finished stripping wire, off to the scrapyard in the AM - Page 3 - Electrician Talk - Professional Electrical Contractors Forum

kaboler · 02-11-2012, 02:21 AM

good price for sure!

ElectricJoeNJ · 02-11-2012, 08:53 AM

Damn I was close

Geoff C · 02-11-2012, 11:10 AM

Reciept? Wow. All cash up here. No receipt no name no nothing. Get it weighed take the green and run.

cavecom · 02-11-2012, 11:44 AM

Worked for a company that did a lot of theatre work, and one of our specialties was installing fly systems. When it was a restring job, we would come back with an enourmous pile of 1/4" galvanized aircraft cable. Now we checked to see if it had scrap value, and it did, with one caveat----it had to be cut into one foot sections. By the time you paid for a pair of cable cutters, hauled the stuff to the scrapper, and spent god-knows how many hours chopping cable I don't know if you could make more money than a job where the key phrase is "Would you like fries with that". But after every job, we would chunk the GAC outside on Friday, and on Monday it was all gone. But some people will do anything to avoid having a real job, and we were more than happy to let them haul our trash. If they didn't take it we would have had to put it in the dumpster and pay for an extra pick-up. Better you than me buddy...I'll just spend the money you're gonna make on a six-pack and enjoy my weekend.

HugoStiglitz · 02-11-2012, 12:01 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by erics37

I've always pondered this.

Bare bright & shiny copper is worth more per pound than copper still covered with insulation, right? Well, the insulated stuff still has some value, and furthermore, the wire insulation itself adds some weight (not much of course, but still some amount).

So my question is, if you algebraically graphed a linear function of the total value of bare copper over a large range of weight, and then superimposed a similar function of the total value of insulated copper over the same weight range, would there be some point where those two functions crossed, and at what weight would that intersection point occur?

The idea is that although insulated copper wire is worth less, it weighs more than the same amount of bare copper (by linear footage), so at some point, if you had saved up enough, it would theoretically be worth it NOT to strip the wire.

Anyone have any data I might be able to work this up with? The only unknown here is how much the insulation weighs. Maybe if someone can go measure out a 10 or 20 foot piece of 1/0 THHN, weigh it, then strip the insulation off and weigh the copper by itself. That should be enough to extrapolate from.

If you graphed it the lines would never cross. They would both be straight lines starting at 0,0. The stripped copper would have a steeper slope, assuming weight was the x axis and dollars was the y axis.

MarkyMark · 02-11-2012, 12:55 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Geoff C

Reciept? Wow. All cash up here. No receipt no name no nothing. Get it weighed take the green and run.

Wow. Around here you need a photo ID to even walk in the door. You get a receipt, and they take your picture before you can get your cash . If you are scrapping AC units or catalytic convertors, they take your finger-prints as well.

ElectricJoeNJ · 02-11-2012, 01:46 PM

Around here the scrap yards are required by law to keep a reciept with your photo ID copied onto it. Its only for theft investigation. They are only required to keep records for x amount of time, not sure what the limit is.

kgb62 · 02-11-2012, 02:19 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by ElectricJoeNJ

Around here the scrap yards are required by law to keep a reciept with your photo ID copied onto it. Its only for theft investigation. They are only required to keep records for x amount of time, not sure what the limit is.

Yard i go to in philly takes your license plate num and photo id for any transaction over $100.

Semi-Ret Electrician · 02-11-2012, 10:34 PM

Back in the 70's I worked for a company that had a lot of SS, Hast C, Titanium etc shavings. A co-worker would get a free gate pass to haul it off.

In the clockline one day the guys were ragging him about it.

He pulled out a $700 check for yesterdays haul.

Management heard about it and cut him off!

woodchuck2 · 02-12-2012, 11:19 AM

Some of these junkies make good money at this for a living. The fella i take my junk to has always been honest with me and pays the same as a facility 30miles south of me so i do not bother taking the drive. He always stocks up his copper and brass and waits for winter when the price climbs. A couple yrs ago when junk was way up he took in over $60k in copper that he was hoarding.

I have mentioned buying a stripper to my old boss and competitor, we are considering going halves and keeping it in his shop. I strip most of mine but it is a hassle and he just sells his as dirty copper. We know the stripper would pay for itself the 1st yr so this may be my next big expenditure.