Todays Odd find and questions!

[armstrt8]

Evening all! Todays finds and questions

Bought this for $15... 20 pounds of brass. Some incense burner... anyone know what religion?? or what in the WORLD that creature on the top is?!



For those who have been reading my last thread here is a followup on the sqaureD breakers I found. Well, I didn't pay attention! I actually have a variety of different ones! I have more research ahead on these. All seem to be worth more whole rather than B.F.H'd



These chunks of... aluminum? They are all over my pipes that I got a couple days ago. They connect two pieces of pipe together. What is the technical name for this stuff? I see it in a variety of different uses around electrical also.






Last, I have wondered this one for a while... is this stainless, or aluminum? or both? how do I tell?!



One more question!! If I bring a 100 pound bucket of random pieces/chunks/poles/scraps/screw that are all aluminum or non magnetic stainless... what will most yards do? I don't know how to tell the difference... Will they just give me the lowest price out of non magnetic stainless/any quality aluminum?

As always, thanks for reading and any help you can provide!!

[Sirscrapalot]

Hello again Arms! Seems I'll be your answering rep at this late hour of the night.

First picture, the incense thing...I want to say, Chinese, Indian or Buddhist. I'm likely wrong but that's my guess. It smacks of a Asian type theme. Could you take a pic of the sides? Might help to figure it out.

2nd...the pipe cover things..no idea! I'd call it a pipe cover thing.

3rd...It's Alum, an from lights if I recall. We just had a post recently on this, an I forget the name. I think it might have been in Gravitar's thread on his finds.

To tell Alum..well it won't stick to a magnet an it will be lighter then Stainless. You can also do the spark test. Which you can find out more about here.. http://www.scrapmetalforum.com/scrap...k-testing.html

On to your bucket of mixed goodies. Personally...I'd do my best to separate it. My yard would attempt to. You'll be at their mercy for whatever they'll call it. If it's it's magnetic most yards I believe will have you toss it in the shred pile. I think this was talked about recently in the pipe flange that isn't a flange thread. I'll let you search for that thread, I'm not Mech an lack his magical powers to pull up random links. I know, bad me.

An..your welcome! Hope i could help.

Sirscrapalot - I see you Ryan! I'm posting first!

[Sirscrapalot]

Double post..hope ya don't mind! The stuff I said was alum at the bottom..is called Metal Flex Conduit. According to the image I found on Google. Check with Magnet but pretty sure you'll find it's aluminum. If you have the wire in you should get better pricing then just straight alum. at lest I did when I took some into my yard a few months back.

On the Alum Pipe thing... I did a search on Alum pipe connectors an I found image such as this.



Similar to how your seeing them on the pipes?

Sorry for the double post, to much add to an edit. Hope it helps a bit more.

Sirscrapalot - *POOF*

[spinroch]

They are called EMT Couplings
(Electrical Metallic Tube)

The flex cable is typically called BX cable
It can be steel or aluminum

[Mick]

I had a trailer load of those electrical parts last year when I bought them by the pallet at an estate auction of a retired electrician. Tried selling them locally and on ebay, individually and by the boxful. Never sold a one. Had junction boxes, light fixtures, circuit breakers and about anything you could imagine. Just some of the stuff that didn't sell:
http://i1209.photobucket.com/albums/...nlayout019.jpg
http://i1209.photobucket.com/albums/...nlayout018.jpg
http://i1209.photobucket.com/albums/...nlayout010.jpg
http://i1209.photobucket.com/albums/...nlayout004.jpg
http://i1209.photobucket.com/albums/...nlayout002.jpg
http://i1209.photobucket.com/albums/...auction008.jpg

[billygoat]

2nd...the pipe cover things..no idea! I'd call it a pipe cover thing.

They are called EMT Couplings
(Electrical Metallic Tube)

Also known as thinwall couplings. It's pot metal. Not aluminum. If it were aluminum the threads would strip out too easily.

As for the flex and bx, magnetic is steel, non-magnetic is aluminum. Generally speaking, if it came from the manufacturer with the wires inside, it's bx. No wires inside, it's generally just called flex.

[armstrt8]

Thanks for all the replies!

What is the value of "pot metal".

So far all of the flex tube stuff it has all been non magnetic, but could it be non magnetic stainless? Or if they use stainless is it one of the lower grades. The smaller ones have romex in them and the larger one is empty. I wanted to try and get the romex out, but its REALLY in there...having a very hard time with that.

Mick- Incredible that NOTHING sold out of that! I have yet to be at an estate sale with that sort of material O.O

Scrapalot! You must be on 24 hours a day! haha I appreciate the responses. My big bucket of mixed things is either non magnetic stainless, or aluminum, or pot metal (which I just learned).. but nothing is magnetic. Breakage is in its own pile. I do need to go through and give pot metal its own pile though... that stuff is pretty easy to differentiate.

Question on "Breakage". SO! I have a big ol' aluminum screen door stripped down to the frame only. There are 4 small screws that REFUSE to come out, and they are the only thing magnetic on the POS. Will the scrapyard give me full aluminum price, or will they give me breakage because of those little screws?

Off to the Slavery of a Salaried employee... Its nice to have something to read while working now

[hobo finds]

"Pot Metal" here is called Die Cast, or Zinc $.10 - $.15 lb best ever for me was $.20 lb

[Sirscrapalot]

My main yard would over look the four screws. The not so good yard south of me it would depend on their mood. I went with a buddy the other day to the yard, an had a screen door. They took it with no issues or saying anything about the screws I left in it.

Far as 24 hours...I just stay logged in. An I have sleep issues at times.

Sirscrapalot - I'm hobo's Quote hero, don't tell him I know though.

[hobo finds]

A hero is born among a hundred, a wise man is found among a thousand, but an accomplished one might not be found even among a hundred thousand men.

Plato


And it depends on your yard if you are new to them they may not let a few screws slide, after time a few screws are ok!

****, what a sorry-looking outfit. You boys don't look so crazy to me.

One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest
Randle McMurphy to his fellow patients

[newattitude]

2nd...the pipe cover things..no idea! I'd call it a pipe cover thing.

lol, sounds like one of my answers but I'd say they are die cast/white metal/pot metal. Usually goes for .15 cents a lb by me

[hobo finds]

http://mydisguises.com/2008/05/28/th...-hero-costume/

[Sirscrapalot]

lol @ Hobo.

It wasn't me that started this! I only called it Alum cause Arms did!

Sirscrapalot - There is more credit and satisfaction in being a first-rate truck driver than a tenth-rate executive. - B.C. Forbes

[greytruck]

I would say to throw those alum pipe connectors in with cast alum. Thats what i do. .38 a lb here

[Curbside shopper]

The incense burner I would say is Chinese, I'm pretty sure that's a Foo Dog on top...although he's kind of crudely done or heavily worn.

[beardo]

I still say the brass thing is probably a portal to another dimension.. I buy a lot of brass and copper "treasures" I just make sure I don't pay over scrap in case my wife hates them. I'm guessing my estate sale will be epic!!! What I would sugjest with the aluminum/stainless is sort what you know as you go along and then on a rainy day sort your not sure pile. With time you will be able to be fairly accurate with separating just by experience. Also when I have steel on mostly clean aluminum I just snap off the dirty part. A splitting maul goes through aluminum like butter.

Your incense thing reminds me of Ghostbusters!

[sawmilleng]

For the cable armor, a magnet will separate the steel stuff. Most of the stuff I've seen is that the BX cable armor is aluminum, and the flex cable protection armor is steel. The very little amount of stainless cable protection I have seen can be separated from the steel and aluminum by a magnet and a grinder. Magnetic = steel Non-magnetic = aluminum or stainless. Touch any of the non-magnetic stuff with a grinder. The aluminum will not spark at all and be kind of gummy on the grinder. Stainless will be much harder and give off small short sparks.

If you have a lot of the BX cable where insulated wire is inside the armor, you might want to do a little recovery test to see what your best approach to scrapping it would be. You might be better off separating the aluminum from the copper wire and stripping the wire to bare copper. Depends on you and how you value your time.

Removing the wire from BX can be entertaining. I cut most of my wire into 18" lengths with a bandsaw or zipcut. With that kind of length you can "unscrew" the spiralled armor so it enlarges just a little and lets the wire slip out. You can't cut the wire with a sidecutter because it will crush the ends of the armor and the unscrewing of the armor won't work as well.

Hope this helps!
Jon.

[auminer]

If you scrapped that, don't tell me..... I just don't wanna know!

If not, start your own "brass menagerie"!!

[TexasDeere]

I would say to throw those alum pipe connectors in with cast alum. Thats what i do. .38 a lb here

This.....I get it on steel conduit and take it off and put it in my cast aluminum bucket. Cast aluminum pays $0.45 to $0.50 a pound here in Houston.