heavy metal warehouse shelving, what are they made out of and how to weigh them in??

Hi all, getting into the scrapping buisness as just bought a small van :-))) ive got hold of some metal lattice shelves, the type you would see in a warehouse, they are heavy duty, and am scrapping them in tomorrow. here is a pic ive attempted to upload...

h**p://imageshack.us/photo/my-images/513/imagekec.jpg/

my question, i dont want to weigh them in as 'general' scrap metal if they can be weighed in seperate, so i need to know what they are made out of.

they are more heavy duty than in the photo.

im thinking i could weigh 1 of them in and see what the print out says they are weighed under, and then weigh the rest in, just dont want to be taken advantage of as i am just learning types of metal and their worth.

thanks in advance for any advice or help, and look forward to learning alot from this forum :-))))

Richard

more than likely they are steel.

thanks for quick reply, obviously they wont be stainless. so can i weigh them in seperately and get a better price? rather than weighing them in as general scrap?

why scrap them? if they are in good shape (your link is no good) why not sell them for better than scrap.

my dad made a shed out them. 3 sides of shelves, tarped, and back hoe stays out of the weather.

perfect for inside garages. they make a nice work bench with storage up high.

if neverything is steel you should get a better price than if there is a bunch of stuff with plastic "junk" with it. if you want to take the time to get it to the size you could get "prepared" price. Best bet is to call the yard and see what they say. and what the difference in price is.

Welcome to the forum

this what they are like...

http://www.lulusoso.com/upload/20120...anel_plate.jpg

heavy duty and not cheap.

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Originally Posted by jbravo54

why scrap them? if they are in good shape (your link is no good) why not sell them for better than scrap.

my dad made a shed out them. 3 sides of shelves, tarped, and back hoe stays out of the weather.

perfect for inside garages. they make a nice work bench with storage up high.

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hmm could bang them on ebay, is there a market for this stuff?

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Originally Posted by KrazyK

if neverything is steel you should get a better price than if there is a bunch of stuff with plastic "junk" with it. if you want to take the time to get it to the size you could get "prepared" price. Best bet is to call the yard and see what they say. and what the difference in price is.

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dont really have the time, but is it worth, weighing 1 of them in? im thinking they will probably put it down as the material it should be, rather then take the whole load in and they say put it over there. had a bad experience when i last went when i unknowingly had stainless steel and they didnt tell me anything and just weighed it in as general scrap.

lesson learned and dont want to do the same again. im pretty sure its steel, is steel weighed in the same as stainless steel?

apologies for the noob questions, but we all gotta start somewhere lol

Welcome to the forum, richardw. First things first. Check it with a magnet. If it sticks, it might be magnetic Stainless Steel. BUT - your yard may pay Iron price for it, anyway. Then determine if it meets criteria for #1 Iron. Then decide if it meets the size criteria for Prepared vs Unprepared and if you want to cut it to size if it doesn't. This is all supposing you don't want to try to sell it on Ebay etc.

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Originally Posted by Mick

Welcome to the forum, richardw. First things first. Check it with a magnet. If it sticks, it might be magnetic Stainless Steel. BUT - your yard may pay Iron price for it, anyway. Then determine if it meets criteria for #1 Iron. Then decide if it meets the size criteria for Prepared vs Unprepared and if you want to cut it to size if it doesn't. This is all supposing you don't want to try to sell it on Ebay etc.

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would they use stainless for warehouse racking? or is it more likely to be galvanised steel? and definetely will check it with a magnet. Thanks very much for the info! Likely I will scrap it as moving it from A to B and unfortunately have nowhere to store it. will take 1 sheet (?) in anyway and see how they class it, that way avoids the whole just weigh it and dump it over there, what seems like a routine, lol. thankyou :-)

working link to actual shelving image below

ImageShack® - Online Photo and Video Hosting

I can't imagine shelving units being made from SS. Unless they were outside 100% of the time. 9 times out of 10 they are steel. If you sell them on craigslist or eBay you will make way more money than if you sell them as scrap. At my local yard they would go as shred or general steel which is about $0.10lb.

However, how and where you sell your materials is 110% up to you. I wish you the best of luck in your decision.
Peace.

Thanks for all the replies, very helpful ! :-)

The decking is steel should go as shred, if you have the beams on the front and back that the decking sets on it should go as #1 iron. The uprights are heavy angle iron may get #1 may not depends on how thick it is. Welcome to the forum, good luck.

That material is called bar grating. You should be able to find the weight per sq. foot using the dimensions. Places that sell this material usually have a chart on their site.
Carbon Steel Bar Grating - Direct Metals
You can find charts like this for any structural steel(I Beams, Channel, Angle Iron, etc.)

You might be able to sell that material for Plate & Structural steel. If the pieces are under 4 feet you can get the prepared P&S price, over 4 feet would be unprepared. I would call around to your local yards and find one that will buy bar grating as P&S, that will likely be the best price you can get scrapping it.

Keep in mind that places that sell this stuff brand new usually sell it for 70-80 cents per pound. You might want to try listing some on craigslist.

I would use some of it to store buckets of scrap on. Easy to say try and sell it. But it is up to you! Let us know what you got for it if you do scrap it...

Quote:

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Originally Posted by richardw

would they use stainless for warehouse racking? or is it more likely to be galvanised steel? and definetely will check it with a magnet. Thanks very much for the info! Likely I will scrap it as moving it from A to B and unfortunately have nowhere to store it. will take 1 sheet (?) in anyway and see how they class it, that way avoids the whole just weigh it and dump it over there, what seems like a routine, lol. thankyou :-)

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At my yard if you pull it across the truck scale they are gonna pay you one of a couple steel prices. If it's stainless it's up to you to tell them and bring it to the correct scale. That's where getting your scrap education (or not) could cost or save you some big money.

It's mostly of steel i recently have visited storage warehouse and i have seen there it's of steel.

long story short- use a magnet to test it
if it sticks its steel & if it doesnt, its stainless steel

either way, they can be sold for MUCH MORE than scrap value- so thats what u should try to do first.
if after a few months, its not sold, then u sell it to the scrapyard.
but now u know if its stainless, so u can get a better rate if u scrap it.