looking to hear from other scrappers/brokers

Long time junk dealer here in Maine. Recycled alot of steel and non ferrous material around the state. I used to deal exclusively with D. Murphy, then Pat Murphy, now they are out of Maine, Im not sure who to establish a relationship with...I like to work exclusively with one yard to develop good working relationship. I would love to hear your ideas, also what anyone would recommend for dismantling 45 ft aluminum box trailers. I thought we had some type of aluminum cutting device, but i may be thinking welding. Any tips or advice is welcome. Also, what to do with all these motors....ugh...lots to do...

thanks a million- Jennifer formerly of NE Demolition Inc

Hi, Jenn,

Welcome to the forum from the East Kootenays of BC, Canada!

Talking about demolition of aluminum trailers...

I worked for a company that contracted hauling wood blocks for remanufacturing into lumber. They had subcontracted a bulk hauler to haul all those blocks in "B-train" aluminum pulp chip trailers. The trailers were ones that were at the end of their lives so when we shut down the plant the hauler just parked the 30-40 B-train trailers on the millsite.

7 years later, when we were scrapping out a planermill on the same site, the bulk hauler chose a scrapper who specialized in truck trailers to scrap out the chip trailers.

He started by using gasoline powered cutoff saws and torches on the steel bits on the running gear. He got into a time crunch and ended up having the local scrap metal guy bring in a shear. The first twenty took about 2 months with 2 and 3 guys working at it. The last twenty took about 4 days with the shear and one guy.

He told me he sold just about every wheel and tire off of them...he graded the tires out and sold them accordingly...the low end tires went to guys with delivery trucks and dump trucks in a city, where a flat didn't mean much, to the better tires going to the highway guys. The rims were all aluminum.

He also pulled the axle sets. They were mostly airbag suspension and he said he could get decent money but I think it was more wishful thinking than sales. I believe he sold about 10 axle sets. He also sold the 5th wheel bits, jack legs, and any air brake equipment he could pull off of them-relay valves, air weighing equipment, etc.

He had to be pretty savvy with selling the scrap. Initially the local scrap guy would not play ball with him. He brought in big 40 foot bins from a scrap outfit 5 hours drive away to start with. Then he used a closer guy just across the border in the US. Finally the local guy caved and gave him a competitive price.

So...pick the bones clean, and watch your resale options. Work closely with one guy if you wish, but watch the market prices and make sure he doesn't slowly get greedy. How do they say it?....."innocent as a dove, cautious as a serpent".

Let us know how you make out!!

Jon.

If your trailers are dry vans or china tops, get a pneumatic chisel one with a 2 inch stroke to pop the heads from the rivets. Re- profile the chisel to take on the profile of a wood chisel, once you start this job you'll get the idea why this new profile works better against the soft sheets of aluminium.

The new profile will not dig into the sheet and it works its way under the head of a rivet, as the chisel begins to wedge itself under the rivet head it will snap the head off. By working in a straight line with the rivets you're going to rip ten or more heads off in one run. If you had longer arms you could shear off rivets by the yard.

To avoid operator fatigue on the guy using the pneumatic chisel reduce your air pressure to 60 or 80 PSI.

After the rivets have been worked I do not spend any time removing a sheet, when everything is done I"ll keep bumping the trailer from a corner soon it begins to wobble and fall apart. This give you nice stackable sheets. and clean beams.

If the trailer has ribbed flooring have someone with an XRF check it, it maybe magnesium which has better wear resistance over aluminium. You may also find that magnesium ribbed flooring has only been placed where a fork lifts tires would travel the length of the trailer.

Now that the upper half has been removed you have the nasty part to deal with, the large aluminium beams under the floor that have a lot of steel rivets holding steel gussets. I heat the head of the steel rivet then burn it out. If you just cut the head off then you have to fight to remove the shank.

Fortunately the sheeting used for roofing is usually in one long continuous sheet and you will not have an excess of sealant to deal with. I heat the tar like substance then use wide blade ( spade ) in the pneumatic chisel to remove the crude. You may have to fabricate your own spade, I save all my broken chisels for such projects to re-purpose the shanks.

Aluminium and steel are not compatible materials, where to two metals meet you'll find that electrolysis has taken its due course. I use this incompatibility of the tow metals to my advantage by using my arc welder cranked up, when the welding rod is touched to the steel head of a rivet it will arc where it pass;s through the aluminium and burn a very large hole. Gives off a lot of white smoke so use this procedure at your own discretion.

Sometimes when doing this the steel rivet sticks to the rod and falls out of the hole when retracting the rod.

A plasma cutter works but is slow in comparison to shearing the rivets off, and you can get aluminium cutting blades. Some guys will tell you to install a wood cutting blade in backwards.

Once I cut up some electric hydro bus's with my arc welder, to get some life out of the rods by soaking them in water. With the welder set at a high amperage you just drag the rod across the aluminium sheet you get a very ragged cut and the cutting goes very fast, if you can deal with the white smoke.

For a remote area with out electricity I still would use the welder.

Also whenever I'm dismantling a large aluminium truck cab with sleeper, these have a ton of steel rivets in them. I prefer using the welder to burn out those rivets.

This is how I dismantle trailers, you will have to figure what works for you best.

There are plenty of posts on the forum some with videos showing how to remove copper from electric motors, transformer and refrigeration compressors.

Breakage by weight contains 30% copper, time and labour will offset any advantage you expect to gain by manually removing the copper, if it were me I would ship as breakage.

Welcome from the Dakota's. You have received some outstanding advice from two experts. My redneck way would be would require electric metal shears, hydrogen/oxygen cutting torch, and cutting blade on a grinder to remove rivets. I have more time than Saw's friend and not near the experience Alloy 2 has. Good luck and we would love updates and pictures of your project.

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Originally Posted by sailkk

Hello!

I have buyers in Pakistan who would be glad to take the motors off of you, they require RPMs ranging from 900 to 1450. I myself am a broker, but will put you in contact with the buyer directly, after of course agreeing on commission fees.


Hit me back if you're interested!

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Since your working as a broker your probably working a double ender getting a commission from both the seller and the buyer how about some transparency here by earning our trust.

This is how brokers work earning a fee from both ends, this should be taken into consideration when negotiating a commission.

Also it maybe prudent for those thinking of shipping overseas to read this document How to Get Paid When Selling Overseas

You should be more specific in your requests, the RPM range of those electric motors you want tells me they're 3 phase.

Actually, those rpms specify 50 cycle. But the voltage could be anything...415? 380?

Are you looking for container quantities?
Enclosed or open drip?
Horsepower ranges?

Jon.

welcome new friend. hope you are doing well.

Thanks for your reply.

I intend to be transparent, once i find a dealer who matches my client's criteria. He seeks not only motors, but also compressors. I simply mentioned the RPM range he provided me, i was not aware there were more details to be asked. At this point, i know there's 110 and 220 volts (US and Europe standards) and both are acceptable with my buyer.

As far as disclosing my buyer goes, i could disclose his details here knowing full well that he will not circumvent me, however the problem is that his online presence is almost nil. I keep in touch with him via my phone. So, if you're interested in chatting up with him, i can provide you further details.

Peace!

To be honest, i haven't the slightest of clue about their horsepower, enclosed or open drip. Although i do know its going to be container quantity for sure. I will contact the buyer and ask for more details!

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Originally Posted by merceko

welcome new friend. hope you are doing well.

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Thanks merceko! Hope you're doing good too! Any tips/advise?