Breaking down an electric motor for copper

http://i56.tinypic.com/2dkjq6b.jpg
Here is a pic of the motor as it weighs whole 27.8 lbs
First as you can see there are 4 screw/bolts that you need to remove and then both ends of the motor will pop off. Center shaft can then be pulled out .
http://i55.tinypic.com/2d9bcdy.jpg
Here you can see the center shaft out and the outer casing with all the copper in it.
http://i54.tinypic.com/no9evd.jpg
Here is the center shaft. On the end is a cast aluminum fan. Just wack it with a hammer and it breaks right off. Ended up weighing about .25 pounds.
http://i56.tinypic.com/29wsm0m.jpg
Here you must cut this weld or grind it off like I do and remove the outer metal case.
http://i56.tinypic.com/15rcqvs.jpg

http://i53.tinypic.com/2emorqa.jpg
Here is the weight of the copper and metal together. Now you have to cut off one side of the copper looped wire with either a metal cut of disk or sawsall.
http://i51.tinypic.com/1055zcy.jpg
Here you can see the end when its been cut off. Now use a punch and hammer and push the strands threw the motor housing or pry them out threw the other side. I pryed this one out using a screw driver and channel locks.
http://i51.tinypic.com/zip1sn.jpg
Here is all the copper removed from the housing. Total weight of copper is 3.5 pounds the metal popcorn tin the copper is in weighed 1.1 pounds.

So it started out at 27.8 LBS at $.41/lb = $11.40
Broke down we had 3.5 lbs of copper at $3.50/lb = $12.25
.25 lbs of cast alliminum at $.52 = $.13
24 lbs of steel at $.10/lbs = $2.40
Total after tear down is $14.78 for a difference of $3.38

Now this motor took me about an hour to tear down because I was taking pictures. This one really was a pain in the but to get the copper out because I didnt have a small enuff punch to just punch the copper out so I had to pry it out with screw driver and channel locks. So all though there wasnt much money gained from it I hope this will help the rest of you on how to tear a motor apart for the copper.

Good job, very informative! If you were to do quite a few motors at a time you might want to sweep up the copper grindings that are left over and include them into a bucket for scrapping.

Thanks for the pictures part time scrapper. I need to get a new grinder myself.

Thanks for the post. Where did you get that cool scale?

ebay 15 bucks.

Nice work Part Time. May I suggest instead of cutting/grinding through the weld you cut the thinner metal jacket.
When I cut the housing I start with an old pair of Wiss aviation snips. I cut in as far as I can on each side then just use cutting wheel to finish connecting the two snip cuts. This saves not only electric and time but it also saves on cutting wheel costs. On some motors I can cut inward enough to just peel back the metal housing with my large end nippers and tear the metal. The latter method is very fast and quiet! Great for working my scrap late at night.

I mentioned "end nippers" before in the forums. The are the best for pulling out the windings. Harbor Freight sells them pretty cheap. At first they are a bit to sharp and tend to cut rather then grab. Simple fix is to file down the cutting edge a little.

I did the same, pictures and weights, on several motors. I found that the heavy motor,74 lbs, had a lower percentage of copper than a group of small motors, total weight about 40 lbs. Also I find it much easier to remove the copper from the smaller motors. I will try to learn to post pictures. I purchase motors from another scrapper and then break them down. This is my main scraping activity so far.

Thank you for taking the time to post the pictures I know it was time consuming. Best to you, Mike.

I think I figured out how to post pictures. Here is my break down of the four smaller motors.

http://i597.photobucket.com/albums/t...s/P9030025.jpg

Here is a link of the break down of the motors above, Mike.

http://s597.photobucket.com/albums/t...medium%20mtrs/

Thank you for the pictures and showing your method. I have the same experience about copper volume as miked said. In a heavier ones is less percentage of copper per weight than in the small ones. It's getting to 7% in some heaviers and the most I got was from 24lbs one, similar as you posted (14%). When we know this, it's easy to calculate the profits and what should we pay for them. In my country (Czech), usual price per kg of unstripped motor is $0.40. I would never pay so much as you, it's not worth the time, as you perfectly documented.

Btw, I get the stator from the casing usually by punching the casing with a hammer few times, very hard. It breaks easily when it's cast iron. It doesn't work, when it's aluminium - then I try to knock out the stator with a hammer and a chisel (when it's possible to hold in vice, it's better) - it gets out very often.

Right now I have about 30 motors of similar size. My yard pays about the same as yours. So my profit would be about $101.40. I break em down on rainy days so all in all I guess it's worth to me. Thanks for the breakdown. Now I know about how many to do at a time. Great job!

Thanks to those that contributed, very informative. On motors that have carbon brushes, I noticed the contact surface that rubs against the brushes is copper, about 1/8" thick, set in a sort of plastic material that can be busted out with a hammer. Not sure what that part is called.

Starting at the beginning, in the third photo, is there copper inside the dark part? The part is located above the fan.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by miked

I think I figured out how to post pictures. Here is my break down of the four smaller motors.



Mike.

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Also a nice job! When I run into bolts that refuse to come out from being snipped off during installation or just rust and abuse, I just go ahead and cut outer jacket and peel apart. Then you can just use bolt cutters on all four of the bolts. The rest pretty much falls apart for ya.

Most of those motors you have in photo are condenser fan motors. I find they are exposed to the weather more then the air handler and tend to be a bit harder to pull the windings out! This is where my "recycled" saved up compressor oil comes into play! I Like to " baste" them in a shallow dish with my saved up "marinade" after I cut the one side and find them being a problem. That make the copper slide out'athere like ..............

Hope this helps!

Quote:

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Originally Posted by little726

Starting at the beginning, in the third photo, is there copper inside the dark part? The part is located above the fan.

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Not in this motor it was solid. no copper winding inside it. It was aluminum with iron outside.

I will keep the oil trick in mind and use it next time I have a tought one. Very generous of you to share that info, Mike.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by PartTimeScrapper

Not in this motor it was solid. no copper winding inside it. It was aluminum with iron outside.

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Thank you, PartTimeScrapper. I've been hack sawing an old sump pump motor and came across this same looking core.

Do some of the motors have copper in that part?

YEs but its obvious. You will see the windings. I throw that part in my breakage though. I think its to time consuming to get it from there but one of the other experienced motor breakers might have a good idea on how to do it.

PartTimeScrapper

Nice post....nice pictures..very well done .

Thanks.

ginofrater

The motors I have pulled apart are from pool pumps. The weird thing was that the copper windings were not copper. It looked like an aluminum winding with a varnish on it. I am still a noob, but I take it is not the same thing right?

If you can, reach in a snip a strand and if it's alum. in the middle then leave the motor intact and sell as is. If it's copper then you have a choice to sell as is or retrieve the copper.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by miked

I think I figured out how to post pictures. Here is my break down of the four smaller motors.

http://i597.photobucket.com/albums/t...s/P9030025.jpg

Here is a link of the break down of the motors above, Mike.

http://s597.photobucket.com/albums/t...medium%20mtrs/

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Miked, Great idea of using a chisel on those newer style motors. I have a few i was putting off cause i didnt want to unwind them. Ganna give it a try!!!

Yes very informational thanks. I have been tearing up appliances lately for the moters. (one of them being a thrift store heater I got for Christmas.) I turned it on for the first time went to sleep and felt for some reason to wake up and saw it was on fire.) And it is suprising how many things have moters.

I have found that it is not profitable enough to break down motors and such for copper, based on return. I do not even separate motors out. I’m small scale so others may have different options/opinions. Shred price vs motor price vs copper price vs time........only you can decide . And learn.

I want to update the pricing as follows:

Price from the original post -

So it started out at 27.8 LBS at $.41/lb = $11.40
Broke down we had 3.5 lbs of copper at $3.50/lb = $12.25
.25 lbs of cast alliminum at $.52 = $.13
24 lbs of steel at $.10/lbs = $2.40
Total after tear down is $14.78 for a difference of $3.38

Price today - (actually price is from a few months ago, and may vary by location)

So it started out at 27.8 LBS at $.12/lb = $3.33
Broke down we had 3.5 lbs of copper at $1.90/lb = $6.65
.25 lbs of cast aluminum at $.12 = $.03
24 lbs of steel at $.0365/lbs = $.87
Total after tear down is $7.55 for a difference of $4.22

Big difference between the two percentage wise. You can more than double your money now. (correct my math if I am wrong anywhere)

Then:

Total after teardown : 14.78 $

Now:

Total after teardown: 7.55 $

It's the same amount of work for half the pay. Thanks for the update N.P.

Wow??? Just read this post of yours from back in 2011. Might just be the single best tip i've read here since joining this forum! Using the oil from the compressors (or within the cut radiators) to "grease" and loosen the cooper windings, might just be the trick for a much easier task of removing the windings from all the electric motors I get. Thanks!!

Quote:

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Originally Posted by injunjoe

Also a nice job! When I run into bolts that refuse to come out from being snipped off during installation or just rust and abuse, I just go ahead and cut outer jacket and peel apart. Then you can just use bolt cutters on all four of the bolts. The rest pretty much falls apart for ya.

Most of those motors you have in photo are condenser fan motors. I find they are exposed to the weather more then the air handler and tend to be a bit harder to pull the windings out! This is where my "recycled" saved up compressor oil comes into play! I Like to " baste" them in a shallow dish with my saved up "marinade" after I cut the one side and find them being a problem. That make the copper slide out'athere like ..............

Hope this helps!

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