I completed a cleanup of a barn today. It has been a multi-month process. I hauled the steel, cast iron, aluminum, brass, lead and copper to the scrap metal recycler and received $351.91 for my efforts. I literally had a ton (2213 lbs) of steel and a lot of aluminum and copper. It’s not all that much if I was to count the hours spent sorting and loading, but it is much better than it ending up in a landfill. 
I meant to take a picture and forgot… :person_facepalming:
Always nice to see that something pays off, this is a double win situation, since you got the place cleaned up and got paid.
Any plans for flashlights with those funds?
No definite plans as of right now. Something will come up.
You probably got most of the money from the Copper and Brass —- Steel and Cast aren’t worth saving anymore
$3.50 a pound on bright and clean copper $1.90 for brass
Steel and cast iron are only worthwhile when there is some Al, Cu, or brass to make the trip to the recycler worthwhile. 0.045 for steel, 0.09 cast iron. Small block Chevy block = about $13 with the rod hole in the side of #2
A lot of years back I fooled around with lots of trucks/cars —Like you did ,every so often I’d clean up the shop and yard —I’d always throw 8-10 cleaned radiators on top of my load to make the trip profitable
It must have been a scrap metal kind of day—my brother hauled some aluminum cans today and got $20 for his efforts.
What’s a simple and quick way to clean old copper wire—from tarnished or burnt to the clean and shiny stuff?
Have you priced out the siding from old barns?
It’s astounding what some folks pay for that stuff.
Good question. I don’t have a good answer though. An acid or strong base solution works but then you have that chemical stew to get rid of. My scrapper, pardon me, my recycler (as he prefers to be called) pays about $0.30 less a pound for dirty or burnt copper wire. I keep my scraps of wire with the insulation on it. Then I strip the insulation a week or two or three before I plan to take it in. Various ways I do it but if it is more than a few feet I have some steel plates with holes drilled just the right size to peel back the insulation on wires like Romex. They pay about 2.25 a pound for insulated Romex.
I think the reason for paying less for burnt Cu wire is that when bad people would break into houses, construction sites, etc., and steal the wire for “recycling”, they can’t leave on the insulation lest it be traced back to the theft, so the cheap’n’easy way of getting rid of it is to just set it on fire and burn off the insulation.