Great Scrapyard Finds - Show Me Your Junk!

[Dangerous_Dan]

My favorite place to shop is the scrap yard.
I priced steel the other day from a metal supply house.
Less than 500 pounds $1.99 a pound - ouch!
Over 500 pounds was $0.89 a pound.
Went to the scrap yard and picked up these:



4700 pounds of 6X6 square tubing with some 5X5 that telescopes inside the 6X6 all 1/4 inch wall.
Price $890. that's less than $0.20 a pound!

My BIL works next door so when something good comes in he calls me.  He called me one day and asked me if I wanted a crane, OK, I'll take a look.



I don't remember what it weighed but it was $450. Has a stinger and outriggers. It needs hoses but no welds or cracks and the pump is there with half the drive shaft. I want to mount it on a Unimog.

Another $250 bucks bought 2 of the plows on this truck and a pile of little stuff.


I made some plates that engaged the factory spring loaded pins on the plow frame and welded them to the attachment plate on the truck. I rigged up 2 standard snowplow cylinders with a roller and some chain from an old forklift for the lift.



A Unimog has remote hydraulics front and rear so plumbing it up just required some hoses and quick connects.


Those of you that have read the outdoor boiler site placement thread have seen my retromizer, $150 and a set of forklift forks that day.


I want to see what kind of goodies your local scrapyard has supplied you with and what have you built with your discount treasures.

[Frank_Pender]

That is all very coooool.   Thank you for sharing. 8)

[fstedy]

 8) 8) 8) Might that steel be for the new sawmill?  8) 8) 8)
Got a call from Red today haven't been able to get him for months his folks have been sick. It was good to hear from him.

[highpockets]

I don't understand these high prices in places where there are steel mills .  I called my steel supplier for a quote on new 11 ga 4x8 plate and was quoted  $70.00. That is  $0.38 per lb.  I cut a fair amount on a cnc plasma cutter and the highest I have paid was $ 86.00 per sheet. 

Still I love a junk yard with a passion.  My local man called and said he had me a part of a sheet of 1/2" aluminum.  It was about 6' long and 2' wide with an area on one end that was some 3 1/2' wide.  $21.00 for it.   

[Dangerous_Dan]

Yup, you got it Edy.
The 6x6 beams will form the frame for the track on my new mill.
I'm getting close to making sawdust ;D , Pix will follow when completed.
Saw head 90% completed, main carrage 80% completed, track 0% completed.
I havn't talked to Red, I dropped him a PM a week ago but no response. I should give him a call. I'm gunna need someone to pull boards.

[red]

Junk ???   that looks like GOLD to   me  !

long time no talk ......  i happened to call eddy yesterday  and chewed his ear off a little   it really was great to catch him with out phone tag .... the phone tag is on my side

anyhow  both of my parents have been sick  and it is a 24/7  deal

seems like they did it for me when i was a little guy  and i am glad to be

able to be there  for them ....


but i did wake up at 3 am and my first thought was SAWDUST ! ! !

so thats pretty good medicine  ....


see you soon
RED

[Skytramp]

Hi Red;
    We took care of my mother for 2 years in our home due to Altzhimers, it can get to  be really hard  on the whole family.  My hats off to you.
SkyTramp;

[rebocardo]

> I don't understand these high prices in places where there are steel mills

All the new stuff (including cement) is going to China.

[Deadwood]

I worked at a Fabrication Shop for several years (Cianbro Corp) as a Machinist. The pay was pretty poor, but man was the benefits good. Whatever was in the scrap bin, you pretty much could take home. Yeah we were supposed to pay scrap steel prices for it, but they overlooked that most of the time.

My point here, is that you would not believe what we threw away. If it was shorter than 5 feet, into the scrap pile it went. It sounds wasteful, but the thing of it is, they estimated jobs of full lengths of stuff. In other words they already made their money on it. It was great for us because this was NEW steel, not rusted up used garbage and they had every tool imaginable to work it up.

I built two sets of forks for my Kubota tractor that they paid me to build while I worked for them. Now that I work for the railroad, we can do the same thing, but the steel is not as good (used/ rusted/ etc)

[Buzz-sawyer]

Hey Dan..good thread......
Good to hear from ya.........I dont care how high steel is or not ..I love to scrounge up free metal, I collect lots from the side of the road, when people clean out the shed. ;) :D

[logman]

It's not exactly a scrapyard find but I submitted the winning bid on a
69 Dodge D600 tilt bed truck.  It was on an online auction  for Maryland's
DNR website last Feb.  I bid $300 just for the heck of it thinking I'd never
get it at that price.  I checked it out Sat. and it's in pretty good shape and
only has 57000 miles on it.