Scrap!

[jackyp1234]

hello all, i am about to make my first trip to a scrap yard so im just sorting through my copper collection,

my mate says you should seperate into different bags

i.e clean copper and mixed copper, is copper which has old paint on classed as clean or mixed? thanks all

 

[Best]

Just recently, scrap place told me that painted pipe was no good for " pure copper" so they added it to brazery. Pure copper means just that, no plaster, paint, heavy outer corrosion, solder, fittings, or even copper olives! You could always torch paint of small amounts. If in doubt, put it in brazery. Strangely, they allow brass fitting with bits copper pipe in it, as brazery. Get prices before you go, as scrap places can take you for a ride!

 

[Best]

Should have said, that some scrap dealers may not be as fussy as others, but they may also be giving you less per kilo!

 

[jackyp1234]

thank you pal!

 

[Best]

No problem! While on the subject, I wonder what the price of scrap is now? It was £5 a kilo for pure copper not long ago & about £4.80 for brazery. Brass was a lot less, but as you know, taps etc are heavy, so adds up!

 

[jackyp1234]

yeah, i have been collecting it for about 4 years but only get tiny bits at a time so i have sorted it all now, got about 5 bss bags full of clean copper and a bag of mixed, also a few sets of taps, just something towards a drink on xmas eve!

 

[Best]

You might be surprised what it is worth! I take all the little bits of copper & brass from all sorts things. Some of the electric showers no longer use copper tanks but still have a substantial element. It's like throwing pound coins away if you don't take a min to strip parts out.

 

[jackyp1234]

yh my boss always gets me stripping down electric showers and taking pumps apart and stuff, unfortunately he doesnt share what he gets for the scrap lol!

 

[Phil]

Are people weighing in now or waiting till the price goes up? Looking and the scrap sites the line graphs are all going downhill. :biker:

 

[johnnyplumb]

Hold onto your scrap at the moment, prices are down. Check commodity prices on the net before selling.

 

[Rayner]

We strip absoloutely everything, from the brass tank connectors to heat exchangers in old boilers. We seperate it into clean copper, which is just small off cuts of new copper, heavy copper which is the old copper with paint/soldered fittings on, brass (including taps). We have also been saving the frag, old boiler shells, old rads, basically anything metal just for a trial to see how much we actually get. Got about 20 rads, 12 boiler shells/old flues ect. Looking forward to see how much we get for it all, can't be too bad considering the amount of "scrap collectors" that have suddenly appeared from nowhere!

 

[Phil]

Hold onto your scrap at the moment, prices are down. Check commodity prices on the net before selling.

I could get £370 tomorrow but it would be a shame to weigh it so cheap.

 

[Best]

We have also been saving the frag, old boiler shells, old rads, basically anything metal just for a trial to see how much we actually get. Got about 20 rads, 12 boiler shells/old flues ect. Looking forward to see how much we get for it all, can't be too bad considering the amount of "scrap collectors" that have suddenly appeared from nowhere!

That's what I notice, - a lot of newish pick ups, driving about the streets with w.machines, boilers etc in them. Last price I had was £170 for mainly mixed steel/iron, per tonne. That's not a lot of scrap,- about a medium sized trailer load. Small things like water pumps, add a lot weight.

 

[stevetheplumber]

just seperate it in to copper brass and braziery which is copper with solder on ie cylinder with no fittings or imersions in,heat exchangers from water heaters
anything you cant seperate goes in the class lower so theyll accept bits of copper in the brass sack but no brass in the copper

 

[Best]

Probably depends on what scrap place you go to though, Stevetheplumber. With the price of metal fairly high, you would expect them to be fussy though, as they could lose a bit of profit. Some I knew were not worried too much about what they bought, so it wasn't worth taking brass fittings with pipe apart, - just in to brazery. I know of a very fussy place who check everything but didn't mind some tectite fittings still with copper pipe bits, in the brazery. They give top prices though.