How to Recycle Motor Scrap?

Copper ones are the most common electric motors used because they do such a great job of conducting the electricity and power through the appliance they are used in. They are worth a lot more than ordinary scrap iron. To get full value, just disconnected it from a mounting base, pulley, pump or anything else that may be attached. The idea is to sell just the motor itself so the ratio of steel to copper will be correct when the consumer buys it for recycling.

Some appliances,like washers and dryers, have electrical motors with aluminum winding. These are merely worth scrap iron price. The fate of them is to be sent to a shredder so the aluminum can be separated from the steel after it is ground up.Refrigeration compressors are used in air conditioning units, refrigerators and freezers. They have copper winding inside a steel shell. The steel content is heavier than it is in the electric motors, so they bring less money, but it is still quit a bit more than ordinary scrap iron.

Another problem is how to recycle them efficiently. Still by hand？You are kidding. Motor recycling machine is designed to recover the copper wire in various scrap motors. By using it, copper wire and silicon steel case can be recycled efficiently, greatly improving economic benefits. Motor recycling machines consist of two machines:copper cutting and copper wire pulling machine. Copper wire cutting machine is used to cut one end of copper winding in the motor, while copper wire pulling machine is used to pull copper winding out of the motor.

I will still prefer to process my refrigerator electric motors (cutting & pulling the wires) by hand, it gives me something to do when I have some down time. I hate sitting around being bored.

Same here like to pile them up then get the grinder out gives me a sence of satisfaction and more money in my pocket as I don't have to pay off an expensive machine

When you have enough posts post a video of it working, Do the compressors need to be cut in half for it to work on them? Hand jobs are not that great!

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Originally Posted by hobo finds

When you have enough posts post a video of it working, Do the compressors need to be cut in half for it to work on them? Hand jobs are not that great!

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I'll have to disagree with you Hobo........They are awesome! :)

I've seen some videos on youtube showing these machines at work. They seem to work really well but you would have to have a boatload of motors to justify the expense.

You have to cut the casing of Fridge compressors in half. I have found that 'just above the base' works best. Using a 9 inch grinder with cutting disc.

You can up end it, grab the footplate and shake the compressor out, its hanging by a electric wire and a Steel metal tube, pop the wire off and cut the tube.
I then afterwards fill up the case with the Iron cores from transformers and motor laminations and tack weld two of them 'end for end' and get 'HMS in size' price for it.
The compressors got some Ali peices, a thin Copper tube and a 'Iron/Aluminium' part too it that are seperate from the HMS casting. 3 Allen headed (hex head) bolts hold the shaft in place.

A bit of work and better when prices were higher. I do it anyway, not selling Steel for another 18 months I guess.

Oh, main point here is that the Fridge Copper windings do not have plastic insulation around them, they are clean and lubricated by oil so they are easy to pull out.

I use one of these https://encrypted-tbn1.gstatic.com/i...KtjL7-wSRYXxdv with a Cast Steel hook, and a hammer, to pick the loop end out after cutting the other ends loops off.
I found it, so it was cheap and perfect for the job.

I might mention that someone could make a jig to hold the motor core and use that tool in some way to pull the Copper loop out, like putting a small thrust bearing on the other ends screw and using a battery drill to tighten up the screw thread part, pulling the Copper out.

But I use use a vise and a hammer (and ear muffs...)

I would charge people per pound or per unit to use my machine.

The fridge motors here I cut a bit different. After draining the compressor oil out, most of them I will cut just above the seam with a 4 1/2" angle grinder with a thin metal cutoff wheel (Harbor Freight works good, and they are cheap. Both the grinder and the wheels). After removing the top, most of them have 4 bolts to securing the electric motor to the compressor. After removing the bolts, I cut the wire and it is done. I then use a razor blade to cut the threads securing the windings and pull the threads out. After setting the motor aside for a while to allow the compressor oil to drain off, I cut one side of the windings with wire cutters, then pull them out from the other side with pliers or channel locks. It is a pretty easy process. I can usually cut open 3 compressors with one wheel, and have enough left on the wheel to start another compressor.

Once I've taken them all apart I just cut the copper winding at one end with my grinder then a few good hits with the hammer and the rest pop out there a lot more easier than washer machine motors

I have always used grinder and air chisel to pop windings. Now i have my car trailer, I use the winch and a chain to secure the stator. I even used the winch one day to rip a stainless steel shell of the metal frame to clean it. And I use the winch to pull the windigns with a hook I bent with a torch and some scrap. You can look on utube. A man built a hydraulic ram with a hook. One ram vertical holds stator still while the other ram pulls the copper. Almost like using a hydraulic press. He even used the vertical ram to essentially break the motor in half, so no cutting the shell or anything. Sadly I dont cut motors much anymore, as it is not worth it to me. Turn as in. Been too preoccupied selling resale parts than tearing apart motors. Although I miss it. Was quite enjoyable and relaxing. Sadly sealed units are 7c and now they have several grade of motors so price ranges from 7c to 10c. But dont have time. Rather rip apart a furnace and sell 400 in parts in a few hours, then make 10 bucks a hour cutting motors. Now if it wa sstill 20 a hour like years ago, then by all means, sure thing.

If you just have a few motors, of course you don't have to buy machine. If you have a quantity, the profit brought by this machine is enough to return your cost. It depends on your situation.

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Originally Posted by AMSrecycling

If you just have a few motors, of course you don't have to buy machine. If you have a quantity, the profit brought by this machine is enough to return your cost. It depends on your situation.

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Lets see an apples to apples cost analysis,
convince me I can make Money and I will buy the machine,
I get enough motors to feed it at least 20 hrs per week...
But I warn you I cannot get employees to work for $300/ month
And I will not be starting from clean stators, but rather from A pile of electric motors.

V/r HT1

P.S. I've run cost analysis on just about every specialized processing machine, and with a good market and a nice volume, cheap foreign labor almost always tips the scale away from processing in the USA.
But i will give this one a fair chance since it will not produce an environmental or permitting issue.

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Originally Posted by HT1

Lets see an apples to apples cost analysis,
convince me I can make Money and I will buy the machine,
I get enough motors to feed it at least 20 hrs per week...
But I warn you I cannot get employees to work for $300/ month
And I will not be starting from clean stators, but rather from A pile of electric motors.

V/r HT1

P.S. I've run cost analysis on just about every specialized processing machine, and with a good market and a nice volume, cheap foreign labor almost always tips the scale away from processing in the USA.
But i will give this one a fair chance since it will not produce an environmental or permitting issue.

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Overhead! Never forget the overhead

Although I am good at calculating, I think it is easy to make this thing clear. Without the machine, you still need to pay for the basic cost like salary. When you have the machine, since the efficiency get improved, you can employ less staff and in a short period,you will get return over the cost for the machine will create profit in doubles of years.