Sell Your Carbide Scrap in Lowell, Indiana

Carbide inserts

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

End mills and drills

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

Brazed tooling

Brazed carbide lathe bits, saws, and wear tooling from welding and repair shops — 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.

Lowell is an ag-industrial town — repair shops that rebuild tractor axles and combine parts, welders fixing what the season breaks, and small manufacturers building for the farms and the subdivisions filling in south county. A shop like that wears out tooling on hard, dirty work: brazed bits cutting welded-up shafts, drills chewing through hardened steel, saw blades going through anything that needs cutting. The spent carbide goes in a bucket under the bench, and when the bucket is full it rides out with the steel at steel price.

That is money left on the table, and it is the whole reason I started Ironcrest. 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. If you run a repair shop, a welding shop, or a small plant in south Lake County, text me a photo of the bucket — I will tell you what grades are in it and today’s number. When you sell once, you will know who to call every time it fills up again.

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 repair shops and contractors call a specialist instead of letting their carbide ride out with the steel.

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.

South county runs on reputation, 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 Lowell, Indiana?

Yes — from equipment repair shops, small manufacturers, machine shops, and contractors across Lowell and south Lake 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 Lowell?

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 Cedar Lake, Crown Point, and St. John. See all service areas.