which magnet to believe...

...I suppose ulimately whatever ones the scrap yard folks are using.



I reason I ask is that I picked up yesterday a couple miles from my bro's country place a ss Charmglow gas grill. I would have picked it up even it was straight shred but being within a couple miles of a small but growing shred pile, it was a no brainer. As I took it part yesterday out there (trying to save some things for ebay), bro's weak magnet showed some things magnetic (like the doors which I will try on ebay before going in the pile) but most of it did not stick. So I brought a good amount of grill home last night in the trunk and will probably go to my non-ferrous guy tomorrow after work because I have other errands in that part of town as well.

But when I tested all the parts with a rare earth hard drive magnet, much more of the grill connected, although weakly. The heavy grill grates did not (toyed with the idea of cleaning them up to sell on ebay but I don't think they would ever look new or slightly used again so gave up that idea). Two other non rare earth magnets won't stick to the bigger pieces so at best these pieces are only slightly magnetic. Its too bad the places in town ( I think there are 3) that will buy ss don't separate more by grades but its either non-magnetic or magnetic ss and the last one is treated like shred.

So I guess I'll go in and find out what magnets these guys are using...

At my yard if the stainless pulls to a magnet weakly they'll still take it with the non magnetic stainless. Of course every yard is different though.

I always try to learn at least one thing a day so today's tidbit is don't use Nd magnets to grade ssn (thanks miked and LHB--who doesn't have for long hair the last pix I saw of him .

I take my cans and these grill pieces in tomorrow and see what a happens. One less thing in the garage right now as I spring organize.

I always use a neodymium HD magnet to test metals, I have it on my key ring. I can confirm it does sometimes stick to brass but only very very slightly, I don't usually have a problem using it for SS usually.

I work with SS all the time at the shop. The primary value in it is the nickel. I see people post all the time that scrap yards give them #1 steel price for SS that is magnetic which to me makes no sense because the amount of nickel in 303-304 is 8-11% so the recovery rate is nearly the same but the value is different?? I think its just a way for the scrap yard to get over on unknowing people. Be as knowledgeable as you can going into situations. Just my opinion

CT Scrapman- I appreciate your knowledge but what's a guy supposed to do when they say, "hey, this magnet sticks to your ss, I'm not going to buy it"?? Now if I had a place to store a ton of 303-304 (if that's the proper name for magnetic ss) and search out a yard in a larger metro 3/4 (Omaha/Twin Cities)-6 (KC)-10 (Chicago) hours away that would pay decent price for it, that might be an option. But when the two buyers I know of in my metro either say they won't buy it or throw it on the shred pile, what I'm supposed to do with my small amounts??

RE magnet will stick to some brass, but they won't TINK to it. They can hold on to thicker pieces vertically, and much stronger than a slide phenomenon.

The magnetic SS same as shred is probably due to the difficulty in being able to easily and reliably separate it from regular ferrous.

There are three elements only periodic table that draw a magnet; iron, nickel and cobalt. SS and its alloys usually contain some amount of nickel, this is generally what makes it "stainless." Obviously some more, some less. One should not use Nd rare earth magnets as they are strong enough to pull on the nickel in 300 series stainless.

Originally Posted by CTscrapman

I work with SS all the time at the shop. The primary value in it is the nickel. I see people post all the time that scrap yards give them #1 steel price for SS that is magnetic which to me makes no sense because the amount of nickel in 303-304 is 8-11% so the recovery rate is nearly the same but the value is different?? I think its just a way for the scrap yard to get over on unknowing people. Be as knowledgeable as you can going into situations. Just my opinion

300 series stainless should be bought separately than shred; even though the nickel market has seen much better days it has a similar value to just below cast aluminum. 400 series stainless is different however, as this has a significantly higher iron content. At my yard 400 series did indeed go in the shred pile. There may be a market for it above shred now but at the time it wasn't worth enough above shred to go through the trouble of keeping separate piles/bales.

In conclusion 300 series SS will weakly stick to a Nd rare earth magnet but not a conventional one. However 400 series will clearly strong pull with both types of magnets.

For figuring what we generally sell to yards a basic magnetic . A rare earth magnet is fine also
as the power of the cling tells you also .
For basic work that you are constantly around true ferris the cling power of a rare earth magnet gets a little annoying

Update. Good news. My non-ferrous guy took the ss grill parts I took in. I had 55 lbs. The bad news is that his ss price had droped another 7 cents since his Feb. 6 price updates. I got 30 cents a pound. Still, 15x what shred is going for around here. So it goes...

P.S. Learned about "white brass" today with a serving tray I took in that I thought was old stainless steel (no shine left on this thing). Got yellow brass price for it ($1.15 a pound). Never heard of white brass before.

What Is White Brass?

http://www.utahfishinginfo.com/images/whitebass.jpg

Admiralty brass 30% zinc and 1% tin, used to inhibit dezincification

Aich's alloy 60.66% copper, 36.58% zinc, 1.02% tin, and 1.74% iron. Corrosion resistance, hardness and toughness make it useful for marine applications.

Alpha brass Less than 35% zinc, malleable, can be worked cold, used in pressing, forging, or similar applications. Alpha brasses have only one phase, with face-centered cubic crystal structure.
Prince's metal or Prince Rupert's metal alpha brass containing 75% copper and 25% zinc. Named for Prince Rupert of the Rhine and used to imitate gold.

Alpha-beta brass or Muntz metal or duplex brass 35–45% zinc and is suited for hot working. It contains both α and β' phase; the β'-phase is body-centered cubic and is harder and stronger than α. Alpha-beta brasses are usually worked hot.

Aluminium brass contains aluminium, which improves its corrosion resistance. Used for seawater service and in Euro coins (Nordic gold).

Arsenical brass contains an addition of arsenic and frequently aluminium and is used for boiler fireboxes.

Beta brass 45–50% zinc content. Can only be worked hot producing a hard strong metal that is suitable for casting.

Cartridge brass 30% zinc brass with good cold working properties. Used for ammunition cases.

Common brass, or rivet brass 37% zinc brass, standard for cold working

DZR brass dezincification resistant brass with a small percentage of arsenic

Gilding metal 95% copper and 5% zinc, softest type of common brass, used for ammunition jackets

High brass 65% copper and 35% zinc, has a high tensile strength and is used for springs, rivets, screws

Leaded brass alpha-beta brass with an addition of lead, easily machined

Lead-free brass as defined by California Assembly Bill AB 1953 contains "not more than 0.25 percent lead content"

Low brass copper-zinc alloy containing 20% zinc, ductile brass used for flexible metal hoses and bellows

Manganese brass 70% copper, 29% zinc, and 1.3% manganese, used in making golden dollar coins in the United States

Muntz metal 60% copper, 40% zinc and a trace of iron, used as a lining on boats

Naval brass 40% zinc and 1% tin, similar to admiralty brass

Nickel brass 70% copper, 24.5% zinc and 5.5% nickel used to make pound coins in the pound sterling currency

Nordic gold 89% copper, 5% aluminium, 5% zinc, and 1% tin, used in 10, 20 and 50 cts euro coins

Red brass an American term for the copper-zinc-tin alloy known as gunmetal, and an alloy which is considered both a brass and a bronze. Red brass usually contains 85% copper, 5% tin, 5% lead, and 5% zinc. Red brass may be copper alloy C23000, which is 14–16% zinc, 0.05% iron and lead, and the remainder copper. Red brass also may also refer to ounce metal, another copper-zinc-tin alloy.
Rich low brass (Tombac) 15% zinc, often used for jewelry

Tonval brass (also called CW617N or CZ122 or OT58) copper-lead-zinc alloy

White brass brittle metal containing more than 50% zinc. White brass may also refer to certain nickel silver alloys as well as Cu-Zn-Sn alloys with high proportions (typically 40%+) of tin and/or zinc, as well as predominantly zinc casting alloys with copper additive.

Yellow brass American term for 33% zinc brass