Sell Your Carbide Scrap in East Chicago, Indiana

Carbide inserts

Used and worn lathe and mill inserts from mill maintenance and machine shops — any brand, any grade, loose or in drums.

End mills and drills

Solid carbide end mills, drills, reamers, and taps — dull, broken, or chipped, they all count.

Brazed tooling

Brazed carbide lathe bits, saws, and wear tooling from mill contractors — sorted honestly, never lumped in with steel.

Grinding sludge

Carbide grinding sludge and turnings from sharpening and regrind work — we test it and pay on recovery.

Tungsten heavy alloy

Heavy-alloy parts like boring bars and counterweights — XRF-verified and graded by tungsten content.

See everything we buy and how the process works at Sell Carbide Scrap, and read our plain-English market breakdown at Scrap Carbide Prices.

Indiana Harbor is one of the heaviest industrial strips on the Great Lakes — integrated steelmaking at Cleveland-Cliffs, refinery neighbors, and a ring of contractors whose entire job is keeping that machinery running. Mill maintenance is where carbide lives: roll rebuilds, ladle and furnace work, cutting and grinding operations that chew through brazed bits, inserts, and saw blades. Every outage and every shift change leaves worn tooling behind.

The people who do that work are independents — small crews and family-run contractors with shops full of drums they never quite get around to selling. They do not need a buyer who treats carbide like scrap iron. They need a specialist who grades it honestly, pays fast, and shows up when he says he will. Send me photos and I will tell you when I can be there — that is how my scheduled runs across Northwest Indiana work.

Here is the honest difference between me and the general scrap yard down the road. A general yard buys carbide as just another metal — it gets blended into a mixed load and paid at a blended rate that drags your carbide down to the level of cheap mixed metal. They do not sort grades, because sorting carbide properly is its own job.

I do one thing: I buy carbide, and I grade it with an XRF analyzer that reads the metal’s actual composition in seconds. Inserts, brazed tooling, and heavy alloy each carry different value, so each gets its own number — today’s number for that grade, not an average dragged down by whatever else was in the load. That is why maintenance crews around Indiana Harbor call a specialist instead of hauling carbide to the general yard.

When you text 312-880-8174, I answer — Sonny, the owner of Ironcrest Industrial Surplus. There is no call center, no broker in the middle, and no trainee learning on your material. I run the XRF test, I make the offer, and I am the one who shows up on the pickup run.

Harbor contractors know each other, and my name travels on the quality of the last deal. If I grade your carbide straight and pay fast, you tell the next crew. That is the whole business plan, and it is why sellers across Northwest Indiana keep my number in their phones.

Do you buy tungsten carbide scrap in East Chicago, Indiana?

Yes — from mill maintenance crews, refinery-adjacent contractors, and machine shops around Indiana Harbor. Inserts, end mills, drills, brazed tooling, wear parts, and grinding sludge — any quantity.

How do I get today’s number?

Text a photo of your material to 312-880-8174 and I will tell you what grade it is and today’s number — fast, no games. My price is published right on this page: a firm $18–$20 a pound for clean, sorted tungsten carbide inserts, end mills, and drills. The national buyer boards pay $8–$15 a pound — scrap yards are not paying a fair price, and I pay way more than the national average. You watch the digital scale, and you are paid within 24–48 hours.

Do you pick up carbide in East Chicago?

Yes, on our scheduled pickup runs across Northwest Indiana — send photos and I will tell you when I can be there. Small lots can mail in with a prepaid label instead.

How is carbide graded?

With an XRF analyzer — a handheld scanner that reads the metal’s composition in seconds. That tells us the grade, and each grade gets today’s number for that grade. No blending, no guessing.

How do I know my tooling is real carbide?

Real carbide is heavy for its size — it feels wrong in your hand, roughly twice the weight of steel. A magnet test helps, since most carbide is only slightly magnetic. Our guide How to Spot Real Tungsten Carbide walks through the checks. When in doubt, text a photo — I will tell you straight.

Based in Rolling Meadows, Illinois, we buy carbide scrap across Northwest Indiana, including Gary, Hammond, and Whiting. See all service areas.