What is microscrapping and is it worth it.

For most of us hobbyists,. scrapping for metal is a side hustle. A side hustle is a secondary job that you do outside of your main job. There are many reasons why people have side hustles, most often to earn extra income. However, when it comes to scrapping, some people do it for environmental reasons, with the money being secondary.

For sure, scrapping metal is a great way to make money because it’s easy to find, you can collect it for free, and it’s worth a lot of money. And as already mentioned, scrap metal is also environmentally friendly because it reduces the need for mining and manufacturing new metals.

So what is microscraping, and is it really worth the effort? Well, to understand this term, you need to understand scrapping as a whole. And by scrapping, we do not mean putting your holiday snaps into a scrap book. No, we are talking about finding metal in its many guises and from any location.

If you search for the term “microscrapping”, you will not find much beside a series of YouTube videos and one entry. But in 2020, ScrapMetalJunkie had a go at defining it with the following:

Micro-Scrap

1. To disassemble scrap items (“clean”) to increase a scrap material’s value at a rate significantly less than the minimum wage.

2. To collect scrap materials and earn a wage that is significantly less than the minimum wage.

3. To sell scrap items after completing extremely rigorous disassembly or sorting activities.

Macro-Scrap

1. To disassemble scrap items (“clean”) to increase scrap material’s value at a rate significantly greater than minimum wage.

2. To collect scrap materials and earn a wage that is significantly greater than minimum wage.

3. To sell scrap items without engaging in rigorous disassembly or sorting activities.

Now, this is quite disingenuous to the hobby, but at its root, it has some profound truths. Macroscrapping, – or simply scrapping, – is without a doubt a mass scale activity, usually for commercial reasons. The aim is to make a living wage. That is critical because, however uncomfortable it is to admit, most scrap is low value, so high volume is critical. This aspect of scrapping is the central tenant of scrapping and where microscrapping struggles to fits in.

So let’s start with the ‘mine of scrapping’ to get a better grasp on this.

The Mine of Scrapping

Take a look at the lovely sketch of this 19th century British mine, from our friends at Wikipedia.

Mining at the surface, or just below the surface, is a relatively easy win. Those of you who have seen a drift mine will understand the rather brutal, mass scale efforts that go into this method of mining.

As you go deeper, it becomes a process of diminishing returns. It has become complex. All the beams, lighting and safety measures, just to get some coal out. If you look at the history of mining worldwide, it has become more uneconomical, the deeper the shafts go.

And it is the same with scrapping. The more thoroughly you microscrap, the lower the returns. You cannot get away from that fact, and countless scrapping videos on YouTube have proven this. People have broken down stuff to the nth degree, weighed it, and done the calculations. These calculations are not only about the monetary worth but also about the time cost. And it is this last element that is often critical to a person deciding how far down the microscrapping rabbit hole they want to go.

This brings us nicely around to the ‘Practicalities of Scrapping.’

Practicalities of Mining

This is very much targeted at the hobbyist. And bear in mind that this is very much a generalization.

There are four factors that will govern your decision on how you will scrap. And all of this is blanketed by an overarching concept. Remember, this is directed at the hobbyist, because the large scale scrap metal collector or dealer only has eyes on the money.

So the outside box is the personal philosophy of the person. Usually, this will swing from environmentalism to pure money gain. For most of us, we lie somewhere on the spectrum. We are conscious of the e-waste, the dumping of our first-world waste in third-world countries and the like. Nevertheless it has a huge factor in how micro we go, with the environmental factor likely to push us more toward microscrapping.

Now let’s take a look at the interlinking circles.

1. Availability – How much is there? This will depend on your specialty, especially if you are more motivated by e-waste, rather than general metal waste. Where do you live? What is the local view on recycling? What channels can you use to find stuff? What are the local laws? Each of these will dictate how easy it is to obtain stuff. For example, here in the UK, skip diving is far more frowned upon (and illegal) than in the USA. In addition, due to a good refuse collection and recycling centre policies, dumpsters will yield very little. If you are in an urban location, you will likely have access to more gear than in a rural location. If you are keen on collecting gold fingers, but have no reliable source of PCs and laptops, you are probably on a hiding to nothing. Ironically, excess availability can lead to stock piling (FIMO) and this in turn impacts storage and time factors.
2. Time – If you are holding down a full time job, only able to give a few hours to your hobby a week, then you will, unless you own a huge estate, need to limit your supply. This in turn means it may take longer to accumulate anything of worth. If you are retired or otherwise have time on your hands then the world is your scrapping oyster.
3. Storage – How much room do you have for your hobby? If you live in a flat, unless you scrap gold watches, or something super small, you are probably on to a loser with this hobby. If you only have a small workspace, you may not have the ability to store all your goodies. This is especially true if you microscrap, as you will need separate boxes for every type of item you scrap for.  
4. Saleability. This one is often neglected when firsts starting out. How do you sell your shiny stuff. If you are focused just on volume and steel, iron, aluminium and the common items then a local scrap yard is all you need. But how far away is it? If you are into e-waste and those gold fingers, then who can process them for you? If you are in the USA then Boardsorters is a great resource but for many others across this planet, there are not so many options. So, you have loads of silver crystals, but can you access a refiner?  You have a crate full of high grade boards, not no local buyer. So why collect it if you can’t get rid of it?

Let’s give two examples of how this plays out.

John works five days week. He has a corner of his garage, not even space for a vice and a partner who doesn’t like too much clutter. But he lives in the centre of a city, and has loads of opportunities to grab old VCRs and satellite boxes. He is into environmental issues. Whilst availability is good, he is handicapped by time and storage. Also, living in the middle of a city, perhaps the local scrap yard may itself be limited on what it can process, (its own storage issues.) But good news is that they take PCBs. So maybe stick to electronic devices and don’t microscrap too much.

Janet has empty nest syndrome, a large garden shed and only works a few days a week. Money isn’t important, but she loves fiddling with gadgets. Only problem is, she lives in the countryside, the nearest scrap yard being a good 30 miles away. Here, there are some dynamically opposite factors at play. One the one hand, scrapping opportunities may be limited; she will not get much volume. Yet she has ample storage space and no financial pressures, so arguably she could microscrap to quite a depth. Except where will she send the stuff to? She could store and hope the opportunities arise in the future.  Janet needs to consider how long she wants to hold onto stuff, building it up over years perhaps.       

When should one consider microscrapping?

Take account of your time, space and opportunities. If you particularly into precious metals, are you prepared for the volumes required, and the patience you will need. It takes a lot of gold fingers or crystals, or tantalum capacitors to create any value. Are you happy that it may take years just to get a moderate pay out?

If you can do volume but want quick throughput and a flow of money every month, then perhaps microscrapping is not for you.

What does microscrapping entail?

So you want to microscrap -but what does it mean once you are at your workbench?

The key question is how deep you go down that mine. This is a decision only you can make, but pay special attention to your storage space. In addition think about equipment. A basic scrapper can get away with a hammer, flat head screwdriver and snips. But if you want to ‘politely’ disassemble gear, you may need specialist screwdrivers, vice, even magnifying glass.  You might go down the de-soldering route or the brute force of an air hammer.

Two examples will illustrate this point further.

What are the benefits of microscrapping?

If you remove the time factor then the benefits are the ability to raise the value of your scrap. Clean scrap makes your yard content. Environmentally, it is good to separate as you are helping in the ultimate recycling process. And, without a doubt, there is a certain sense of satisfaction in deconstructing something down to its constituent parts.

What are the disadvantages of microscrapping?

The main issue is time. Microscrapping is a slow business with microscopic gains in the short term. Storage comes a close second. If you rip something down to its basic parts, you will need lots of small boxers to store everything in. A box for motors, a box for transformers, a box for clean copper, gold fingers, CPUs, crystals. The list is as long as your OCD requires.  

Finally do not forget that, in general, microscrapping, will not get you rich.

Exceptions to the rules.

This article is very much a generalisation and cannot hope to capture every nuance of scrapping. There are certain factors which turn all the above on its head. And whilst you cannot dismiss the four areas of consideration we listed above, they will be influenced by other factors.

If you are into reclaiming and repurposing electronic components then microscrapping is a necessity. You may have a market you can sell into, or an eBay shop. Do consider your product carefully. For instance, there is not much of a market for small motors but there is for large second hand motors.  Do bear in mind that you will need to consider the challenges of running a retail business.

Crafters will also be keen to microscrap, as they search for unusual and useful items. Again, consider the availability of items to scrap.

Scrapping for educational purposes is also something to consider whether it’s for self-education, or for items to use in a classroom.

Summary.

In our environmentally sensitive world, recycling is king. Metal is a fundamental part of society, it is everywhere, so scrapping is a great way to help save our planet and make some cash along the way.  

But don’t dive in, until you understand the barrier you may have. Some of these barriers will be self-imposed, such as space, but others maybe outside your control.

Above all, microscrap because you enjoy it.