Is there a difference in what I can get per pound if I burn it vs what I can get per pound if I strip it? I've got a lot of wire saved up and don't much feel like turning it in for money as insulated...
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Is there a difference in what I can get per pound if I burn it vs what I can get per pound if I strip it? I've got a lot of wire saved up and don't much feel like turning it in for money as insulated...
Well i do know that it's illegal to burn it here. I've heard horror stories of guys burnin the insulation off, and scorchin the copper. When they bring it in the yard calls the police on them. Just rumor's, but still.
My yards wont take burnt wire.
boil the wire. In a 55drum have wood or something burning nice a hot an have another 55drum right on top of it with the wire an a small hole. The case will melt an run out. I have not tried this but I have heard alot of people doing this on the cord ends (the cord ends are yellow brass) an they will just melt the rubber off.
At the hole where the rubber will come out..maybe a good idea to have a bucket full of water so when the rubber hits it. It will be cold an make less of a mess/catching something on fire. If you do this let me know how well it works as I get around 1300pounds of wire weekly.
ive never had a problem bringing back burnt wire, but i prefer to strip it or bring it back as insulated. For every pound of copper you strip, you only make $1 extra then brining it back as insulated. I also heard you can get a $1000 fine for burning. If your going to do large amounts of stripping, id buy a wire stripper. Im glad i did!
Learn not to burn. Who in their right mind would do that to beautiful shiny copper anyway? HaHa. Maybe invest in a wire stripper as vamped400 did if you have a lot of wire saved up.
i myself dont get 100's of pounds of copper wire a week. I only have 5 pounds saved up in 3 weeks. But i will say i do have a few jobs lined up (just waiting for the ground to dry up) and then ill have a nice load of wire. Its nice to have, and will pay for itself after a while so i thought it was a no brainer. After i stripped JUST 24 pounds of copper wire in 15 hours or so, i decided i needed to get one.
Burning wire=nasty chemical smoke that poisons the air and really does, no kidding here, cause cancer.
http://www.newton.dep.anl.gov/askasc.../chem00031.htm
Remember the whole Agent Orange Viet Nam thing? That was about Dioxin, the same chemical you release by burning PVC insulation.
Growing up, my brother had asthma. Burn barrels irritated this and even authority-hating me had no problem calling the Town Fire Warden
when I smelled burning plastic. Poisoning your neighbors air just isn't considerate.
Of course, I've heard rumors that some smelters in China simply burn the PVC off anyway....or processor boats burn it while on the ocean. Haven't been able to find verification.
Wow, definately a sobering thought. My old man is a Vietnam Vet thats been poisened by AO.
Quote:
Originally Posted by murt
Burning is bad.
theres people out there that own copper granulators like me that pay high dollar for your wire.... any scrap yard within 2 hours of me dont accept the wire due to us being in the location. and burning the wire doesnt make it more valuable
Here, they won't even accept burnt wire.Quote:
Originally Posted by kenjermain31
We get about $0.20 more per lb for bright shiny copper (stripped cleanly) than for the same wire were it stripped by burning. We actually get a fair bit of burnt wire, as a couple of our customers are large scrapyards who seem to get the majority of burnt cars in our city. They have their guys grab whatever handfulls of loose burnt wire they can get in each car, it's a quick 20 bucks or so for them. We also end up getting a fair amount from smaller scrappers, who get it from smaller shops, farmers, etc. Probably a fair number of those guys burn their own too, I'm guessing.
I tried the burning method. Never again!! The smaller wire turned to dust when I touched it. The larger wire became brittle and broke off into pieces.
Yep, I tried it one time a long time ago and I estimate that I lost about 20% due to burning.Quote:
The smaller wire turned to dust when I touched it. The larger wire became brittle and broke off into pieces.
In my township, you will get the police called on you if you are burning anything but wood. If your a true recycler you wont burn the insulation off you would strip it. Its just better for the environment. If you don't care about the environment, then I don't have the time for you. :)
I don't see the logic in burning the plastics versus for example burning the oil in the car engine when moving my ass. Or another comparison, who is more responsible - person that burns wires and never took a plane ride, or master recycler who is flying to his holiday. For me, all issues are very complex, all things should be counted in. It's called "ecological footprint" in our country. For example, I can plant 100 trees to compensate my wire burning, just an idea.
On the problem with wire becoming brittle - it happens to me, when I cook it too long. When it's there for an appropriate time, the wire is ok.
Is it reallyworth it to burn/ strip INS off the wire? here we are getting $3 for copper, $2.50 for ins... so over 100lbs would net you $50 more... If you loose about 20% when burning you have $240 now instead of the $250 if you would have turned it in whole. And for $50 dollars I am not going to strip 100lbs of wire. IDK how fast you guys can strip but my hourly wage for stripping wire would be like .65, which is definately not worth it....
In the long run you get more for just turning it in insulated, at least that is the case here
I don't know of anyplace that will pay $2.50 for insulated wire. It's more in the line of 1.20 1.40 for insulated.
being a past sufferer of cancer and a curent copd and infamacema patient burning wire insulation is not good for children and other living things. as stasted above they reliece Dioxen, bad bad stuff. but I sure hate taking wire to the yard because it is too small to strip and getting .40 a lb. I tried MEK works great but I made $5 extra on a half bucket fo comm wire ( computer wire) lol cost me $18 bucks for the MEK, back to the drawing board, there just has to be a way.
There is. If you have the volume, drop 200k on a chopper. :D
if I had $250 K I would be in Humbolt county Ca. living on a pot farm. :)
Not illegal to burn here. The trick is to not over burn. Cool it off with the water hose and wear gloves. Any remaining coating will usually fall off with a whack or two against the ol barn. Or just rub off with the gloved hands. Throw it in a bucket of water and swish it around a little and you end up with nice shiney, clean copper! And I always get paid for no.1 copper using this process.
Btw easyrecycle, I've never tried the 55gal. drum bit. It sounds interesting. Next time I do this I'll try it and let you know how it works. Wish me luck!
I get 80 cents a lb. for insulated and I've tried stripping the small wire and it killed my hands so its not worth it to me to strip the small stuff and I wont burn it either and subject myself to any bad stuff. I'd rather get less per pound than do something illegal and dangerous to my health. but, thats just me, everyone has different ways they will do things.
Its illegal everywhere!!
http://i97.photobucket.com/albums/l2...jokes/beer.gifQuote:
Originally Posted by sjones99
Checked with the local authorities and they said it is NOT ILLEGAL here. Go figure.
You could always just sell it to me. :)
Well, we're about 1,278 miles apart. Hope you payin all shipping costs! lol
For enough wire I will. I have orders from my smelting plants for 80,000 lbs of wire a month. I am looking everywhere for wire now. :)
Its been said on these forums before, burning PVC insulation releases heavy metals, dioxin(remember Agent Orange?)
this from a BLM person speaking about folks burning piles of wire on public land out west:
"Dioxins, commonly associated with burnt insulation, are easily absorbed and stored in fat tissue. They are known carcinogens and even low concentrations can cause serious health problems such as impaired immune system and liver function. Long-term exposure to lead, a hazardous waste that is released into soil when copper wire insulation is burned, can cause acute or chronic damage to the nervous system, and high doses of copper can cause liver and kidney damage."
If my neighbor was burning wire i would be seriously pissed.
This will be my last post on this thread because we could go on forever. I did not say burning was not hazardous. I said not illegal here. Everything now a days can be hazardous. Every time you crank your automobile, smoke a cigarette, fire up your lawnmower, fly in an airplane, burn an open fire of almost any type, etc.,etc.,etc. I could go on and on. You get the picture. Holes in the ozone, acid rain, global warming ( if you happen to buy into any of that). Just about everything you do contributes to this or something else that is bad for the environment. If someone wants to live their life indoors, safe in their little shell, scared to come outdoors because the sky might fall (or they might get skin cancer from the sun, or have to breath smelly air, or have to drink water from the hose pipe), well that's their choice. Me? I'm gonna live my life to the fullest and enjoy every minute of it.
Well put JR...It's amazing the old blue ball lasted all these millions of years and somehow we are going to manage to F it all up by next week. Oh and I see MDG approves of your post, maybe will be listening to some Haggard by days end.
****ation, KZ...you and Injun Joe are going to cause me to have a cardiac with your hilarious posts....which no doubt fly over the head of the majority...oh, my sides...Thank you.
Along the environmental lines...I saw this on TV a bit ago and looked it up to vote. 84% are absolutely stupid.
http://www.pbs.org/wnet/need-to-know...the-epa/11778/
burning is quicker, and most yards dont care, they want that copper as well, as far as calling the cops on ya... id say stockpile it up and tak ur business elsewhere.. that is if u do enough volume to even hurt their feelings... BUT, i also do not know about other state laws with pollution, so dont quote me plz...
I can't even burn plywood here.
Plywood (& customwood - MDF) has a urea/formaldehyde glue holding it together.
When you burn it it releases it into the air, its really bad for you.
Methanol, if its drunken, breaks down into the body into formaldehyde & that does something to the back of your eyes & makes you go blind.
You might remember hearing about bad 'homebrew' alcohol or people (most likely in Russia) drinking methanol, or even adding it to their alcohol & dieing or going blind, thats how it happens.
I will try the hotpot method, melting the plastic off in a pot on a fire & see what happens, I will report back.
A while ago I put some plastic coated wire into a tin can & added Dichloromethane (DCM - paintstripper) to it.
The plastic swelled up to 3 or 4 times its size over a couple of days & turned into a pasta like consistency while still on the wire.
I then let it evaporate off & it went back to what it was like beforehand.
Very very interesting.
DCM is not really flammable, its got a boiling point of 40Deg C, pretty low actually.
I could slip the expanded plastic off the copper wire real easily.
I think if one got a barrel of loose plastic coated wire & added DCM & then let it absorb & then did some other action, like centrifugal force or something.
The plastic would slide off the wire & leave the brightest coloured copper you ever saw.
Problem now would be loosing the DCM to the atmosphere when removing the copper wire.
The DCM in the plastic could be easily recovered by just heating the plastic & condensing it again, maybe back into a second drum of covered wire. Thanks to its low boiling point.
Expressing the mix might work, a properly made drum with a potato masher like part in it that would push the wire to the bottom of the drum, while the DCM/plastic gets pushed thru the masher up above it.
Like a coffee plunger pot.
I'm gonna work on this idea, as I'm making it up in my head as I type.....
I live in the middle of no where on a farm and we have to burn our garbage. We don't have recyling out here in the country. Everyone burns burns everything, plastic, wood, anything and everything. We can also burn tires but they have a limit of one a day or something like that. I am a big conservationist and plant all kinds or trees and shrubs all around my property every year. It is a fact of life out here. Our small towns even do it. Some one comes and picks up there garbage and burns it all at the edge of town. To get to the point I end up burning my wires. I may start just stripping them but the plastic still goes into the burn pit. I know the ultimate goal is more money for our scrap so I like learning new ways and suggestions from people who know more about this job than I do. Thanks guys.
I'll tell you one thing, Arno, if nothing else, you are sure good at digging up old posts! :D