Based in Melbourne, Australia. Just wondering, where does machinery that's ready to be retired, go to. Cars go to car wreckers, but I've never heard of any such thing for machinery. Machines like excavators, bobcats, tracked dumpers, forklifts, industrial machines, etc. I've got my own little shop with 3D cad, lathe, mill, cnc plasma, etc, so have some capabilities. I'm looking at making a purpose built machine, but rather than building from scratch would like to browse any such wrecking places to see what parts are available that I could use.
I don't know about old machinery, but in the US old TV mobile units find their way to Hawaii. The few remotes I have done there, some of the trucks should have been pushed off the ship as they went over from the Continental US.
There's heavy equip dismantling yards around the US. I bought an excavator door from one. They could not tell me if it would fit. I took a gamble after getting the guy to measure.
I always assumed that they sat around until scrap prices went up and someone took the time to cut it up and haul it in.
What are you wanting to build? I have been and worked at the places your talking about and most of the machines are totaly junk worn out.
There are various parts and salvage yards around. we buy used machines and part them out too in our used parts department too
In the US they go to Ritchie Bros. and sold as lightly used
We had a good equipment boneyard near here for many years but maybe 10 years or so ago they closed it down. Sales were way down, price of scrap was high and pressure from the greenies to clean it up was what I heard. Torched and shredded much of it, sorted it to railcars and, I assume, sent it it China. As for industrial machines like mills, lathes etc. Most of that goes straight to scrap. My Dad was in the machinery business for 30 years. Hanging around sometimes I saw many machines get put in dumpsters. There is such a surplus on the market now that scrapping it is a better tax write off in some cases, so good running machines are hit with sledge hammers and scrapped. Was picking up a few purchases at an auction last year and saw the scrapper there, power was cut to the building and so they literally grab the machine with a huge forklift however they can, rip it off the mounts and a dumpster it. Anything too big, they had an excavator with a shear standing by.
It seemed like they were all ending up my yard for a while. Most old machines here go to the scrap yard. I have bought some decent machines off the scrap yard here , a good running D8 H and a D6 9U that came from an estate cleanup and was in excellent shape. I used to wonder why decent machines were just scrapped. After years in business im begining to understand its mostly taxes drive good stuff to the scrappers ,things like capital gains and recaptured depreciation that force us to think ,just scrap it. Pile some new regulation onto that and the fate of old iron is sealed no matter how good it is. I wonder how long before society realizes how we are being sucked down the drain by this way of thinking.
A lot of them stay where they die
Thanks for the replies lads. I'll have to dig a little bit to find out where stuff goes here (if not straight to the metal recyclers). Old Doug, what I'm looking at building will have forklift tynes, and a tracked base. The tracked base would be something like a tracked dumper would have. Even if the hydraulics are worn out, just having the base "chunks of metal" will be a good start to build on.
a lot of machine tools are scrapped because of obsoletion too. Machine shop near me has a huge scrap pile of older CNC machines because they are no longer supported
the older machines have their issues too. Parts availability, technology has outpaced them (we sell very few dozers that don’t get grade control), and in some ways they can be much more aggravating to work on.
Two words, disposable economy
My wife would say too much of it finds its way to my house....I enjoy fixing things people have once forgotten and deemed unusable. It's saving them from the scrap pile I suppose.
Just delivered my spare parts donor to a scrapper, had several light medium and heavy trucks being torn asunder were several other heavy machines going under the gas axe, dozers and loaders, in the same pile were lathes mills drill presses in varied levels of decay/rust where could see the wear on bed ways or guide slots. Motors were three phase and removed to break for Copper or Aluminum, the machines were just going to a recycle furnace in IL either Granite City or Alton to be converted to base pipe or steel forms, aluminum for pop and barley soda cans where aluminum heavy truck and car wheels being sorted to go similarly.
Some of it evidently goes to one of my customers every time they show up at an auction. Then they bitch and whine cause it costs so much to fix all the issues.
The manual machines are very cheap now cnc has replaced them. Cncs are cheaper and easyer to build and less labor in running them. I bought most of my stuff when manual stuff was still valuable now there worth scrap iron. The bigest most eapencive thing i bought is the only thing i have that i want to get rid of thats how things happen.
My yard. If its not dead when it gets here, let me work on it a while.
My yards looking kind of like a boneyard, Kenworth and its donor ripped apart,75 ton American house off its truck,45 ton opened up. Trouble is work keeps coming in leaving no time for repairs,cant find anyone around here right now that likes working on old stuff.
I've got exactly the same disease. I seem to have a hopeless need to fix up machinery. And the way you often have to pay for complete OEM parts, e.g. one of my excavator final drives went, so I stripped it down and found the central shafts in the planetary gear set had worn/bust male & female splines. So I call the dealer to find they only sell complete final drives at $4000 each. Contacted Bonfiglioli but they said they can't sell parts to me because the final drive has an OEM part number. To make matter worse I figured I need 2 new final drives because if one has worn out then the other one won't be far off failing (had the machine since new). This was for a 1.7 ton excavator and I was just an hourly hire contractor. I was ready to dump the business if I had to pay $8000 just to fix the final drives. Luckily I found an aftermarket parts supplier for final drives in the UK. They gave me the contact of a guy in Australia, who ended up ordering the parts out of Japan. Had the same issue with the boom ram on the excavator. The chrome rod had snapped when the auger locked up between a couple of big rocks. Again they told me they could only supply a full ram, and it had to come out of the US (so latest model machine but no spare rams here). Would have cost me something like $1500. So I went and bought some chrome bar and machined up my own replacement hydraulic rod on the lathe. Maybe $50 in material for the repair. Then an old lady drove in front of me on a main road. Truck written off and excavator slew ring and slew motor stuffed up. Went into the dealer for repairs and it was there 6 weeks because they said they didn't have spare parts anywhere in the world (honestly that's what they told me, in such a casual way). After a lot of screaming at the manager down the phone, he got the techs to pull parts off a new machine (but tried to charge me an extra $400 for that, more screaming ensued). That "repair" cost $9500 but lasted only a few weeks before the slew ring and slew motor pinion bust themselves up because the slew motor bolts had came loose and the rocking caused the gear teeth to start chipping and mixing in with the grease. Dealer would not admit any fault so I bought another slew ring, and got a gear manufacturer to machine a new pinion for the slew motor, and did the repair again all by myself in my back yard. Took me 4 days. The repair lasted 7 years of hard use until the slew ring & pinion wore out, then I replaced them again. During the repair I noticed the slew ring had the mounting holes in offset locations. No doubt this is so the slew ring cannot be rotated every so often, and thus the most used group of the teeth will wear out while the rest are hardly worn. I vowed that if I ever design or rebuild a machine, I'll be using off the shelf hydraulic parts, etc, with standard mounts, and internal spares available. No more of this OEM, suck you dry crap. I learned the hard way why many guys buy a new machine, use it for so long then trade in and get another new machine. Definitely seems a way to go if you have regular business.
I drag them in . If they are not quite dead when they get here I put them out their misery. A lot of people seek used Cat parts.
You posted a pic of something in the recent past that was in your shop and all I saw in the background was parts galore! I just wanted you to know that I reported you to the “Hoarders” producers.
It is an obsession that I do for a living.
I don't want to be on TV. I gonna blame you when they sent the scouts out. Oh crap , do you have my address, never mind I am just gonna move this place sucks anyway.
I saw one 580K parked by the road in a fenced contractors lot. Every time i would drive by i would wonder about pieces i needed. And marvel at the pieces that disappeared. That carried on for several months until it was pretty much just the main frame. Then it was gone. Sort of a disappearing act?
Based on my experience the salvage yards convert all the pieces to pure gold! If I need a hydraulic cylinder, door, pump, engine block, torque converter, boom, bucket, etc. the cost is virtually the same as a new one. A months long search for a hydraulic cylinder for a Dresser bulldozer failed. Three months into my search I had found hundreds of damaged cylinders, Shipped from California, three NOS manufactured with a pin hole off center requiring machining to make them functional, and after I had resigned myself to having a non angle blade, I found the component needed 300 miles away NOS. Building a new machine it is cost effective to buy hydraulic cylinders, gearboxes, etc. new & build to fit them. A thumb cylinder for my backhoe cost $220. new. A similar sized from a salvage yard would have cost $1000. or more.
Sad but true
BTW Willie got it carboard covered 68# Will get it outa here Monday
Very true, it's often better to design around standard components. This allows the parts to be interchangable between different product manufacturers. I contemplated replacing the cylinders on my loader with a standard aftermarket cylinder when I found out the seal kits were $170 each. Use standard pumps, couplings, rod eyes, cylinders, valves, etc and you 'should' never run into obselete over priced parts that are hard to find. Leave the fancy custom work to the big production outfits. All that said, I'd still like to convert that old 4cylinder ford engine into a whole house generator. Or maybe I should scrap it. I've been hoarding it away for years with the same thought
Thank You!
You are kidding aren't you? Oldest son inherited a belt driven 18 KW? generator with Wisconsin Air Cooled Twin. I love the Wisconsin twins. This one, being belt driven, and having no voltage regulator, or frequency governor is not a great standby generator. Frequency & voltage are sort of important.
I never got through all the logistics on the generator side of things. I am sure it could be had with enough ambition and tinkering. It's the whole idea of making something out of nothing that makes it slightly interesting. As with many of my ideas they sometime take awhile (or never happen). If it ever did become a reality it probably would be a manually energized system. I have an old PowerChief generator. I'm relatively positive I could power all the necessities of my house if a emergency presents itself. Great little generator, but it sure doesn't have the reliability that a fuel injected engine offers. I always have to tinker with the carburator when it sits awhile. I also knew an older farmer who smoked all his electronics once with a PTO driven generator head on a tractor. I think it was reversed polarity that took out his electronics. I definitely don't want to be in this situation. However having a reliable backup power source seems intriguing.
Not hard to align a decent Generator, main aspect to watch is to have enough HP the supply does NOT Droop. most home outlet power is 120 not 110, 240 not 220 so need a GOOD voltmeter to watch the supply side 240 single phase so one leg does not get too loaded and lose volts. Basic Theory, V=IxR Volts lower Amps(I) go UP Resistance is the key so try to NOT load with a great deal of load bank as Heat, Refrigeration, larger loads need to be stepped on and off by demand then small loads can be used in between. Power the House and Shop with a 10kw Welder Generator, dial in the volts to 240 no load then as noted turn on the refrigerators and freezers individually until cycle off go to next one. When all small loads are happy and cycled off cycle on heat or well, keep tank pressure up for basic toilet or drinking service, then cycle the breaker OFF, same for heat, get home warm and cycle breaker OFF. Can then watch news or weather reports, stage up laundry(IF necessary) etc. Not going to power the world off a small genny.
I was able to slide into town this morning unnoticed, at least by any show producers. Gotta find a brake valve for a skidder and work on a saw head. May be if I get greasy enough they wont recognize me as the boss of the heap. It is a standing rule that if someone other than another employee ask where I am the answer is, I don't know. So I should only have to worry about being spotted between the hoard and the house. But then again ; how much does the show pay?
Generac offers stand alone load shedders for those unnecessary loads. If frequency falters, or voltage, those loads drop out for a time.
Yes Load Shed is a handy way to go, easy enough to think on what needs to run and stagger on and off so do not challenge. Most auto run generation setups run a specified prioritized set of breakers so the entire house is not affected or established as a load.
At the Nuke we had a system for Emergencies called ELSELS, Emer Load Shed and Emer Load Sequencer, worked on a Large Scale similarly. We had to memorize the sequences so if it had failed we had to be the Human sequencer. Have essentially done that at our home, marked certain breakers and have a small road map of what to cycle OFF and what to Sequence on at intervals and what can be used intermittently, for the Wife and Sis In Law when she is here should I not be. Gave them a run down on the generator and have detailed instructions should it come to they operating it.
Old industrial Machinery goes to the breakers. Liability is why. In the US, any workplace injury is assumed to be caused by the employer. If a lawyer can connect old machine that was sold to an injury, deep pockets pay regardless of time between sale and accident. Any modification becomes company engineering design. So, Company policy was to make sure any equipment was destroyed. I accompanied an old process machine to the scrap yard. Called ahead to schedule their excavator mounted shear for it. I watched the shear cut it into pieces. I then wrote a note & signed it to be placed in the asset file.
Dont forget that Mary Carter overhaul
Always preferred DuPont
There are quite a few dismantle businesses across the U.S. that take in those types of machines. Which is good for hard to find parts. The company I work for dismantles machines and ships parts all over the world. You could contact us or businesses like ours to get any parts you're looking for. https://www.hrparts.com/
I have seen a few companies that are in the same business. They get paid to cleanout old facilities. This is the first I have seen that sells parts. The others I have looked at only sell complete pieces of equipment. Thanks for sharing!
Couldn't watch that one...
Gee, it looks similar in specification to an IH 175. Not so bad it couldn't be saved.
By lift arms Cat 951 maybe
Probably scrapped because the ROPS didnt make code.
I am going to have to get a scrap yard sign for out in front of my driveway!
I'd guess somewhere across water it was built. Only a glimpse of the tool box door swinging closed, it wasn't anything I recognized. CGT
CGT looks to be Italian. I believe they are a company making alterations to Caterpillar machines for special uses.
Many years ago I was at a diamond mine on the coast of what was then German SW Africa (now Namibia). Effectively the diamonds were mined from material in the "sand" dunes right behind the beach. Life-expired machines were sent to a graveyard that is visible on satellite. Under the regulations at that time nothing was allowed to leave the property of a diamond mine. http://www.artificialowl.net/2009/04/diamond-mine-vehicle-graveyard-of.html
This outfit just bought 120 trucks to scrap of all types, out side sales guy told me most of the old stuff like in the photos below are getting snipped and scrapped to make room.
...nobody is building any more of that stuff.
Here's what's in one corner of the yard and only part of it. The only stuff that will never see a snipper.
Does look like the loader could have been made in Italy by the headlight with the bars across it. ** equipment made in Italy had the same type of lights. Makes you feel sorry for the machine watching that.
The guy operating that metal snipper/shear probably looks like this guy--He's into his job.
Unmistakable 951B
I’ve worked on a few machines where to be the one to take a big shear to it would be very therapeutic.
ME Too!!
I can think of many pieces of crap-I mean equipment that should chipped and made into something useful. I took a load of BBC and SBC chevy engines and some other brands to General Metals in Fife near Tacoma some years ago. It was fun watching that magnet suck them up from four feet above swing out and drop them from 40'. -
Geez Truckshop now im gonna have night mares about the scrappies finding my old cranes!
A lot of it comes to north Texas they buy it and want you to wave a magic wand over and want a $5000 dozer push like a $250000 one
well hell fire any good mechanic aught to be able to do that
I am afraid that any transportation of old scrap metal adds serious cost to the new recycled product. Not to mention the environmental impact of transportation. I simply don't see a real solution to this
Welcome to HEF, Tim.pin !
I think a funeral church bell ringing in that video would be a lot better than what it has now.
That shear sure beats a four foot long cutting torch.