Harddrives.... Cast or Die Cast?

So...I went to turn in a bunch of aluminum, and the scrap yard guy pulled my harddrive casings out and tried to pay me 20 cents a pound for them, because they are die cast, not cast aluminum.



Anyone know what they are, and what I should be getting them paid out as? As far as I knew, cast aluminum is poured into a mold, while diecast aluminum is injected into a mold.....not understanding why one would be worth less......

My yard pays me cast alluminum for them.

Thanks you guys.....that's what I thought. I took them back home with me, instead of getting paid at .20 a pound for diecast. The guy at the yard wasn't hearing it when I was telling him they weren't diecast though, so maybe I just need to find a new, more knowledgeable yard.

You did exactly the right thing. Might be because you are a girl person or perhaps the guy just likes to rip people off. I find it hard to believe someone in this business more than a short time can not recognize Al( I am referring to the buyer at the yard you went to). Go to a place that respects their customers and cultivates a good relationship. These guys should be teaching you what to look for. Many of the buyers on this forum go out of their way to educate members on what materials to look for and how to process them for a maxmimum return. Real success will come to those who work for it and are honest.

One of our greatest undocumented rights we have is, we can vote with our feet. Best to you, Mike.

Originally Posted by Mechanic688

This doesn't answer your question but I just had to show it, I think the answer might be that the top is usually stainless and the bottom section is extruded alum, we throw ours in with the block heat sinks from the computer motherboards.

Other than the cover being stainless, are most of the metal parts in these aluminum of some sort? The platters, read/write arms and such? A few wires and some screws that aren't. The rest seems to be aluminum to me.

So do they all go in one pile or is there value in segregating them in some way?

Bill

Originally Posted by easyrecycle

They are extruded AL.

Guess ill have to make my yrd start paying me extrusion prices for them. Thanks easy.

OMG! They are diecast Magnesium!

Ok, some could be aluminum, but the ones I find are much lighter & so I think they are magnesium.
I think Magnesium is US$0.07cents a Lb

(from this site- http://www.recycleinme.com/scrapreso...9/2011&cnty=us)

Hell, thats cheap, dunno if thats correct by the look of it.

Most Ali has magnesium in it but I do separate out my magnesium if I'm sure it is Mg.
Otherwise I have been putting the stuff I'm not sure about into the Ali bin, whoops....

I do know the little arms in a harddrive are Mg.

The stuff is soo light, has a different 'ring' to it when you tap it, sound goes forever, well 15 - 30 seconds.

I notice or scrapmetalers don't have a price for it.

I'd like to see all metals that are cast or diecast, have a symbol on them indicating the makeup of the metal.
Just like plastic has.

My yard pays me 53 cents a pound for them.

Also asked about the motors and they said they would take them as alum due to the high amount of alum around the motor

I throw mine in with my cast and haven't had them pulled out yet.