Selling Carbide Scrap Makes Perfect Cents

What do you normally do with the equipment, devices, and appliances you no longer use? Are you simply throwing them into the trash or giving them away? If so, you are throwing money away. Yes, money. Every piece of metal product that you are discarding has some type of value to it. The value of the appliance or device will be determine by the type of metal or material the item is made with.

One type of scrap metal that can make you really happy with your decision to sell or recycle is carbide scrap. Sometimes a machine shop can throw out several pieces of metal because they can not use them for anything else. These pieces of carbide scrap can easily be sold and recycled, and they can be turned into another useful item. Selling this scrap to a dealer that purchases scrap or a recycling company is a surefire way to make a little extra cash. Not only will you make extra money, but you will also be contributing to helping keep your environment safe.

There are probably several recycling companies and scrap dealers in your area, and you may not have realized it. When you are out searching for carbide scrap, you should collect every bit of piece that you can. It doesn’t matter if those pieces were used often or not at all. These scraps will generally be melted and used to create other products, such as tools. Tungsten carbide scrap is definitely a popular piece of metal, and scrap metal dealers are constantly looking for this metal.

Now that you have an idea about what kind of metal you should go out to collect and how much money you can make, you probably also realize that you have already thrown some money away. You no longer have to throw out metals and money. Take a look around your house for some things to recycle:

Ball point pens: The rotating ball in the tip of a ballpoint pen is made from tungsten carbide.

Guitar slides: Some guitar slides are made from tungsten carbide.

If you have sports equipment:

1. The trekking poles used by hikers for balance generally use carbide tips to gain traction. The carbide tips last longer and are harder than other metals.
2. Roller ski tips are usually made of carbide since they need to be hard enough to break through layers of ice.
3. Sometimes carbide spikes are used on the tires of snowmobiles.
4. Some bike tires have tungsten carbide studs for traction on ice because they wear better than steel studs.

You might also check out that jewelry you have laying around. Some jewelers are using tungsten carbide in jewelry because of it’s durability.

Cashing in on Your Carbide Scrap the Honest Way

We all know that carbide scrap is expensive because of its uniqueness. But it’s not worth stealing, like what happened to US Steel’s Lorain Tubular where $80,000 worth of carbide inserts were stolen from a tool room not once, but twice.

“The tool room attendant noticed five boxes of carbide inserts and two small buckets of scrap carbide inserts valued at $2,250 missing from the tool room March 14. [Then, 2 1/2 weeks later the attendant] discovered 1,000 more inserts, valued at USD 80,000, missing from tool drawers inside the shop.”

Simply not worth the time you get for the crime, especially considering how much extra money you can make cashing in on carbide on your own, the honest way. Not sure how you can tell if you have carbide scrap? Read on.

The two most basic sources of carbide scrap that would be worth your effort to recycle are from two categories: bits, like end mill bits, drills, boring bars, and reamers; and common carbide inserts (like the ones stolen from U.S. Steel, sadly).

Determining if you have carbide and not steel, a few simple tests need to be done.

The first test to perform for carbide content in your scrap is the weight test. This is done by simply comparing two identical products of the same design. Carbide, being more dense, is always heavier than its steel counterpart, and should easily discernible.

If you have trouble determining through the weight test, the second test you’ll want to perform is the magnet test. Steel is incredibly attracted to magnets (because it is mainly made of iron components). Whereas carbide is only slightly attracted to a magnet. In doing your test, the results will be very obvious.

The third test for determination is called the scratch test. Take a known, carbide substance, like an insert, and scratch your test material. Steel will scratch from the abrasion, carbide will leave little to no marks.

Another consideration is rust. If you think something is carbide, but it has rust on it, it is steel. Carbide absolutely does not rust.

For inserts it’s quite simple: they are 99% of time carbide (check their weight, significantly heavier than steel). The only exception would be spade bits which sometimes come in steel. If you’re unsure, a simple and effective magnet test will absolve any concerns you may have.

Ready to recycle your carbide scrap? Contact a professional on how to get the most out of your experience.

Cold-Milling Machines Benefit from Tungsten Carbide

While it is no secret that tungsten carbide is one of the toughest materials used for industries that require durability and longevity (think milling, mining, roads, etc…), not everyone has gotten on board quite yet.

We believe, however, that it won’t be long before tungsten carbide becomes a household name. That’s because we also believe that as more companies start using tungsten as a base material for their products to limit “wear resistance,” the quicker the general public learns how valuable tungsten carbide is.

This is evident in companies like Wirtgen America, whose cold-milling machines once used regular, metal-tipped bits in their Generation X point-attack cutting tools, but have since switched to tungsten carbide tips that have optimized performance, increased productivity, and reduced wear resistance.

From a recent write-up:

Having the right mixture of coarse and fine tungsten carbide is important in simultaneously determining both the wear resistance and the breaking strength of the carbide tip… In this way, the “intelligent” carbide tip ensures higher utilization of the carbide material and maximizes the service life of the pick.

This also decreases breakage up to 45-percent, a massive reduction from previous years, and increased productivity a whopping 17-percent across the board, all thanks to tungsten carbide.

Are You Ready to Recycle?

If you are ready to recycle your tungsten carbide scrap, it’s important that we remind you of recent legislation known as House Bill #4593, a bill that focuses on Ferrous and Nonferrous metals in the state of MI.

The act, which is also known as the Scrap Metal Regulatory Act, deals directly with how scrap metal dealers and sealers interact with one another by adding terms and conditions that both parties must follow, like acquiring specific information during transactions for the sake of legal compliance.

So while the act does change particulars in regards to how we and you (our loyal scrappers) do business on a micro level, it doesn’t change the fact that we still need your business altogether, and are willing to work with you to make it happen.

It should also be noted that this act does not change how we deal with parcels received in the mail.

For the short list on what we will now require from you, click here to read more from the blog by Carbide Recycling Company. For additional questions or concerns, please feel free to contact a professional at any time.