Originally Posted by
Dusty Bannister
Sometimes when melting down the range scrap you may come up with jacket material in the melt. Copper or brass can often be sold to a scrap metal dealer. When working down the raw scrap, pour the surface material through a sifter made from coarse hardware cloth (hail screen) and the alloy drops through, the jacket metal stays in the screen. Pre-treat the screen with oil or wax as hot alloy can stick to the galvanized screen. Dump the screen often.
Some buyers do not want to mess with the jacket metal if it contains any steel jacket metal, so diligent use of a magnet can remove the unwanted metal. Get a price for the jacket metal before you unload any of your other scrap metal. If they do not want the jacket metal, try another buyer. It has been some time since my last trip to the scrap yard, but even fired primers (checked for ferrous metal) brought .60 per pound. If you still can not find a buyer, then decide if you want to try again later or dump it. Good luck.