Crawlin through the woods

I had a small bit of scrap from a house to pick up today (which lead to discussion that the neighbor had a multi-acre yard full of junk she wanted to get rid of). I decided that I needed to supplement my load a bit, so I went around the back roads looking for roadside dumps. Together, I found about #300 of sheet iron just chilling in the woods, which took me about an hour to retrieve. I spent about $3 extra in gas, and made $33 extra dollars! Of course I had to get dirty a bit, but I got to walk around in the beautiful woods! Sounds like a good deal to me. Also, I found a bonus hot water tank on the way home from the recycling yard. This same spot I found the sheet iron in has given me about #200-300 on several other occasions too. I love cleaning up other people's ignorance.

Congratulations on the find. Be sure to check that tank for copper tubing and brass valves.

x2 on that mick! the 3 minutes I spent taking of some brass fittings of a hotwater heater got me an exta 4 bucks!

this is how i find 50% of my metal. walking threw the woods of maine. call me a weirdo, but its making me money.

I try some but after ive been ran off a few times it has stopped me some

I put this to the test today in the woods near my house I found close to 100# of pipe, a rusted out dolly, a lawnmower engine and some heavy iron yard decorations.. and I'm sure there is more deeper in but this was all right on the side of the road...

Awesome !

Heavy iron lawn decorations? Sounds interesting. Can we get a picture?

Nice work wontacceptthis. Sounds like a fun afternoon.

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Originally Posted by parrothead

Heavy iron lawn decorations? Sounds interesting. Can we get a picture?

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scrapped already.. it was the best way for me to describe them... they were the kind of thing you would stick in the ground and allow viny plants to grow up and around etc...

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Originally Posted by nyjetsfanx93

scrapped already.. it was the best way for me to describe them... they were the kind of thing you would stick in the ground and allow viny plants to grow up and around etc...

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If you find things like that, try to sell them on craigslist, you'll get way more money that way than at the yard. People love rustic stuff.

My main business is Estate Sale and Garage sale purchasing and reselling.. I do pretty well.. the scrap metal for me is a quick flip... find it collect it.. sell it ! my storage is pretty small so i keep something ugly and rusty is just not worth the effort...I find plenty of other things that are smaller and easier to sell ... When I find things like Dog Cages and computers ( when they work )that others usually scrap I usually sell those for quite a bit...

Yep the past few weekends I have made 350$ with about 20 hours of work and less than 10$ of gas just digging metal out of the ground around my place in New England. So many people just toss things "down the bank" to get rid of them.
My own Dad for one refuses to believe its worth the effort to scrap steel. I keep telling him the prices.

What about the multi-acre neighbor?

I had a similer find today. I was out prowling for metal and remembered this place from back in my wild and free wheeling youth that was simply called "the dump". Took me awhile to find the place but when I finally did I was pleasently surprised to see a dryer and a couple things sitting right off the road. Park the truck get out and climb up the hill, to look down over the imbankment and for a minute I was like some treasure hunter who stumbled on the mother load. Everything from appliances of every kind to farm equipment, AC units, and even at least two partially buried cars, all rusting and beautiful..lol. although the heavy down pour made getting in there a little more risky then even I'm willing to try. I took the stuff along the road and made a couple quick phone calls and long story short tracked down the owner of the property to secure permission to clean out the gully. Guess I'll be busy for the next several weeks. :-)

Well, the owner of the multi-acre property did have 2 acres of land. But they only had about 600# of tin, and a few handfuls of non-ferrous. Still not bad, but I had high hopes.

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Originally Posted by gypsy

I had a similer find today. I was out prowling for metal and remembered this place from back in my wild and free wheeling youth that was simply called "the dump". Took me awhile to find the place but when I finally did I was pleasently surprised to see a dryer and a couple things sitting right off the road. Park the truck get out and climb up the hill, to look down over the imbankment and for a minute I was like some treasure hunter who stumbled on the mother load. Everything from appliances of every kind to farm equipment, AC units, and even at least two partially buried cars, all rusting and beautiful..lol. although the heavy down pour made getting in there a little more risky then even I'm willing to try. I took the stuff along the road and made a couple quick phone calls and long story short tracked down the owner of the property to secure permission to clean out the gully. Guess I'll be busy for the next several weeks. :-)

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cant beat that! never be afraid to ask. ive learned that real quick. most people WANT to get rid of the metal and ive honestly have never been turned down.. yet knock on wood

Good point on that guys, I had a folding iron flower shelf for inside plants, I gave it too my grandma, she wanted one and it was in great shape so to see her smile when I set it up for her was well worth nat getting an extra dollar at the scrap yard.

wontacceptthis good job that is still better than nothing

i am full time scrapper from arkansas but about a month ago came up to north east pennsylvania to help take out 17 miles of 14 inch gas pipe for my uncle pipe company....well we are storing and working the pipe out of two different yards and at both of the yards in the woods i have discovered TREASURE...one was an old service station w/ car tanks,hoods,parts,rear ends,tranny,doors,ect and the other is the biggest dump / burn area that i have ever came across...on my couple days off i have managed to hall in 3 loads of junk (tin/appliances/car parts). i am averaging 2500 pounds a load...i am estimating there to be 10 more loads..my electric motor,aluminum/battery,copper,wire pile is growing pretty large....the best part of it all it the prices are awesome here....14.5 cents a pound just for the junk bs i have been hauling...just thought i would share and remember taking a little walk through the woods can be quite good...........Philip

Welcome to the Forum. That's pretty good pricing. Up here, just north of you, light iron is .095 and #1 is .13/lb.

Welcome fl1870! What part of NE PA are you in, if I may ask? I'm from upstate NY near the NE PA border.

one of our storage yards is in lords valley and the other is in hamlin...but i have been taking all scrap to scranton...new yard just opened there....way best prices that i have found around here...i thought they would be higher up here but didnt nkow this good....funny thing is i found out about them through a radio ad...guess advertising does work

I tried this today just out of interest really so I wasn't prepared to take what I found. I was in my work car wearing flip flops so had to leave my find for another day in a small wooded area with a dog walking route running through it. I didn't even know it existed until I drove past it and thought of this thread. I only went a few feet into the place and found a couple of wheels from a car and a kids bike half covered by mud. It might take a bit of work when I go back there with boots, shovel and whatever else I think will be handy, but I'm guessing they are worth taking as a neighbour who is a 'proper' scrappy (owns two trucks, a land rover and a trailer) always seems to have a few of them on his load.

I'm looking forward to going back there properly tooled up and making some money.

Those wheels should go as #1 iron. Need to have tires removed.

just found 2 smaller #1 iron axles and hubs, a truck axle and rims, a probably 1,500 pounds of tin and tractor rear axle in the woods just recently. now gotta ask land owners for them. all from looking in the woods.