The scrap metal business is one of nickels and dimes, that is until you get big enough to move large amounts of materials. It is still a matter of nickels and dimes at that point but you are dealing with a lot more of them than before.
I have dabbled with the business since I was a teenager looking for ways to make money besides mowing lawns. What I have found is that the amount you can acquire even on a once man business scale is surprising. All it takes is a little stubbornness and innovative ideas of how and where to find scrap and ways to bring it to you.
The first thing I suggest is to find out when your localities have their curbside bulk pickups. Knowing this, if you drove around the evening before and early that morning you will find a lot. Another way to bring it to you is to spread word through your targeted market with companies which handle scrap metals. One good place to start is plumbers. Daily they remove hot water heaters, boilers, furnaces, and air conditioners and disposing of them costs them time and money. So if you approach them with the proposition that you will gladly take away these nuisances for a nominal fee almost always you will become their best friend.
Another industry to approach is demolitions and remodeling businesses. You can approach them individually, post messages in places where they do business, or even run and ad in their local professional publications such as with the builder’s association. Take it from me that it won’t be long before your phone will start ringing.
Having said all that, what kind of scrap will you be getting from this? It is many and varied in nature and I will describe some. Hot water heaters aren’t worth much as scrap (they are tin) as they bring about $2 each. But they are common and it is easy to accumulate ten or a dozen. I can easily fit ten in my little pickup truck standing up and tied together. This is an easy $20. But they do contain copper tubing, brass fittings, and their control vales are irony aluminum (but if you bother to remove the brass fittings you will get paid as aluminum).
Boilers and furnaces are also common and good to get because they are heavy. I advise that you remove the tin jacket before you go to the scrap yard because some dealers are such nickel and dimers they will only pay for you tin in that condition. The iron will get you up to a nickel a pound and expect even a small household boiler to weigh in at 300 pounds. I add that you need to be sure to remove all copper and brass as not to is wasteful and you are gypping yourself if you don’t. I have found that from the brass I get from these it only takes me about two weeks to fill up a five gallon bucket which weighs about 60 pounds. So it pays you to be a nickel and dimer too. With smaller boilers you can simply roll them end over end up a ramp into your truck (one man can easily do this) but a larger industrial boiler has to be dismantled. Now, don’t be intimidated by this because it is simple. All you need to is remove the bolts which hold the iron plates together then with a wood splitting wedge you hammer them apart. It doesn’t take much time to do it (removing the tin jacket takes more time than this). It is worth it because one of these usually weighs about 700 pounds. I must also impart here that it is worth your time to remove the pressure gauges on these because they almost always are in good shape and if you put them out at garages sales they will be snapped up very quickly.
Another favorite item of mine is air conditioners and dehumidifiers. They all contain copper tubing, some wire, and condensers which are classified by scrap dealers as “copper/aluminum radiators” and fetch a nice price about halfway between that of aluminum and copper. If you are lucky enough to do business with a plumber who does lots of commercial business then you will come into those large roof-mounted units. They are mostly air space once you open them up. You just dismantle them by separating the tin jacket with a socket wrench attachment for a cordless drill. Once exposed you remove the copper tubing, the insulated wire, and best of all, the large copper/aluminum radiator which commonly weighs 75 pounds. Add up the six hundred pounds of tin plus your removal fee and if you don’t net over $100 per unit then it’s your own fault.
Another common and much overlooked item are electric motors. Many are just thrown out and those still attached to their appliances are usually easily removed, especially with furnace circulating pumps. It doesn’t take long to accumulate 100 pounds of them and at their height they fetched over twenty cents per pound.
Another place to find easy business is auto body shops as they acquire a great deal of tin not to mention aluminum and sometimes catalytic converters (which average about $5 each). Iron and irony aluminum are fairly commonly found there too.
A good place to get your name known is lawn mower repair shops. They get a lot of machines which the owners decide isn’t worth their while to repair so they abandon them. And the dealer must hire someone to cart them off. Once again if you offer to do this for them you will obtain many mowers, chain saws, snowblowers, and the like each of which contains an engine with at least 25 pounds of irony aluminum in them. It takes about three minutes per machine to remove the engine (once you know the best way to do it) so you can do a doze in short order. A load of motors and tin decks will commonly bring $60 to $75 plus your removal fee. I also note that I have found very often that these junked machines will often have a full tank of gas in them so pay attention since I have accumulated many gallons of good gasoline these days (and just think of how much that adds up to in today’s prices).
Once your name and reputation gets around you will be amazed at how much business starts to find you. I sometimes come home and find that some unknown benefactor will have left something in the yard for me. So being a “scrounge” is no longer an insult, in fact, it is profitable and a lot of fun like a treasure hunt.