Do You Scrap Your Copper Wire?

newguy07

I was curious if anybody scraps their copper wire? I noticed that the company just throws wire away and I asked the boss if I could have it and it is up for grabs. I am going to store it in a 5 gallon bucket until I collected enough.

I used to do this with aluminum chips when I worked in manufacturing. Obviously the copper weighs more and is worth more


So do you scrap your copper wire?

fathersonfab

I've never done it, but I have heard of it. Check with the recycling places, they usually won't take it with the insulation on it. An easy way to get it off is by burning it off, but be careful.

One of the major fires we had here in So Cal about 10 years ago was started by a guy trying to recycle copper wire, he burned the insulation off and it got out of control and started a major blaze in the canyon.

mickeyco

Yes, on really big jobs there's a small fortune in scrap (not talking about romex or 12 ga here), they pay less for wire that has had the insulation burned off and I think it would illegal most places to burn off the insulation. A bench vise, a pair of vise grips and a sharp knife will make it easy to remove the insulation but you have to keep up with it or it will become a big job.

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Andy in ATL

New guy, Collect all the copper you can. I MEAN FRIKKIN ALL OF IT!!! You just gave yourself a dollar an hour raise, minimium.


I make a decent living at this point, so I only go for the big stuff.

"bare bright" 3 mos. ago in ATL $2.97 /lb.

$1089 for 4 hours work (500 MCM scaps)

Speedy Petey

Hell yes!
Most of it goes to my "helper" but bigger loads/conductors I'll split.

At almost $3/# you'd be crazy not to.

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K2

We're getting a buck a pound unstripped at one place. That's pretty easy money. Seems you have to shop around for the best price... around here anyway.

randomkiller

The apprentices have always gotten it, my new aprnt. didn't want it. I get a pretty fair amount in the truck by the end of the week. We stopped by a scap yard on the way to lunch and dropped off what was in the truck, now he wants to take it in but he insists on splitting it with me. The first large load and he asked our boss if he wanted a cut, if looks could kill.

KillerToiletSpider

I don't scrap wire, but all of the waste, vent, and water pipe we do is copper, and two inch copper pipe scraps add up a lot faster than wire. I send all the scrap to the shop, and my boss cashes it in when the barrells get full, at Christmas time he takes all of us out for lunch, and whatever is leftover from paying for lunch is split among all of us, last year I got 3 grand.

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randomkiller

Depends on the size wire.

kbsparky

I tell the help they can have the daily scraps provided:

1) They deal with it on their own time.
2) They don't create unnecessary waste just to fatten the scrap heap.
3) I get first right of refusal on anything salvaged .... i.e) If I spot a piece that I want to keep, they give it up without question or argument.

Call it a fringe benefit of working here.

220/221

A couple years ago we started saving every bit of copper.

The last trip I made to the recycle place I came back with 8 HUNDRED dollars for about 6 trash cans full....... 5 of them were full of sheathed romex.

I have some used 500MCM that has been kicking around in the warehoue that I might strip.

fridaymean

Around here it is about $2.80 stripped. 2.50 unstripped. We usually strip 8 or larger. Have gotten some pretty hefty bonuses from that.

Celtic

Scrap yards here will take it even WITH insulation....you strip some Cat5E..LOL.

Burning the insulation is NOT an option....illegal to do so, if the lad gets caught - he stands to lose more money than he will ever make scraping the stuff.


Newguy....take it ALL...strip it you have time or take it "as is" - call a few yards to get the highest price.

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goose134

The job we just finished, all the house wire went to the apprentices(apprenti?). All the cable went to the JW's. Cut given to GC, and building maintainence guy.
I read an interested stat. about remaining copper supply on Wiki. Says at current consumption, and recycling levels there is about 60 years left. Please scrap it so we don't have to go back to Aluminum.

MechanicalDVR

Been doing some supermarket renos as of late, averaging over $1000 a week in old ACR tubing.

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neolitic

My son got $300 for scrap com wire from his last school job. The DIL doesn't bitch about the scrap pile in the garage anymore

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(Sorry....it seems there really are dumb questions)

frenchsparky

The only thing about scrapping the copper wires is that some salvage yards are getting strict with this now.

not too long ago i drop off few hundreds pound of scrap copper and they asked me for my id to verify it is not stolen item.

Just want to give you head up with it in case if some issue will crop up.

Merci, Marc

aWorkaHolic

Scrap the copper here in Washington State. Apparently the scrap yards don't care. There has been recent events over here where guys salvage miles of copper. You know the copper that the HWY Department just installed for freeway and Park lighting.

There was an incident a month ago where this guy posing as a hwy worker, started pulling all the wire right in the middle of the day not more then an hour after it was just lnstalled.

te12c02w

Worth saving here. We have no scrap yard or train depot. Nearest is 100 miles. Someone comes by periodically and collects it. We don't get good prices like some but we save it anyway. All bare bright is $1.18 and all insulated is about $.80. They even take romex. Makes it worthwhile to save.

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fathersonfab

I have a friend who is a Gaffer for the movie studios. He won't leave his cables out over night when they shoot on location. They get stolen and recycled.