Countryboy
Senior Member
- Joined
- Jun 8, 2006
- Messages
- 3,276
- Location
- Georgia
- Occupation
- Load Out Tech. / Heavy Equipment Operator / Locomo
Hey Truckie, I gots a question fer ya. Maybe you can give me a little insight. I was going to send ya a PM but it was a bit longwinded for the PM message system to handle 
. Copy and Pasted directly from there. While this was originally for Tuckie, the rest of you feller's comments are welcome too.
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I had an issue come up at my recent scrap yard visit that I have yet been able to resolve. Since you work at a scrap yard I figured you might be able to shed a little light on the subject.
I have been collecting copper wire for several years now. If I come across some wire, I'll ask if I can have it and if the answer is "yes" then I will add it to my pile. I will then strip it by hand, at my convenience, and add it to my 30 gallon barrel. When the barrel is full, I turn it in to the yard.
Understand now, that in my wire collecting I am an opportunist; meaning if an opportunity presents itself, I am there to sop up the benefits if I am given permission. I'm picky about what I will take though. Ease of stripping is the main thing. If its a big fat wire with a bunch of little wires, that are also insulated, then I'm likely to turn it down. A big fat wire where I can make one cut and be done is the gravy I seek.
This is by no means a major source of income for me...more like a little stash that I can turn in on a rainy day. I'll make around $250 per barrel and I might turn in 2 barrels per year.....see, I don't do this for a living.
Now comes the problem....
A couple weeks ago a good friend of mine, who is a welder by trade, had a dozer run over one of his welding leads....effectively cutting it into 3 pieces. Knowing that I collect "easy to strip" copper, he asked me if I wanted it. I told him I would take it and added it to my pile. Well, an air compressor came up for sale at the local hardware store and it was time to turn in my can.
I stripped the whole pile within a couple days, stuck it in the can and headed to the scrap yard. When I get there, the guy asked me to put the can on the scale. I obliged and thought I was about to be on my way.......WRONG.
The guy said that they didn't take welding lead. When I inquired as to why, I was told "WE JUST DON'T". So I said that I would remove the 3 pieces of lead and turn in the rest of the can. He then told me that everything in the can was welding lead and that they wouldn't take any of it.
Now the other wire in the can was stranded wire and looked just like welding lead EXCEPT it was about HALF the size. I explained over and over that I had no problem removing the welding lead but the other wire was not WELDING LEAD. It was actually the main power supply from a huge pond pump that the dairy farmer down the road had given to me.
Now I kinda got the feeling that they didn't take welding lead because they had problems with it being stolen. I gathered that from the feeling I got from the guys telling me that. All 5 of them.....yes that was 5 of them.....were now eyeballing me like I had just slapped their mother.
To be honest, it got my blood pressure up a little. Not because of the welding lead itself but the fact that they considered everything in the can welding lead, when it wasn't.
I kept my cool though and asked to speak with their supervisor. They pointed me in his direction and I proceeded to ask about the policy in question. I was then told "We don't take welding lead....AND THATS JUST THE WAY IT IS".
I kindly told all of them I would take my business elsewhere. Walking away to the truck, I felt like I had just been interogated under one of them bright lights. I did everything legally, morally and ethically right but I was made to feel like a criminal. This was definately the feeling I was getting for them guys.
Now my question:
Could that be the reason why they don't take welding lead....because it might be stolen? Or is there some other logical reason I might of missed.
Either way, the way they handled the situation caused me to head down the road, where I turned in my can at another yard, with no incident....to which I recieved a kind "Thank You....Come Again!". When I asked the other yard about the welding lead policy, I was told "I've never heard of anything like that". This was from a yard not even 2 miles from the other one.
I'm just in search of an answer that nobody seems to know.....:beatsme
FWIW, this incident holds no weight on my impression of the recycling industry.
. Copy and Pasted directly from there. While this was originally for Tuckie, the rest of you feller's comments are welcome too.----------------------------------------
I had an issue come up at my recent scrap yard visit that I have yet been able to resolve. Since you work at a scrap yard I figured you might be able to shed a little light on the subject.
I have been collecting copper wire for several years now. If I come across some wire, I'll ask if I can have it and if the answer is "yes" then I will add it to my pile. I will then strip it by hand, at my convenience, and add it to my 30 gallon barrel. When the barrel is full, I turn it in to the yard.
Understand now, that in my wire collecting I am an opportunist; meaning if an opportunity presents itself, I am there to sop up the benefits if I am given permission. I'm picky about what I will take though. Ease of stripping is the main thing. If its a big fat wire with a bunch of little wires, that are also insulated, then I'm likely to turn it down. A big fat wire where I can make one cut and be done is the gravy I seek.
This is by no means a major source of income for me...more like a little stash that I can turn in on a rainy day. I'll make around $250 per barrel and I might turn in 2 barrels per year.....see, I don't do this for a living.
Now comes the problem....
A couple weeks ago a good friend of mine, who is a welder by trade, had a dozer run over one of his welding leads....effectively cutting it into 3 pieces. Knowing that I collect "easy to strip" copper, he asked me if I wanted it. I told him I would take it and added it to my pile. Well, an air compressor came up for sale at the local hardware store and it was time to turn in my can.
I stripped the whole pile within a couple days, stuck it in the can and headed to the scrap yard. When I get there, the guy asked me to put the can on the scale. I obliged and thought I was about to be on my way.......WRONG.
The guy said that they didn't take welding lead. When I inquired as to why, I was told "WE JUST DON'T". So I said that I would remove the 3 pieces of lead and turn in the rest of the can. He then told me that everything in the can was welding lead and that they wouldn't take any of it.
Now the other wire in the can was stranded wire and looked just like welding lead EXCEPT it was about HALF the size. I explained over and over that I had no problem removing the welding lead but the other wire was not WELDING LEAD. It was actually the main power supply from a huge pond pump that the dairy farmer down the road had given to me.
Now I kinda got the feeling that they didn't take welding lead because they had problems with it being stolen. I gathered that from the feeling I got from the guys telling me that. All 5 of them.....yes that was 5 of them.....were now eyeballing me like I had just slapped their mother.
To be honest, it got my blood pressure up a little. Not because of the welding lead itself but the fact that they considered everything in the can welding lead, when it wasn't.
I kept my cool though and asked to speak with their supervisor. They pointed me in his direction and I proceeded to ask about the policy in question. I was then told "We don't take welding lead....AND THATS JUST THE WAY IT IS".
I kindly told all of them I would take my business elsewhere. Walking away to the truck, I felt like I had just been interogated under one of them bright lights. I did everything legally, morally and ethically right but I was made to feel like a criminal. This was definately the feeling I was getting for them guys.
Now my question:
Could that be the reason why they don't take welding lead....because it might be stolen? Or is there some other logical reason I might of missed.
Either way, the way they handled the situation caused me to head down the road, where I turned in my can at another yard, with no incident....to which I recieved a kind "Thank You....Come Again!". When I asked the other yard about the welding lead policy, I was told "I've never heard of anything like that". This was from a yard not even 2 miles from the other one.
I'm just in search of an answer that nobody seems to know.....:beatsme
FWIW, this incident holds no weight on my impression of the recycling industry.
