I was born into this game, a 3rd gen scrapper and was wondering how many others here was keeping the family tradition going .
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I was born into this game, a 3rd gen scrapper and was wondering how many others here was keeping the family tradition going .
My 19 year old was responsible for pushing me over the edge a few years ago and getting me interested in scrapping. At the time he was rebuilding Gopeds and selling them on Ebay. He asked me to take him to turn in leftover aluminum parts.
i'm a first generation scrapper. my father used to see me scrapping in his garage and watch me trying to figure out what in the world i was doing, and just shake his head.
..now he hits me up for cash
My stepfather was a major scrapper in the 60s. He worked in a scrap yard. He'd take the copper wire from starters and alternators he'd buy from the yard and pay for a two-week trip every year. I didn't live with them but would watch him when I'd visit. He'd get about .10/lb. I never really thought about it one way or another at the time. I wish I had, cause I spent about twenty years working two jobs trying to get by. He'd been dead about 15 years when my step-brother (his son) got me started in the scrap business by buying and selling batteries. I could have done a lot better all those years than getting parttime jobs in gas stations and driving taxis. Funny thing is, back in the 70s I even had a PT job driving a car carrier hauling junk cars to a scrap yard. Still didn't register that I could do better selling to the yard, myself.
First generation here.I started a year ago. Needed cash and started with stuff in my house that I collected from cleaning out parents and grandparents houses. Started with junk gold and silver. When I started in my basement and pulled out 900.00 in non ferrous I was hooked.
Out of curiosity for those who have been doing this for more then one generation, has there ever been a best time to be a scrapper in the last 100 years? I would assume escrap was big back during the last gold rush (when electronics had much more gold and copper content), Aluminum might have been worth more before curb side recycling became common etc.
my great grandfather started in 1930's he built his empire over 60 years did very well ...60-70 's he made bulk of his money 'millions" he started with cans,newspaper ended 1/4 mile long building 100 acres 60 of scrap 4 cranes,12 trucks, so he did real well...here's a sniplet
'D B Cotton was founded in 1939 by David Cotton, as a scrap metal company located on Lyon Street in Southbridge, MA. Bob Cotton joined in 1950 and added dismantling and rigging, and the selling of new angles and plate. Ron Cotton joined in 1964 and purchased new equipment to expand the steel warehouse. In 1966, Ken Cotton joined the company and continued with the heavy dismantling and rigging.
The company moved to Guelphwood Road in 1978, and continued to expand their services, which included crane service, rigging, and heavy dismantling. The main goal was to keep upgrading the steel warehouse and fabricating facility, with new equipment and inventory, to serve their customers. In 2004, D B Cotton merged with Rawson Manufacturing and moved to Putnam, CT.'
Grandfather,dad and uncle owed a salvage yard and ive been a part of it since 2003
Second generation the third was born last DEC 2 2011. He already has a job for life and doesn't even know it. My father probably worked or contracted for almost every medium or large size scrap yard in NE OHIO. The home of scrap metal and that is where I learned about it since I was a pup. I can count 10 or more mills an hour or less from where I grew up at. Scrap yards were everywhere before they all got bought out.
I am first, but I have upturned it and turned my father into a scrapper. He is in his mid 70s. I love getting calls from him during the day asking me questions about scrap or telling me about his load he took in. He is coming out for a visit in November and I can't wait to show him the ins and outs of e-waste. Hope I can get a big load of computers right before he visits.
I love scrapping and hope someday one of my 3 girls will keep this going for the fourth generation. My great uncle, a world war II vet, did it as a hobby when he wasn't farming. My dad got me into it mainly by buying and parting out old cars, and worked at a salvage yard back in 03, started prepping iron and cutting tires off al rims with a sawzall when I wasn't picking parts. Can't beat otj training !
Wow, I never thought about this before I saw this thread! I am second generation, my dad used to scrap copper and aluminum though he didn't scrap steel. there were 5 kids to raise and he did this in between working 3 jobs. My sons will help me also but I can't see them carrying on the tradition after I'm gone in the full time sense that I do it but one of them may do it a little if he needed money.
Scrapping is scrapping, copper, steel, e waste or even plastic. Ain't nothing better than teaching your kids something they can use the rest of their life. My dad showed me two things I use almost every day of the week, wrenching on cars and scrapping, For which I couldn't ever thank him enough.
Come to think of it - blame my old and poor memory banks lol, my oldest son once told me he and a friend would scrap rotors for money so I guess HE was scrapping before I was. Does that make me 3'd generation once removed? ;):p Heee!!!
So, I guess he's the one that would be most likely to ever carry on the tradition on some level out of the 3 boys because my youngest will bring me stuff but doesn't like to do the turning in part I have no idea why.
Don't know about my great grandfather but grandpa run a garage in a small reservation town. I remember stacks of cars in the back yard that was part of thier retirement. My dad grew up building every thing from scrap. I got started by saving cans and car batteries. Now my daughter brings cans home from school so would that make her a fourth gen?
Multi generation - not sure which number. My father scrapped as he worked around heavy equipment - fixing them, my parents saved aluminum cans before it was common, my brother -in-law and nephew have been scrapping everything since my nephew was about 8 (he is 20 now). I am sure my grandfathers scrapped in their day. I never really thought about it until I retired. However, I used to take stuff to my dad for scrapping. Now it seems anything metal I want to pick up and save. Unfortunately I have less room now so I am working on smaller piles. It still all adds up.
I would say so, they are never too young to learn a good work ethic are they ?
My mom's dad was a dumpster picker from way back. Raised on a Wisconsin farm and a Navy Pilot (pre-WWII) he was always finding and fixing up cool stuff. When he retired to the Calif. woods in the 70s I remember his front yard looking like an outdoor museum of machinery. Tractors, mowers, trailers all over.
My mom was a big time recycler, but her motivation was more environmental than financial until her friend's building renovation biz took off and they were pulling wiring, conduit, and pipes out by the barrel. They asked me (14 at the time) to help out sorting it, showing me how to strip wire with a box cutter (like I knew better?)
Now in my 40s with young kids getting them into helping out. A 4 year old with a knack for finding cans and a 6 year old obsessed with how much everything weighs....gotta love it.
My grand father during the great depression became rich , buying junk cars - fix and re selling wile not scraping , it was a form of get low sell higher & it was good old steel cars.
Great thread! I really enjoyed reading everyone's posts. I am a newbie in the scrapping industry. Officially started business in mid Jan of this yr and myself and partner are now both working FT only at this (him out, me in office 99- out 1%) and we are solely supporting our 2 households from our business profits. My 19yr old son is part timing it days (works FT nights at reg. job).... outside rearranging his truck now for 2nd run today and my 6 yr old (on break from home school, which I can do now!) is out there supervising, and learning ;) .
I have learned so much here from you all and am thankful to everyone in this thread for sharing their experiences on the Scrap Metal Forum!
im a first generation but been watching guys that been doing it from the 60s when i started welding in 97 but scrap was 2 cents a pound in brooklyn
my uncles would haul stuff in when it was to the point of useless on the farm, my grandfather and his brothers had a logging company back in the day and would salvage all the old railroad rails from way back in the day when it was logged by rail.
My dad was a horrible scrapper, I learned from my best friend how to make money, and now I teach him how to make even more money. Guess im 2nd gen...always bringing stuff home from the dump with my mom
my dad taught me how to scrap here is the funny thing i married my wife whose grandfather and father are 1st and second generation scrappers i have seen receipts from 1950 1970 1943 and 1932 DAYUM something tells me since i married his only daughter my three sons is mine if something happens and i am kewl with it