a lot of fancy little whatever's hiding in that pile. 

Cheers 

Don