Material recycling

High-speed steel.
Tell it apart from carbide before you sell it.

Twist drills, taps, reamers and cutters wear out in every busy workshop. Drill Bits Recyclers buys HSS tooling from workshops across WA, separates any carbide found in the load, and grades the HSS as alloy tool steel.

Collection across WA, no cost for the bin or the backload freightMalaga yard at 2/89 Pavers CircleB2B only: manufacturers and engineering workshops
Why specialist sorting

Separate HSS and carbide
before pricing.

High-speed steel and tungsten carbide can look similar in a workshop bin, but they are priced against different material references. We separate carbide pieces and marked cobalt grades before pricing.

What affects the price:

  • HSS alloy grade
  • Cobalt grade markings such as M42
  • Solid carbide or carbide-tipped pieces
  • Contamination and quantity

HSS is priced against the applicable tool-steel reference. Carbide pieces are priced separately against the tungsten reference. Send photos if the load is mixed.

A workshop bin of HSS rarely arrives clean. Any coolant, packaging or non-tool-steel material is weighed and deducted from the gross figure before the batch is priced, so mixed loads still get graded fairly rather than knocked back.

Payment runs by EFT once grading is signed off, and most settlement-ready loads are paid the same day. A quotation for HSS states its own expiry, because the tool-steel and tungsten references underneath it move with the market. To watch the carbide and HSS split being made, arrange a yard visit; there’s no charge, but the team needs to know you’re coming.

Worn end mills and twist drills in a collection bucketTungsten · W74
What we accept

HSS forms
we buy.

Twist drills

Any diameter, worn or broken.

Taps and dies

Any thread size.

Reamers

Hand or machine.

Broaches

Worn or chipped.

Hacksaw and bandsaw blades

Including cobalt-alloy blades.

Milling cutters

Solid HSS, worn or re-ground past use.

Cobalt HSS grades

M42 and similar, kept separate where known.

Our process

Getting an HSS load
priced right.

Each load is logged, then carbide pieces are pulled from the HSS batch. Marked cobalt grades are separated before payment, and the itemised report shows the breakdown.

Not sure whether a tool is HSS or carbide? See our identification guide.

Send a photo, then it's booked in on arrival

A phone photo of what's in the bin is enough to start. It gets a reference number before sorting starts.

Step 1
Carbide pieces are separated from HSS tooling

Solid carbide and carbide-tipped pieces are pulled out for separate grading.

Step 2
Cobalt grades are identified where marked

Marked cobalt grades are kept apart so they are not averaged into the general HSS batch.

Step 3
Payment is processed with an itemised report

After grading, payment is arranged and the report shows the material breakdown.

Step 4
01
Send a photo, then it's booked in on arrival
02
Carbide pieces are separated from HSS tooling
03
Cobalt grades are identified where marked
04
Payment is processed with an itemised report
Who we work with

Manufacturers and workshops
send us the most HSS.

Manufacturers

Worn taps, drills and cutters replaced on the production line.

Engineering workshops

Twist drills, reamers and cutters swapped out during servicing.

Our commitments

Why work with
Drill Bits Recyclers.

Whether it’s a bag of worn drills or a full crib clean-out, these commitments hold on every job.

01
Logged at the gate
Every load gets a reference number on arrival before it's sorted.
02
Separated before it's priced
HSS and carbide are pulled apart so neither gets averaged into the other's rate.
03
Paid after sign-off
An itemised report goes out with payment once grading is signed off.
04
Traceable
Every job has a paper trail from arrival through to the material's final destination.
ESG & responsible sourcing

Tool steel back into
the supply chain.

1.3M+ kg
Recycled since 2022
The yard-wide tally since 2022, across every material stream, workshop HSS included.
22 to 100%
Impact reduction, by category
The percentage reported shifts with the metal and the impact category studied.
Every load
Split and recorded
HSS and any carbide pulled from it are weighed and logged separately, for a workshop's own maintenance records.
What the hard-metal study reported, by impact category
Reference: Furberg, Arvidsson and Molander, Journal of Cleaner Production 209 (2019).
Smallest figure in the study Furberg et al. (2019)
22%
Largest figure in the study Depends on the metal and category measured
100%

The range spans different metals and impact categories in the source research, not a figure this yard has measured.

Kept on file
TallyRecovered material since 2022
SplitWeight record, HSS and carbide separated
StudyFurberg et al. (2019)
Range22 to 100%, category dependent
Separate carbide from your HSS load

Get your tooling separated
and priced properly.

Send a photo of what’s in the bin and we’ll tell you what’s HSS and what’s worth checking further before you book a collection.

Malaga yard • WA-wide collection • Weight and recovery records