do any salvage yards exist?

[johnnym]

Do any salvage yards exist? I have called over 5 local junk yards/salvage yards and they all just accept junk. Not one would sell to an individual. The same thing with local battery stores. They don't allow anyone to buy bad lead acid batteries. What happened to going to the junk yard and looking around and finding something and paying for that piece of unused junk? I live in the US, Indiana. Anyone have any tips on how to find local scraps?

[Bruce S]

Due to EPA stuff about lead, old batteries might be hands off now.
But around here (Stlouis and East of us) most of them became pull-aparts , grease-n-gos stuff like that.
Those great old ones where people to roam for hours are few and far between.
I'm pretty certain those you can still roam in won't be in the yellow pages either.

IF there's a dirt-track around you , you can ask those hanging around there, they'll know where.

Sorry I couldn't be better help

Bruce S

[george65]

It's all about insurance and liability these days. Or at least that's the excuse.
I can understand it in many ways. My father has a wrecking yard and often when he is busy people will wander round before he can get to them.  They do all sorts of stupid things as well as dangerous ones.  Someone one does something idiotic and hurts themselves and guess who The insurance company put in their sights even if the injured person does not.

Unfortunately people have not become more intelligent or responsible over the years.

For scrap and bits and pieces, I roam around the factory/ industrial areas on a weekend.  last sunday I picked up 4 lengths of 100mm thick wall box steel about 2.5 M long. It was lying on the footpath in front of an engineering place that had bits of stuff stacked everywhere in their front yard and spilling onto the footpath. There was also a heap of varios pieces of 1/2" and 3/4" plate in various shapes and sizes that were obviously mis produced. Shapes were the same ( or close) but holes were off an different.  There is a lot of angle thee I'll go back and check out this weekend as I couldn't get to it as it had sections of probably 200MM pipe lying on it tied to pallets which looked like it was to be scrapped.

Another place had a Dumpster metal bin filled with all sorts of scrap and offcuts. Pipe, bar, plate, rectangular and a heap of plate. Picked up handfulls of large concrete bolts they had chucked and other stuff. There was a 3 point hitch there with a tow ball I wanted but was buried with too much other stuff to liberate.

The stuff I have found over the year has been very useful and I have made some great finds. Few months ago I was raiding a bin and the security guy drove up. I looked, said Gday and carried on. He came over and said find anything good. I pointed out some Bits of unistrut I had found and told him what I was going to do with them. had a quick chat and off he went.

Years ago I was at a place and had put a heap of treasure in the back of the car from these 2 bins  that were there. Car comes up and parks behind me and these 2 guys get out asking what I thought I was doing? I told them and it turned out it as the owner and his sun of the engineering bus there. The old guy was a bit cranky going on about all the stuff they had stolen like rolls of metal that were further back and winding up.  I fired right back and said I'm not taking your coils, you can see what I'm interested in and it's all from these bins that you are chucking out.  I told him, how in hell would you propose I take those coils, nothing to lift them and they sure aren't going to fit in my car are they?

The son, whom incredibly had the same christian and surname as me, was a bit more calm and pointed out to the father that I was not doing anything for them to worry about and in fact while I was there picking over their rubbish, no one else was going to come and take anything else.  Old fella calmed down  and we had a chat about what I was going to do with what I picked up. turned out they had some other stuff inside that would be better they hadn't chucked yet and invited me to come back on the Wednesday and collect it.  I did and brought them the customary currency of beer and all was good.

These days it can be harder to get stuff. people are fencing everything off and it's all behind locked gates, even the rubbish.  Where I have moved has a huge industrial area  and there are only about 4 place that aren't completely fenced off.  I just drive around, learn what is where and keep it in mind.
The key is to pick up what you might need in future because it's not like a shop that always has stock on the shelves but not to pick up crap that might come in handy but you never use and mounts up.

I have made some geat finds in scrap bins but I have made some heart breaking ones too. Worst was a big factory closing down that had througn lathes and mills and even drill presses into these bins and had purposefully destroyed them. I fronted up to the place and offered to buy stuff and they wouldn't hear of it and I think my asking just resulted in the guy clearing the stuff to be told it as in fact smashed beyond repair.

It's wastage and BS like that which makes me despise this whole green save the planet thing. If there was more to it than making money this sort of thing would be illegal and resources would have to be reused and made the most of not just completely wasted.

The factories and industrial areas have been great hunting grounds for me over the years and there is a lot of stuff I have built from it.

[dnix71]

I have never heard of anyone buying a known bad battery from a recycle yard. They bought those by the pound for recycle and the scrap yard does not have a retail license to resell them. Lead acid batteries are all accounted for at the point of sale as there is a disposal tax on them. I know and worked with a man who would take bad batteries in for scrap value and a regular car battery would be worth $4 or $5 US just for the weight of lead. If you don't have a battery to trade in at the purchase of a new one, the "core charge" is at least $10 US.

You could get used, no warranty batteries from some shops that sell them used, but the price will be much higher than scrap. For someone to sell you a known bad battery would make them liable for a lot of things, as sulfuric acid and lead are harzardous and legally must be disposed of a certain way and the government does sometimes pay a premium to scrappers for reclaiming bad batteries and making sure they get recycled properly.

If you get to know a car salvage yard, you could make it known that you are willing to pay $15 to $20 for any car battery they get, as is, untested, and be prepared to tell them exactly what you need them for. You'll get the bad ones that way, if they trust you enough to sell them. Catalytic converters can't be sold, either, without a lot of paperwork. The whole system of catalytic converter pollution control requires that they all be returned and the precious metals reclaimed to make new ones. There is about $600US worth of platinum and other stuff in a cat converter.

[george65]

Sometimes I think the US would be a great place to live.
When it comes to all the over the top environmental crap that goes on there, I thank god I am where I am!   

[frackers]

Batteries for my walnut washer - tour round the 2nd hand car yards & asked if they had an old battery suitable for an electric fence - didn't need cranking amps, just needed to hold a charge. Six yards, four batteries, one duff. Still using 2 on the washer and another on the tunnel house window opener.

Roller door company, wandered into the workshop "OK if I pick a few bits out of your skip for a project at home?"    "No probs - leave it tidy". That got be the tubes and springs that support the weight of the tunnel house windows so I can open/close them with a windscreen wiper motor - which came from a scrap yard (that I had to pay for but I made sure I chose a make of car that they had a few of and so were cheap).

The big OZInverter I've built was all from the local scrap yards thanks to my mate Andy.

He has made it his business to make himself know at them all the scrap yards in the city, been friendly, kept out of the way, paid reasonable amount (i.e. scrap price) for stuff without hassling them, and keep a hi-viz vest and hardhat in the car for when he walks further than the 'office'. 3-4 yards will now put stuff to one side for him as they know its a quick cash sale so he can in effect place an order!! The main thing to remember is these are business premises and they don't want tourists. If you are after something, park outside out of the way, ask nicely and when you have agreed a price, in & out with the trailer (or whatever) so you don't hold up the other traffic.

[Bruce S]

frackers summed it up perfectly.
This is what I do, there's a few in my humble little town. Take stuff there a lot. I don't haggle on scrap prices much more to be gained being friendly than a extra 6pence.

For the O.P. go find one, do pretty much what frackers said you'll be amazed.

for george65;
Just because we want to "look" EPA overclocked doesn't mean we're all drinking the koolaid  .
 



 

[XeonPony]

The world has gon full retard for the most part, it has nothing to do with recycling but liability, to many idiots mangle them selfs and instead of having personal responsibility it MUST be the yards fault so they sue, and now virtually no yard wants to deal with that risk and so closes the doors to any one buying.

Same happened here, a very good large yard will no longer let you any where near the yard. You used to be able to pick from dumps and yards all over Canada, now you got to intercept it be for it even touches their land. And there is where greed kicks in as some metal yards have the audacity to charge you to drop waste steel and they get real pissy when you intercept!

Now about the only place to get good salvage is from the illegal dumps!

I'm all most ready to welcome the fire balls the world needs a cull of idiots <_< so we can bring back some sanity. Plus the idiots in charge need to learn what a real problem is so they stop making them up!

[CraigM]

Very much agree, if you build a relationship with the local salvage yard so they feel they can trust you you'll get much further with them.

When I lived in Phoenix I would buy steel from this company http://davissalvage.co/about-davis-salvage/what-we-buy/

After getting to know the folks I asked if they had silicon steel for sale. They took me to a shipping container that was full of cut offs from a motor & transformer manufacturer.



Later on found they had containers full of electric motors, transformers, insulated wire, batteries ... lot's of good picking!

[george65]

The world has gon full retard for the most part, it has nothing to do with recycling but liability, to many idiots mangle them selfs and instead of having personal responsibility it MUST be the yards fault so they sue,

This mentality drives me nuts. Get it every day on my YT channel.  People pissing and moaning because I don't wear gloves or cover myself in PPE and some retard might follow what I do and hurt themselves.  STIFF SHIP! I couldn't care less.  If you don't have the smarts to take care of yourself, your personal well being is not my responsibility, it's yours. If a person is that stupid, they are going to hurt or kill themselves well they get to doing anything I show.

I lost my Ship about a month ago with someone that laid the " If you hurt yourself you'll blame us and try to sue" crap on me. I arced right up and said I take responsibility for my own actions and wasn't some pizz weak leftist idiot that thought the world owed them a favour. What was it that made the guy think I looked like that which I considered a deep insult? I pointed out a few things that I was doing that showed I did have half a brain and thought about what I was doing and I was looking out for my own backside.
  Must have got the message across because the guy backed down and apologised. I did too and said I understood his position but I had a real raw nerve for those types and no tolerance for them. We had a LOT in common and became instant mates with our same views. Clearly he was the sort of guy I could spend time with and have a good chat.

This thing of "I'm a moron but I'm going to blame you for my lack of basic self presevation and hurting myself in a way no normal person could ever forsee" has gone waaay too far. I think these days anyone is a target if someone has it out for them or just wants to get some attention their unpleasant personality prevents them from having in there everyday lives.  Still costs money and 95% of idiots are TV educated and haven't got a clue but some of them do, have the free time and money gained from inheritances to give a business or individual a hard time.

Now about the only place to get good salvage is from the illegal dumps!

I'm very community minded. Some of my best scores have been stuff that has been illegally dumped in factory areas that I have helped " Clean up".  Due to the charges some scrap metal places put on taking stuff there ( "environmental levy" ) there is a lot of stuff that gets dumped at the gate on weekends.
I wonder how some owners of these yards git in on monday mornings for the stufff piled on the footpath and infront of their gates. You can find some good stuff thee with no one to hassel you.

That said,  I once had a " Security' guy ( another hero on a power trip with no authority) Accuse me of Illegal dumping because I had a load of junk in the back of the ute I had picked up elsewhere.
I told him I had picked it up, the places I had got it from which he would have probably seen on his patrol and to ring the cops when he saw someone dropping it off, not accuse people he had no grounds to for something they actually did a good thing by picking it up.

The irony of the " approved " social thinking these days it so reduce your footprint and co2 emissions and save water and all that yet god forbid you try to pick up something someone has tossed aside and fix it!  Assuming you can of course get round the way everything is built with effort to make it repairable and have a short, disposable life to boot.
Nope, just keep buying this garbage and when it breaks in a months time, chuck it out to land fill because it costs too much to recycle it which is largely a fallacy anyway and just go buy something newer and even more cheaply and badly made.

Plus the idiots in charge need to learn what a real problem is so they stop making them up!

Hear hear!
I don't watch the news, haven't for years for this exact reason and I don't watch much TV either. Maybe an hour a week on a good week. 
Too much news is an insult to my meager intelligence. Politicians going on with garbage you'd be embarrassed to hear from kindergarten kids.  Current affairs shows full of crap about what bimbo celeb that seems to be famous for nothing is boinking another equally brainless overpaid twit.
"Issues" that are invented purely and utterly to divert the attention of the people from real problems and what a pile of ship the world is really in.
The media are completely contemptible these days and all ought to be thrown in the clink for the lies, fabrications and misinformation they KNOWINGLY spread and the truth they go so far to cover up so as to push their own agenda's. 

Then you get the stories where some Low life drug dealing POS is walking out of court with a smile on his filthy face after a slap on the wrist after being caught bashing a woman in a home invasion with the equally dead beat family all carrying on that " Heezz a goot boyz" even though they read the highlights of his mile long record going back 10  plus years and every cop within 50 miles having arrested him before for some violent crime and the mongeral STILL hasn't done a day of time.
Meanwhile the Victims haven't got a zac in compensation and have their lives turned upside down and may well never be the same again.

There was a ripper the other day here where they  got a guy for stealing a car and trying to rob a service station..... on the way home from his court appearance less than 30 Min earlier! You couldn't make it up!  The cop whom arrested him and was appearing spotted him as he was driving back to his station. He decided to follow the mongeral to see where he was going and then got him as he tried to hold up the servo.
Unbelievably, he was granted bail and walked free yet again! 
It's insane.

I can't stand the way the world is going.
A mate and I were only talking the other day and saying we were born at least 20 years too late and we are both happy we will be lucky to have another 20 years to live. By then the world will be so stuffed up it won't be worth living.  We were saying how every generation probably thought the world was going mad but we looked at what is happening today and never before has there been anything like the amount and severity of problems the world has now nor the attitudes. 

[SparWeb]

I've converted 4 motors and used them as generators.  All were found in the recycling.
I'm running my system off of 1600 Amp-hours of batteries that I found, discarded, in an alley behind my workplace.  They are 20 years old and still hold plenty of charge.
My tower was made from new steel pipe and cables, but many fittings and much of the head and tail are off-cuts recovered from the scrap bin at work.

If it wasn't for people who throw away good stuff, my hobby would be much more expensive!

[johnnym]

Thanks for responding everyone and I feel like you all do. The only thing I have salvaged was some sheets of aluminum lithographic printing sheets. It was a small company. I even offered him some money and he just gave them to me for free. Just a nice guy I guess.

[Harold in CR]

JEEZZZ George. Why don't you tell us how you REALLY feel  

 Gotta admit, we could be twin cousins with the way you and I think.

[SparWeb]

Harold in CR...twin cousins...

Umm, how many brothers have to marry their cousins for their kids to be able to claim that? 

[Dispatcherjinn]

Blame it on Walmart !  If you folks in the States and Canada will remember. About 20 years ago as you travailed down the highways you would pass trailers and shipping containers for sale or rent. 99 percent of them were gray with black letters CTI. What is CTI ? China Transport Inc. It was cheaper to dump there containers then ship them back to China . As WalMart grew you may remember they forced manufacturers like Black and Decker Lexmark and on down the list to move to China for cheaper labor there by cheaper products on Walmarts shelves. China then can to a point of limited supply's for the factory's as Walmart began building a large fleet of 747 cargo planes and a airport in Arkansas and Shenzhen to Handel the shipping. Using the recycle agenda started convincing small governments to assist in recycling at there landfills and suddenly the CTI Containers were seen at your local dumps and if you ever noticed it was walmart trucks picking them up using there distribution network to get the containers to the airport in Arkansas and off to china with recyclables for manufacturing. No Joke. I Used to help run and do articles in a long gone publication ( the Tight Wad Gazette ) about dumpster diving and frugal living and RE. County by county and state by state these recycling company with plenty of backing support got the dumpster diving and even curb collecting passed as a crime up and down the east coast. There are a few scrap yards and auto salvage yards around and you should down load a basic waver of liability forum and have several all ready filled out to leave with the businesses operators. I was still collecting old rail road ties in Cape Charles Va to sell as landscaping timbers tell i moved abroad last year. Central  New Jersey is ware you want to look for Salvage. There are sections of roadways with 2 or more yards in a row and a few you pick and pay junk yards in around Okeechobee FL ware you agree to your liability before you enter there yards. I got most of my copper mag wire and other stuff running adds for old micro waves TVs computers and appliances removal. Good luck

[Bruce S]

( the Tight Wad Gazette )

Well isn't this a 6 degree of separation thingys  . We have all the books! followed the newsletter for a L O N G time, until the head lady seemed to have dropped out of sight.

Cheers
Bruce S