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I have been breaking down computers and I have a bunch of shells left over. Some are shiny and clean looking almost like a stainless steel type appearance. Others have a dull steel appearance. I was wondering if anyone who has sold these could tell me if any of them are stainless steel. I know stainless goes for a lot more than just "steel" so I would want to keep them separate. Right now I am keeping every single piece of the computers that is not plastic.

Not sure if any are made of stainless steel,but I have junked out a few that were aluminum cases.

If a magnet sticks, it's just steel. If a magnet sticks, but very weakly, it could be stainless. If a magnet doesn't stick at all, it could be aluminum or stainless. Aluminum is much softer and lighter than stainless. Try scratching it with a screwdriver. Steel is probably the most common, some are aluminum, but I've never seen a stainless computer case.

aluminum computer cases! how exciting that would be! I probably have at least one out of all of these haha. Thanks!!

Interesting. I junked a few computers and all cases appeared to me to be steel. But I did not even think they could be alum so I did not look too hard. If you came across any alum cases, were there any patters like specific type of computer or brand or year it was made etc?

The chassis from a desktop computer is usually galvanized steel.

Yards typically will buy empty cases with plastic and other junk attached as light iron/shred scrap.

If they're near perfectly clean many yards pay heavy steel price for them.

Sometimes computer equipment will have an aluminum chassis instead of steel. Usually it's rack mounted equipment like network switches and servers.

Stainless steel is not often used in the casing of electronic equipment. Notable exceptions are medical equipment and the top plates of many types of scales.

ilyaz wrote:Interesting. I junked a few computers and all cases appeared to me to be steel. But I did not even think they could be alum so I did not look too hard. If you came across any alum cases, were there any patters like specific type of computer or brand or year it was made etc?

I actually got a aluminum case yesterday while scrapping out a pallet of computer towers. I did'nt really look at the brand of computer it was,but from my experience a aluminum case will feel lighter than a steel one,except for things like medical equipment,that tends to be heavier,but still aluminum.

I have been ripping all of the plastic off completely. I plan to crush them down to flat sectional pieces so they can stack into the truck easily. I could never see hauling back an empty computer case to the dump and paying bulky waste tokens like what my brother suggested lol!

Gents teh easiest way to tell the differance between stainless steel and aluminum is to hit it with a Dremel tool grinder. The stainless will spark while the aluminum will not spark. Quick easy effencient.