How to Collect Scrap Metal Safely

No matter what the metal may be, iron, copper, silver or gold, there’s always the possibility of injury or even death and dismemberment to a limb or appendage if you are not properly protecting yourself when when searching for your new treasures. Proper safety equipment, as well as the proper tools in order to work with, make all the difference in how to collect scrap metal safely and deliver it to your local yard without injury to yourself or others.

How to Collect Scrap Metal Safely

The first required piece of safety equipment is simple and can be picked up anywhere from Walmart to Home Depot, to even a local convenience store…gloves. Any experienced or skilled scrapper will tell you, pulling, cutting or loading of metals always necessitates covering of your fingers. Even the smallest sharp barb can cause lacerations that may lead to infection. In a worse case scenario, losing a finger can happen just as easily and quickly. A pair of durable work gloves reduces the chances dramatically.

Hand shears when used properly, will make the separation and loading and unloading of your scrap finds much easier and safer for both parties handling the material. Sharp edges or rust should be sheared off and bent to a dull side before loaded or unloaded. Removing rust obviously makes the metal less likely to cause infection in the event of a skin laceration.

Steel toed boots are often forgotten, the reality is steel toed boots keep toes and feet from being lacerated and more often than not, broken. Just thinking about dropping that newly found washer sitting in a front yard falling on your exposed toes, or even just tennis shoes, makes us screech in anxiety.

These are just a few items to use for safety in scrapping, check back to our site for new ideas in scrapping.