Thread Number: 32436
Warning---- Scrap metal prices on the rise! 		[Down to Last]

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Post# 489256   1/16/2011 at 00:53 (4,848 days old) by MattL (Flushing, MI)        

My cousin made a run to the scrap metal dump yesterday, took a washer, 2 fridges, a 50+ year old freezer and an old water heater and got $130. Was told scrap metal is now $250 ton, highest it's been as far as he knows, and he's been scrapping for years.

This being the case I'd expect to see more machines heading for scrap. Better grab them while you can.




Post# 489257 , Reply# 1   1/16/2011 at 01:00 (4,848 days old) by Launderess (Quiet Please, There´s a Lady on Stage)        
Thanks For The Tip!

 launderess's profile picture
Have been meaning to list several items on CL for the local "scrap men" to bid on. Was going to take them to the metal dealers myself, but between the tolls, cost of petrol and bother (all are located outside of Manhattan, such as NJ, Brooklyn, Queens etc...), decided to see what things fetch this way.

Nothing much on offer, just two converter/transformers (am told the "windings" or some such inside are copper, and iron on these sort of things, and four wide wings from vintage Thor Gladirons. The ironers long since have gone to their maker (the late Mike Arnold was our repair source), but parts became scarce to repair, and shipping them back and forth from Albany, NY wasn't inexpensive either. Have offered the wings both here in the group and even a "classified" on fleaBay with no takers, so they have to go. Methinks they are aluminum with a painted surface. You never know, may fetch several dollars in junk money.

C.

Post# 489259 , Reply# 2   1/16/2011 at 01:16 (4,847 days old) by cfz2882 (Belle Fourche,SD)        
scrappies

 back in 2008,scrap prices were high enough in my area that
scrappies were getting up on the roofs of resturants,stores
and other buildings and stealing the condensers off of
rooftop A/C units at night!-ruining an A/C unit costing
tens of thousands of dollars in order to get a few dollars
worth of scrap copper pipe!!-drove by my local wendy's one
morning in 2008 and noticed someone had stolen the condensers
off the rooftop units during the night!
On the positive side some scrappies have fried themselves
trying to dismantle active power substations...

Post# 489261 , Reply# 3   1/16/2011 at 01:29 (4,847 days old) by Launderess (Quiet Please, There´s a Lady on Stage)        
Oh Honey

 launderess's profile picture
We've got them ripping doors and other monuments from cemeteries right of crypts. Things that have withstood decades if not generations ripped right out.

Any sort of metal around older homes is fair game as well. Gates, bird baths/feeders, anything made from iron, copper, bronze that will fit in the back of a truck.

All this is nothing to construction sites that have reported *huge* coils of copper taken during the night or perhaps a weekend. Sometimes the entire pallet/flatbed is just hauled off.

Post# 489271 , Reply# 4   1/16/2011 at 06:20 (4,847 days old) by goatfarmer (South Bend, home of Champions)        

goatfarmer's profile picture
Last load I took in was $200.00 a ton, but that was several weeks ago. It may have gone up since then.

Post# 489278 , Reply# 5   1/16/2011 at 08:02 (4,847 days old) by alr2903 (TN)        

Poor center dial tags, the thing that makes them keep going, will get them in the end. Kenny on say a kenmore with all the plastic tubs etc. how many would make a ton? alr2903

Post# 489316 , Reply# 6   1/16/2011 at 11:16 (4,847 days old) by 3beltwesty ()        
High Scrap prices brings out vultures too.

 In California last summer a friends neighbor had their Cat. converter stolen from their van while in their driveway while they were sleeping at night.

Locally after Katrina one would be gutting ones house, ie removing the first 4 feet of sheetrock, insulation and ones "stuff" and hauling it to the curb. While in the house cutting out and ripping out old carpet, one guy entered my house in an attempt to cut out the copper pipes. Thus one drove these rats off with a shotgun, no shots just making a stance that one will not tolerate further loses. A 2nd time a bozo with cutters and a trailer full of AC units tried to remove my 5 ton AC unit, like it is their offical duty to remove them.

Post Katrina ,Folks who could not secure their ruined houses often gutted the sheetrock, removed carpet and TV's etc, then the copper vultures would cut out the pipes in the walls. This with some houses pushed the offical losses above 50 percent, such that the building got condemed, or one had to get gobs of permits to rebuild. These vultures had the gall/balls to actually shut off the water and then actual sort of like officals. They even would cut off the 4 foot piece of copper #6 ground wire to ones power box too.

After Katrina during the building boom, contractors had copper stolen in houses being built, thus they would have security 24/7 until the house was sealed.

One set of thugs used a well known contractors work shirts with LOGOS and went to high end rebuilt houses with copper flashing and gutters and acted like they were just doing finish work, and removed the copper.

***One thing the the law did few years back was make it so there was a 3 day waiting period for getting paid for scrap metals and one had to have an ID and SS number. This dropped stealing so much that the scrap folks had to lay off a mess of folks.

With plumbing many new houses here are built with PEX due to coppers costs and issues with stealing copper while a house is being built. The same goes with copper wire, a place under construction or a building being rebuilt gets stripped of its copper wires.

One had a High unemployement rate post Katrina because one had to have a family member stay at ones unsealed house, to ward off the scrap metal vultures. These "vulture STORMERS" are one component of STORMERS that work disasters, ie removal of crud with giant trucks, quickie roof repairs, instant contractors.

There are folks who made 5 to 50k a week in removing stuff one hauled to the curb. They got paid by the cubic yard of crud, each truck had the Yardage marked on thee side. They would circle the neighborhood and fill the truck with easy stuff like sofas, then top it off with stuff that was heavy. An inspector at the crap yard would look at the top and give them a weighting factor; higher if it looked like heavy stuff. Thus the stormers would only remove the heavy small items once they were about full to get a better rating for that load.

Post# 489332 , Reply# 7   1/16/2011 at 13:49 (4,847 days old) by goatfarmer (South Bend, home of Champions)        

goatfarmer's profile picture
A washer like a newer GE, or WP usually weighs a couple hunderd pounds or so.

Post# 489334 , Reply# 8   1/16/2011 at 14:17 (4,847 days old) by Kenmoreguy64 (Charlotte, NC)        

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alr2903 & Kenny -

The newer DD Whirlpools weigh, I believe, in the 140 to 150 pound range. Belt-drives range from 200 to 260, depending on features. The garage door Ladies are especially heavy due to the console.

Gordon

Post# 489783 , Reply# 9   1/18/2011 at 02:06 (4,845 days old) by tolivac (greenville nc)        

Oh boy--scrap metals-been a problem for radio stations for many, many years.for AM broadcast stations copper theives learned that half of the station underground is COPPER!!!The ground radial system.This is hard and time consuming to replace-the station may be off the air for a time too.I have had to replace a few ground systems due to theft of the wire.The stations were in a bad neighborhoods of DC,Baltimore,and Richmond,Va.Me and a partener would evaluate how much it is to fix and advise the station-first a rigging crew is brought in,and the station has to purchase the #10 copper wire on 100 ft reels-then plow it in quickly-the station is off air-and to make it harder for the theives-fresh plowed copper is harder to steal.then me and my freind woul;d come out to connect the system back together-then the rigging crew comes back to bury it.After connecting the station can be run.If the theives are desperate they will get MANY RF burns if they try to take whats there.Sometimes these copper stealers forget that some copper is HOT with electric power,or RF.RF causes VERY painful and serious burns.At one station the theif simply took the copper feedlines to each tower-was a four tower AM array.(Baltimore)the DJ called us and says-"when I took my readings-the tower readings were really strange!-maybe you guys should look at it")and this was in the middle of the night--so--Roger and I got to the site and yes the feedlines to the first 3 towers were taken.The last tower-peices of burnt SKIN were hanging from the feedline-what then happened is the theif turned a four towwer directional array into a single tower Non directional system-that meant the transmitter power was no longer divided among four towers-but going into one-and 5Kw of AM RF will burn you but good!Hate to have been that theif--His hands are sure going to HURT the next morning!!!!Very fortunately there was a Hechingers still open-The AM tower feedlines are just standard half in copper tubing.Your knee works good for forming the surge loop.Then mash and drill the ends-station back on air-about 3 hrs later.
In the area I am in now the theft of copper AC units and parts is rampant.Happens to churches-guess becuase they can be unmanned for long periods of time-the station transmiiter sites-same thing-maay not be visited for days.One TV station had the copper transmission lines stolen for their new digital transmitter installation-the job was delayed-fortunately they got the lines back and the theif was caught.Yes-anyone turning in metal scrap in this area-has their picture taken,their license# of the vehicle recorded,and their SS#.The swap shop operators tell me out here this is what they go thru when turning in unrepairable machines for scrap.

Post# 489886 , Reply# 10   1/18/2011 at 16:15 (4,845 days old) by goatfarmer (South Bend, home of Champions)        

goatfarmer's profile picture

Took in two newer gas stoves, a newer GE washer, and an early 80's WP dryer, along with some other misc. $250.00 a ton, brought me $80.00{#emotions_dlg.Washer-4}
Post# 489890 , Reply# 11   1/18/2011 at 16:30 (4,845 days old) by 3beltwesty ()        
Stealing steel off of 115 Kv Transmission line towers
Some knuckle heads just east of here were climbing up the high voltage steel transmission towers and unbolting the braces. There is many braces since the towers are designed for Hurricanes. One Goober guy lost his hat, and it had his name name on it, thus he got caught.

Post# 490009 , Reply# 12   1/19/2011 at 02:22 (4,844 days old) by tolivac (greenville nc)        

We have 115Kv AC transmission lines feeding our site-so far no problems there.If you think RF energy is bad----115KVAC is something else.surprized they even found the cretens hat.Those theives would have balls to try to deal with hot 115Kv lines.We get tag notices whenever power co lineman are working on our lines-and requests NOT to run our generator.It couldfeed back into the lines thru the 115Kv stepdown transformers.We could run the gen isolated-but the power co asks for additional safety not to run generators-same with other major customers on this line.

Post# 490010 , Reply# 13   1/19/2011 at 02:41 (4,844 days old) by tolivac (greenville nc)        

GEEZ!- I bet these scrap metal prices could effect vacuum cleaner collectors too-Could envision lots of Kirbys,older Hoovers,etc turned in for scrap.


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