Alternative metal sources?

I buy brass, bronze and ali from my local scrap merchant at very reasonable prices.

Where is it? Just what we're all after!

Always worth asking around, but my local scrap merchant is only interested in buying metal, not selling it in small quantities. 30 years ago you could wander around, dismantle cars for parts, explore the bins and offer cash for interesting surplus equipment. Now the site is surrounded by razor wire and patrolled by aggressive dogs. It's not set up to deal with casual purchasers. Not a particularly good source of hobby metal either - too few manufacturing offcuts in my part of the world alas.

Dave

Edited By SillyOldDuffer on 23/09/2019 10:39:17

Some years ago I successfully made some collets from a scrap pre-war Austin Seven half shaft.

If in doubt, take a file with you, if you can file it, then you can machine it, and if it is too hard, you can usually anneal it, heat treatment works both ways, except on HSS!

Phil,

You may be able to anneal HSS, but can you re-harden and temper it? I think I would struggle to do that in the home workshop. - Oop, apologies, misread your comment.

Bill

Edited By Bill Davies 2 on 23/09/2019 21:53:04

Hi Scott, don't dismiss your drive shafts out of hand, they may well be usable for certain things. They will be a tough piece steel, but it is more likely that only the splined ends and or any bearing journal areas have actually been hardened if at all, so just cut them off if they are. As has been said a decent file test on them will show if they have any chance of being machined. Of course, if you have a forge or other suitable heating equipment, and a decent hammer and an anvil of sorts, they make a good pry bar/podgy bar like this one of a pair I made back in the 70's.

Piston rods from pneumatic/hydraulic rams are normally OK to machine as are the rods from shock absorbers and the steering struts. Be cautious of dismantling any gas filled ones though, may be better to just cut the rod off from where it sticks out.

Regards Nick.

Edited By Nicholas Farr on 24/09/2019 09:13:08

While that's true of all scrap, the problem is the amount of time wasted finding out if a particular bit of unknown metal is suitable or not! In the worst case a beginner might get entirely the wrong idea about the capability of his tools by feeding them unsuitable materials.

I think Scott was looking for a simple list of common objects that can be picked up for beer money and then machined in a home workshop without fuss. Unfortunately I don't know of any obvious candidates other than those already mentioned in this thread.

Reusing random scrap is an excellent idea but unfortunately it's not straightforward. Much depends on what you personally happen to have access to. I imagine Birmingham scrapyards are more likely to have useful off-cuts than one in rural Cornwall.

Dave

I never pass up the opportunity to re-use scrap metal,
the main drive shaft shaft for this home built shaper
came from the broken half shaft from a 1942 AEC
Matador.

All of the sheet metal parts of this home built cylindrical grinder
were scrap material ,the main coolant tray was from the cover
between the base from my Warco lathe ,the motor mounting and
wheel guards came from the chassis of an old electrical cabinet.
The splash guards were from the drum of a tumble drier.
I suppose you will have to draw your own conclusions on
whether they are fit for purpose.

John

Then there is the situation where, in my case, I had disposed of almost all my stock, and had nothing suitable left to make a winding key for my clock. Buying a small piece of 1/16" brass from a locally inaccessible source and perhaps what I needed being far less than the minimum they would supply was no longer an option.

Instead, the cheapest approach seemed to be to visit the local hardware store and select a brass hinge.

You can see in this photograph taken in May 2011 how I managed to dodge around the screw holes. Not very pretty, but it does the job.

Incidentally, the tip of the key is actually a steel band supporting the remains of the weakened brass into which I'd cut a square hole to suit the clock's winding arbor.

Sam

Edited By Sam Stones on 24/09/2019 23:07:47

Fishermen and other similar marine industries will typically use lots of 3xx series stainless steel and 5xxx series aluminium for both their boats and various equipment. Parts or old equipment can easily weigh in the hundreds of kg, and as they are not into anything metal it typically just get thrown away.

On the flip side, don't leave your stainless steel or aluminium laying around where they have projects. There is a small fishing fleet around here with what looks like my specially ordered profiles welded on here and there..

HD White on Ford Airfield West Sussex.

What I find really frustrating is walking by the scrap skip at work and seeing off-cuts of new stock still marked with the material specification and not being able to to take any. I've stopped looking.

I would also find that terribly frustrating.

Is there no legitimate way to make an "arrangement" ?

ATB,

Daniel

I'm guessing they weigh in the scrap and don't want potential money walking out the door. Either that or someone in managements already making a mint flogging offcuts and bar ends on eBay.

I'd be asking management what they get per KG from the scrap dealer, then offer slightly more per KG for the odd 10 or 20kg box.

It's possible they'll say "NO" though just because managers tend to think the worst of their staff and they might assume that if they let you have cheap materials you're going to use them to poach precision engineering contracts off them using nothing more than a Chinese mini lathe, An old 3" Record vise, and a hacksaw !!!!! LOL !

It's two things,

Health and Safety - no digging in skip in case you cut yourself. That I can sort of understand.

Controlled materail #most of the work material has to be traceable and there is a concern that somehow uncontrolled stock would get re-used either by us or someone making bogus parts. They won't even put off-cuts back in stock. If making some 0.51m parts from 1m length of stock 0.49m goes for scrap.

A couple of years ago there was a complete CMM in the skip.

They have recently agreed to put timber and office furniture in a bar for a week for staff to take but no electrical or mechanical equipment (H&S again). And they have donated some old commputer equipment to charitable causes. Our WEEE skip is huch high quality they don't charge to take it away.

Robert,

Thank's for the explanation.

But, oh dearie me .... What a world we have created for ourselves.

Please excuse my ignorance on such matters; but, what are CMM and WEEE ?

ATB,

Daniel

Don't know what CMM means, But WEEE = "Waste Electrical and Electronic Equipment". All that stuff has to be recycled these days. No more dumping your burnt out toasters in the bin and all that.

CMM is a coordinate measuring machine. A surface table with a touch probe and 3 axis measuring system

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Coordinate-measuring_machine

The one in the skip even had the Rennishaw touch probe still fitted. )-:

Thank's guys for the explanations

When I worked in the engineering dept of a major high street bank, I managed to get the most valuable thing possible in the company. A letter from a director authorising me to take anything I liked from the scrap skips! As I was responsible for what went into the skips this was like winning the lottery!