Scrap copper

[Grumpy365]

I have been collecting copper a while and I want to sell this week. My question. Is how to get the best price with the most REASONABLE amount of effort.

I have a couple of condenser coils. Last time I sold some, i got what I felt was a low ball price. I have tried to pull the tubes out of the fins, but. My methods were crude, and labor intensive and not practical. Is their a easier way to seperate the tubes from the fins?

I also have a lot of nm cable (romex). #14 thru #8
I have 3/0 direct burial 3conductor with ground
THHN #14 -4/0

#1 copper tubing (it is weathered, but all the joints have been removed)
#2 copper (the joints and fittings)

Control wire (#18 4conductor with a shield and 2 conductor with a sheild)

Cat 5 communication cable

What is the best way to take it in and get the best price?

Will the cat 5 cable bring any thing?

I thought i heard scrap places advertise they would strip your wire for you. Is this correct? If so is it only big THHN, or is it NM too? How about the big a** direct burial

How would you guys suggest separating it, present it to get the best price?

Thanks for the advice.

 

[supertooljunkie]

I live in Atlanta, but worked for seven months in Webster TX. In Webster most places would strip copper for you at the same price as if you did it. They don't do that here. The best way to get the best price is to call around and tell them what you have. See what the going price is. The more you have the better price you will get. At least that has been the case for me.

 

[Nealcrenshaw]

Correct call around first,Cat cable will get you $0 at least where i live, in my opinion its not worth it trying to remove the copper from the condenser, as is will bring you $1 a pound compared with $2 for copper.

Insulated copper pays around .50 a pound if you remove the insulation you get the big payout but i havent seen where a yard will remove the insulation for you,not saying they wont but i just havent seen it.

 

[supertooljunkie]

They will strip it for you in the Houston TX area. It blew my mind. I can't tell you how much wire I have striped before and after that. That is one thing I miss about TX. It is stated so in the advertising.

 

[padronanniversary]

Oh one other thing, never leave your copper alone when you are unloading your truck. I've seen way too many times, some shaddy people go into other people's trucks and simply take copper and get the scarp money.

Bring a partner just to watch your copper if you have to haul copper out

 

[bgott]

We used to burn the insulation off of it.

 

[jwillis]

We used to burn the insulation off of it.

That is the way most people I have heard of do it around here.

 

[Torque1st]

We used to burn the insulation off of it.

That is not exactly an environmentally friendly way of doing it. There must be a better way. How do the scrap companies do it?

 

[avc8130]

That is not exactly an environmentally friendly way of doing it. There must be a better way. How do the scrap companies do it?

Around here: Mexicans.

 

[metal1313]

they have specialized machines built just to strip wire, just feed it in one side and it comes out the other with the insulation ready to come off/ falling off

 

[kartracer23]

Around here, they're ripping the coils out of A/C units for the copper. It's ridiculous. Destroy a $3,000 unit to get $15-$20 worth of copper. One of my buddies has a security business and they're offering what basically amounts to a motion sensor that goes on your condenser and is tied into the home security system. Crazy that you have to resort to that to protect $15 worth of scrap metal.

 

[Stuart in MN]

Another reason to check with the dealers in your area: some will pay less for wire that's had the insulation burned off (besides the fact it's not a very healthy thing to do.)

 

[danski0224]

I have a couple of condenser coils. Last time I sold some, i got what I felt was a low ball price. I have tried to pull the tubes out of the fins, but. My methods were crude, and labor intensive and not practical. Is their a easier way to seperate the tubes from the fins?

I also have a lot of nm cable (romex). #14 thru #8
I have 3/0 direct burial 3conductor with ground
THHN #14 -4/0

#1 copper tubing (it is weathered, but all the joints have been removed)
#2 copper (the joints and fittings)

Condenser coils: cut off the steel endplates and scrap as-is. Put the 180 elbows in a pile with your non-shiny tubing. Recip saw, fine tooth blade, bucket and rubber mat.

Clean shiny wire brings the best price of all scrap copper. Up to you on how to strip it. Lots of effort unless you are retired with tons of free time or you own a stripping machine.

Big cable, like #4 and up, is easy to strip with a knife. Small stuff is much harder and a big injury risk. Not worth it to me.

Scrapyards here will not take burned stuff.

Shiny tube = good, not shiny = #2 around here. Not shiny is priced just above soldered joints.

Some types of insulated wire may pay better than others. Only way to find out is to call around and ask.

Ask the scrapyard how to segregate your piles. A few pieces of #2 in a nice shiny pile can bring down the whole price. They will not separate and ding the whole lot around here (nor will they tell you).

 

[Grumpy365]

Condenser coils: cut off the steel endplates and scrap as-is. Put the 180 elbows in a pile with your non-shiny tubing. Recip saw, fine tooth blade, bucket and rubber mat.

Clean shiny wire brings the best price of all scrap copper. Up to you on how to strip it. Lots of effort unless you are retired with tons of free time or you own a stripping machine.

Big cable, like #4 and up, is easy to strip with a knife. Small stuff is much harder and a big injury risk. Not worth it to me.

Scrapyards here will not take burned stuff.

Shiny tube = good, not shiny = #2 around here. Not shiny is priced just above soldered joints.

Some types of insulated wire may pay better than others. Only way to find out is to call around and ask.

Ask the scrapyard how to segregate your piles. A few pieces of #2 in a nice shiny pile can bring down the whole price. They will not separate and ding the whole lot around here (nor will they tell you).

I thought #1 was copper with no joints.
Am I mistaken? Is weathered copper considered #2?

Thanks for all the input.

 

[NJHandyGuy]

clean like new +#1 dirty #2

 

[boro_boy70]

I made this simple jig to strip some rolls of #12 solid that was given to me. It's just a
2x4 with a hole drilled into it. I hammered in a razor blade to strip off the insulation. The metal strap was added to separate the insulation from the copper wire. I feed the wire thru by hand to get it started, then I clamp the board in my vise and feed the wire out a window to my back yard. I just grab the wire and walk to the end of my yard (approx 250') cut it at the window and repeat till the end. I stripped 2 450+ foot rolls in less than 45 mins, including rolling up the stripped wire and cleanig up stripped insulation.

 

[Hades12]

Condenser coils: cut off the steel endplates and scrap as-is. Put the 180 elbows in a pile with your non-shiny tubing. Recip saw, fine tooth blade, bucket and rubber mat.

Clean shiny wire brings the best price of all scrap copper. Up to you on how to strip it. Lots of effort unless you are retired with tons of free time or you own a stripping machine.

Big cable, like #4 and up, is easy to strip with a knife. Small stuff is much harder and a big injury risk. Not worth it to me.

Scrapyards here will not take burned stuff.

Shiny tube = good, not shiny = #2 around here. Not shiny is priced just above soldered joints.

Some types of insulated wire may pay better than others. Only way to find out is to call around and ask.

Ask the scrapyard how to segregate your piles. A few pieces of #2 in a nice shiny pile can bring down the whole price. They will not separate and ding the whole lot around here (nor will they tell you).

+1 also some of the stuff in the units is Yellow brass don't mistake it for steel. I got 1.60 per pound on the last load of copper/Al coils. my yard was paying 1.40 for coated wire 3 weeks ago and the cat cable would go as coated.

 

[flat350]

Around me you can play the game and say so and so offered me X$ what can you do,as long as your not way out of line with pricing,sometimes it gets you another 10 or 15 cents per pound,it depends on how far you want to drive.I usually end up with 3 to 4 hundred pounds when I go so maybe I have a little more leverage.I've been scrapping copper for 30 years and have never been told it's #2 because it's oxidized,as long as it had no fittings/solder or paint on it I get #1 pricing.Anything with paint on it which is usually latex for me gets thrown in a bucket of water and it falls off after a while.2 weeks ago $2.60 for #1 clean,had 382 pounds.I don't deal with wire but I know they don't like it burned.

 

[NUTTSGT]

Ther's only two scrap yards local to me, atleast worth making the drive. How much I have dictates where I'm going.

Scrap, around here is a serious comodity, it's stolen everyday to pay for herion addictions. In a small town of 13K, it's amazing what they steal. There's been more than one house stripped of it's copper plumbing.

 

[crewchief888]

i just scrapped some copper wire on sat.
ive been moving around a bunch of welding cable for nearly 15 years.
most it it was dry rotted and cut up, i stripped the insulation, and took it in

local scrapyard was paying $2.40/lb

everything else is down quite a bit,