Swarf!!

[MWParticipant @mw27036]

[MWParticipant @mw27036]

So, what's to be done with it?

I maybe be a bit OCD but i clean my lathe down thoroughly between jobs and this has enabled me to separate the swarf waste by type.

I have 2 full bin bags worth of nylon from piece work and a couple more of T6 (Which i can verify with a COC), i'm not sure if it's worth seperating by grade but when i worked for an aluminium machining company they did.

I don't really care whether or not it's worth a few quid, obviously would be nice if i could but i'm more concerned about just throwing it away. Is there not some way it could be recycled? I would rather not waste stuff and keep topping up the landfill if i can help it. So i'd go out my way to a recycling center if i can.

Any Ideas?

Michael W

[DustyParticipant @dusty]

Michael Try googling your Local Authority refuse and recycling centre, they generally are quite keen to recycle anything that's worthwhile, and more to the point it helps with your council tax.

[Neil WyattModerator @neilwyatt]

My local authority recycling centre would take it in the metal skip and it gets sorted by the processor.

Neil

[MWParticipant @mw27036]

Thanks Guys,

I'll see whether or not they'll take it and maybe try contacting them if the website isn't very informative.

Michael W

Edited By Michael Walters on 01/07/2016 16:22:00

[JasonBModerator @jasonb]

At about 40p a KG for aluminium swarf unless the scrappy is on your doorstep its hardly worth weighing it in. Like Neil my swarf goes to the local recycling ctr in a mixed sack unless I see a totter driving past In which case he can have it and save my a trip to the dump.

[MWParticipant @mw27036]

It seems there are a couple of towns near mine where they'll take it.

quite a daunting quote from their website about metal waste:

"Metal waste disposed of in landfill sites not only takes up valuable landfill space but also produces a noxious leachate during the breakdown of material which eventually finds its way into the environment."

I think i'll save it up for now and maybe pop down there when it starts to barracade me into my workshop.

 

Michael w

Edited By Michael Walters on 01/07/2016 16:31:45

[J HancockParticipant @jhancock95746]

Just hanging on your last sentence.

I saved up all my old motor oil in the original old 5litre plastic containers,

Clear out day, I take eleven of them down to the recycle centre.

Jobsworth, " You're only allowed to empty one (5L) of those a day " ! And they stood beside me when

I took it out of the boot and emptied it into a half empty tank.

Strangely, it's all evaporated now .

[not done it yetParticipant @notdoneityet]

You could always set up a home micro-foundry and recycle it yourself?

[duncan webster 1Participant @duncanwebster1]

Posted by J Hancock on 01/07/2016 16:43:12:

Just hanging on your last sentence.

I saved up all my old motor oil in the original old 5litre plastic containers,

Clear out day, I take eleven of them down to the recycle centre.

Jobsworth, " You're only allowed to empty one (5L) of those a day " ! And they stood beside me when

I took it out of the boot and emptied it into a half empty tank.

Strangely, it's all evaporated now .

I have a vague memory that Gardners used to suggest disposing of oil by mixing it in with the diesel a bit at a time, but then they smoked like mad anyway, especially on start up

[Bob StevensonParticipant @bobstevenson13909]

If you have a fly press or similar you can knock up a simple plywood 'mould' and compress the swarf into rough little blocks….it takes up much less space and is then in an ideal form to melt down for casting etc…..

The only thing is that you need to beware contamination with even the tiniest fragment of steel swarf……..runnng a magnet over the swarf is useless as the swarf becomes entwined and is only extracted with great difficulty and completely spoils any casting. For this reason I never bother with brass swarf now and only collect dust and offcuts……..The brass swarf has no weight or substance and is a pain in the proverbial to salvage (and i will usually have a go at salvaging almost anythng!)

[Neil WyattModerator @neilwyatt]

It costs councils to dispose of old oil properly and, lets face it, not many householders are going to turn up with 55 litres of oil. They are going to assume you are a someone doing car work on the side and trying to save a few bob.

If you'd turned up with two, or maybe three, they would probably just have told you only to bring one next time.

Brass swarf mixed with a relatively small amount of epoxy makes a surprisingly convincing filler for brass castings.

Neil,

[Stuart BridgerParticipant @stuartbridger82290]

Back in the '80s we had a scrap bin ouside the apprentice training school at Brooklands (BAe Weybridge).
Very strict rule was that only solid metal could go in, no swarf. From memory the only swarf that was recycled was the high output of known alloys from the skin milling shop, whach was collected via a vacuum system.

[Howard LewisParticipant @howardlewis46836]

My swarf is placed in cleaned food tins (Baked Beans, Soup etc) and pounded down with a length of inch and half (38mm?)steel bar . When very nearly full the lid id replaced and the outside walls bashed over with a hammer, to seal it in. The tins then find their way into the recycling bin.

I get rid of my swarf, and hopefully, the tins find their back to the blast furnace to be remelted and reused.

Howard

[KWILParticipant @kwil]

Howard,

When I look at my rate of swarf production, how many tins of baked beans do you get through?

[Thor 🇳🇴Participant @thor]

I guess I'm lucky as I am allowed to dispose of my steel swarf in the skip of a local milling and turning shop. It gets remelted into nails and rebar. I don't turn much aluminium or brass/bronze so that goes in the regular waste.

Thor

[Chris Evans 6Participant @chrisevans6]

My swarf goes into a couple of the plastic gardeners/builders tubs (like half old dustbin size) I then take it to the place I retired from and put it in the scrap metal skip. Even when full they only get about £15 for the skip load so no value in my bit just useful place for me.

[Howard LewisParticipant @howardlewis46836]

KWIL,

Usually, when the swarf pile will no longer move under the lathe bed, there is enough, when pounded down, to fill five or six full size Baked Beans/Soup/why tins.

By that stage it takes a pair of stout gloves and a pair of snips to pack it into the tins, ready for compressing.

Nice sense of achievement to see the lathe clean, if only for a short time!

Wonder what the folk at the recycling centre make of the tins?

Howard

[JonParticipant @jon]

Have to be very conservative and plan on the two weekly wheelie collections. Many a time caught me out as prefer to layer bottom and top with normal waste.

Recycling just not worth it unless want house like a scrap yard. Lot of air space in swarf and takes up room, needless to say a full wheelie bin load compressed wouldn't pay for the cost of going to a tip.

Last people want round here are the pikeys on the scrounge, all they need is 30 seconds behind your back to remove wanted items.

[Involute CurveParticipant @involutecurve]

I can confirm a wheelie bin full to the brim with 5083 6082 and 7075 Ali chips from the miller is not worth bothering with, it took two of us and a lot of effort to get the thing on the back of the pickup for 20 quid, I now stuff it in the bottom with the houshold stuff……

[MWParticipant @mw27036]

Yeah, i guess unless you have something worth considering they aren't likely to take it. I probably don't have 1/5th of that. 

Michael W

Edited By Michael Walters on 04/07/2016 19:01:35

[Bob Brown 1Participant @bobbrown1]

Old engine oil can and is recycled, lets face it there's 35 million cars in the UK so that's something around 150 000 tonnes of oil a year. Swarf I take to the tip and put it in the metal bin/skip.

[MWParticipant @mw27036]

An interesting point Bob, that reminds me of a program i watched on dis. science a while ago about a specialist recycling plant that only deals in all the parts of a car that can't usually be recycled, such as the battery and extracts all the heavy metals and chemicals that it can out of it and repurposes them for either recycling the clean metals back into production or using the acids/chemicals for industrial chemical purposes, the processing plant has very little waste by the time they've found a use for everything.

The only reason why they can do it is they have the outlay and machines to deal with it that most other recycling plants can't deal with. Due to the nasty chemicals involved. 

To be fair, Jon. My shed is like a scrapyard. But i'll probably need a substantial dog to make the "travelling persons of a nefarious disposition" think twice. 

Michael W

Edited By Michael Walters on 04/07/2016 22:46:51

[DMBParticipant @dmb]

Old engine oil could be used as a creosote substitute but the greens will object. What I have to say to them is unprintable.

Edited By DMB on 04/07/2016 23:05:15

[AjohnwParticipant @ajohnw51620]

Old engine oil can be recycled. I used to use it at one point every time I did an oil change. The company was in B'ham but I can't remember the name. It was a long time ago.

Maybe some one else can ?

Given it's nature – reclaimed – it had to be very high quality. I'd guess it's still done some where or the other.

I can only find one instance via google so maybe the B'ham one has packed up but it was a pretty well known name. I ran a rather (very) old Porche 911 for a while and the Porch dealer suggested I used it. The only part I could afford to buy off them was a much needed dedicated Porch plug spanner. While buying the spanner I mentioned maybe needing new carbs for it. They phoned some time later and said they had a pair in for me – the price was ouch and I hadn't asked them to get them in. I later found some one who recon'd them.

**LINK**

John

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