Stainless steel

I recently salvaged some stainless steel running boards, when I took them in expecting to be paid for stainless, they said they were magnetic, therefore not stainless, just worth iron price. Is he correct or did I get screwed?

same with my yard.

Thanks for the replies, I will know better in the future.

Were there brackets or steel frame/supports on it? Or the actual running board was magnetic?

I was tearing down some restaurant equipment. Initially I thought it was magnetic, but it was catching the steel backing.

A long time ago my scrapper mentioned that if I,
"Found stainless steel, but it was magnetic or very lightly magnetic, keep it separate" & he "would give me a good price for it"

I expect it was, say 50% of the Stainless Steel price (which was higher then) & worth buying in largish lots (100Kg+)
Stainless normally turns up in larger amounts that any nonmagnetic metals & weighs more too.

Originally Posted by eesakiwi

A long time ago my scrapper mentioned that if I,
"Found stainless steel, but it was magnetic or very lightly magnetic, keep it separate" & he "would give me a good price for it"

I expect it was, say 50% of the Stainless Steel price (which was higher then) & worth buying in largish lots (100Kg+)
Stainless normally turns up in larger amounts that any nonmagnetic metals & weighs more too.

My yard also told me if its magnetic it goes with regular steel. but one time, the same guy gave me a better price on a sink that was *lightly* magnetic and I had removed the brackets too so it wasn't catching those. So, lol, my yard confuses me sometimes but I wasn't complaining as I got better price. Now, this particular sink, when I ran the magnet over it only stuck towards the bottom. I thought it was odd but on the outside of the sink the bottom half had a white type material painted/sprayed on it so I figured maybe that stuff was attracting the magnet. Anyone know what that stuff is?

I stripped them completely, even any plastic caps, etc.

That's a bummer. Get a good magnet and use it on everything.

Was the drain assembly still attached? That might be magnetic.

No, the drain was off thats why I wondered if that white stuff was magnetic as it clearly didn't stick on the top half but as I moved it down it lightly *stuck* where the white goo stuff started on the other side. Weird.

I think the 'white goo' is probably the protective plastic film thats often on stainless steel sheetmetal.

The sinks are made seperate & the sheetmetal firm welds them into their stainless steel sinktop then grinds down the welds & sands/grinds/polishes the weld down till you can't see the weld from the top.

Bleach 'eats' stainless steel if its left on it long enough, so I found when I noticed tiny holes in my SS frypan, then the sinktop....

I found some stainless steel that i think was welded at some point and it left some rust lookin marks on some of the pieces
Do u still get full price with that on it or do u get a reduced price?

The weld should not affect the price

When in doubt get out the air chisel.

300 Series Stainless (The kind everyone is talking about when scrapping stainless) is valuable because it contains Nickel. 300 Series is never magnetic. The stainless you had was a 400 Series Stainless. This type of stainless is magnetic and technically has a value slightly higher than regular light iron. The price is so close, however, that every yard I've been to, buys that stainless as light iron. This is the way I purchase stainless as well. There seems to be a lot of confusion about this, so I hope my post clears some things up.

Oh, also with the lightly magnetic stuff, it varies yard to yard. Try to get to know the buyers at your yard and be friendly with them. They will often let a bit of lightly magnetic stainless go by.

Originally Posted by Err0rX

Oh, also with the lightly magnetic stuff, it varies yard to yard. Try to get to know the buyers at your yard and be friendly with them. They will often let a bit of lightly magnetic stainless go by.

At my yard magnetic stainless steel is the same as steel, slightly magnetic then it depends on the guy working the scale. The usually guy, Joe, I know pretty well and he will give me a slightly better price than regular steel. As Err0rX said it really depends on your yard but it never hurts to ask.

300 Series Stainless is valuable since it does not contain nickel. It is magnetic but it differs from yard to yard. Stainless steel is one of the most important commercial used high-alloy steel. For better Steel marketing experience visit metallicametals.com .