stainless steel

anyone know what the going rate at the scrap yard is for non-magnetic stainless steel. Like from a restaurant refrigerator?

I believe it was upwards of .70 cents per pound for clean stainless. So probably between 40 and 50 for dirty, maybe a little bit less.

Also, sometimes they won't accept equipment like that even as dirty stainless because there's a requirement on the steel to stainless ratio.

The guy at the scrap yard once told me the item had to be like 80% stainless steel in order for them to buy it as dirty stainless steel.

Thanks. this thing is all stainless except for the compressor and copper coils amd casters.

Please becareful with stainless steel. I bought 20,000# of SS from a auction and spent 3 1/2 days separating magnetic and non magnetic. Then when i took it to sell i was told it was not worth but .25 cents per #. That was the non magnetic and i got .12 cents a pound on the magnetic. I was told that there are many different grades of SS. Just be careful i lost alot of money on that load. Just trying to help.

Thanks for the input. This was something that I got for free that was being thrown out. I stripped off all the non- magnetic stainless (about 35 lbs) and took the rest in as it was. I got $45 total for it all.

20 cents for Stainless. OMG you got burnt. Yesterday I took 94 pounds in and got $80.84 or 86 cents a pound. always check your stainless. The magnet does stick on some stainless. The scrap yards are interested in the non magnetic types. I have noticed a lot of Chinese stainless the magnet sticks. I have one customer who gives me a few hundred pounds of broken stainless steel knives. all made by the same company. All stamped "stainless" the magnet sticks to about half of them. I think the Chinese just have poor quality control.

How do I know what grade I have? A magnet won't stick to it. I bought a few food warmers at an auction and looking to cut them up for clean price. I've removed the casters, bumpers, heating elements, heat controls, wire, etc.

Now I just need to cut them open to get the insulation out. I think it will be worth it as the yard said it would be .20.lb as is, or .75/lb cleaned. Just want to make sure I am getting the best price.

Also what size should I cut them down to? They are roughly 2 feet wide by 5 feet tall.

If a magnet doesn't stick to it then it is probably 304 SS. Another common grade of stainless steel is 316 SS, and that is 18% chromium and 10% nickel. The heating elements are usually an expensive grade of alloy; usually 80% nickel and 20% chromium or something similar to that.

With stainless steel the scrappers are actually paying for the Chromium & Nickel in it.
Nickel is expensive, & heavy.
Once the amount of Chrome & nickel % gets up to a certain amount, the steel looses its ability to be magnetic & indicates that theres a low amount of steel in it.
And a high amount of chrome & nickel which = $$$

Use a real strong magnet, like the flat ones from computer hard drives or the round ones from a microwave oven.