Seems to me that around Christmas time and after, strands of lights, extension cords and such are tossed in the garbage frequently. I've been manually stripping wire and have almost 80lbs of stripped wire from the last two months alone just from people tossing light strands and such.

My question to the hive is, has anyone here used a drill operated wire stripper?

Before you ask, no. I am not going into homes and ripping out wiring lol.

Don't know how well they would work with the light guage stranded wire, like christmas lights, but they work pretty well with heavier electrical and solid wire.

A lot of wire these days is copper plated aluminum.

My electrician mentioned that he bought one recently and thought it was a good investment. He picks up scraps from jobs and fills a black Costco tub with stripped wire and then takes it to the scrap yard.

I used to put one end in vise, hold the wire taut with left hand, use razor knife to slice insulation off. It was quick. I mostly sold scrap pipe.

Set it on fire!

Around here the scrap yard won't take wire that has been cleaned in the barrel stove anymore.

Same here.

Yes

Where you selling it ?

^ me too, but its tough to do with the 18-28 gauge crap from cheap christmas lights.

Thats odd. Thats how we'd do the really thin crappy stuff. We figured we lost a lot from actually burning it off, but even 60% revocery beats 0% if we just tossed it. PLus, it looks cool when its in the burning barrel. That, and we were basically pyros./.

Do they say why? Worried about contamination?

Gerdau, but BRC is a decent backup option.

None of the yards around here will take burned copper either. I never thought to ask why, but when I go to sell I will.

EPA, toxic pollution issues with burning plastics.

Same here

What they paying on brass I got several hundred pds

Bulk dirty brass $1.92/lb last I was there but I'd call to confirm before going

Mayflower drive?

I bought most of my rifles with scrap money.

Try youtube see if they have a review of the unit you're interested in.

Ive always used a knife of some type. With large wire and medium voltage wire I made a jig and used my router table.

Good luck and shoot straight y'all

That little stuff be a pain in the ass

This ^^^^^^

I'll take #2 price before I'd set and run all my scrap through that machine.

We allowed our MEP Superintendents to maintain a "Copper Barrel" on our construction site and some time during the peak of the manpower phase of the project, typically at the end of rough-in, the Super would take all the piping and electrical personal on the site to lunch on the scrap profits and then divide the balance among the employees.

The problem was plumbers and electricians had the temptation to generate scrap, so an honest and aware superindent was critical.

I deal with three different scrap yards. Two of them won't take any copper smaller than 16/18 ga. Anything smaller goes into the electronics bin at little value.

None of the three will accept burned wire.

Yeah. Gerdau is on Lawyers

Don’t take it to the dude in hog town

How does the scrap yard treat you? 99.99999% of people selling wire are meth users.

Stripping Christmas lights for Cu? That’s a tough way to make a buck. Are you even making $1/hr?

Why is that?

I've been told of you hit the hot copper with water while still hot from burning off the insulation it'll stay shiny.

Crackheads trying to turn a quick buck.

Several yards around here don’t pay cash for the same reason.

Cut you a check…

Monty Q. Methmouth doesn’t have a bank account…

The first few times it was like that, but they came around and now it's just like any other transaction.

Christmas lights, piles of wire in the ROW, extension cords that aren't long enough to be worthy of the name, pretty much anything that has copper wire and people consider to be junk.

I think I average around $23/hr after everything is said and done. That doesn't factor in the 11 minutes I spend driving to the scrap yard, or the 6 pack I buy on the way home lol.