Scrap Metal Identification Guide - How To Make Money Scrapping

For everyone who's been asking for a scrap metal identification guide, here it is! A quick and easy method to go through any metal you may have to determine exactly where it goes and what it's worth.
Episode 1, Essential tools: • Essential Tools For Sc...
Here's the playlist of each metal in detail and how to make more money from them!
Copper: • Copper Scrapping Hacks...
Aluminum: • Aluminum Scrapping Hac...
Brass: • Brass Scrapping Hacks ...
Lead: • Battery Scrapping - Fi...
Zinc alloy: • Die Cast - Identifying...
Stainless steel: • Scrapping Stainless St...
Silver: • How and Where to Find ...
Steel: • Make More Money Scrapp...
Wire stripper I use: amzn.to/3jrO2iS
The motorized stripper: amzn.to/3y0JMuQ
The wire cutters I like: amzn.to/2T6j3OW
This is the cheaper version: amzn.to/2SwrYsB
And here are those grips I recommend: amzn.to/2QCJmYl
Silver test acid: amzn.to/3krlMNX
(If you make a purchase on amazon through the links above, a small amount of what amazon makes on the sale is shared with me. It's a great way to help support my channel, at no additional cost to you. Even if you buy something other than my tool recommendations!)
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Music: Harris Heller
bsmith - Industrial Scrap

[@Kenthis15]

Even to experienced scrappers this series is a nice refresher, and so well done it’s very enjoyable to watch regardless

[@artyman60]

I recently started my scrapping hobby and I can't thank you enough for the videos and all the help I look forward to more videos

[@thubprint]

Absolutely! Welcome, and let me know if you’ve got any questions 👍

[@michaelpaul721]

Thanks

[@vahjra]

This is incredibly helpful. Differentiating metal types is very hard for a beginner. Thanks!

[@DracironSmith]

I've been scrapping for 20+ years. Learned a couple things with this vid, thanks.

[@KarmaHoax]

Enjoy the tips as always Thub! Appreciate you to the moon and back. Your newfie buddy. Keep doin' the thing.

[@thubprint]

Awww thanks buddy! Now back to the hunt 😁

[@Resto-Scraps]

Howdy Thub.. great start to the mini series..u and vid vulture were the first scrap vids I watched.. now I guess u could say I'm on the next level lol. 3 yrs now!!! Dude thanks again man.."keep doin the thing"

[@thubprint]

Nice! I remember when he started up too, like a brother from another mother 😆 hope you’ve been well!

[@RyanMacala]

Lay-person descriptions with engineering backup. Well made.

[@christopher_salvaggio]

Solid video as always. As a newer scrapper, I look forward to videos like these for advice. And your other videos are just as good. Keep doing the thing!

[@thubprint]

Thanks buddy, I knew there was an audience for these! And leave it better than you found it 😉

[@TheUltimateRecycler]

Wow, pumpin' out the videos Thub!! I sometimes struggle to put up 2 a week! As usual, quality content 👍😊

[@thubprint]

I’ve been struggling to put out 1 a week haha! Just trying to take a run at it so I can have some summer vacation and not feel bad. I think it’s gonna be 1 a week for the next month though

[@TheUltimateRecycler]

@@thubprint You shouldn't feel bad! It's your channel - you can do whatever you like!! 🤣 I made a rash promise with myself to do 2 vids every week for as long as possible! It's been almost 2 years now I think. I read somewhere that the youtube algorithm rewards consistent activity so I'm not giving up just yet!

[@thubprint]

There’s a lot of misunderstandings and outdated information about the inner workings of the algorithm, but I definitely agree that consistent uploads is the key factor to growth 👍

[@onewheellank]

Great video ! Excited for tomorrows because I am very bad at managing my small amount of space for scrapping

[@thubprint]

Spoiler warning, it would be way better if I had that stupid shelf put together!😆

[@vincedibona4687]

If you’re like me, you find a lot of bins out scrapping. Keep the ones with lids and don’t be afraid to leave something behind if it’s too big.

[@onewheellank]

@@vincedibona4687 i operate a bulldozer at a landfill and it is unbelievable how many nice Rubbermaid totes people throw out, that and five gallon pails

[@livvyweimar7362]

This is super easy to follow. Thanks for the tips!

[@ScrappingwithGrandpa]

Everyone needs this video

[@ashtonburroughs8944]

Hey thub, just a heads up. That arrow is an aluminum arrow shaft. The Easton camo hunter is their lower end shafts and thus are built with lower quality components. Love the videos, keep them up!!

[@andyf1235]

You are correct. I have had these arrows before and always been aluminum. If it doesn't specifically say its titanium its probably not. I would think titanium is too heavy for arrows. Carbon fiber is typically what higher end arrows are made of

[@thubprint]

Thanks so much for pointing that out! Makes sense they would print titanium on it if it were, stuff isn’t cheap.

[@ashtonburroughs8944]

@@thubprint no problem, I would suggest holding onto the shafts as if there isn't anything wrong with it they can sell from anywhere from $5-$15 a piece.

[@MrShekoexile]

When you flash notes on the screen they're gone so quickly it's hard to absorb the information. You need to leave them up there a bit longer.

[@drdaver]

This video proved you are genuinely a super smart dude!

[@thubprint]

Welllllll idk about ‘super’ smart lol

[@mondain5429]

Just made my first haul today, your videos have been really helpful, Thub

[@amethystwinter1977]

Loving the series.☺

[@willthecat163]

Besides a grinder... a few good files, of different grades, are good to have.

[@ferndog1461]

This is 101 masterclass. The links are awesome , too.

[@thubprint]

Ty! 😁

[@DylansDIYWorkshop]

love all of these videos man. its been a great side hustle for me

[@thubprint]

And it’s fun too!

[@jackpotdigger834]

again good job very detail keep doing the thing

[@chipurmunki]

I second the magnesium thing, only time I found some was when I was taking apart a rear-projection tv. Had fun testing with a file and a lighter. Thanks for the video!

[@thubprint]

That would be fun! 🤣

[@crdwelding]

Love it mate can't wait for Tommorrows.video u should.do one on preparing your self and vehicle.for street scraping

[@thubprint]

I kinda like that idea!

[@gussuperman7565]

Great points m8. Keep up the good work. God bless y'all.

[@thubprint]

And you too!

[@Swescrapman]

yesterday I found bathroom decor it says stainless steel but it is magnetic? both you and mike are usually good at answering and explaining :)

[@finddeniro]

5 types. .search manufacturing information...

[@travisdickensheets8018]

One point seldom included is that nickel is ferromagnetic. It will grab a magnet. Scrap yards get over on people by paying them stainless prices(low grade) when in fact it's nickel or monel

[@choccie_chip685]

Awesome! I have some titanium and never knew if I should keep it or not, I can't imagine growing this collection as I'd have no idea where to find it. The titanium I currently have is from specialised BMX parts

[@ScoutsIX3]

I love the continuously improving content!

[@thubprint]

That’s what I’m aiming for! 😁

[@metaldetectingwiththesilva8311]

The root killer test works great..copper sulphate in water solution 😉 Grind, put a tiny bit on exposed metal. If it turns black its die cast. If it stays clear it's Aluminum. Sorted. The silver plated stuff goes for $4:50 US at my buyer..hoard that stuff!

[@Warpcaller]

Great video, very informative. Keep up the good work!

[@thubprint]

You got it! 👍

[@raresboghean2974]

Those tricks i have discovered when i was 15 there types of stanless like 317 304 that don t have magnetic field and some alloys of lead atimony zonc are used to cast taps back here in europe

[@twbishop]

@4:57 besides being more dense/heavy, bare/pure zinc is also more lustrous (shiny) than aluminum. under a torch, zinc flakes will illuminate with a bluish color; aluminum flakes illuminate with a white color. i am not sure about zinc-aluminum alloys. mixed with HCL (acidic), zinc will also illuminate with a green-blue/aqua color under a flame.

[@wayin07]

best place for zinc is balancing weights on car wheel rims just bolt crop off zinc from iron holder.

[@kingspokelife5118]

im really enjoying these Thub!!! Great video man!

[@thubprint]

Thanks Various! Next time pull the motor from the dang treadmill! 😆😉

[@kingspokelife5118]

@@thubprint hahaha will do for sure!!!

[@gregscoolclips9134]

Good tips man keep them coming.

[@thubprint]

Will do!

[@streetthrifter]

👍thank you my friend, informative video👍 As you say, the more you handle the various metals the easier it becomes to identify them. I get a real buzz picking up discarded items, most certainly on the way to landfill, and recycling them + making some £ money.

[@thubprint]

It’s so fun! And knowing a bit more about the stuff around you is a certain kind of joy.

[@sharkscrapper]

Another good vid. The dilute ZEP root killer test is so easy and no mistaking the results. But both the yards I go to don't differentiate. Cast Al and Zinc/pot metal all go together in the same bin. I still check because I'm also keeping some Al for my own melting down the road.

[@thubprint]

That’s so weird though, they aren’t the saaame!! 😭😂

[@sharkscrapper]

@@thubprint I know. I just don't get it but hey, it makes my job easier.

[@BTCtrees]

Thank you, you're helping my brain.

[@thubprint]

Trying! 😁

[@kevink.2719]

Very informative

[@andrewcannon587]

i have couple of faucet pieces that ain't stainless steel (no spark), kinda heavy and not yellow brass or red copper. I didn't know they use zinc in bathroom faucet or zinc is that heavy. I first thought it might be a tin alloy.

[@thubprint]

Definitely zinc/alu alloy. They’ll just give you dirty aluminum price most likely. It’s fine but I always find the pay for a bucket full somewhat disappointing

[@jeanneed1746]

@@thubprint do you separate the zinc or send it to shred?

[@benhumphregys3087]

Thanks for info

[@Donna-vs2iq]

Hey Thub, you and Tin Man are my go to for learning. You make me laugh at 00:55 with no guard on your angle grinder. PPE is sometimes optional? Just teasing, I am new at this and bought my first angle grinder and it sort of scares me. I lost my second nerve years ago on a motor bike. And I always enjoy your informative videos. Appreciate you.

[@IzzyOnTheMove]

When i was 16 i took scrap metal out of the St Lawrence river to get money to follow my favorite band across Canada for 3 weeks ( IN JANUARY, without a proper coat because it was no coat check arena shows LOLLL). PROPS if you can guess the name of the band (they are Canadian and they were HUGE at the time). 😄

[@Macky1101]

Was there a time period when tin (Sn) flatware were common? Maybe in the 1970s? Did they make tin trays? Or were all the "tin" trays made of aluminum? HOW DO YOU TEST FOR TIN?

[@shytzndgigglez]

I have just started collecting shit at work for scraping but as a starter and colorblind. What's the difference in the copper and brass? I know most fitting are brass

[@noahpeszel168]

The faucet handle that you have a hold of to turn it on there's also brass it's just brass coated with copper than Chrome

[@mollynakamori]

Love this series, Thubbie.

[@thubprint]

Happy to hear it, thank you! It’s just a 3-piece 🙂 (for now)

[@vincedibona4687]

OMG… tomorrow’s vid… *so many plastic bins* 🤣😂🤣

[@Adrian-zd4cs]

Lost my Mom in December and Dad in April. Unfortunately they had no life or burial insurance, we're making it but my Dad was a heavy machinery mechanic and I'm starting the process of this overfull 2 car basement garage and scrapping.... He had thousands of dollars worth of heavy machinery tools which have been easy to sell but now I'm learning this... It's a bit overwhelming lol

[@thubprint]

Oh, that’s pretty upsetting timing… sorry you’re stuck facing all that at once. Glad I could make something of some practical use I suppose? Wishing you the best

[@jongreene610]

The arrow you had there was made of aluminum. Had it been made of titanium it would spark white when hit with the grinder.

[@KoenLawnCareLLC]

Apparently titanium makes white sparks harder to notice compared to red sparks from steel

[@brandonzahs2801]

Thub your one of the handful of canadians that are pretty cool

[@thubprint]

Awww thank you!

[@freddabunnyadventures6637]

Love your content. Great to have a homegrown alberta perspective. Would love to connect and get advice. Just starting out on scraping treasure hunting.

[@thubprint]

I’m certainly no expert but I’d be happy to try to help if you’ve got any questions 👍 message me anytime

[@Kenthis15]

You dabble in eBay, that gold plated watch band was an easy $30 USD (free shipping). Better money than scrap. Still really love this series though.

[@black88coupe]

Thank you 👍

[@aidavewaste2576]

I think its copper sulphate.if you just grind the piece and then spray the diluted copper sulphate on it and it turns the grinded part black..if it turns biack its die cast..I thinks

[@raresboghean2974]

Build a cocal wood furnace melt them cast ingots and less them or cast other decorative objects that people will like to buy

[@mikeashburn9002]

If the watch band was gold plated, why in the crap did you not peroxide sea salt and vinegar it?? Separate the gold off the band and save it?

[@ztechrepairs]

Looking very professional thub.

[@thubprint]

🤓

[@kyleoconnor6567]

My work works with material reffered to as moldmax hh with 1.6 beryllium and .3 cobalt. What price for this oddball material think I could get for that?

[@kyleoconnor6567]

But mostly copper

[@maxmorter503]

Is it worthwhile to remove gold plating just like on computer parts and such with watch band. I haven't seen a video if even computer parts are worthwhile for it

[@thubprint]

You haven’t seen a video showing the economics of it because it isn’t worthwhile 😆 It’s about scale. The cost of equipment and chemicals are many times greater than the recovery in small scale operation. It is profitable when you have a much larger operation, but those companies are too busy making money to make KZbin videos. The people that do have good recovery videos are paying for their costs with ad revenue.

[@nextellcup8]

thanks for the info 👍👍

[@digitalmusic4803]

Titanium makes a lot of very whitish sparks, the arrow was most probably aluminum.

[@allenjester3228]

Would you show us a microwave lua? The metal has an odd color to it like a faint yellow color. What are the components inside?

[@LuisRodriguez-xf9lv]

i learn To have wit me allways a magnet

[@thubprint]

Gotta have one!

[@jayf.p6606]

Thanks, it answered my question I appreciate it

[@lavitikis100]

I'm wondering how to tell what's tin and what is steel. For example I have a big tool box that is decently thin but not sure if it's considered steel or tin.

[@thubprint]

For sure! “Tin” is a bit of an outrageous name because obviously steel is iron with extra carbon or sometimes silicon. I think the name comes from “tin cans”, which are also not tin but… as far as my scrapyard categorizes things, “tin shred” is anything that is mostly steel with less than 10% contaminants like paint and plastic and other metals. “Prepared steel” is the thicker pieces that have a higher recovery percentage, and at my yard that means anything thicker than 1/8” with no contaminants. This part is specific to your scrapyard though, some scrapyards expect it to be greater than 1/4”, some require that it isn’t a shape that can hold water, and many just don’t have have steel categories and call everything tin shred (or “light iron”). You’ll have to learn what your local yard uses for categories but my guess would be the toolbox is shred category, and may have a thick steel plate in the bottom for a counterweight that would be prepared steel if you removed it.

[@lavitikis100]

@@thubprint thank you very much super helpful. I bought a property and there is tonz of metal on it I'm scrapping :)

[@thubprint]

@@lavitikis100 well, have fun! 😁

[@jackpotdigger834]

nice chunck of lead !!

[@thubprint]

And to think I almost tossed it in the prep steel pile! 😂

[@Hoarax1]

Titanium oughta make bright white sparks...

[@Manuel3525m]

Aluminum is easy to tell

[@thubprint]

It feels that way sometimes but I still get questions from time to time in the comments so I felt it would be helpful to just make a video about it 👍

[@mrbriancnc]

I've always wondered, why do you call us Pandas?

[@thubprint]

Because of trash pandas! Meaning raccoons. Just super into trash around here lol

[@willthecat163]

Aluminum Gold and Copper are paramagnetic. Copper lead and silver are diamagnetic. You need a strong magnetic field to see this.

[@JReklis]

I have a feeling that gold coloured stainless might be annodized, just a feeling

[@thubprint]

Hmmm… fair enough

[@willthecat163]

You can learn to identify copper, brass, bronze, aluminum, steel and stainless steel... if you just take the time to look at your environment... It would be a very rural area indeed, where there was no examples of all of these.

[@thubprint]

Absolutely! It doesn’t take long to be able to identify each of those once you start paying attention to them. The only one that’s still tricky is aluminium vs pewter castings in a thrift store. I made this video to share with people who are just getting started and wanted to know what to look for

[@tomitstube]

thought i was doing good with a plumber dumpster haul, lots of nice copper and brass, and i was sorting aluminum and stainless steel faucets, then came across this shiny silver piece that was very magnetic, i'm like, "must be steel", then noticed it was printed "stainless steel" across it... now i'm confused.

[@thubprint]

Could be 410 or something like that. I had a couple solid slugs of the stuff and it took awhile but I did find a buyer for it. Most of the time I just throw it in with the steel cuz it isn’t worth enough to shop around trying to find a buyer

[@jpansamerica]

An idea maybe (maybe its stupid) an american used game store created this little pack to take with you called the bootleg buddy. Its got into cards and some tools so you can identify if an old game might be a fake. I would love a thub themed keyring of laminated cards for easy on the go reminders of how to identify things! Maybe it could pair with a thub merch magnet for testing whats ferrous when hunting 👀

[@jpansamerica]

Oh of course I forget to link the item. Here it is if youd like some inspiration pinkgorillagames.com/products/tools-bootleg-buddy

[@thubprint]

YOOOOO that’s such a great idea!!

[@505fastlife6]

What is worth more cast iron or aluminum?

[@thubprint]

Oh aluminium, absolutely

[@michaelbrandon8482]

So does your scrapyard pay a different price for the zinc or is it dirty aluminum?

[@thubprint]

For me it’s just dirty aluminium price too

[@richardb4787]

There comes a time/benefit threshold. If an item takes more than 10 minutes of my time to recycle, time to move on to another item.

[@thubprint]

100%. Of course there are some high value items that justify spending some more time, but I totally agree with the notion

[@muriaticacid7004]

Thumbs UP

[@ScienceFoundation]

If you just want to get dirty with your gold plating, you can amalgamate it off of base metals with mercury.

[@thubprint]

But how do you remove it from the mercury?

[@ScienceFoundation]

@@thubprint Burn it. That's why I say get nasty with it lol

[@demoniack81]

@@thubprint You can distill off the mercury, but it's not an easy problem as you need to fabricate a still made out of iron (any other metal will be dissolved by the mercury). Check out Cody's Lab video on mercury distillation.

[@andrewcannon587]

i would not buy a cut arrow :D :D I think that arrow might be high end aluminum alloy. Titanium arrow is rare if it is made for sale, most high end arrow shaft today are still made from Al alloy or carbon fiber

[@thubprint]

I’m still not 100% sure but I’m p confident it’s titanium?

[@richardb4787]

Magnet doesn't stick to stainless steel.

[@thubprint]

That’s what most scrapyards believe too 😁

[@coachdean666]

How did he know im a panda

[@safwansakib8257]

Wait this ain't RUST