I'd like a little help to better understand the scrap I have, and I have some pix to help. First let me state that I am an engineer during the day, however, I do multiple things on the side for extra pocket money, and scrapping is one of them. I'm fairly new to scrapping, having been doing it less than a year (although I've been recycling aluminum cans for decades and my brother and I used to scrap whole cars back in the late 80s and early 90s). These days I deal mainly with scrap steel, but part that stuff out and save as much good stuff from those items as I can when I can get them. I haven't recycled much beyond white metals and aluminum (cans, cast, sheet, etc), but I have a little stockpile of stuff from the scrapped items that I'd like to part with soon because it's time to get it gone as there will be more behind it, you know. Of course, I'd like to maximize any money made from this stuff, but please remember, this isn't my day job and I have lots of other stuff going on. For example, as much as I'd like to strip the insulation from all the wire I get, I simply don't have the time to do that. I know it is worth more money when bare, but it's all I can do to strip solid core, let alone stranded. It gets cut up and stays insulated. =(

Anyway, I placed all the pix into the gallery linked below. You can click on these pix and scroll through them. You can also make them full size (warning - they can be pretty big) if you want to see more detail. Sorry for the poor quality in some pictures. I meant to take these in natural light without flash, but I forgot until a while ago and it was already dark. Anyway, should you want to see any of these in full resolution, simply click on the image, hover over it with your mouse, and select the "O" (for original size) from the drop down menu that will appear.

What Kind of Scrap? - Racer997's Photos

In the meantime, here are some specific questions with some pix to show a little better what I am asking about:

I have a couple drawers of this stuff. These are, I think, wireless armatures. They were removed from electric motors. They appear to be an aluminum and steel sandwich. Is this aluminum breakage? If not, does it fetch more money than plain steel scrap?




I have a couple boxes of these. They were removed from TV boards, I believe. They have copper in them. What are they called and what do they pay?




Armatures and motors with metal casings and copper windings. Anything special I should do with these? I know my scrapyard buys this stuff, but does it have a name or classification?




A mix of electric motors and transformers pulled from PCBs and floppy drives and whatnot. Same question as above.




Here's a tall plastic cup filled with what I think is #1 copper. It's mostly copper plate pieces, contacts and other little bits from electrical items. Is this what I think it is, or...?




Several things here. That's brass on the bottom right. Similar to the copper in the above image, the bucket is full of mostly small stuff is sourced from electrical items - contacts, jumpers, etc. Then there is some old lighting, fan stuff, faucets and a few castings. Some of the faucet stuff is plated with chrome. Does that drive the value down? Behind this stuff is a little bit of lead. Then behind that is a bit of heating elements from stoves. I have a big bucket of these things. Are they special in any way? High nickel content? Copper content? What will my scrap yard think of it?






I have a lot of this stuff. This is just one bucket of it, but I have more, unstripped. It's copper-plated steel ground wire from co-ax cable. Does anyone buy this stuff?




Copper. This is one five gallon bucket full, but I have several. They contain all kinds of copper wire, from clean #1 pulled and rolled from certain transformers, to enamel-coated wire from electric motors, television/monitor CRTs and other items. I guess it needs to be separated for maximum money, right?




One of several buckets of electric motors I have. I was quoted about .15 a pound for this stuff. Sure, there's a lot of steel here, but there's a lot of copper, too. Is that the going rate, or? If it were easy to separate the windings, I'd do it. PITA for me.




Copper removed from refrigerators and window-unit A/Cs. The best bet to make it shiny #1 is to take a Scotch-Brite to it...?




Note that I didn't post all the pix. Please feel free to comment on any of the things in the gallery.

For example:

Note the bin of cut-up stranded, insulated wire. I have several bins like this. Not much I can do with it, is there? I was quoted between $1.10 and $1.40 a pound for this stuff.

Note the picture of the full-size garbage can full of green and brown PCBs. I have a couple garbage cans full like this. I guess this stuff is low-grade since it came from TVs, radios, stereos and electronics like that, mainly. Most of the boards have had the heat-sinks and transformers removed. These can't be worth much, I assume. I'm still looking for a local (Houston, Texas) location to sell it to.

Also, I didn't post the pix of the computer stuff I have, but feel free to look and comment. I suppose it has some value, right? I have pounds and pounds of what I believe to be better boards (at least mid-grade, or so, maybe higher) and RAM, daughterboards and motherboards with gold fingers. The CPUs can be identified here, too. Anything any good and worth eBaying?

Here's the gallery again - What Kind of Scrap? - Racer997's Photos

Thanks for the help, guys!