Aluminum can recycling, recent experiences?

[blackbird]

I have been thinking about the large amount of aluminum cans we always have in our municipal recycle bin, and I remembered taking cans to the scrapyard in high school for extra cash. Has anyone done this recently? Google says the going rate is about 0.25 cents per pound, and I remember it takes a lot of cans to make a pound (excepting some of the heavier duty large cans that hold bulk items).

I think the decision point is will the payoff in taking them to a commercial scrapper vice municipal one outweigh the storage required to minimize trips down there. Anyone still do this? Thoughts / pitfalls?

[jacob]

I have been thinking of melting cans down for casting and machining low-quality parts (better than plastic) and things like name plates, handles, ... or anything where wood would be too cumbersome.

I'm still looking for a proper way to melt it. Cheap DIY foundries don't seem to last that long.

[ether]

@jacob
check this guy out: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l2FuvKTyRMQ
Adding steel wool during the casting of foundries can extend the life tenfold

[Laura Ingalls]

I have been thinking of melting cans down for casting and machining low-quality parts (better than plastic) and things like name plates, handles, ... or anything where wood would be too cumbersome.

I'm still looking for a proper way to melt it. Cheap DIY foundries don't seem to last that long.

This was a short lived hobby of my son’s. He has a setup with concrete in a 5 gallon bucket.

It frustrated me as we have a bottle deposit here and he was melting something I had thought of as money since childhood. I knew intellectual it was better than video games and just a tiny amount.

[blackbird]

So when I got home I used my wife's kitchen scale and measured an empty soda can. 0.56 ounces per can, or 116 cans per 4 pounds, and at 0.25 cents a pound, 116 cans per dollar. If we were to scrounge 30 cans per week, that is 1560 cans a year, or $13.44.

So if the initial assumption of 0.25 cents per pound is correct, it probably would not be worth the hassle of collect, clean, crush, and store for a few months at a time and drive down to the scrap metal place 3-4 times a year.

[Kriegsspiel]

Why don't you scrap all your metal, and just go more often?

Lots of info at www.scrapmetaljunkie.com