Metal too rusty for scrap?

I have a 25-year-old dump site in the woods near my house. It is full of rusted-out junk (metal buckets, fencing wire, lawn mowers, driveshafts, gears). The buckets and drums make up the majority of the junk, but they are very thin and rusted very badly. I have looked all over the place for specs on how thick sheet metal needs to be in order to be considered worthy scrap, but can't find info. Can this stuff be too old, thin, and rusted? or will they take anything? Most of this sheet metal is REALLY rusted--to the point of having holes in it and being breakable with my bare hands.

Ain't nothing too rusty to scrap! If it's breaking apart in your hands, shovel it into a barrel! Won't get sheet metal price for it though....but if you have a lot of stuff to scrap, go for it.

My advice would be get as much of it as you can load that will stay together long enough to get it to the scrap yard,hahaha...Look for old bottles and antiques while your there....

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Originally Posted by junkdude1959

My advice would be get as much of it as you can load that will stay together long enough to get it to the scrap yard,hahaha...Look for old bottles and antiques while your there....

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There are a bunch of old glass bottles out there. You think it would be worthwhile to scrub/powerwash them? I see random bottles at antique stores going for crazy money.

Might be worth$ checking into, my brother runs a auction house and sells alot of old bottles,dishes and all kinds of glass ware...if nothing else, box up a bunch and take to a nearby auction house and see what they go for...Scott

If you go to the scrap yard with a whole load of really old,rusty,thin metal.. it doesnt look to good. They might give you a lower light iron price than normal. My advice, try and mix the crappy stuff with some better looking light iron. It all depends on the guy who marks your load, if he wants to bust balls he can, if hes a good guy then you will have no problem. Good luck

A few more questions for you guys: I have two old lawnmowers out there, very heavy. Do I need to drain the fluids and separate all of the components? I know the engines are aluminum, so I will smash those out and do them separate. Is there anything else I should do? Batteries?

What about the rubber on the tires?

I can take a push mower in as is and get light iron for it. IF I separate the block from the frame, then they expect it to be drained before you get the higher price.

I'd call the scrap yard about the tires. They're not as bad as normal tires but I'd make sure anyway. If the yard won't take them, just cut the rubber off with a grinder or take the whole wheel off.

My scrapmetal yard welcomes rusty metal.
He even said "Don't worry if it looks like rusty dirt, don't bash it off, theres still metal in it".

(He was talking about old rusty machinery dug up from underground where they were buried about 30 or 40 years ago)

Rust is oxidised iron. Thats Iron with a few oxygen atoms attached to it.
During the metal smelting process they have to add Oxygen to the molten metal to get the process working.

My observation is that, as the rust is iron with oxygen stuck to it, they won't have to add as much oxygen to the molten metal to get it 'go'.
My theory is that if you had enough time & metal, you could get it to rust into a 'almost powder' state & sell it like that.

Any ideas?