Wiring new shop.

[galute]

Hello everyone. New guy here with a few questions. I just built a new shop and am preparing to start the interior phase such as the electrical. A quick set up before I get to my question. The other day I carried some scrap steel to the scrap yard to get it out of my way. While I was there I noticed a bin of scrap copper next to the office. Upon digging thru it I found 8 rolls of 12 ga THHN stranded copper and 2 rolls 10 ga THHN stranded copper wire. All brand new 500 foot rolls still wrapped in plastic. I was able to buy it all for scrap price or about 80 bucks. Is this safe or legal to wire my shop with? I plan on running it in conduit and getting professional help to do the wiring but this just seemed to me to be too good of a deal to pass up. Did I do good? Return it to the scrap yard? Thanks for any help.

 

[bobadame]

I think you did real good. We used to wire 110 exactly that way when I worked in a factory in Cheyenne. On the other hand codes are tricky about certain things. Hopefully someone who is up on the current codes will speak up.

 

[sdowney717]

If the wire insulation is labeled then why not ok?
If you strip wire out of romex, then it has no label and the inspector will pass gas.

Is this the fine multistranded wire you see in cars, boats, extension cords?

 

[Norcal]

Hello everyone. New guy here with a few questions. I just built a new shop and am preparing to start the interior phase such as the electrical. A quick set up before I get to my question. The other day I carried some scrap steel to the scrap yard to get it out of my way. While I was there I noticed a bin of scrap copper next to the office. Upon digging thru it I found 8 rolls of 12 ga THHN stranded copper and 2 rolls 10 ga THHN stranded copper wire. All brand new 500 foot rolls still wrapped in plastic. I was able to buy it all for scrap price or about 80 bucks. Is this safe or legal to wire my shop with? I plan on running it in conduit and getting professional help to do the wiring but this just seemed to me to be too good of a deal to pass up. Did I do good? Return it to the scrap yard? Thanks for any help.

1st thing the wire is probably stolen, but assuming they all do not have green colored insulation you could use it but it will have to be in a code recognized conduit,
the NEC does not allow one to reidentify green or white conductors for other uses in a conduit, (a white conductor in a cable may be reidentified). Yes it was a good price...

 

[galute]

1st thing the wire is probably stolen, but assuming they all do not have green colored insulation you could use it but it will have to be in a code recognized conduit,
the NEC does not allow one to reidentify green or white conductors for other uses in a conduit, (a white conductor in a cable may be reidentified). Yes it was a good price...

Stolen was my first thoughts but when I asked about it I was told that the entire bin came in with several trailer loads of scrap machinery from a closed factory. They also informed me they are required to report any suspicious purchases of scrap copper to the law enforcement to be checked out and they did so so it should be legit. The rolls are mostly black or white with the exception of 1 roll green and 1 roll red.

sdowney717, no it's not the fine stranded automotive stuff. My brother builds commercial buildings and altho he is not an electrician he says he see's them using it a lot in commercial buildings.

Thanks everyone for the reply's so far.

 

[sberry]

I would have bought it in a heartbeat, I am down to scraps after a couple large projects and need to bite the bullet and restock some stuff.