Just thought I would share the details of my first real scrap job!!

Found a great contract on reddit.com of all places.

My client says he just bought a farm has a washer and stove for me.

awesome

I finish school on friday in the evening, rest up - go to U-haul in the morning hook up a trailer to my crown vic and drive out to the guys place for the washer and stove.

Get there - Its a huge antique type 8 burner stove that weighs 400lbs easy - awesome

Talk to the guy about school and life and business, he says he has all kinds of other stuff I may be interested in and takes me for a tour of the property.

Apparantly the guy who owned it before was an eccentric blacksmith/junkyard type of guy and there's a tonne of **** everywhere. piles of thick steel scrap everywhere, chains that weigh over 100lbs, a pile of brake rotors.

The tour continues

One of the barns was converted into a drywall/insulated "house" that was used as some kind of craft persons studio and had plugs for several separate workstations - My client was now in the process of ripping that out and bringing it back to a barn - hence the giant pile of electrical cables

The other barn was filled nearly to the top with tires, all tires. (90% on rims 20% of the rims being alloy) some tires for dirtbikes some 6 feet wide and for tractors or something.

He asked me if I was interested in a working lawn tractor.

Then behind the barns - the differential pile. Giant rear/front end parts for all sorts of different cars and stuff, all frozen into the ground of course he said ill be able to get them in the summer.

Also full tractors, gates, mobile homes, piles of steel tube, hot water heaters, pumps, and I'm sure a lot of stuff I don't even know about yet

The only deal I've made so far is that I'll take it all.

So I basically hit the motherload - really happy about this - thinking i should specialize in "farm cleanup"

just have to get better at taking tires off rims

Sounds like ya got some stuff worth way more than scrap value there.

Get yourself a pickup truck and a trailer...you'll need it. A nice skidsteer would really simplify things for you too. Congrats.

if the tires are any good make a deal with a local tire shop. They may even pay you

the thick steel may be worth money to a fabricator or welding shop.

I see people almost begging to pay ridiculous money for blacksmith tools sometimes.

Mobile homes, the cheapest to do them is they pay the dump fees, you do labor and keep metal. However, if you are scrapping the whole property, you just figure that into the deal you, make on everything.

If you are doing any kind of split, discuss how expenses will be handled, such as gas, blades, etc. and discuss how to handle resale items. Do you buy them outright, or does he wait till they sell.

Be honest to the point of ridiculousness, word gets around, especially among farmers. Once a farmer likes you, keeps it that way. They are amazing people, until you get on their bad side.

Congrats. If you want help there are several farm scrappers on the forum. We each have our own strategy and each is successful. Just ask, and we will provide the insight we have. Good luck and this could be just the tip of the iceberg. You are entering the best to scrap farms. Old timers are dying off and many small farms are being bought by huge operations. The new operations are only interested in farming and want people to clear the land. Families selling the land want the last dollar before they sell the land. Be up front and honest and the opportunities will come to you.

Just a quick follow up here:

NO pics yet! took 4 loads for this guy, got 1060lbs of steel (1 stove and 3 hot waters heaters in there too - the 44 steel rims were separate and I can remember what they weighed) , 314lbs of insulated #2 wire,50 tires on rims 6 of which were alloy, about 10 plastic jerry cans and a small pile of assorted car parts.

Much of the heavy metal parts outside are frozen into the ground and I agreed to come back in the spring for them rest of it.

paid my trailer rental, bought a pair of bolt cutters to help process the wire, and filled my gas tank, paid my insurance. and made about

Will uploads pics as it progresses.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Bear

if the tires are any good make a deal with a local tire shop. They may even pay you

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If they are tires for farm equipment, find a guy that installs them and see what kind of deal you can make. I have a friend that does farm tires and he sells a lot of used ones. Might be able to sell the rims as well.