Sources for raw scrap

[steponmebbbboom]

I have been calling around to the local scrap metal salvage plants here (being a steel city there are many), recognising the potential for raw found materials to incorporate into my work. Things like cast iron gate valves, telephone switching equipment, heavy machine parts and castings, process machinery, etc. None of the large commercial operations have expressed any interest in allowing me to shop through their piles of scrap for interesting shapes. (Which I can understand, there is potential for injury) None of the smaller, independent dealers seem to have anything interesting.

Being a mechanic by trade I have tired of the auto recyclers as all those shapes are too common and familiar to me. Have any of you encountered this problem and found solutions to it? Any interesting ideas to throw out there?

[ironman]

I live 20 mi. from a huge copper mine and they let me scrounge their scrap for 5 cents a lb. I had to wear a hard hat, steel toed boots and safety goggles and sign a waiver that I was familiar with hazardous materials. They'd weigh my truck empty and full and then charge me accordingly. They were great and I got tons of stuff from them but alas, they shut down due to the economy and sold all their scrap. Ithink that if you show up in work boots, not sneakers, talk to them in person and are willing to pay for it they may be more inclined to let you in. I've also bought scrap from steel fabricators and they were even nicer (but more expensive) than the people at the mine. It's nice to be able to get pieces of 1" & 2" plate and not have to buy the whole 4X8, which I couldn't handle anyway. Good luck in your search. Jeff

[RuBert]

I agree with ironman.

Have you tried just going to the scrap yard you are interested in rather than calling? I think the place I frequent might tell someone who calls that they can't look through the scrap, but they kind of know me so it's no big deal.

The first time I just went and got something relatively small and easy (about 75 lbs.) to establish contact. That was a few years ago and now I just check back every so often to see what has come in.

They are a rather large industrial type place with tons of Stainless, Aluminum, Steel, Brass, etc., and they want to see you wearing boots and safety glasses.

[sculptor]

This past weekend at the sculpture festival in Newton Iowa, I met a couple scrap to sculpture welder/artists
One does dinosaurs-etc. and visits farm auctions to buy up old farm machinery parts as scrap(he also repairs/rewelds the old machinery for the nearby farms and is proud that he maintains machinery for about 35,000 acres of Iowa farms--he said that nowadays people know what he wants, and sometimes he finds piles of appropriate scrap in his driveway
The other one lives in an old industrial town and has developed relations with the local scrap yards and welding shops so he can wander their piles freely, and sometimes they call when they see something they think he might want. He said that he now has his own mountain of scrap from his avid collecting. Also, some folks drive around picking up scrap from the alley-ways to sell to the yards by the pound, and they stop by to give him "first-pick"
It seems that in both cases it is the consistency of the artists that has developed relationships which are now bearing fruit-----(if a rusted harrow, or burned cushman is fruit)

happy hunting
rod

[jwebb]

There is a "New & Used Steel" dealer near here, where used steel, from tubes and rods and buckets of nuts and bolts to cut pieces of 2" plate to discarded tool-steel fixtures and jigs, sell for 25 cents/lb. It is so well known now that sometimes I run into 3 or 4 other sculptors scrounging through the piles at one time. I also go to "U-Pull-It" auto scrap yards and harvest the bumpers of GM vans. They are nickle plated 1/8" steel, and sell for $25. I have done several sculptures solely from bumpers, cut up into arbitrary chunks with a torch and welded back together in what I call Zen Compositions. I like everything about re-cycling these materials into Art, and it's fun to boot.

[steponmebbbboom]

I recently had to switch jobs and now work for an aerial lift rental company. I didnt miss much about my last job but I lusted after the variety of stuff in the yard there, it is exactly the kind of stuff I want to work with. Of course I never would have gotten any deals on anything, even when I was working there.