Morning All
Just come back from the scrappy - with most of the scrap that I took :o(
I have been expecting the prices paid for scrap to drop for some time
but had a real shock this morning. I had a load of
copper pipe
copper water cyclinder
brass castings and fittings etc
ali castings and extrusions
transformers
'burning wire' - ie cable with the insulation on (not that they actually
burn it off any more though)
The prices on offer this morning were
clean copper pipe 1450 metric tonne - formerly 2800
stainless 350 " " 1100
brass 650 " " 1800
lead 250 " " 800
ali 200 " " 700
transformers and motors 40 " " 400
heavy steel sections 25 " " 100
light steel - cars etc 15 " " 65
I dumped all of my wire and bulky but light ali fabrications and the
cylinder ie the stuff that is a pain and bulky to store and will stash
the other stuff in the hope that the price will pick up a bit next year
- can't see it improving this side of Xmas :o(
It will be interesting to see how this price crash affects the cost of
used machine tools - often sold at little more than scrap prices or the
prices of the more common stationary engines, used gennys etc.
Its going to be a lean Christmas this year :o(
regards
Dudley
Richard Edwards - 20 Oct 2008 10:16 GMT
>Morning All
>
[quoted text clipped - 20 lines]
>heavy steel sections 25 " " 100
>light steel - cars etc 15 " " 65
Your formatting looked OK to me but I always view in "Fixed Font"
Glad I took a deal of my copper a while ago. Now is the time to
investigate my local scrappy's stock of Aluminium and Brass <G>
Thanks for the info.
Richard
Dudley Simons - 20 Oct 2008 10:33 GMT
> Morning All
>
[quoted text clipped - 35 lines]
>
> Dudley
looks like my formatting is all shot to bits :o(
I also meant to include in the original posting that the yard was
formerly getting price updates once a week - the market was pretty
stable and prices only went up and down a few quid. Now they are
getting up to 3 updates a day.
Dave Baker - 20 Oct 2008 10:33 GMT
> Morning All
>
> Just come back from the scrappy - with most of the scrap that I took :o(
>
> I have been expecting the prices paid for scrap to drop for some time but
> had a real shock this morning.
Personally I'm delighted because although I have a load of aluminium
cylinder heads I wish I'd scrapped sooner I can now expect a peaceful life
instead of bleeding pikeys knocking on my door every week asking me if I
want to scrap the Sierra on my drive. At its worst a few months back I had
three in one week including two different ones in one day, one of whom had
the nerve to tell me if I didn't want to sell it I ought to put a notice to
that effect on it.
Why TF should I have to put up a notice saying I DON'T want to sell
something rather than a notice saying I do want to sell it if and when I so
decided to just to keep these bloody vultures away?
Anyway they've no doubt all crawled back under their respective rocks now.
Good riddance.

Signature
Dave Baker
Dudley Simons - 20 Oct 2008 10:41 GMT
>> Morning All
>>
[quoted text clipped - 17 lines]
> Anyway they've no doubt all crawled back under their respective rocks now.
> Good riddance.
Unfortunately what you have missed here is that they will be looking to
other traditional methods of raising their cash. They may not be
bothering you about the Sierra as they are likely to be too busy
liberating your other car(s) assuming they can fit it into their hectic
schedule of nocturnal house garage and workshop 'inspections'. It also
means that whatever they pick up from people when they are doing a bit
of garden clearance work, in their capacity as landscape gardeners, will
just be dumped in the nearest ditch or country lane.
Dave Baker - 20 Oct 2008 11:29 GMT
>>> Morning All
>>>
[quoted text clipped - 26 lines]
> garden clearance work, in their capacity as landscape gardeners, will just
> be dumped in the nearest ditch or country lane.
I fear you might be right and in fact that very thought crossed my mind the
weekend before last as I went out to find my Focus had been broken into
during the night and left full of water, mud and broken glass but with less
in the way of radio/cd than it used to have. According to the local paper
it's reached epidemic proportions round here with one poor sod they
interviewed saying his car had been broken into five times in a few months.
It's not worth fixing anything because it's just an invitation for them to
break in again.

Signature
Dave Baker
Grimly Curmudgeon - 30 Oct 2008 14:41 GMT
We were somewhere around Barstow, on the edge of the desert, when the
drugs began to take hold. I remember "Dave Baker" <Null@null.com> saying
something like:
>I fear you might be right and in fact that very thought crossed my mind the
>weekend before last as I went out to find my Focus had been broken into
[quoted text clipped - 4 lines]
>It's not worth fixing anything because it's just an invitation for them to
>break in again.
Perhaps you should put a notice on it saying the door is unlocked.
Mark Rand - 20 Oct 2008 19:43 GMT
>> Morning All
>>
[quoted text clipped - 17 lines]
>Anyway they've no doubt all crawled back under their respective rocks now.
>Good riddance.
SWMBO heard something outside about a month ago and found a couple of didicoy
loading a couple of 3m long 150mm square steel sections that I'd got on the
drive on to their wagon. They hadn't bothered to ask...
She made them put the steel back where it had been. I'd have called the
police:-(
Mark Rand
RTFM
mark@ems-fife.co.uk - 20 Oct 2008 20:19 GMT
> SWMBO heard something outside about a month ago and found a couple of didicoy
> loading a couple of 3m long 150mm square steel sections that I'd got on the
[quoted text clipped - 5 lines]
> Mark Rand
> RTFM
Mark,
she did the right thing.If she`d called the police they would have
been off with your steel while the bobbies were noting down your life
history.
My experience with pikeys and police is that it`s too much trouble for
the police as these guys are never going to court.
Mark.
Brian Dominic - 20 Oct 2008 17:33 GMT
On Mon, 20 Oct 2008 10:15:51 +0100, Dudley Simons
<drs1005@esc.cam.ac.uk> finished tucking into their plate of fish,
chips and mushy peas. Wiping their mouths, they swiggged the last of
their cup of tea, paid the bill and wrote::
>I dumped all of my wire and bulky but light ali fabrications and the
>cylinder ie the stuff that is a pain and bulky to store and will stash
[quoted text clipped - 4 lines]
>used machine tools - often sold at little more than scrap prices or the
>prices of the more common stationary engines, used gennys etc.
It might stop the theft of lead and copper from houses and churches
though.......................
Brian L Dominic
Web Site: http://www.brianscanalpages.co.uk
Newsgroup readers should note that the reply-to address is NOT read:
To email me, please send to brian(dot)dominic(at)tiscali(dot)co(dot)uk
Dudley Simons - 21 Oct 2008 09:19 GMT
> On Mon, 20 Oct 2008 10:15:51 +0100, Dudley Simons
> <drs1005@esc.cam.ac.uk> finished tucking into their plate of fish,
[quoted text clipped - 19 lines]
> Newsgroup readers should note that the reply-to address is NOT read:
> To email me, please send to brian(dot)dominic(at)tiscali(dot)co(dot)uk
I doubt it :o( It really depends how much further the price of copper
and lead goes down. Copper and lead are still worth taking to the
scrappy for the dids, especially if they have managed to aquire a couple
of hundred kilos for relatively little effort.
furnessvale - 21 Oct 2008 17:15 GMT
> > It might stop the theft of lead and copper from houses and churches
> > though.......................
> I doubt it :o( � It really depends how much further the price of copper
> and lead goes down. �Copper and lead are still worth taking to the
> scrappy for the dids, especially if they have managed to aquire a couple
> of hundred kilos for relatively little effort.
If you look at the teletext travel pages, every morning you will see
several rail routes with "signalling problems". Nothing to do with
faulty workmanship but everything to do with overnight cable thefts
from the lineside. Can't they just put 1000v through one of the spare
wires?
George
Kim Siddorn - 21 Oct 2008 18:59 GMT
A drain cover - heavy cast iron grid, two man lift - has vanished overnight
from round the corner. ...............
regards,
Kim Siddorn
On Oct 21, 9:19?am, Dudley Simons <drs1...@esc.cam.ac.uk> wrote:
> Brian Dominic wrote:
> > It might stop the theft of lead and copper from houses and churches
> > though.......................
> I doubt it :o( ? It really depends how much further the price of copper
> and lead goes down. ?Copper and lead are still worth taking to the
> scrappy for the dids, especially if they have managed to aquire a couple
> of hundred kilos for relatively little effort.
If you look at the teletext travel pages, every morning you will see
several rail routes with "signalling problems". Nothing to do with
faulty workmanship but everything to do with overnight cable thefts
from the lineside. Can't they just put 1000v through one of the spare
wires?
George
Dave Liquorice - 21 Oct 2008 23:50 GMT
> Can't they just put 1000v through one of the spare wires?
They have been known to nick 11kV overhead power lines. The less bright
attempt this without first shorting the line to earth.

Signature
Cheers
Dave.
Michael Clarke - 22 Oct 2008 07:20 GMT
>> Can't they just put 1000v through one of the spare wires?
>
> They have been known to nick 11kV overhead power lines. The less bright
> attempt this without first shorting the line to earth.
Bet they become bright when they try to do it ;-)

Signature
Michael Clarke
Charles Hamilton - 25 Oct 2008 01:08 GMT
My company were involved in the removal of the electric motors from
Ravenscraig steelworks when it closed and while we were there the
"tea-leaves" dug up the 11kv incomer and got some young guy high on smack to
chop through it with a felling axe. Don't know what happened to him,but I
bet he had to wear sunglasses for a while!!
>>> Can't they just put 1000v through one of the spare wires?
>>
>> They have been known to nick 11kV overhead power lines. The less bright
>> attempt this without first shorting the line to earth.
>
> Bet they become bright when they try to do it ;-)
Andrew Mawson - 20 Oct 2008 18:44 GMT
> Morning All
>
[quoted text clipped - 36 lines]
>
> Dudley
Oh Dear, there was me thinking I've dug up a fortune! levelling the
ground for pair of green houses for the wife in the shadow of an 'H
Pole' with EDF transformer on top, we dug up the stubs of a previous
pair of poles AND the earth plate (no definately nothing to do with
the existing pole <G>). This plate is solid copper two foot square and
at least 3/8 thick
AWEM
Christopher Tidy - 20 Oct 2008 22:15 GMT
We lose a lot of pieces of industrial heritage when the scrap prices are
high, so the good side of a fall is that more interesting machines will
survive into preservation.
Also, as someone mentioned, it will be less tempting for people to steal
metal for scrap.
Best wishes,
Chris
Cliff Coggin - 21 Oct 2008 08:50 GMT
> We lose a lot of pieces of industrial heritage when the scrap prices are
> high, so the good side of a fall is that more interesting machines will
> survive into preservation.
I doubt that. It's more likely the junk will simply rust away in back yards,
fields, and leaky sheds.
Cliff Coggin.
Christopher Tidy - 22 Oct 2008 18:27 GMT
>>We lose a lot of pieces of industrial heritage when the scrap prices are
>>high, so the good side of a fall is that more interesting machines will
>>survive into preservation.
>
> I doubt that. It's more likely the junk will simply rust away in back yards,
> fields, and leaky sheds.
But those back yards, fields and leaky sheds are where the preserved
machines of the future come from.
Chris
bugbear - 22 Oct 2008 09:16 GMT
> Morning All
>
> Just come back from the scrappy - with most of the scrap that I took :o(
>
> I have been expecting the prices paid for scrap to drop for some time
> but had a real shock this morning.
At least phone lines, church roofs, and manhole
covers may have a better chance of surviving
the tea-leafs now.
BugBear
Dudley Simons - 27 Oct 2008 11:10 GMT
Hi All
I took about 300kg of what is locally referred to as light iron in this
morning - covers just about anything that has meetal on it - office
chairs, printers, keyboards, filing cabinets, cars etc. The load I took
in was the stuff that is left over having stripped all the easily
accessable non ferrous material and as such is little more than rubbish
to me.
I didn't expect to get much for it a couple of quid for the diesel was
all I hoped for. There was a notice up in the office window informing
customers that ferrous scrap would no longer be paid for - ie they will
take it but won't be paying for it.
Non ferrous prices this morning
(they were still using Friday afternoons prices - hadn't received the
Monday morning list)
Copper 1250
Brass 480
Ali 100
S/S 300
Lead 200
They reckoned that every load leaving the yard to go to their recycling
facility was still losing them money.
I suspect that things are going to get worse. Get ready to see the
reappearance of dead cars in laybys etc :o(
Dudley
> Morning All
>
[quoted text clipped - 35 lines]
>
> Dudley