I have been saving the heater elements out of hot water heater's. Getting ready to take my first load in and was wondering if I was going to get paid for Nichrome? Has anyone here ever sold these?
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I have been saving the heater elements out of hot water heater's. Getting ready to take my first load in and was wondering if I was going to get paid for Nichrome? Has anyone here ever sold these?
Call first..... Make sure your yard will pay you nichrome prices.....mine will only pay shred for them. I haven't called anywhere else yet because I don't have that many.....but definitely call around to find one!
Those elements are mostly insulation,(electrical). The NiCR is only a thin wire in the center.
Same here. I got 5 yards in a 30 mile radius. 1 very large, big time yard. All of them only pay shred price for them. But I've seen others on the forum get better pricing so you gotta give it a shot.Quote:
Originally Posted by Hypoman
The NiCR wire itself is worth somewhere in the ballpark of $6.00 a pound.
Elements that that look like wire are NiCR. They are insulated by hanging from ceramic insulators.
For example the the element from a hair dryer is a bare wire element.
Water heater elements are like stove top burners. Burners have a heavy insulation on them so you don't get electrocuted when you set the pan on it! You can just picture what the result would be if the water heater element was to contact the water directly.
I never tried but I'm sure you would have to beat the hell out of it to get to the center wire.
I tried getting the wire out once. Definitely NOT worth it. Not to me anyway.
Me too -took an age. It was a steel coated element with a densely packed white powder in the middle makin removal of the nichrome very difficult. Got about 80g of nichrome for one element. There are however ceramic covered nichrome in some elements that can just be smashed off with a hammer. Nichrome will also be found uncovered in toasters, heaters, hairdryers and other electrical appliances that are designed to produce heat.
Can anyone take a picture of the Nichrome in toasters and the such. Toaster ovens? I can get a lot of toasters, toaster oven and hot water heater elements. I mean about 100 a week.
your kidding copperhead !! You don't know what a heating element looks like ?? Sorry, I didn't mean to insult you, but I just think you do, you just had a lapse. It's just a coiled wire in most cases. I don't fool with that covered stuff with the powder in in but I have a nice collection of the coils. Get the toasters, etc, but as someone, joe I think, said, the water heater elements aren't worth it.
Stuff that turns red when you put the shingle down.
It is the thin wire that as mentioned turns red when hot. You know the wire that electrocutes you when you use a butter knife to get the stuck toast out.Quote:
Originally Posted by copperhead
I am experimenting with new phone and new way to post pictures. As soon as I get things worked out I will be posting helpful pictures.
They sold me a smart phone and there wasn't even a test!
Ok. I know what it is now.
copperhead - it's probably not economical to buy the toasters from the yard, remove the element and the mains lead and then sell the rest as shred. I could be wrong though - perhaps it's worth a teardown comparing weights before and after :)
On the ceramic coated elements, I wonder if cutting them to size and putting them in a ball mill would get me anywhere. Guess I'll find out when I get to it. Sitting on a tote of various elements from stoves, dryers, some toasters, and a few furnaces. I don't pull water heater elements because I don't have an element socket and I can't get a pipe wrench in there.
I bought a "smartphone" too, injunjoe. With the mistakes it makes though I really don't see how they can call the sucker "smart"!Quote:
Originally Posted by injunjoe
I work at the scrapyard so I don't have to buy the toasters.
IdahoScrapper, Have you checked prices for them in the valley? I mean stove elements and nickel/chrome wire.
I will seperate elements if others are getting more than steel price for them! Has any one?
Water Heater Element= 1.5 inch socket.
I have not checked other than a few sites online awhile back. Of which I can't locate at the moment. Should have book marked them. If I had to guess, the local yards will pay stainless prices at most. IIRC one site I came across was paying $6/lb on nichrome.Quote:
Originally Posted by freonjoe
http://www.877ironmike.com/metal-prices
He's got some stuff listed that I'm not sure what is. That would be something nice for someone to copy those #'s and abbreviations and put some common names with them, hint, hint.
The best I've found for stove burners locally is .30 a pound as dirty stainless. No local buyers for nickel/chrome wire. Found a place in Portland that is .45 to .55 for stove burners (they grade them as stove burners) and they buy nickel/chrome with no minimum weight. Going over to talk to them at the end of the month.
Found one of the sites I was referring to.
http://www.nialloys.com/nickel_alloy...kel_alloy.aspx
I have no experience with this company.
I did call them and the minimum they accept is 500 pounds.
I am thinking it may be worth buying from people until I have enough to sell.Quote:
Originally Posted by freonjoe
It seems hard to sell! I think it will be a good investment.
Scrap 304, 316 and 409 are all stainless steels with differing percentages of chromium and nickel. The percentages are 18/8, 16/10, 11/0.5 and 12/0.75 respectively. You can see that the price of 409 and 410 is lower because it has less nickel in it.
Iconel is a brand name for different types of nickel/chromium alloys, with nickel normally making up the largest part of the alloy. There isn't much rhyme or reason to the names, but for reference Iconel 600 is 72% nickel, 15% chromium. 625 is 58/21 and 718 is 53/15.
Inconel was developed in the UK - over here we call it 'Inco'. You normally find it in places that have high temperatures and pressures, such as gas turbine blades. 718 Inco has 5% niobium in it, which is next on the list.
If you find any fairly pure niobium it would be good to hear where you got it from because that stuff is normally only used in places where scrappers don't tend to get their hot, sweaty little hands. Places like seriously tasty jet engine and gas turbine blades and components. I don't know what it's like in the US, but over here if you roll into a scrap yard with the guts of a Eurofighter Typhoon jet engine on the back of your truck it would tend to raise a few eyebrows.
Hastoloy C and Hastoloy X are brand names of a different company. There are different grades of C, but most are made up of 20% chromium, 15% molybdenum and most of the rest is nickel. X is 22% chromium, 9% molybdenum, 19% iron and the rest is nickel. Hastoloy is used in corrosive, high temperature applications such as valves that can get very very hot in chemical plants, or in bits of jet engines.
Basically, a lot of these are speciality alloys, and unless your yard has an xrf they are not going to want to pay out any significant sum of money for your jet engines and chemical plant valves :) It's good knowledge to tuck away in the back of your mind though - who knows what you might come across one day. Just take a picture for the glory, that's all I ask :)
Thanks. Biggest socket I have is an impact at 1 1/8".Quote:
Originally Posted by Divemaster920
I looked 'em up and now that I see one, I am certain I have seen one amongst dads tools. I noticed it before but didn't know what it was for.
http://www.homedepot.com/catalog/pro...465b7f_400.jpg
That looks like a cheap sparkplug wrench, you put a screwdriver in the side hole and turn to remove the plug, maybe for old lawnmowers. I'll bet I have 2 or 3 of them,,Quote:
I looked 'em up and now that I see one, I am certain I have seen one amongst dads tools. I noticed it before but didn't know what it was for.
I dunno. It's what I found in images when looking for an element wrench.
If its gonna be scrapped.
The element flange is probably brass anyway, I use a cold chisel & hammer & bash the brass nut anticlockwise untill its loose.
I called two local yards today for prices on Nichrome. One yard said $2.00 lb - Second yard said $4.00 lb. Funny thing is, they are both owned and operated by two brother's that have gone their seperate ways.
Maybe you can get them to bid against each other. Brother 1 probably doesn't want to be one upped by brother 2 and vice versa.Quote:
Originally Posted by Big Tex
BigTex... looks like yard 2 has made your mind up for you.
Anyone else have luck selling ellements?