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deleted
12 Posts |
 Posted - 02/13/2008 : 22:12:41
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Okay, so I'm new to this whole thing, but the thought occurred to me earlier this afternoon that I'm sitting on a virtual "goldmine" at work as far as copper wire goes. I work for a VERY busy car audio shop, where we use tons and tons of copper wire for power, speaker wire, and pretty much everything else we do. I have no less than 10 of the large rubbermaid bins jam packed with "scrap" wire of all gauges, ranging from 18 to 0, that I am going to start stripping tomorrow to bring to a scrap yard. What should I expect to be seeing as far as a buy price for this stuff? Conservatively, I'm looking at probably somewhere in the neighborhood of 800-1000 pounds of copper when it's all said and done.
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El Dee
Penny Hoarding Member
USA
547 Posts |
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12 Posts |
Posted - 02/14/2008 : 00:46:32
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| Okay, so what is the difference between #1 Copper and #2 Copper? Like I said, I'm very new to this. |
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NotABigDeal
1000+ Penny Miser Member
USA
3890 Posts |
Posted - 02/14/2008 : 06:58:44
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#1 is clean with no welds, not to include insulated wire.
#2 is what most of your wire is if you don't strip it.
I work in the HVAC/R industry and have access to varying amounts and types of copper. #1 pays more naturally. Most of the time it is not worth the time to strip the wire. Solid wire is better. If you have 0 gauge wire, then I would definitely strip it. Anything over 8 really isn't worth stripping to me....Hope I helped.
Deal |
Live free or die.
Plain and simple.
"If you love wealth more than liberty, the tranquility of servitude better than the animating contest of freedom, depart from us in peace. We ask not your council or your arms. Crouch down and lick the hand that feeds you. May your chains rest lightly upon you and may posterity forget that you were our countrymen."
- Samuel Adams |
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n/a
deleted
12 Posts |
Posted - 02/14/2008 : 19:04:18
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| Thank you for the explanation. All of the wire will be stripped, and free of any kind of welds. I'm primarily working on the larger gauges at first, just to get the bulk of it taken care of. I have an idea for a couple of "auto" strippers I am going to make tomorrow at work to make stripping the smaller stuff go faster. I'm just using a razor blade on the thick stuff now, splitting the jacket the entire length, then pulling the copper. I'll post up pics of the "auto" strippers when I get them made. |
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NotABigDeal
1000+ Penny Miser Member
USA
3890 Posts |
Posted - 02/15/2008 : 06:30:58
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Glad I could help. Definitely post pictures of the "auto" strippers when done, we like pictures....
Deal |
Live free or die.
Plain and simple.
"If you love wealth more than liberty, the tranquility of servitude better than the animating contest of freedom, depart from us in peace. We ask not your council or your arms. Crouch down and lick the hand that feeds you. May your chains rest lightly upon you and may posterity forget that you were our countrymen."
- Samuel Adams |
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just carl
Penny Hoarding Member
USA
601 Posts |
Posted - 02/20/2008 : 07:48:18
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Just a few tips. Around me electricians dump all excess wires into a large heavy duty garbage can. The can has numerous holes for ventilation. They then burn off all the insulation so they can sell the Copper wire as pure Copper. They do the same with Aluminum wire. Naturally it smells a little unless you keep the fire hot enough. And in many areas of high populations it is against the law but it goes on all the time anyway. Smaller similar cans are used for contacts from large industrial types of switchgears for the Silver and even Gold content.
Naturally not all such recovered items are done in a legal method. For example at one construction site a spool of 17,000 feet of #4/0 Copper Ground cable vanished. Wonder where that ended up?
So if your dealing with small, not heavily insulated wires that method should work even more easily. |
Carl |
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Copper Wire
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