Breaking down SMALL motors - the numbers

https://mail.google.com/mail/?ui=2&i...&sz=w1232-h281https://mail.google.com/mail/?shva=1...e5?projector=1https://mail.google.com/mail/?ui=2&i...&sz=w1232-h281

was at my local yard doing my thing and this was in the parking lot almost ran it over . My school canceled today cause of snow so I figured I would post this thread .

the motor weighed in at 3.2 #
If I turned it in as is I would have got 0.96 cents

I broke it down .

heres what I got

6.3 oz of #2 copper at $2.70#=$1.05
1 pound 6.8 oz of shred at $0.09 #= $0.12
15.5 oz of FE aluminum at $0.20#=$0.19
0.04 oz of insulated wire at $0.90#=$0.0225

Total value AFTER breakdown= $1.38

A difference of 0.42 cents

toke me less then 5 mins, ive done a lot of motors .

I sometimes Buy what I think are high copper recovery DC motors from the yard I buy at for $0.40cents a #
sometimes. Might soon experiment with alternators

If you had bought the above motor for $0.40 per lb, you would have made 10 cents.

yes I know I wont buy them that small unless the rotor is removed and the casing is off and its just the stator . I usually buy motors I know are 100% copper and have high recovery. I might buy an alternator and see what the return is.

.42 for <5 minutes of work...

if you were as quick as 4 minutes, you are only netting $6.30/hr extra profit...

I guess I could see larger motors with higher copper return.

I have an alternator on my shelf. I can tear it apart and weigh it out (when I buy a scale)

you will do better on alternators at 40 cents than electric motors i think, alternators have heavy aluminum cases

thanks . I can remove the rotor and sell it as an alternator at my other yard for .40 #. My plan was to remove the copper from the stator and separate the aluminum too .

hopefully alternators will help me grow and my bottom line

If you fined a good core buyer you can get .50 to .60 per lbs for starters and alternators for scrap. Good cores can go as high as 25.00 each.

not trying to sound like a rookie lol But any advice on how to find a core buyer ScrapCowboy?

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by redcrossnj

not trying to sound like a rookie lol But any advice on how to find a core buyer ScrapCowboy?

---

make friends with a mechanic, a lot of them go to garages to buy cores.

might just do that . because starters are not worth buying to break down. alternators are though from what ive seen , if all else fails shop around to different mechanics

I had a 3 phase motor that weighed n a 37 lbs or $9.60ish in motor weight. I looked inside and maybe pushing 2 lbs copper if you lucky. So the moral of the story is, not all big motors are worth teardown.