Buying scrap aluminium bar from scrappy good idea or not so?

[bry1975]

Chaps,

I'm looking for some Aluminium bar about 2.5-3inch diameter and say 250-350mm long, ebay price is £26.28.  Any idea what the scrappy would charge me?


TIA


Bry

[trevoratxtal]

Hello Bry
Some scrappys are greedy but I find most willing to to sell at twice scrap price.
That would make you piece about half price, but would your local scrappy have that size in the yard.
What you pay for from metal suppliers/ stockists is storage and known quality.
I have purchased a lot of various metals over the years from recyclers (scrappys) but never for a critical build.  
I hope this helps.
Trev
PS if you showed where you are in the UK a fellow Mad Modder might be able to point you to a supplier.

[bry1975]

Thanks Trevor,


Leicester way.


Bry

[HS93]

do you need it that long or is it going to be cut up as you may find it is cheaper to buy seveal pieces as oposed to one large one, have you tried ebay

peter

[bry1975]

It can be much less as the part length is 1inch but wanted a decent amount, so 2-3 inches can be held in the chuck and the rest for repeat orders.

[raynerd]

My scrappy is great for brass but I can never get hold of ally solid bar!!    Is this just me or do others find this as well?  There is loads of aluminium plate (max 4-6mm thick) and also ally frames and stuff but never solid bar square or round 

[bry1975]

One idea I could look at ally plate but wanted to make the machining work as straightforward as possible.

[raynerd]

BTW, if I could find some, my local scrap yard sells ally for £2.60 a KG so using this:

http://www.matweb.com/tools/weightcalculator.aspx

(and i`ve no idea if it is calculating it correctly!)

A 3" dia by 300mm ally bar weighs in at 3.69kg so if I could find it at my scrap yard he would be charging £9.50 - £10.  

[bry1975]

I bet most of the scrappies get Ally from the conservatory and window firms, I know we use to get our extrusions from either Sapa at Ashchurch Tewkesbury or Boal at Loughborough it was only 6063 T4 grade so not SUPER strong.

[Ray]

Craynerd, just the opposite here.  Plenty of Aluminum round, flat and blocks but very seldom see any brass that is usable.
ironman (Ray)

[JimM]

My scrappy is great for brass but I can never get hold of ally solid bar!!    Is this just me or do others find this as well?  There is loads of aluminium plate (max 4-6mm thick) and also ally frames and stuff but never solid bar square or round 

I'd just be happy to find a scrappy that would deal with me. They're few and far between in these parts and the only one I've found that was amicable to selling to joe public never has anything in, all he seems to really have are copper boilers, plumbing fittings and bits of old greenhouses !!

[bry1975]

What about EAST LANDAN? 

[Dave G]

Hi Bry, I would stay away from anything that is not marked. I had a fellow drop some al. round stock off for me to make a part for a sprint car and it was the gummiest al. that I had ever tried to machine. I sent it back with him and purchased some 6061 for the job. It was more like wrought al. and it has a much lower tensile strength than say 6061 with a t6 HT. 6061 can't be bent well without fracturing where the soft al. can be. If it is not marked look for any saw cuts. The good al. will have a shinier surface than the soft al. Dave

[fgleich]

I just recently purchased 145 pounds of 6061 for 1 dollar/pound in a round 4x4x48, a bar 3.5x3.5x48, and a plate 1x8x48, and this metal scrap yard had more, but I didn't have the money to buy it all. Some machine shop musta gone out of business and sold all his stock for scrap, and I happened to catch it before he shipped all his aluminum to the west coast for recycling. I won't have to buy any this size for years now, . Anyway, 6061 is going for at least 4 dollars a pound here at the metal supermarket. It pays to check your local scrap yard periodically for any kind of metal, sometimes they have really good stuff for cheap.

[Jonny]

Bad idea you dont know what you are getting.

Slightly off, 3 scrap vans come round every day playing the most annoying sound, two with trumpets

[winklmj]

I couldn't afford this hobby w/o the local scrappy. When my original scrappy more than doubled prices on me I had to start searching for another. Slowly I've discovered a few more that will sell to the public. Luckily I found one that has (literally) 30-40' tall piles of aluminum, brass, and bronze. I was drooling the 1st day I walked around the yard. The only down side is that he only gets scrap metal or junk that's been through a shredder (so no scavenging from things like old printers and the like that you can steal gears and motors from, etc...).

[fgleich]

Bad idea you dont know what you are getting.

I know this is 6061 T6 because it's marked that way. I've also bought other 6061 in plate, etc.

https://picasaweb.google.com/gleichf/ScrapAluminum

[Jonny]

Nice find fgleich must be a rarity having the etching still on.

Leads me on to cost $4 a pound 6061, over here have noticed price has drastically risen the last 18 months. Scrap value not far off retail a few years back.
bay prices are ridiculous this year, working it back to the £ buying small quantity 6082 round 5 1/4" cut to length works out at £10.38 per lb. Probably knock off 50p per cut that would be close on £9 lb. 100 off comes down to £6.30 Lb as a comparison.
UK forget the scrappy get yourself down to ASC.

[Scuba1]

If anyone is interested, I may be able to help out in the oxford area during the week of Bedford area at weekends with stainless and ally round bar as i get it at cost from the company i work for. Round bar up to 4" in both ally and ss.

ATB

Michael

[Chazz]

I guess I'm moving to Oxford! 

 
Chazz

[Jonny]

Shame you were not a bit closer Michael.

At one place we used to buy new aluminium for 4p/Lb same price as steel, should at time been around 20p/lb scrap.
You get a fair bit for a £1.

[Scuba1]

sometimes it hurts to see what does get thrown out as scrap but I cant take it all home on my bike lol

[S. Heslop]

sometimes it hurts to see what does get thrown out as scrap but I cant take it all home on my bike lol

Tell me about it. Lifes difficult being a miser and knowing that the stuff i'm spending money on is being thrown out for nothing elsewhere.

[mechman48]

Hi all 

My two 'pennorth; went to a few scrappies last week looking for CI, brass, ally, to stock up on materials but most of them 'round here are car breakers & put the stuff through the pulverisor/shredder so not a lot of joy. Asked the question at one & the foreman said try so & so's, they tend to do recycling.
Called in to so & so's and asked the supervisor the question; they didn't have much in the way of Alum' bar stock only tons of window frame sections,not much in the CI dept either apart from huge industrial cast valves etc, too big for my needs, anyhow rummaging through the brass pile, mostly plumbing fittings & the like, I struck it lucky & came across a few bits of square bar, flat bar small dia. round bar & small flats  . After picking the best pieces I had them weighed up.. 16.2 kilos!  cost me £50..so that worked out to £3.09p per kilo, obviously no test certs etc but for that price I aint complaining 

Did some talking with him & discovered he was into model making albeit in plastic kit form & was presently making a Tiger tank so he said he would keep his eyes open  for more, & for ally & CI, & would put it off to one side for me so if I can call by at the end of the month he may have some decent bits for me..it pays to talk..hmm, where have I heard that before  so possibly a future supplier for general non critical stuff ..here's hoping 
Have att pic.
Cheers
George.