Recycle metal dust?

flatblackcapo

flatblackcapo

Joined
Mar 25, 2012
Messages
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Any of you guys recycle your steel dust? I just got my Esteem grinder from Brett Mathews up and grinding . Great grinder BTW! Thanks Brett! I noticed how much steel dust I have already . I started thinking about scrap prices and how much a 5 gal. bucket of grindings must weigh. If you do not recycle it what do you do with it?
 
At $0.10 a pound, seems like a waste of time. I may have 7-8 lbs of dust when a 3 gal bucket is filled.
 
Ask your scrapper, they don't want dust - they have s special rate for steel lathe turnings and itls lower than heavy steel.

And at that .10 dust isn't dense.


Maybe if you drop off a load of shred mix, you can toss in a 50 galllon drum of dust with it.


but all things considered, you can get a better return on picking up soda cans on the freeway.
 
Just sprinkle it along the woods edge or in your garden. I dump my shop vac and the metal dust along the bamboo.
 
Check out the scrap yards who might take the stuff, or do like others do here and dump it out back or in the trash.
 
I suppose you could melt it down into a lump and forge it into a lawnmower blade, and then use that to make a knife. Then you could say you made a knife from a lawnmower blade that was made out of dirt. :D
 
Being a full time maker in this crazy business, I produce a lot of dust that collects in my dip bucket. I empty it out every week or so and have been thinking that you could smelt it either in charcoal or a crucible. I don't know whether its worthwhile or not but it could be fun to do. Anyone had any experience with this?
Cheers Keith
 
The dust that collects below the grinder or in a dip bucket is a mix of steel and broken abrasive that comes off the belt. I suppose you could separate the steel with a magnet and smelt it into new "mystery" steel for fun, but...unlike gold and silver where collecting dust makes some sense, steel just isn't that expensive compared to the cost of the time it would take to recycle your steel dust into new steel.
 
Hey guys thanks for the replies.I was not thinking so much of the money but if I could get a few bucks and do the environment some good at the same time that would be cool. I like Keithf's idea. Sounds like it would be a fun experiment and maybe get some cool looking material to make lanyard beads out of.
 
flatblackcapo said:
Hey guys thanks for the replies.I was not thinking so much of the money but if I could get a few bucks and do the environment some good at the same time that would be cool. I like Keithf's idea. Sounds like it would be a fun experiment and maybe get some cool looking material to make lanyard beads out of.
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I think something like that could have potential. I was joking above but I suppose that you could buy a cheap crucible and try melting down a pot of it. Who knows, maybe something cool will happen. Some of the best things I've ever done were the result of "I wonder what happens if..."

Sadly, you may just end up with a sponge-like, slaggy, inclusion and porosity ridden lump of metal/sanding grit hybrid. It would likely destroy belts instantly. You may also be able to either skim off the steel or scoop out the grit, and try to purify it to some point. Honestly it may be more of a science experiment/diversion than actual practice.
 
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