Cleaning up Aluminum

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THE SNOMAN

Member
Joined
Dec 9, 2013
Messages
16
So I've been collecting aluminum while doing my gold scrap hunting. I have a nice pile(HDDs/heat sinks, etc.) and want to start stripping it down to just Al. My question is does it have to be Al only? Even stickers or what about the small motor in Hdds? At this point I'm not sure if I am going to melt it down or just sell it as scrap.
Thanks in advance for any replies!!

David
 
I think stickers would be fine. Any steel or copper and other metals will have to be removed. I doubt the price is any better if it is melted so I'd just take it in bulk unless you plan to separate the other metals by melting. You profit will drop if you have to buy fuel to melt and you will get some slag which will be lost weight.

Just my thoughts.

bmgold
 
Ask your junk yard, then you know.

I have two yards in my town and they seems to have two different standards when it comes to scrap. I've seen some places that accepts up to 10% foreign material in their aluminum scrap, but I always strives to sell as clean scrap as it is possible.

Göran
 
Even one steel screw or rivet can downgrade the price of a whole truckload of scrap aluminum.

Metals should be sorted, in a pile of aluminum scrap you will have different types and grades, sorting them can bring a higher price, aluminum pot metal sells for a different price than Extruded aluminum, Automotive wheel rims...

Melting is not a good idea, especially unless you know what you really have, cast aluminum occasionally contains varying quantities of magnesium, which can catch fire fairly easily and burn with an intense heat.

Magnesium in any volume is not something you would want to try to melt and catch on fire.

Besides the dangers involved, and the high cost of melting you may actually lower the value of your scrap if you tried to melt it yourself.

You may think you have cast aluminum and actually have zinc die cast or magnesium, or a combination of these in a pot metal casting.
 
Hmmmm? Do you know if there is an easy way to tell the difference between cast aluminum and zinc die cast or magnesium? 98% of my Al is from HDD and heat sinks.
 
THE SNOMAN said:
Hmmmm? Do you know if there is an easy way to tell the difference between cast aluminum and zinc die cast or magnesium? 98% of my Al is from HDD and heat sinks.

Just about everything has been discussed on the forum already;

http://goldrefiningforum.com/phpBB3/viewtopic.php?f=45&t=2715&p=24215&hilit=aluminum+vinegar#p24215
 
Hi Smoman
Zinc die cast , breake easy and is more heavy than aluminium, and melt easyer.Zink die cast are the cheepest scrap you have,only fe (iron)is cheeper.
If you want to seperate your aluminium for getting the best price i suggest you make three piles,
1.abselutly clean aluminium. Must look like new aluminium.
2.one for aluminium with paint, dirt and max 2% fe.
3. die cast aluminium(max 2% fe.)

But ask your local scrap yard before you do anything.
I have two piles, (2 and 3)i dont want to wash the dust and pasta of from my pc aluminium coolers, so i sell them as "old aluminium with max 2% fe".
These two piles are nearly same price, but they have to be seperated.
Henrik
 
Here's a tip. Find a local yard that runs a shredder. Most of these bigger yards will run their breakage aluminum and their old sheet and cast aluminum thru the shredder to clean it. That's what our local yard does.

After we pull the logic boards off the drive, we crush it in a 30 ton press then toss it into a gaylord box. Once the box is full we sell it to the scrap yard at old sheet & cast price. This is around .55 cents a pound right now.

Keep in mind that we do 1000's of drives a month and that helps when we sell. If a guy was only doing less than a hundred or so, I would say strip them by hand. If you have a local "Do It Best" hardware store around, they sell a nice little micro Torx screwdriver set. It has all the sizes you need to strip a HDD. After a little practice, you will be stripping them down on no time.
 
Silver do you take the internals out or just sell the whole thing at 55 cents per pound?
 
Aluminum comes in many alloys.

Your heat sinks and hard drive bodies should be the same type,
at least at the scrap yard level. It tends to be purer than most alloys.

Extruded aluminum is the most common type I find in scrap.
It has the classic aluminum color to it and bends relatively easily if you hit it.

Cast aluminum usually has a bit of a dull finish, or may be powder coated, like BBQ grills.
It will usually break if hit with a hammer. It can be doped with small amounts of impurities
and some yards pay slightly less for it.

Painted aluminum, like screen doors and siding trim pieces, is a different alloy
and can contain a small amount of copper or other metal that helps the paint stick.
Some yards pay slightly more for it.

Food container aluminum (pie plates, foil, pop and food cans)
is a ferro-silicate alloy that is doped with carbon, iron, and sand.
It usually goes for slightly less than plain aluminum.

Die cast metal (with zinc) usually has a shiny finish, like plating.
It comes in a variety of alloy percentages and will contain a small amount of aluminum, if at all.
I've seen some that deforms when hammered, and some that shatters.
This usually goes for quite a bit less than aluminum.

Aluminum that you cannot remove other metals from will sometimes have it's own pricing.
If it has steel or iron in it, it will be worth considerably less.
But if it is just aluminum and brass, you may get a good price for it
and save a lot of work in trying to separate it.

The best advice I've seen in this thread is to ask your local yard how they want it sorted.
 
Your heat sinks and hard drive bodies should be the same type,
at least at the scrap yard level. It tends to be purer than most alloys.

That statement is totally wrong. HDD bodies are cast. Cast no matter how clean is still sorted as cast.

Most heatsinks are extrusions. Extruded is it's own grade of aluminum. Never mix anything with clean extrusions.

Your yard will be able to teach you the differance between sheet heatsinks and extruded heatsinks. Extruded heatsinks are formed from a single billet of metal, so the sink is one solid piece of metal.

Spaceships, No that's the whole drive - the logic board. Our local yard has a very good shredder and eddy current sorting system. It's amazing to see it in action as it sorts everything after shredding.
 
Like many peole have suggested, ask your local yard. Your mileage will vary.
Hard drive bodies may be formed with a casting process,
But it is still a matter of the alloy percentage used in the process.
My yard looks upon them very differently from BBQ grill cast aluminum.
 
I guess prices are down, last batch of whole hard drives I sold went for 81 cents a pound. It was 4 months ago though.
 
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