Copper & AL Prices

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jmellc

Senior Member
Location
Durham, NC
Occupation
Facility Maintenance Tech. Licensed Electrician
I just sorted out a huge load of scrap & plan to sell it tomorrow. I called 2 scrap yards, prices are good but not peak.

I sure wish dealers would post daily prices on their websites. Most places sort wire into 6 categories or more. Seeing it on screen would be easier to keep us from having to call & check.
 
J

jmellc

Senior Member
Location
Durham, NC
Occupation
Facility Maintenance Tech. Licensed Electrician
Looks good. I need to learn the graphs better & see if local dealers rise & fall daily with the world prices.

I also need to do a better job having it ready. I bring home scrap & stash it until I have time to sort it. Then I have a huge amount to do at one time. I need to do it every Fri or Sat, sort to marked buckets with covers. Then I could be ready to go if a price spike comes along.

Those of you without stripping machines, how far do you go with stripping? I always strip the bigger al and cu unless the insulation is too rubbery/tacky.

I strip modern NM & separate insulated wires from bare. I usually don't strip the insulated conductors, that is very tedious. UF and cloth NM, I usually just cut to fit the buckets or tubs & let it go. I strip cu and al cable and at least sort out the bare grounds/neutrals. Time/effort determines further stripping or not.

I separate smaller stranded from solid cu, up to #10. Some places here pay more for solid. Since al is much lower to begin with, I only separate bare from insulated unless I have a huge batch of different types.

I further separate tarnished from bright if I have time. Most yards here pay a little more for bright cu.
 
J

jmellc

Senior Member
Location
Durham, NC
Occupation
Facility Maintenance Tech. Licensed Electrician
I took this load to Fortress Metals, as they quoted best price on phone. But I probably would have done better at J & D, where I have usually gone. Fortress graded single conductor insulated wire same as NM scrap. they grouped the NM, single wires & #2 insulated all the same. By that, I wasted a lot of time stripping out some of my NM, though I did get 2 buckets of bare cu. They counted the large & small bare cu the same & paid best for the bare bright. I'm sure J & D had been paying more for single than NM. Their guys would often pick something from a bucket & upgrade it a little. I'm not sure they graded properly on my al either, but that was smaller amounts, not as worried about it.

Cad, I like that phone line at the place in Raleigh, but I'd lose more than I gain to drive that far. I wish places here would do the phone line.
 
kwired

kwired

Electron manager
Location
NE Nebraska
You need to strip and sort as you acquire it, otherwise you will spend more time than it is worth when you bring it in .. if you have collected any significant quantities.

I recently had a large trailer loaded with copper, been acquiring it over 3-5 years, can't remember the last time I got rid of what I had. I had separated some bare from the insulated while loading the trailer but otherwise not much sorting. The guy at the scrapyard told me how I needed to sort it and I just laughed at him and said with that large of a load it would take so long it wouldn't be worth it. Now that I have a better idea of what the different grades are I will try to sort it as it is acquired. BTW I got about 2500.00 for the load I brought in.
 
kwired

kwired

Electron manager
Location
NE Nebraska
iwire said:
The place I go sorts it on the spot.
Click to expand...
To what extent? I had a trailer with a net of 2265 pounds of material according to my receipt. It got sorted (mostly by myself) into 93 pounds of #2 copper, 1674 pounds of insulated #2, and 498 pounds of electric motors. The 1674 pounds could have been separated into more uninsulated (mostly small pieces of bare ground conductor from 14 and 12 NM cables) and some could have been #1 which I understand is anything with strands larger than pencil lead (which is probably up to discretion of yard operator what is size of a pencil lead) This was all piled and tangled up on the trailer and would have taken several hours to sort to any accuracy. They just used a grapple device on a loader and picked it off the trailer large chunks at a time after removing the bare stuff I sorted while loading as well as the motors. If it is not worth their time to sort it why is it worth mine?
 
C

Cow

Senior Member
Location
Eastern Oregon
Occupation
Electrician
Our shop just started stripping everything #8 and smaller. We used to just throw everything in a bin(unstripped) and wait for the methhead looking flunkies to come by and offer us something for it. We always have people stopping by trying to buy our wire. After we learned how much is really in a bin, our shop guy started stripping and selling it to a local scrap yard where we've been making a lot more off of it.
 
iwire

iwire

Moderator
Staff member
Location
Massachusetts
kwired said:
To what extent? I had a trailer with a net of 2265 pounds of material according to my receipt.
Click to expand...

All the way, I had more than 3000 pounds in my van last trip.

They bring out big bins, a handful of Asian workers and in just minutes my van is cleaned out, I actually have to watch them to make sure they don't get carried away and clean out my shelves as well.
 
kwired

kwired

Electron manager
Location
NE Nebraska
iwire said:
All the way, I had more than 3000 pounds in my van last trip.

They bring out big bins, a handful of Asian workers and in just minutes my van is cleaned out, I actually have to watch them to make sure they don't get carried away and clean out my shelves as well.
Click to expand...

Well the time and fuel required to take it from where I am to where you are would make it pointless to bring it there;)
 
J

jmellc

Senior Member
Location
Durham, NC
Occupation
Facility Maintenance Tech. Licensed Electrician
kwired said:
You need to strip and sort as you acquire it, otherwise you will spend more time than it is worth when you bring it in .. if you have collected any significant quantities.

I recently had a large trailer loaded with copper, been acquiring it over 3-5 years, can't remember the last time I got rid of what I had. I had separated some bare from the insulated while loading the trailer but otherwise not much sorting. The guy at the scrapyard told me how I needed to sort it and I just laughed at him and said with that large of a load it would take so long it wouldn't be worth it. Now that I have a better idea of what the different grades are I will try to sort it as it is acquired. BTW I got about 2500.00 for the load I brought in.
Click to expand...

Yes, much better to do as we go along. I get on that for awhile then let it lapse. I need to start sorting/stripping it as I get it home, or at least by the following weekend. I can stash it in 5 gallon buckets with lids, to keep it clean & cu bright. I was hoping my older daughter would be some help with stuff like that. She used to want to help me & earn pocket $, but now she's a teen & doesn't care. Is too distracted to focus on any task. She used to help me a little on some smaller jobs, did good on some. She has the brains, just doesn't want to use them.
 
J

jmellc

Senior Member
Location
Durham, NC
Occupation
Facility Maintenance Tech. Licensed Electrician
iwire said:
The place I go sorts it on the spot.
Click to expand...

I don't think anyone here does that. They are usually pretty busy & want to get people in & out. The 1 time I took a big mixed load, they figured a rough average for the whole load & paid it that way.
 
J

jmellc

Senior Member
Location
Durham, NC
Occupation
Facility Maintenance Tech. Licensed Electrician
I'll start going back to my old place. As I mentioned earlier, they seem to grade better, even if their top price is a little lower. I think I lost some mid range value in having my NM graded same as TW or THHN. Not a huge loss, as I had so much NM & smaller amounts of singles. Only downside, they don't buy common grades of steel. I sometimes have 200 lbs or so of conduit, old panels, etc. & various scrap from the house. Fortress does buy steel, but I didn't have time to gather it the other day.

One very rural dealer is within my reach & pays good, but they are open odd hours, different hours different days, closed for lunch, etc. I've waited there in long lines at the road.
 
N

nizak

Senior Member
If you don't mind my asking what did you get per pound on your #1 and larger stripped? Around here we get .15/lb more for "bright". Alot of guys still burn off their wire in outside fires out in the "back 40". Sure makes for a colorful display when all those toxic chemicals start dancing around. Back when copper was at it's peak(3.45/lb) I spent a couple of hours and hand stripped about 150' of 500mcm, nice days pay for a couple of hours work.
 
J

jmellc

Senior Member
Location
Durham, NC
Occupation
Facility Maintenance Tech. Licensed Electrician
nizak said:
If you don't mind my asking what did you get per pound on your #1 and larger stripped? Around here we get .15/lb more for "bright". Alot of guys still burn off their wire in outside fires out in the "back 40". Sure makes for a colorful display when all those toxic chemicals start dancing around. Back when copper was at it's peak(3.45/lb) I spent a couple of hours and hand stripped about 150' of 500mcm, nice days pay for a couple of hours work.
Click to expand...

This is from my ticket:

#1 insulated wire, 191 lbs, 1.55/lb (NM, UF, #2 AWG RH, single cond THHN, TW, etc)*
AL cans, 2 lbs, .60/lb (Soft drink & beer cans)
Irony old sheet, 16 lbs, .30/lb (AL meter bases)
#1 copper, 33 lbs, 2.65/lb (Bare CU, #14 to 2/O)
Old sheet, 4 lbs,.40/lb (Bare AL wire, foil, pie pans, etc.)**
Irony brass, 1 lb, 1.00/lb (piece of CU water pipe with valve)
Insulated AL wire , 23 lbs, .15/lb (#10 to 4/O insulated AL)
Bare Bright, 25 lbs, 2.75/lb (Bright bare CU, #14 to 2/O)

*I don't understand #2 RH bringing same price as NM & UF. NM & UF have more paper & insulation material & less weight after processing. UF is tedious to strip, by any method I know of. Smaller single conductor, #14 to #8, should pay more than NM, I would think.

**I had 2 buckets full of sheet scrap & 2 nearly full buckets of bare AL wire, #8 up to 4/O. I'm pretty sure I had more than 4 lbs. I think a bucket got missed on the scale or misread. I don't understand bare AL wire being graded with old sheet, but the .40 price is about right for wire. Most places I've been class bare wire to itself. I also don't understand irony old sheet, meter base being more valuable than insulated AL wire. Removing iron rivets & brackets is more tedious than stripping insulation.

I had a total of $464.10. I was expecting between 450 to 600. I won't lose sleep over it, but I think I lost some value in my bare AL and better insulated CU.

After parking, I unloaded all the buckets trash can & bundles. I laid them out in good order. 2 guys came & picked up buckets, 2 each, etc. They put some on scale, made entry, put more on, made entry, cleared scale, etc. I guess the scale could subtract previous weights,etc but if operator was to do it, something could have been miscalculated. No chance to recheck later, as they poured into their containers as it went off the scale. I should have asked with each container(s) what grade it would be & insist they clear the scale after each batch. I don't doubt their honesty but I look back & question the procedures a bit. I do plan to take them a load of steel scrap & see how that goes. They are among the few that buy all grades of steel.
 
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