8/6/13
Just finished a new batch of videos on scrapping a hot water heater, box fan, electric heater, and crushing cans.  Also started a new video series about getting to know your metals, how to identify, get the most money for them, and how to separate.  Also just got a nice haul of scraps from a basement cleanout, lots of brass, copper, and even lead pipes! 

I have been getting a lot of requests and questions about gold recovery and refining.  So far I have made a few short videos on the subject but fear that I am giving people the wrong impression.  I don't do all types of recovery and refining.  I only use HCL so that kind of limits what I can do. 

I plan on making only a few more gold videos, I plan to do a gold pin video, gold ribbon, gold refining, and maybe even a gold recovery from pottery and glassware.  But that is really it.  Maybe one on where to find gold too. 

The big money makers will still be the ferrous, copper, brass, and aluminum finds as well as reselling on ebay etc. 

Also, an upcoming video on making the most money with wheel rims!

Summer scrapping GRILLS!!

Fathers day just apssed, and soon it will be Independance Day.  Time for replacing that grill!  That means lots of them people will want to get rid of!  Guarenteed to find steel, about a pound of brass, and possibly even 20lbs of aluminum!! 

Talk to your local store that sells grills ask them if you can put up a small poster that advertises old grill pick up for free.  These things are easy to pick up and can be worth more than $10 in scrap each!

Where is the metal in a grill?  Grab a megnet, a scrappers best friend, and start off with the cooking area, the grill lid and basin.  This is where you will find your most money in cast aluminum.  if it sticks, oh well, at least you can still grab the brass off the fuel valves and connectors.  Make sure you take a moment to remove the very few screws attaching any handles so that you get the best price for your aluminum.  find the connectors from the propane tank all the way to the control knobs and up to the burners.  You will find copper bands clamping the hoses, and the brass connectors may have small steel pieces in them so make sure you unscrew and remove those pieces to get top dollar.  Finally, you have the regulator which will have cast aluminum, brass, and steel.  Cast aluminum breaks fairly easy when introduced to a sledge hammer so if you get frustrated trying to take that piece apart, go ahead and let some of that frustration out. 

Newer grills are using less and less aluminum and more stainless steel or just painted steel.  They are much more disposable, sort of a marketing ploy to get you to buy a grill more often I suppose.

Happy scrapping!

Scrapping a Humidifier for copper and other metals

Today I released another YouTube video on the scrapping of a humidifier.  Remembering that they are all a little different, for the most part they all work the same.  Understanding how something works can really help in determining how to figure out what might sell as parts on ebay and help you to determine if its worth picking up in the first place.  The bulk of the weight for any of these things is plastic.  Please recycle it!  You are going to have your standard power cord with copper wire inside and brass on the plug.  This powers a small fan wich has a motor on it.  These motors are typically quite easy to pull apart for the copper and aluminum etc.  You may have a transformer, there will most likely be some lowgrade board, and some may have a small plate that heats up the water with will have aluminum and steel on it.  Be sure to check the componants of the low grade board for relays which can have copper and silver in them.  Total tear down time should be less than 5 minutes.

Scrap Metal hauling ads...to be free or not to be free?

This is an interesting area of discussion amongst scrappers who are trying to increase the number of calls they get from new customers.  The question is stating in the ad if the service should be free ro for a charge.  The is some interesting psychology behind that.  For some reason, people tend to think of a fee service as being more professional than a free service.  A fee service causes one to think of business, insurance, professionalism, integrity, reliability, and speed where as a free service brings to mind an image of just some guy driving around in his pickup truck who will stop by when he can stop by, and may grab a little more than he was supposed to.  Completely innaccurate in the vast majority of cases.  SO the question is what should YOU do?  The best resonable solution that i can come up with is to state in your ads that you offer low to no fee service.  You can be the judge of what you want to charge, perhaps not charge for larger loads and just a few bucks for small loads to cover gas, that part is up to you.  The model that I have adopted, and thats not to say it is the right one or the best one, is that.  If a person has a large load of scrap metal, you will be making money off of the metal.  If they have very little, you wont make much money, however, you will get word of mouth advertising which is priceless!! 

Sample Ad for scrappers looking for ewaste.

Here is a sample of the kind of ad I place:

Wanted:  I Want Your Ewaste!

If it plugs in or runs on batteries its ewaste!  Don’t let all of that old outdated unused or broken stuff clutter your home!  I offer a free service of picking up ewaste items and help the environment by a simple three step process.  Reuse: if the item can be reused I will find a new useful home for it, if not I will reduce it to its individual components and then recycle it.  The average weight reduction heading to the landfill is 94%!!  Items that may contain personal information are completely destroyed and recycled.  I do charge a small fee for removal of CRT or Glass Tube TV’s and Monitors if there are more than 3.  Since this is a free pick up service I appreciate calls for more than one or two items.  Tell your friends and neighbors!!  Here is a small list of SOME of the items that are considered eWaste:

Computers, Cell phones, home phones, VCR/dvd/blu ray players, stereos, microwaves, toasters, blenders, chargers, adapters, extension cords, power strips, battery backups, Li Ion batteries, laptops, video game systems, TV’s, monitors, printers, fax machines, fans, clocks, radios, projectors, cameras, ink and toner cartridges, cables, house wire scraps, light fixtures, lamps, washers, dryers, fridges, a/cs, dehumidifiers, humidifiers, stoves, ovens, hot plates, hair dryers, toaster ovens, personal music devices, PDA’s, car battery chargers, scanners, electric heaters, curling irons, coffee makers, if it plugs in, uses batteries, or electricity IN ANY FORM!!!  Also accepting metal plumbing and lead batteries.

Call or email to schedule a pick up!

Making money with parts

Making money with parts

Hey there, Moose here again.  Today I want to talk to you scrappers out there about how really boost your money making potential with scrapping.  When you scrap something, you are getting by definition, the lowest value for it.  You are getting scrap metal value.  The possibility to make more money is HUGE!!!!  People throw out things all the time that often still work or just need minor repairs.  You don’t need to be a mechanic, or electronics repair person and fix these items up and resell them although if you are, you can.  All you really need to know is if it works or not, and if not what the problem is.  Most people will tell you what went wrong if anything.  You can take that very little amount of information and hit the internet.  There are great sites out there where all you need is a maker and model number and you can pull up details pictures of your item pulled apart, what each part is called, and how much its worth!  I have three great examples.  The first is a microwave.  I would scrap these puppies all day long!!!  Easy to test, just try to heat up a cup of water.  You can take an old microwave and sell it in a yard sale for what, $10-$20?  OR, you can take it apart and make 4 times as much!!  There are components that are inside that never get nasty looking that sell for lots of money on ebay.  Here are some of the items inside and their value:

Magnetron  20-40

Turntable motor  5-10

Thermostat 4-7

Fan motor  5-10

Transformer  10-25

Hv capacitor 5-10

Glass plate   5-20

The next item is the treadmill.  You can find loads of these on Craig list.  People just want them gone!!  The firs thing you need to look at is the walking belt.  If its in good shape, you can get up to $100 for just the belt!!!  I have also sold the power supply module for $30, motor control module for $20, motor for $30, power supply cord for $20 and that was all from just one treadmill!!  Still want to just haul it to the scrap yard?

The last example I am going to give you does not even involve taking anything apart.  Lots of people are mad with gold fever and are ripping apart everything to get to it but what some people don’t realize is that even though something may contain gold, it maybe only be a few dollars worth and you destroy everything else to get to it.  The big item I am talking about is cell phones and laptops.  There is actually very little gold in these buggers.  BUT  there is a LOT of value in them for parts!!!  I have yet to make more than $10 in gold after hours of work from a laptop, however, I make at LEAST $20 for each laptop for just 5 minutes of work listing it on ebay for parts after removing the hard drive. 

SO there you have it.  Whenever possible, find out if parts still work and what they are worth online.  It really does not take much time once you are used to it and pays off!!

5 easy steps on How to make the most money scrapping metal

5 easy steps on How to make the most money scrapping metal.

1.   Know your scrap yard(s).  What do they take?  How much are they paying, are they on the iscrap app so you can check prices?  Do they have a reputation as being honest or not? 

2.   Know your metals.  You need to know how to differentiate between the metals.  You need to be able to figure out the difference between steel, non magnetic stainless steel, lite iron, and pig iron.  You need to know the difference between cast aluminum, extruded, etc.  You need to be able to tell the difference between #1 and #2 copper and the other variants.

3.   You can’t be afraid to ask for help!  If you have things mixed up the scrap yard has to spend either time to fix it or get paid less money for metals that are mixed.  So they are almost always willing to help out! 

4.   Separate!!  Organize!!  It pays off big time.  Take the time to pull the brass fittings and copper pipe off of a hot water heater.  Put in the extra minute to take off the motor and thick ole three prong cable from that dryer.  In most cases you will find that those little pieces will be worth more than the whole!!  If you bring in a 100lb dryer, you get $8 about for the steel.  Or you can get an extra $0.24 per lb for that heavy motor and $3 per lb for the copper in there, and $1.70 for the chunks of brass.  And keep buckets going with just one type of thing in there.  One bucket for bright wire, one for #2, one for brass, etc.  Watch Youtube videos to help you figure out things!

5.   Parts are people too!!  Well maybe not people but people want them!  You can get $12 in scrap metal price for a treadmill but if it still works or is in fair condition you can get $100 for the parts on ebay!!

With just those 5 tips, you can really start to make more money scrapping metal than those guys that just show up with load after load of back breaking steel.