HAAS Chips potential solution!

Machine Shop HAAS
#1

All,

I’ve been calling around and looking for the best option for our chips from the HAAS. At this point I have found a company close to the space that WILL buy our chips from us, AND deal with the coolant that ends up in the barrel.

@Photomancer I need to get with you or someone from the board as this company ONLY buys from businesses and I will need our Tax ID information, or someone to go with me, to setup our account.

They will provide us with the barrels to put our chips in, and they will swap out the barrels as we bring them chips.

Here’s the catch: WE have to sort the chips. They are willing to give us three barrels (1 for Alum, 1 for steel, 1 for stainless), and swap them out as we fill them. This would mean again that we as HAAS users WILL need to clean out the HAAS and remove the chips placing them in the correct barrels. If we go this route.

The first barrel they will take, but they will not pay us for it as it’s not sorted. Everything else, they will pay cash for (as long as it’s sorted).

Thoughts?

6 Likes
#2

http://www.venturemetalsinc.com/

This is the company… they are close to us and very friendly.

#3

I am all for being willing to clean out; however, when I use the HAAS, normally I don’t leave a lot of chip, particularly when using brass. For instance, the last time I cut brass, I was cutting a pattern out of a piece of 3" x5" x 1/16" brass. The amount of chips produced were so small that getting them out of the HAAS without having aluminum mixed in would be impossible…

To accomplish what they want, we would either have to limit the HAAS to aluminum only, or have it cleaned and washed both before and after using anything else besides aluminum. I doubt it would be worth their barrels for anything other then aluminum in that case. The user of the other metals can be responsible for disposal, in the same way they are for their car oil…

1 Like
#4

Yeah, I voiced that with them as well. Their stance seem’d fair:

“We will pay for sorted barrels of chips, but those barrels that are not sorted we will not pay for. We will still dispose of the chips and swap out the barrels.”

Given that we don’t currently make any money from the disposal of the chips, I don’t see an issue with what would be “free disposal” of the chips and the waste from the HAAS if it’s not sorted. (at least that’s how I saw it).

I think you’re right about the amount of material that is NOT aluminum being cut in the HAAS, and while I agree with you - I’ve been party to people leaving car oil in auto shop for others to trip over (yep, still pissed off about that) far more times then I like. Granted our list of users is MUCH shorter to address.

#5

If I’m reading this right the worst case is they take it as-is for free and they will give us additional barrels for scrap that we can sort without going through what @wandrson noted? Seems like a net positive. What’s our current disposal handling look like though?

1 Like
#6

Yep, that’s what I gathered from the conversation as well, but I don’t know how well over it would go if we always did that. And right this moment:

Anyone is welcome to take the chips from the Machine Shop area to be recycled. The 55Gal steel drum MUST be returned. You are welcome to keep any profits from the disposal of the chips."

#7

Yeh, I was mostly pointing out that getting barrels for more then ‘aluminum+’ is likely a waste of our limited space. A single barrel that we put HAAS scrap (and only HAAS scrap) into is likely a good solution.

The big concern with putting anything else in, is that when the bins have been open in the past our wonderful members have dumped food containers, etc… in them…

2 Likes
#8

Yes - and that IS one of thee most irritating things to see…
When I talk to them again I will try to get a better feeling for their process. Sorted or not, it has to be done. If their cost to sort the material isn’t worth the amount of material we bring them - I can’t see them keeping our business account with them open for long (just doesn’t make good business sense).

It’s worth the ask… And since I think we can count on one hand how many times something OTHER then aluminum is milled in the HAAS. The idea of that person taking care of their own chips isn’t a bad one - personal thought.

The process to clean out the HAAS after every use is already present, so it would just piggy back that.

#9

I don’t disagree, but frankly don’t know how to do it in a way that we ensure none of their material gets into the aliminum disposal chain. Its not like we can hose down the interior.

#10

Multiple 55 gallon drums, open, with members dumping random items in them including food waste. Worse than I imagined, got it.

3 Likes
#11

I see we will need to add this to the training - you can actually hose down the interior of the HAAS. However, I think the list is very short of those that know that.

1 Like
#12

I say yee. We do need to keep the drums covered to keep people from hopefully dropping random trash in it.

1 Like
#13

Nah, judging from past experience all we need is this sign above the drum…

NOTICE.png3018×2351 888 KB

5 Likes
#14

LMAO!!!
Agreed!!!

#15

Motion activated Drum Cam ™.

Then we hire a full time person to monitor it.

It’ll only snowball a little. :slight_smile:

1 Like
#16

Realistically, I suspect the best we can do is aluminum and mixed. Historically, I don’t think we ever generate enough of the others to support storing the extra barrels.

2 Likes
#17

Sending you PM that has our an amendment to our Articles of Incorporation filed with the State of Texas (from Secy of State Office Online) and our IRS Letter.

Our EIN can be found on them.

1 Like
#18

An idea - Has anyone thought to get with the metal shop and the fired arts crowd - make a charcoal furnace - and cast our own aluminum billets out of the scrap for our own use? - We could cast 3" cylinders and 3" square bars and then machine them to a true dimension for use by our members. We could do the same thing with the cans out of the recycle bin.

1 Like
#19

my understanding is that the chips are of such small volume to surface area, that the aluminum oxide content (as a percentage) of the HAAS chips makes it a bit of a non-starter.

#20

Fired arts has a propane fired furnace that I have used to melt the aluminum chips and other scrap. Lesson learned, use copious flux (borax works) to help reduce the dross. I also believe our furnace setup is a bit needlessly dangerous to use. The tongs for handling the crucible are dangerously short, requiring your hands to be way to close to the fire. In that melting/casting exercise, I set a pair of welding gloves on fire…

But with a better designed pair of tongs, it is certainly possible. We have five gallon plastic kitty litter containers next to the HAAS. If you want to take a bucket (or two) of the chips to experiment with, you are welcome to them.

BTW, I have made ingots and other cast pieces, using beverage cans as material in the past. It works, fairly well. There is a copious amount of dross with them as well, but the borax helped considerably there as well.

IMG15.jpg1542×1024 729 KB

IMG17.jpg1542×1024 363 KB

IMG19.jpg800×600 133 KB

4 Likes