Hi from the Great White North Eh!

Hi from southern Ontario Canada! Not so white this winter though.

I have been scrapping casually for about 15 years now. Casually, meaning not actively searching but taking it when I find it. Mostly copper but other stuff lately as prices have risen. I stockpile it then take it to the scrapyard about once or so a year. I deal with a yard 2 hours away as the local dealers pay crap but take it if I'm going that way for something else. Have had a few decent finds over the years and split proceeds with a friend who was a superintendent at a closing plant scrap the wire and piping out. Have probably cashed in over $5000 worth over the years.

Didn't realize until now all the great info on the net and this site seems to have an unlimited supply. Hopefully I have enough knowledge that I can contribute something as well!

Glad to be aboard!

welcome

Welcome to the forum kep.....plenty info on the older threads to help you make money faster...lot's of shortcuts too. Looking forward to hearing more from you.

welcome ya fellow Canuck where in southern Ontario do you hunt for the copper? and where do you keep your pile?

Its funny cause I am from southern Ontario as well. do you also like hatchets?

Hey Jack! You're kinda responsible for energizing my enthusedness (is that even a word?) and getting me onto this site after seeing your videos and laughing my a$$ off! Entertaining and informative!

I was trying to guess where you are based on the videos. My guess is somewhere in Toronto (Scarborough?) I'm down Kingston way and I get my copper from wherever I can find it! Mostly just from casual looking. My main hobby is glass insulator collecting which takes me down many abandoned railway lines hunting for them. It yields a little bit of scrap every time I go out and I never leave without the necessary tools. Copper tie wires, old signal box wire remnants, grounding rods with brass attachments, junk dumped from years ago, tie plates and rail fastener parts. It's amazing how much stuff got left behind from years ago. Currently have about 1000lbs of heavy melt. Also found a 20' 80lb rail but it's not very accessible and would have to be cut up. There is one spot down an embankment where 5 car or truck engines have been sitting since about the 70's and most are V8. Probably impossible for me unless the blocks could be broken up with a sledge.

With my job I also sometimes do field work in the GTA and around Guelph and Waterloo. Also gives me the opportunity to make a delivery to Co-Steel in Oshawa. They're very professional and pay top $!

A few years ago while doing some work in Mississauga in a creek found a 15' length of 1930's era trunk lead sheathed phone cable about 2" dia. buried in the creek in the same spot as the current line runs. Either they left it there when they upgraded or it was a damaged section beat up bad from a storm, cut off and left. That section weighed about 400lbs and I had to cut it into sections in the creek. Luckily I was able to cut it where the lead sheathing had broken apart. Yielded $300 mostly from the copper and a little bit from the lead.

Love the hatchets! Going to try to get a few old ones from the auction.

Keep posting the vids! I'll be watching! Great editing BTW!!

thanks and enjoy them movies.

and its Hamilton btw right in the gut of that steel mill.... you know that's why we get all the good prices.

Ahh Pittsburgh of the north! A good place to be when you're in the metal business! Keep up the vids!

is it legal to take iron from RR's in Canada. Our yards can't accept it and if your caught it's a big fine.

Definitely theft and tresspassing if it's from an active railway line. I think the yards use their own discretion. The one I go to is owned by a very large steel conglomerate and are very professional. They also take your license plate No. which would probably weed out people looking to subvert the law. As it goes here there are very few railway lines left other than the extremely busy mainlines. You would have to be pretty desperate to want to take anything from an active railway line. For what you get the risk is not even close to worth it. I had no trouble dumping the couple hundred lbs that I had which was a couple of small bins of spikes and some tie plates. There was even some brand new tie plates in the heavy melt pile that someone else dumped! Might be questions if you had a trailer load or something of quantity. It would be easy to spot iron from active railway as it would be heavy duty (mainlines using 130lb+ rail). Most lines which have been abandoned had 90lb or lighter.

There are a ton of abandoned rights of way which are mostly under public ownership as recreation trails. You would be amazed at how much iron still lays out there. When they were ripped up years ago iron was worth little and time is money. Not to mention the stuff tossed off from over a hundred year history. Found a fish plate down an embankment from 60lb rail! All the tie plates I currently have are single shoulder dated 1929 or 1930.

Yep illegal as hell on the active lines, but like kep says there are a lot of old lines that are now just public space for trails etc. Funny thing though, was at the yard one day and saw a 5 ton rail work truck roll in with with enough rail on the back he was seriously sagging. Must be nice.