Motors, Worth the effort?

Originally Posted by c4f5

A guy about needs to do a few & figure up for himself which is more profitable. I am only getting $2.25 for the copper, $.075 for the steel, or $.34 for whole motors, so for me they are not worth breaking down.

For the same example motor, I am getting $5.06 for the copper, and $.73 for the steel, a total of $5.79, OR $4.08 to turn in the whole motor. That's $1.71 to tear apart the motor.

If I am tearing down 6 identical motors per hour, like you, that's 10.26 an hour to break them down. When I compare that to about $500 per hour profit to save them up and turn in a pickup load, breaking them down does not pay nearly enough to cover my tools and time, not to mention utilities, and the time & vehicle usage used in colletion and delivery, and any cash I had to kick out to buy it in the first place.

As it sit's right now, my "disassembly pile" is about 8 tons high. If that ever gets reduce to a managable point, I might quickly change my tune on the $10 per hour to tear down motors.



I wish my day to day financial situation allowed me to save up the copper to haul to further to get paid better for it, but sadly, it doesn't.

Very interesting and thanks for your numbers on this. It makes a big difference. My numbers around here are very similar to the OP, so definately worth the effort for me.