Is It Worth Melting Copper Into Ingots?
It looks cool. It could be a fun hobby with friends or in your yard, melting and molding your scrap metal ingots. While it may make for entertaining times or cool YouTube videos, we strongly suggest never melting your scrap ingots if you want to make the most scrap money from your metal.
Why You Should Never Melt Copper Into Bars
While browsing through YouTube videos regarding scrap metal, it’s easy to come across and fall into the black hole of “home smelting.” Usually, someone has a ceramic contraption they bought or built to drop small pieces of metal or aluminum cans into. It will usually lead to molds being poured with melted metals. Some molds are very creative or just designed to look like regular ingots.
While some of these smelters are hobbyists and do it for fun, many scrappers also think they can sell these ingots at their local scrap yard for a profit. That is where the mistakes start…
Scrap Yards Rarely Accept Homemade Scrap Metal Ingots
One of the common questions and comments we see across our Facebook group, YouTube channel, and other social media platforms is, “What can I expect to get paid for my homemade scrap ingot?”. There are a lot of problems with selling and recycling homemade metal ingots. When scrap yards are presented with homemade scrap ingots that scrappers claim are 100% pure metal (whether it’s copper, aluminum, etc.), they very rarely will pay a top price at all. Below are some of the reasons why scrap yards will refuse or pay small prices for homemade ingots:
3 Reasons Why Scrap Yards Don’t Buy Melted Metal Ingots
- They Don’t Know What’s Inside – While those who melt the ingots claim they are pure metal, scrap yards don’t know that. For all they know, small rocks or other materials could be inside the ingot.
- They Are Hard To Recycle – When scrapping ingots, scrap yards that purchase them find it hard to find genuine buyers for them. Because they are not verified melted ingots, larger buyers will often refuse those ingots or pay a meager price for them.
- Scrap Yards Typically Never Pay for Pure Metals – Let’s say that the melted ingot is genuine and pure. It is uncommon for a scrap yard to know how to pay for a pure metal price. Remember, they are used to paying a specific price, knowing that the metals will be processed. So, they are unfamiliar with recycling pure ingots and will not know what to pay for it.
What You Can Do With Your Metal Ingots
To find ways to make money from melting metals or making homemade ingots, you may want to look at resell sites like eBay. If you can melt your ingots at home, you may want to find some unique molds to create unique shapes or styles to resell for people with similar interests. It can be a fun and exciting hobby. Be safe!
How To Make The Most From Your Scrap Metal
If you were looking at potentially melting metals at home, we hope this information is helpful and discourages you from setting yourself up for a challenge at your local scrap yard. Instead, if you want to make the most money from your scrap metal, we always encourage you to separate and clean your metals as much as possible. Also, be sure to follow along with the current prices for metals so you know when to sell.
