Sell Your Carbide Scrap in La Porte, Indiana

Carbide inserts

Used and worn lathe and mill inserts from machine and tool shops across La Porte — 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 fab shops and 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.

La Porte was building things long before the dunes got their national park sign. The town’s machine shops, tool rooms, and fabricators cut, drill, and shape metal every day, and every one of those trades burns through carbide — lathe inserts, end mills, drills, brazed tooling, saw blades, grinding sludge. New industrial development around NewPorte Landing is bringing more work into town, and maintenance on La Porte’s legacy plants keeps going. That tooling piles up in drums and corners of shops all over town — and too much of it rides out with general scrap at a fraction of what graded carbide is worth.

La Porte’s shops are multigenerational operations, and they hold their vendors to a standard. I am a newcomer to this trade who treats every seller like a long-term partner, and I grade every pound of carbide in front of you so you see exactly what you have. When you sell once, you know who to call the next time the drum is full.

Here is the honest difference between me and the general scrap yard. 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 machine shops and fabricators around La Porte 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.

Shop owners in this town talk to 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 shop. 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 La Porte, Indiana?

Yes — from machine shops, tool rooms, fabricators, and maintenance contractors across La Porte and La Porte County. 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 La Porte?

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 Michigan City, Chesterton, and Valparaiso. See all service areas.