r/ScrapMetal • • Mar 05 '26

READ BEFORE POSTING OR COMMENTING

41 Upvotes

Welcome to r/scrapmetal !

Please read this entire post!

First and foremost, before you post or comment please take a few minutes to read the rules on the sidebar. If you break the rules you may be banned, possibly permanently. Every subreddit has a list of rules so please don't act like you've never seen rules anywhere on Reddit before. Be a good member of the community and read and follow the rules. (There are only 6 of them. It's not difficult.)

Second, are you looking to buy or sell materials from other redditors or advertise your business? THAT IS NOT ALLOWED HERE - DO IT SOMEWHERE ELSE. Can't find an appropriate subreddit for it? START YOUR OWN SUBREDDIT DEDICATED TO IT. I'll even link that subreddit here if you do. (Why don't we allow those kinds of posts or comments here? Because if we did the subreddit would be overrun by those kinds of posts in no time.)

Update: 04/30/2026

Two updates!

I've heard your feedback and it's clear that for a number of different reasons y'all value the ability to call people thieves and drug addicts so rule 7 has been removed. Thanks for your feedback an for keeping that feedback mostly constructive.

That being said I am asking y'all to PLEASE report the posts and comments from people who are obviously seriously talking about stealing or breaking the law. This is FAR more important and useful to stopping those people than just mocking them in comments. Again, when you report posts/comments it goes into a queue for mods to review because it is impossible to stay on top of every comment in every thread.

First, I've added a new rule to the sub:

Rule 7 - No referring to people as thieves or drug users or addicts of any kind. This includes all slang for thieves or drug users or addicts of any kind. This includes both direct and indirect references as well as questions. Don't ask people if/where they stole stuff. Don't tell people their scrap is worth some amount of drugs. Don't joke about it. Don't troll people about it. If someone says or suggests they stole something then report their post or their comment.

I'm adding this rule because accusing people of stealing and/or referring to them as drug users serves no useful purpose. No one, literally no one, is going to see the light because someone on Reddit calls them out on stealing. If people admit to or suggest they've stolen something then report their post or comment and let the mods deal with it. Don't be the person who lacks the self control to start name calling and runs afould of rule #1 and receives a ban.

Though it's strongly implied I also want to directly state that this rule does NOT mean we condone stealing in any way here. Rule #4 is still absolutely still in effect.

Second, I've updated rule #4 as well to make sure our stance on talking about stealing in this subreddit is more clear. The new text is:

Rule 4 - No promoting or bragging about breaking the law/stealing while scrapping. This includes suggesting people knowingly break the law or asking for help on doing something that is breaking the law. This also includes people joking about it, posting rage bait or claiming satire. If you to practice your comedy there are other subreddits for that.

Questions? Ask them here or in Mod Mail.

Update: 03/15/2026

Note: The contents below were from a previous post from roughly 03/15 that I am adding here for future reference.

Recently there was a post in r/scrapmetal that contained several instances of doxing or sharing personal information without consent and I want to talk about it.

I am referring to the post where someone shared images of their ticket from a recent scrap run. In one of those images their personal information, printed on the ticket, was clearly visible to anyone who saw the image. I am sure this was an accident. I am sure they didn't intend to share their info or realize they had done so.

In the same post several people made comments that contained OP's full name which they had undoubtedly learned from the image that OP posted. These comments were not accidents and they were made intentionally. (Someone looked at OPs image, saw their name then made a comment and used OP's name.) Thanks to them there's the real chance that OPs full name has been indexed by some search engine, archiving, service, etc.

Let me be as clear as fucking possible here:

Sharing someone's personal information without their consent isn't OK. Doing so will get you banned from this subreddit and possibly from all of Reddit. Whether or not someone has shared their own information is irrelevant and doesn't give anyone else permission to re-share that information. Full stop.

I'll be adding this to the subreddit rules and if it happens again there will be bans. This isn't up for debate. I don't care if you disagree or why you disagree or the logic behind your disagreement. This is how it is and if that bothers you so much then you can unsub right now.

Any questions? Send them to mod mail.


r/ScrapMetal • • 2h ago

Question πŸ’« First time, asking for tips.

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13 Upvotes

I've never done this before, though for a while now I've had some old eletronics and was planning to open them up to see what kind of things I can find. Decided to open up an old PC I've had layung around and found this. I'm completely new to scrapping and have never done anything like/around this before. Asking for tips as just looking at the CPU I feel like I've hit something expensive. Anything helps!


r/ScrapMetal • • 1h ago

Question πŸ’« As 19 yo newbie i would rly like any piece of advice

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β€’ Upvotes

Hello my dad opened a scrap shop for me to work. I would glady hear every advice i could get like how can i find more copper, what should i be aware of etc


r/ScrapMetal • • 4h ago

Question πŸ’« Worth to buy?

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11 Upvotes

16 working transformators for 15€, im wondering if I should buy them. Over here in Latvia the copper prices are 11€/kg


r/ScrapMetal • • 5h ago

Question πŸ’« Gold or brass? Worth anything to collet these boards?

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7 Upvotes

r/ScrapMetal • • 10h ago

Flipper finally got scrapped...

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16 Upvotes

She got brought in after a rough accident. Can't for the life of me remember how much it weighed


r/ScrapMetal • • 9h ago

Question πŸ’« Is this brass solder on the busbars of a power strip?

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12 Upvotes

One of the busbars has regular silver-colored solder, but the other two have this brass-colored stuff instead. I thought it was brass at first since it's exactly the same color and sheen as the brass busbars, but as far as I know, brass can't be used as a solder.


r/ScrapMetal • • 10h ago

Anyone ever seen insulation inside of the sheath like this? What’s the deal with this?

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10 Upvotes

r/ScrapMetal • • 1d ago

All the copper inside a dead Siemens contractor.

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210 Upvotes

We replaced a bad Siemens contactor, so I decided to break it open. Found a nice big spool of copper inside. Now it’ll get recycled instead of going to a landfill.


r/ScrapMetal • • 2h ago

Scrap Photo πŸ’Έ Is this worth anything

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0 Upvotes

r/ScrapMetal • • 1d ago

Strip porn ☺️

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47 Upvotes

Best 40$ i ever spent


r/ScrapMetal • • 1d ago

Breaking down circuit breakers

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55 Upvotes

It's often asked if they're worth the time and effort. As I've nothing better to do broke one down and here's the pictures and one of my methods.

Find seem along edge, bang in screwdriver, pry off top section of plastic, DON'T GET EXCITED AT THE BIG BITS OF COPPER(it's a lie. It's usually copper plaited steel but always check) the internal bits from the breaker will usually just fall out but you may need to break away some of the copper plaited steel, seperate everything(usually you can find copper contacts, bits of wire, a little brass and way too much steel and plastic)

Also the copper contacts have what I'm told are silver buttons. Not investigated yet but I'm going to buy some silver test solution at some point and see.

Finally picture is what I've accumulated today from 6 breakers taking about 5-10 minutes each.

My other method... Forget the screwdriver in step 1.

Simply crush your breaker in a vice to shatter the plastic


r/ScrapMetal • • 1d ago

Mondays load to the yard

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58 Upvotes

Copper was $5.50 in ATX!


r/ScrapMetal • • 1d ago

Question πŸ’« Got this copper pipe from a job site, is it worth sanding all the concrete off of it or sending as is?

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17 Upvotes

r/ScrapMetal • • 1d ago

Question πŸ’« To strip or not strip that is the question.

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11 Upvotes

Howdy y'all!

Long time lurker on my other account for this subreddit but now I got something I need some advice on. I got this wire about 30ft of it i cut through the outer layer and see 4 wires in there cut the jacket of the 2nd and this is what I see. Now is this worth stripping it or send it as is? I do this mainly for fun so the time is not an issue but this is much bigger then anything ive stripped before so dont know if its even worth it on this. Thanks!


r/ScrapMetal • • 22h ago

Couldn’t find much on Gold content on these ?

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6 Upvotes

r/ScrapMetal • • 1d ago

Any Northeast Ohio scrappers

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18 Upvotes

Not sure what to do with these towers. If there is value to someone?

3 or 4 towers.


r/ScrapMetal • • 1d ago

What grade would this be?

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12 Upvotes

r/ScrapMetal • • 1d ago

Nice small haul

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12 Upvotes

Two 5 gallon buckets of alternators and starters. And five ~4' sections of pipe.


r/ScrapMetal • • 1d ago

Number 2?

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9 Upvotes

Pulled out of the dirt in a crawl space of an old home...


r/ScrapMetal • • 1d ago

Question πŸ’« Hydraulic cylinder

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5 Upvotes

I have a large hydraulic cylinder from a scissor lift, no one seems to want to reuse it (single port so its only meant to push and not pull). Do I just haul in for shred or it is worth it to somehow break it down for more?


r/ScrapMetal • • 1d ago

Where would these go? I have several, aluminum? but not with cans?

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3 Upvotes

Where would these go? I have several, aluminum? but not with cans?

Also, second picture shows me using my stripping machine, I've gotten the hang of it.


r/ScrapMetal • • 1d ago

Question πŸ’« Is this worth anything I’m a new commer

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0 Upvotes

r/ScrapMetal • • 1d ago

Question πŸ’« Scrap buyer recommendations for Miami Dade? Been collecting copper for many, many years knowing the price would jump

3 Upvotes

So I'm looking to see if anybody can recommend some good yards to take my few hundred pounds of mostly copper, there's some aluminum, steel, bronze, e-waste etc but I'm mainly concerned with the copper as it's mostly bare bright and no. 1.

Also is it best to strip out the copper whenever feasible or are certain components worth more intact than stripped? It's my first time actually selling even though I've been collecting and stripping it for over 10 years as a hobby. I knew the value would eventually go up significantly as the pile grew. Now I'm facing a bit of a squeeze and figure it's time to cash out so to speak.


r/ScrapMetal • • 1d ago

Powerchairs

2 Upvotes

I have a warehouse full of mobility equipment but am not well versed as to the ins and outs of scrapping.

What would be the best use of my time to maximize return when dealing with disposal.

How far down should I tear the motors?

Mostly brushed motors but should I remove the rotor or do I get the same as breakage if I leave the rotor and stator together.

I plan on salvaging some good components as I sell them and repair equipment but I have a lot of older equipment that is not worth the time to repair.

Any advice helps before I start making trips to the yard. Thank you