STRIPPING MACHINE

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Greenboy

Member
Location
Seattle, WA
I am trying to determine if it is worth purchasing a stripping machine.

We seldom get wires back from tenant improvement work. However, we recently received approximately $11K of wire after recycle.

Based on that revenue, it would have paid for the wire stripping machine, and labor (+) GP. However I have been getting mixed reports of purchasing such equipment within our firm. I am hoping to gain some feedback from you all that either have this machine, and some that doesn't think it is worth it. I have listed some feedback within our firm below.

Opposing

  • Once accident using this machine would cost the company extra $, and the stripping machine would not be worth it after all.
  • This would cause our yard guy looking for wire to keep him busy, rather than his regular duties. (Our yard guy is the one that really wants it)
  • The machine will still create mess as it strips the cable/
  • Still takes labor to strip the wire

Something like this machine.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VOglvebvEa4


Proponents
  • For all the wire we get in from sites, we can strip it to get the best $$
  • We would be able to keep busy during the slow time
  • We can get rid of all of the cables that are staged in our yard/warehouse to recycle.
 

JFletcher

Senior Member
Location
Williamsburg, VA
You also would have the labor of straightening and cutting the wire down... istm only bigger wire would be worth stripping, labor wise.

If it's any consideration, the insulation would go to a US landfill rather than a China burnpile.
 

K8MHZ

Senior Member
Location
Michigan. It's a beautiful peninsula, I've looked
Occupation
Electrician
You also would have the labor of straightening and cutting the wire down... istm only bigger wire would be worth stripping, labor wise.

If it's any consideration, the insulation would go to a US landfill rather than a China burnpile.

I looked into this a while back.

The videos don't really show all the labor. Those 3-4 foot pieces being fed into the stripper don't cut themselves. They make the set up look like it takes 2 seconds between size changes. I'll bet the machine is a bit more fussy than that. If they were paying for themselves with every $11,000 dollars worth of scrap, they would be common place among large contractors and scrap yards. If a scrap yard can't make money using one, no one can. If your local scrap yard has a stripper, ask them how much it makes for them. Ours doesn't have one.
 

Fulthrotl

~Autocorrect is My Worst Enema.~
I am trying to determine if it is worth purchasing a stripping machine.

We seldom get wires back from tenant improvement work. However, we recently received approximately $11K of wire after recycle.

Based on that revenue, it would have paid for the wire stripping machine, and labor (+) GP. However I have been getting mixed reports of purchasing such equipment within our firm. I am hoping to gain some feedback from you all that either have this machine, and some that doesn't think it is worth it. I have listed some feedback within our firm below.

Opposing

  • Once accident using this machine would cost the company extra $, and the stripping machine would not be worth it after all.
  • This would cause our yard guy looking for wire to keep him busy, rather than his regular duties. (Our yard guy is the one that really wants it)
  • The machine will still create mess as it strips the cable/
  • Still takes labor to strip the wire

Something like this machine.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VOglvebvEa4


Proponents
  • For all the wire we get in from sites, we can strip it to get the best $$
  • We would be able to keep busy during the slow time
  • We can get rid of all of the cables that are staged in our yard/warehouse to recycle.

here's why i bought a stripper......



here's the one i bought:

rack a tiers CWS-1

i had about 7,200' of 750 MCM copper, that was pulled out of the ground, and bucked
into 10' lengths with a portaband.

you set up a table on either side of the stripper, and feed the wire thru twice, flipping it.
it's faster than pulling the jacket off. then you load it in a conex. it's a lot of bull work.
750 copper was about $6 a foot at the time.

the delta between #1 bright copper and insulated in larger sizes, more than paid for the
machine, and the labor to run it, obviously.

the cws-1 was about $2,200 iirc.

now, the rub. if you have all bent up and curly wire, you are going to hate your life.
 

Greenboy

Member
Location
Seattle, WA
here's why i bought a stripper......



here's the one i bought:

rack a tiers CWS-1

i had about 7,200' of 750 MCM copper, that was pulled out of the ground, and bucked
into 10' lengths with a portaband.

you set up a table on either side of the stripper, and feed the wire thru twice, flipping it.
it's faster than pulling the jacket off. then you load it in a conex. it's a lot of bull work.
750 copper was about $6 a foot at the time.

the delta between #1 bright copper and insulated in larger sizes, more than paid for the
machine, and the labor to run it, obviously.

the cws-1 was about $2,200 iirc.

now, the rub. if you have all bent up and curly wire, you are going to hate your life.


Thanks for the feedback.
Do you still use your machine?
How often do you use it?
Do you use this for filler work?
 

kwired

Electron manager
Location
NE Nebraska
here's why i bought a stripper......



here's the one i bought:

rack a tiers CWS-1

i had about 7,200' of 750 MCM copper, that was pulled out of the ground, and bucked
into 10' lengths with a portaband.

you set up a table on either side of the stripper, and feed the wire thru twice, flipping it.
it's faster than pulling the jacket off. then you load it in a conex. it's a lot of bull work.
750 copper was about $6 a foot at the time.

the delta between #1 bright copper and insulated in larger sizes, more than paid for the
machine, and the labor to run it, obviously.

the cws-1 was about $2,200 iirc.

now, the rub. if you have all bent up and curly wire, you are going to hate your life.
That don't look like it needs to be stripped:D

Have you noticed any minimum size before it isn't worthwhile?

One does need to be able to store the stuff until the price is right, or like you said it was high at the right time when you came up with a bunch of large conductor.
 

brantmacga

Señor Member
Location
Georgia
Occupation
Former Child
STRIPPING MACHINE

We have one, and it paid for itself a long time ago. It's something to do in between jobs when guys have a day or two or slack time.

Most of the time it works just fine, but if someone lets a wire get wrapped around the teeth, you're going to spend an hour or so trying to fix it.

Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
 

Fulthrotl

~Autocorrect is My Worst Enema.~
That don't look like it needs to be stripped:D

Have you noticed any minimum size before it isn't worthwhile?

One does need to be able to store the stuff until the price is right, or like you said it was high at the right time when you came up with a bunch of large conductor.

it was stored in the ground in pipe till the land was developed, and they told me to get it out of there....
yes, sir!

the timing was perfect. it was the highest value it's been in a long time.
i backed off the expenses, and split it with the owner of the property.
 

Fulthrotl

~Autocorrect is My Worst Enema.~
I cant help but ask, and not that you know the answer but why in gods name did they use copper for this??

it's in the harbor, and they have a local thing about "no aluminum conductors" in the
harbor. the two jobs i did down there, i used aluminum feeders, with hypress pin lugs,
and UL listed panduit heat shrink, and they accepted aluminum, if it was terminated
in that fashion. it may have changed in the last year or so, but i don't know anyone
who used it before then.

the fellow i did the work for, does a lot of heavy industry all over the midwest,
and he's implemented the hypress/heat shrink in all his projects, specified into
his electrical drawings.
 
it's in the harbor, and they have a local thing about "no aluminum conductors" in the
harbor. the two jobs i did down there, i used aluminum feeders, with hypress pin lugs,
and UL listed panduit heat shrink, and they accepted aluminum, if it was terminated
in that fashion. it may have changed in the last year or so, but i don't know anyone
who used it before then.

the fellow i did the work for, does a lot of heavy industry all over the midwest,
and he's implemented the hypress/heat shrink in all his projects, specified into
his electrical drawings.

That seems like a good system for use near marine environments.

Was it in pipe so it could be pulled out or was it dug up? We upgraded a super old service a while back and the conductors were in a giant direct buried "SO cable", three conductor, and must have been 600 or 750. I really wanted to scrap it, but the area wasnt being dug up. One of the carpenters there was trying to convince us we could "pull it out of the ground like a worm" Yeah right....we didnt even try, its still in the ground.
 
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