The copper/steel type of piano wires is fairly easy to separate the copper with just a little bit effort. Maybe something you might want to do when it's to cold to do anything else this winter. Just cut the wires to 12 to 14 inches (easy to handle & store). Then when your ready to harvest the copper: 1. put one end of the cut wire into a cordless drill motor (right angle drill motors work best). 2. clamp a "vice grip needle nose pliers to the other end. 3. run your drill motor slowly and in reverse, simply unwind the copper wire off the steel wire. The old upright piano I did had 5 to 6 pounds of #2 copper. I did all of mine in just over a hour. $1.85 for #2 copper is better than $0.10 a pound for copper bearing steel.
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