Found treasure ?

[Tin Falcon]

O K we all like a deal and like to scrounge. So what is your "Best " find. We are honest hear so unauthorized procurement does not count. For me the top two would be the 4 foot piece of Brass prop shaft 1 inch diameter my brother in law gave me. And the pack of several door kick plates given by a friend. Come to think of it I have had some generous friends over the years.
Tin

 

[wareagle]

Well, I bought a peice of 1 1/2" round 6061 aluminum that was just shy of six feet long from a garage sale - $2.50.

There is a place that I buy cut offs of aluminum, brass, and steel by the pound, and the last trip I came out with a block of aluminum that was approx 2"h x6"w x 12"l, a piece of steel round that is 4 1/2"d x 11"l, several brass rounds 3/16d x 6"l, and spent $16 for it. It is a great place to get small pieces, but it is hit and miss to what they have available. price is hard to beat, though!

 

[tattoomike68]

Screw machine shops are a good place to score some short peices of shafting. Once a bar gets short enough that the pushers in the bar feeders dont work they will be making short parts so they stop the machine and fling 4-6" peices in the scrap bucket and reload with new bars.

Most shops will make a good deal for you or just give you some.

 

[Bogstandard]

A couple of months back I went to my usual recycling yard and noticed in the brass bin something that shouldn't have been there. It weighed too light for brass and was the wrong colour (much too light). He didn't know what it was, but I did, I paid £15 ($30 US) for about 60ft of 1/2" hex aluminium bronze. Enough to make pistons and conrods for the rest of my natural. At the same time I also picked up two pieces of 3" diameter by 2" long titanium round bar for £1 ($2), he thought it was stainless. Don't know what I am going to do with it, but it is there if it is needed.
So if you see something that is out of the ordinary it is usually a good buy, exotic metals are usually very expensive, but you need to know how to machine it.

John

 

[Cedge]

Best finds so far were at a small scrap yard. There were 5 pieces of what I was told were brass. Dirty and greasy, they were, but a bit of grime never puts me off, so I bought the 4ftx 1.5 inch bars for $1.00/lb and decided to take on the 3 ft piece of 3.5 inch diameter of the same material, as well.

I thought little of it until I stopped at a second scrap yard and the guy helping me load my aluminum purchase asked where I got my hands on the nice bronze round stock. I told him it was brass and he laughed and said he'd buy it for brass all day long if someone wanted to sell it, but that it was a nice quality bronze and not something I'd find everyday. His parting words were to enjoy my good fortune.

I still have quite a bit of which I'm hording for when I've gotten enough knowledge to make use of it on more ambitious projects, something needing a special touch. It has a most wonderful color when freshly turned and polished, plus still looks great, even with a bit of tarnish.

Steve

 

[rake60]

I was at a local scrap yard shopping for metals and asked where they
kept the brass. What I found solid brass door handles that weighed
about 3 pounds each. The scaleman dropped one on the scale and said,
"Ahhh buck a piece." :? I've cut several 1" dia rounds from them.

 

[JimHs]

I got one piece of aluminum 3 feet by 2 feet by 1.5 inches. It was 7075 aluminum for $100 ($1 per pound). Also a piece of 6061, same size.

Best item was 14 pieces of 1.5 inch brass, each 14 inches long. Free.

Jim

 

[gt2ride]

My neighbor came over the other day. I showed him my eng. He said he has a piece of brass at home and asked if I wanted it. I said yes so he went home and came back with this piece of bronz. I said that is not brass. He looked disapointed and said don't you want it. I said I would love to have it. It is 3in dia and 21 3/4 before I cut some off. That was a good day.

 

[rake60]

With a current market value of about $385 I'd say you had a very good
day. The chips have a scrap value of $1.70/pound.

To a model builder.... You can't put a price on it...
Great score!!!

 

[rake60]

I took a short drive to my favorite scrap yard today to fine a sign saying
they were closed for the long weekend.
On the way back the wife decided we should stop at a few garage sales.
I found this 2-1/2 pound spool of .062dia 60/40 solder.

For $2 I'll find a use it!

Rick

 

[rake60]

Well my favorite scrap yard WAS open today, and it was time to clean up
the garage a little. I backed the pick up into the driveway and started
loading out just junk metal. A few old mowers, small engines and parts.
It had the truck squatting a little bit. The scales at the yard showed 780
pounds worth. :shock:

All I brought home was the $30 cash from the scale house.
(Only because the wife was with me this trip. )

 

[raym 11]

If you can find a fire hydrant that has been knocked off by a vevicle (They often times end up in scrap yards or corporate yards), the stem and
stuffing box are of an excellent bronze alloy.
It turns and polishes nicely and is very resistant to oxidation over the long term.
The alloy specs might be found in FIA literature or manufacturing orders.

raym

 

[rake60]

Believe it or not, I have one sitting at the back corner of my garage.

The couplers appear to be bronze.

I've never taken the time to clean the rest of it up to see what all might be
salvageable.

Great Tip!

 

[raym 11]

rake/60?;

If that hydrant has a good bottom you might want to remove the paint and check it out. Might be worth more as a whole. Some of those old turkeys were all brass!

raym

 

[rake60]

I did check for that! :wink:
The main body is some kind of a cast metal.
I don't know if it's iron or steel.

 

[raym 11]

The point being, the hydrant might be a collectable.

raym

 

[rake60]

Actually that is what has saved it to this point.
It's an old 2-1/2" "Mae West" style hydrant. They didn't have enough flow
capacity for the 4 and 5" supply lines used today, and have all been
replaced. It will most likely stay intact for a few years.
Right now the high collectors value is just under $200 but we are watching
it.

For some real exotic metal collectables I had a German 88MM artillery
shell here for some time. It weighed about 90 pounds and still rattled
if you shook it. I sold it to a collector about 9 years ago. Made a pretty
healthy profit for storing it in the garage for 20 years. 8)

Rick

 

[DICKEYBIRD]

Recently a longtime friend who has been slowing down the machining part of his hobby activities very graciously passed all this good stock on to me with the promise that I'll bring back any stock that he may need and that I'll do machining work for him if the need arises. Sheesh, now I'm running out of excuses to do the projects I've been putting off for lack of stock!

Aluminum: There's a few good sized blocks, various rounds up to 1 1/4", a chunk of 1" plate and a bunch of 1/2" plate. Not shown in the picture is a 1 1/2" x 2 1/2" x 28" block as well.

Also there were a couple CRS round cutoffs and small piece of cast iron.

 

[Cedge]

Luck was following me around today. I made my regular pilgrimage to the local scrap dealer knowing he'd recently sold off all his known brass, copper and bronze stocks, due to the high prices it's fetching these days. It felt more like a formality than a treasure hunt, but it never hurts to socialize.

The yard man who watches over the surplus metals was on hand and just smiled a toothless smile when asked if he'd gotten any brass in lately. He said all he had was some aluminum and a bit of stainless, but I was surely welcome to have a look at those.

I got to digging around among the long stalks of stainless and moved a piece about 8 inches wide. The noise of falling metal could be heard all over and the yard man came scrambling over to make sure I was all right. There on the floor in front of me were 3 pieces of 1/4 inch brass flat bar just over 5 feet long, each. Two pieces were 3 inches wide and the third was 4 inches wide.

I asked if he had a price for brass and he said he'd take $1.25 per pound , so we hauled it to the scales. $48.00 dollars later I owned enough brass eccentric strap and connecting rod material to last me for years to come. Then he threw in some fancy wrought iron pickets made with a neat multi leg spiral that I happened to comment on. Some days really are worth getting out of bed for... LOL.


Steve