Swarf!!

So, what's to be done with it?

I maybe be a bit OCD but i clean my lathe down thoroughly between jobs and this has enabled me to separate the swarf waste by type.

I have 2 full bin bags worth of nylon from piece work and a couple more of T6 (Which i can verify with a COC), i'm not sure if it's worth seperating by grade but when i worked for an aluminium machining company they did.

I don't really care whether or not it's worth a few quid, obviously would be nice if i could but i'm more concerned about just throwing it away. Is there not some way it could be recycled? I would rather not waste stuff and keep topping up the landfill if i can help it. So i'd go out my way to a recycling center if i can.

Any Ideas?

Michael W

Michael Try googling your Local Authority refuse and recycling centre, they generally are quite keen to recycle anything that's worthwhile, and more to the point it helps with your council tax.

My local authority recycling centre would take it in the metal skip and it gets sorted by the processor.

Neil

Thanks Guys,

I'll see whether or not they'll take it and maybe try contacting them if the website isn't very informative.

Michael W

Edited By Michael Walters on 01/07/2016 16:22:00

At about 40p a KG for aluminium swarf unless the scrappy is on your doorstep its hardly worth weighing it in. Like Neil my swarf goes to the local recycling ctr in a mixed sack unless I see a totter driving past In which case he can have it and save my a trip to the dump.

It seems there are a couple of towns near mine where they'll take it.

quite a daunting quote from their website about metal waste:

"Metal waste disposed of in landfill sites not only takes up valuable landfill space but also produces a noxious leachate during the breakdown of material which eventually finds its way into the environment."

I think i'll save it up for now and maybe pop down there when it starts to barracade me into my workshop.

Michael w

Edited By Michael Walters on 01/07/2016 16:31:45

Just hanging on your last sentence.

I saved up all my old motor oil in the original old 5litre plastic containers,

Clear out day, I take eleven of them down to the recycle centre.

Jobsworth, " You're only allowed to empty one (5L) of those a day " ! And they stood beside me when

I took it out of the boot and emptied it into a half empty tank.

Strangely, it's all evaporated now .

You could always set up a home micro-foundry and recycle it yourself?

If you have a fly press or similar you can knock up a simple plywood 'mould' and compress the swarf into rough little blocks....it takes up much less space and is then in an ideal form to melt down for casting etc.....

The only thing is that you need to beware contamination with even the tiniest fragment of steel swarf........runnng a magnet over the swarf is useless as the swarf becomes entwined and is only extracted with great difficulty and completely spoils any casting. For this reason I never bother with brass swarf now and only collect dust and offcuts........The brass swarf has no weight or substance and is a pain in the proverbial to salvage (and i will usually have a go at salvaging almost anythng!)

It costs councils to dispose of old oil properly and, lets face it, not many householders are going to turn up with 55 litres of oil. They are going to assume you are a someone doing car work on the side and trying to save a few bob.

If you'd turned up with two, or maybe three, they would probably just have told you only to bring one next time.

Brass swarf mixed with a relatively small amount of epoxy makes a surprisingly convincing filler for brass castings.

Neil,

Back in the '80s we had a scrap bin ouside the apprentice training school at Brooklands (BAe Weybridge).
Very strict rule was that only solid metal could go in, no swarf. From memory the only swarf that was recycled was the high output of known alloys from the skin milling shop, whach was collected via a vacuum system.

My swarf is placed in cleaned food tins (Baked Beans, Soup etc) and pounded down with a length of inch and half (38mm?)steel bar . When very nearly full the lid id replaced and the outside walls bashed over with a hammer, to seal it in. The tins then find their way into the recycling bin.

I get rid of my swarf, and hopefully, the tins find their back to the blast furnace to be remelted and reused.

Howard

Howard,

When I look at my rate of swarf production, how many tins of baked beans do you get through?

I guess I'm lucky as I am allowed to dispose of my steel swarf in the skip of a local milling and turning shop. It gets remelted into nails and rebar. I don't turn much aluminium or brass/bronze so that goes in the regular waste.

Thor

My swarf goes into a couple of the plastic gardeners/builders tubs (like half old dustbin size) I then take it to the place I retired from and put it in the scrap metal skip. Even when full they only get about £15 for the skip load so no value in my bit just useful place for me.

KWIL,

Usually, when the swarf pile will no longer move under the lathe bed, there is enough, when pounded down, to fill five or six full size Baked Beans/Soup/why tins.

By that stage it takes a pair of stout gloves and a pair of snips to pack it into the tins, ready for compressing.

Nice sense of achievement to see the lathe clean, if only for a short time!

Wonder what the folk at the recycling centre make of the tins?

Howard

Have to be very conservative and plan on the two weekly wheelie collections. Many a time caught me out as prefer to layer bottom and top with normal waste.

Recycling just not worth it unless want house like a scrap yard. Lot of air space in swarf and takes up room, needless to say a full wheelie bin load compressed wouldn't pay for the cost of going to a tip.

Last people want round here are the pikeys on the scrounge, all they need is 30 seconds behind your back to remove wanted items.

I can confirm a wheelie bin full to the brim with 5083 6082 and 7075 Ali chips from the miller is not worth bothering with, it took two of us and a lot of effort to get the thing on the back of the pickup for 20 quid, I now stuff it in the bottom with the houshold stuff......

Yeah, i guess unless you have something worth considering they aren't likely to take it. I probably don't have 1/5th of that. 

Michael W

Edited By Michael Walters on 04/07/2016 19:01:35