Pretty easy to remove the tires from Widow Maker rims. That's probably the idea behind their design. Just deflate them and the halves collapse together, twist 180 degrees and they come apart. That is if they aren't rusted together and also they don't blow up in your face as you are deflating them. That's what makes them so dangerous to work on.

 

They are deflated just wondering , I'm not paying to have the tires removed if I can do it myself. But if the centers are not worth keeping I'll just drop the whole shooting match over at the scrap yard and they can deal with them...lol

 

That’s what I’d do. Stu

 

That certainly takes the incentive out of it. It's not always rosey here though. Steel is a commodity and so is scrap for recycling of course. Scrap prices can be anywhere from lucrative to near worthless and stay that way for years. I have sold almost complete cars I yanked a few parts off of for $25 or $400 after dropping the fuel tank and providing a title. When I worked at a commercial shop a zillion years ago "two foot clean steel" sold at a nice premium so a pickup truck full of old wheels brought very good money. I am full of crazy scrapper stories and they are all true.

-I know a guy in a neighboring small town with an empty lot just out of town. Everybody knows it's OK to dump steel there. He takes it in on his big truck. He grossed $94K in a year about 5 years back. He got a letter from the IRS and they suggested he report his side gig income lol. Scrap yard had to report everyone over a certain dollar amount most likely.

-I don't live in a rough area and home builders have to guard new housing projects. Crackheads will cut the new wiring out of a house the night after electricians just installed it. That's a huge loss. A $5K wiring rough in stolen and sold for a couple hundred bucks. They will bust into an old abandoned house and steel the copper pipes. It's not that valuable scrapped.

-A friend of mine with rental property went to collect the rent and the idiots had peeled the aluminum siding off the back of the house and scrapped it for pocket change. Like he wouldn't notice eventually.

-Another friend bought some high end Dana front and rear ends for his pro level Jeep rockcrawler project. Left them outside for one night and gone because they were worth $100 scrap weight.

 

My favorite scrapping story was a few years back. I had a trailer load of steel and took off for the scrap yard. As we're leaving the shop I tell my wife to call the scrap yard we were heading to and find out what their hours were. It was Saturday, about 11:45. The wife just said, "I'm sure they're open, just keep going" We get there five minutes after they close at noon. I have a trailer and truck loaded with scrap so I call another, farther away scrap yard and they're open until 1:00. I drive half an hour and get there in time to get weighed and paid for my scrap, $20. As I'm walking out to my truck I find a big bolt sticking in my front tire and the tire is flat. I install the spare and head to a shop to have the tire repaired. $19 later I'm driving home.

Second story. I stop by a friend's shop, a machinery mover. As I'm talking to him I see he has numerous crates full of aluminum fixture plates, everything from 1/4" to 1" thick. They all have steel clamps bolted to them. I asked him what he was going to do with them and he says he offered them to one of his employees but he was too lazy to remove the steel to scrap them. He said if I wanted them I could have them all. I dragged them to my shop and spent the next two weekends removing the steel parts. I got over $500 for the aluminum,

 

We are playing the futures market spot price game when we clean out our garage lol. I don't stay up on it. I had a Toyota crap out a month ago. I located a scrapper because I don't have a wrecker and he shot me what seemed like a decent price. I told him the battery was 10 days old and I was keeping it. He said I have to dock the price for that. I show up with the keys and four used batteries and take my good one. Without me even asking he pays me $50 more than the price he quoted if I just took my good battery and says we're good. Either lead is up or he expects it will be soon. Some of the small salvage yards around here will crush cars and stack them. Wait a year or two to avoid selling the iron for not worth it prices. Scrap will never stay too high for too long. The market will get flooded soon enough when scrap prices peak. New steel is at record highs but it never lasts.

 

We are picking up a new stove tomorrow. I have the old stove on the bed of my F350. I plan to go to the scrap yard first thing tomorrow. My truck is parked on the street. I hope no one steals the stove.

I hope I get enough cash to at least pay for my gas. LOL. I am not sure what steel is bringing here.

 

There were actually times my scrap yard would not take appliances. Probably the ceramic like coating I suppose. I think they take them now, but probably better call. They have some Hazmat rules like no computer/TV screens.

 

I just got back from the scrap yard. It's 8 miles away. I got $8. But like the wife said, "that's better than letting it sit in the driveway waiting for a scrap guy to come down the alley and lick it up."

And it's better than paying to take it to the Landfill.

 

I can get rid of scrap metal here at no cost, the guy who has the contract for garbage pickup also removes scrap metal and takes it all to the recyclers 250 miles away. If you take it to the town dump they charge you a tipping fee, give it to this guy it helps pay his employees...

 

Can any of you tell me what these wheels fit? 8x20 tires mounted on six hole rims.
I got 4 of them that came with that 48 chassis. Will keep them in storage if / until someone can use them.....

 

Likely a F 600

 

Or similar Dodge, IHC, or Studebaker. None widow maker suggests Dodge or IHC donor. Stu

 

Sounds like a good arrangement for you. The landfill is quite expensive here and it's much farther than the scrap dealers. If you live in most US towns you can do what Abe mentioned. Set it in the alley or your trash pickup spot and somebody will grab it for you. I got curious and looked. Seems that trash random steel brings about 3 cents per LB. I have seen it at 0.5 cents. Cast iron brings about 16 cents. That would add up if you had a stash. Non-ferrous metals are very high. $2.40 a pound for uncleaned copper wire. Yeah, time to patrol your new building project. A pickup truck load of that could make a thief quite happy. Some years back people were stealing guard rail off the highway to scrap. Didn't take long to bust those fools.

 

The guy told me if there was anything I see and could use help myself. He hauls scrap all the time from the mines I used to work at and they throw all kinds of goodies out. I have enough junk here already though and once this truck I'm working on is done all the spare stuff is getting dumped...lol