Advice please

I am cleaning up some junk in my yard I have been collecting. I was going to truck it to the local scrap yard and try to get a few bucks for it. not sure how best to go about this.

I have an old snowmobile, three riding lawn mowers, few bike frames, some of them aluminum. An old fiberglass boat with an aluminum and cast iron inboard engine and lots of aluminum on it, also lots of stainless on it, aluminum fuel tank, aluminum outdrive, etc. Old motorcycle parts, whatever. All stuff I collected to "fix up" and none of it panned out.

When I called to talk to the guy at the scrap yard he said bring it the way it is and it will be "light iron" At first I thought he said $89 a ton, but then he went on talking and said something like "Just bring it the way it is and for every two thousand pounds you will get $189" Like he had to explain what a ton was. Maybe I mis-heard him and he said $189 the first time. Don't know, gotta call back and find out. Which price makes more sense?

My ? is, can I make more by putting some time into separating metals. If I break down the mowers and pull off the aluminum engine parts. rubber tires, etc is it even worth the effort? Are stainless boat rails worth separate than at the bottom of a pile of mixed metal? Should I just lug it in and maybe make $200 or can I double that by putting in a days work. I am not looking to dissasemble 100 mowers as a business and save the parts 'til I have the copper windings from 100 starters. I just want to not get screwed because I was lazy and took the "light iron" price. Should I bring the easy aluminum separate? Not sure how to proceed.

Thanks

I always start out with a new pile pulling off the easy stuff that is worth more than the going rate of light iron. If you've got enough weight to garner a ton of light iron, and want an easy 189 dollars that's pretty easy money.

If that was me; I'd pull what you know is aluminum, pull the stainless and let them have the rest at iron price. 189.00 a ton sounds close, little low for around here. Aluminum runs .50 - .75 per lb. stainless - .60 - 1.00 per lb. don't know the exact price of your yard. Lot bigger payday that way,,,

If you have a grinder or sawzall, you could cut the stainless and aluminum stuff off easy enough. Check for aluminum decks on the mowers/that'll be cast and easily broken into pieces. The snowmobile should be Irony Aluminum. Take the wheels off aluminum bike frame and cut off any iron from the frames. It really just depends on how much work you want to out into separating types of metal. The more you put into it, the more you'll get out of it. You'll need to make at least three piles of aluminum - Cast, Extrusion and Sheet.

Yeah, 189 sounds much more accurate. If it is $89, find a different yard. You will probably have more dollars worth of non ferrous (aluminum, stainless, brass, copper, etc.) than you do in iron.

Any of it worth selling as is?

I've picked up junk and made more than scrap.

whats the snowsled? i usually hate scrapping sleds and only scrap them when i get down to the frame and noone wants it, after i am done parting them out. There is a BIG business in sled parts. Ive made an easy 2 grand + last year by just parting out a few sleds. PM me if you need some help

Thanks for the advice all. Wanted to let you know how it played out. First, much of it was worth selling on craigs. That's why I was keeping it. Fix it up and sell it, just never happened. Wife said clean up the yard so I went with the easiest route.

It killed me to scrap the sled. It was a 1970 something Bombardier Skandik. Entry level work sled at the time. All the parts were there. It ran a year ago, needed a carb rebuild and the kit was still available for like 12 bucks. I got it free at the end of someones driveway and had a little fun with it once I got it running but when the recoil starter crapped out I gave up on it. Could have been restored but not by me. No time.

The lawn tractors could have run but the decks were trashed, tires flat and dry rotted.

I made two loads. They had me separate out anything with an electric motor and aluminum and paid me irony aluminum for that which amounted to a few dollars more. I pulled the batteries out of the lawn tractors. Everything else went in the light iron pile. Total $185.

I know I could have sold the sled and maybe one of the tractors but it would have taken weeks. I also know that I could have separated more of the aluminum parts and done a little better but at 3 cents a pound difference, why bother.

Oh, and when I went back with my second trip, the sled was not in the light iron pile anymore!

At the end of the day I have $200 I didn't have before and my yard is a little cleaner. And it was easy money.

26, you're breaking my heart !

The best advise I can give you is to not waste your time, and call the nearest professional scrapper to you. If your near Phx. Az give me a call:)

Actually this thread is encouraging. I can go into a place like this buy it in a way that makes owner satisfied, then still come out awesome myself. I DID know that, but its nice to be reminded once in a while.