On 11/25/2019 12:03 PM, Carl wrote:
"Bob La Londe" wrote in message ...

On 11/25/2019 5:08 AM, Pete Keillor wrote:
Of course aluminum chips in air are going to come out orders of
magnitude easier, so it probably won't be an issue at any size you can
use. You've handled a 45 gal can half full of Al swarf? Not too
heavy? Anyway, hope it works well.

Pete Keillor

Half full (no liquid) I can just barely lift it to the dumpster. 3/4
full and I use the tractor and fish the barrel out afterwards.

Just curious, do you recycle your aluminum swarf? Here outside
Baltimore there are a few scrap companies that buy machine shop waste.
The one we used gave us a couple of laundry baskets (or maybe mail
carts), carts with canvas bags maybe 3'x5' and 3' deep, and we would
call when one was full. They would come with a box truck with a crane
and scale, weigh them as they loaded them, then pay us for our aluminum
and stainless steel and drop off empty carts for next time. If we had
chunks or saw cutoffs or other nonferrous metals we kept that separate
and got a better price for them. They also paid for soda cans so we
crushed and saved those, too. I don't know the current pricing but 5-10
years ago a cart of aluminum lathe and mill chips was over $200, maybe
over $300. Basically free money since we had to dump the chips
somewhere after cleaning out a machine anyway, and the carts were closer
than the dumpster .



I have not been. Last time I checked the price for chips was so much
lower than cans that it wasn't worth it, and I had to haul. Also if
there was any hint of coolant residue they would discount it further. As
far as I know there is nobody local who will pickup. This is not a
large industrial area. There is very little industry here except for
Barco Metal Stamping and a few others in primarily military or
agriculture and the R&D side the military mostly comes from elsewhere.
My niche is a world wide market so it doesn't matter where I am located
except for supply convenience, and I can get most anything delivered.