Buy a wire stripper or a hammer mill?

Many of you are aware that I am on dialysis and the kidney disease limits me phyisically. I am much stronger and able as compared to even a year ago. I contribute much to the scrapping business, it has given me purpose and exercise.

I am now able to purchase a small machine so I can expand into processing insulated wire on a small basis along with breaking down computers. I like the idea of establishing a route to buy wire from various businesses. I think it will work.

I have found two types of machines first is a small hammer mill. I believe I can work out the seperation after running insulated wire through the mill. It might be used to reduce other things as well. Here's an ebay listing for it.

http://www.ebay.com/itm/130638200087...84.m1423.l2649


The other machine is a power wire stripper. One is 110 vac and the other is 220vac. My shop is wired for both but I tend to believe the 220 vac might be a better deal. Below is a link to the company's website and the two model numbers are SDT-WRA40 and SDT-WRA55.

http://www.toolzunlimited.com/


So what are your thoughts? The price range of about $900 plus shipping to $1800 plus shipping reaches the limit of what I have to spend on this type of equipent.

Thanks, Mike.

I would be interested to see if the wire stripper handles the smaller guages as well as it handled the larger guages as shown in the video. If it does, I would go for the wire stripper everytime. You end up with bb, nice and easy. With the mill you are going to have to separate, and start messing around with water flotation or vibrating tables or some such. I can almost imagine you milling a load of wire then using a leaf blower to separate it in the back yard :D

It's that old saying with tools - wince once when you buy it, then smile every time you use it, or smile when you buy it and wince every time you use it.

I would still be looking for a cheaper electric stripper if there is one of the same quality out there though.

lol we have a lot in common, physically and mentality. glad to hear you are improving.

I have the same problem,, want both but can barely afford either. which to choose ?

I have my first big copper customer, but they are hard to come buy for several reasions. it took me months to hook my first one and I havent totally landed him yet.

in calling other suppliers I find they all have buyers so it is an up hill sales battle.
also here are some numbers.

if the stripper will strip fine wire then It would be a go because there is plenty of cheep fine wire arround. but most things are never as good as advertised. (not even me :) ) 2000# #2, #1 mixed insulated wire. @ $1.50 . 2000 lbs brings a premium for weight $2.02 per lb. $2.02 x 2000 $4040 - $3000 cost $$40 expenses + $1000 profit

2000lb stripped will yeald arround 900 to 1100 lbs so lets use 1000 x $3.50 = $3500 - $3000 cost+ $500 profit or a net loss of $500 by stripping it. (Thanks to Joe for pointing this out. ) (**** Indians know every thing. had 3 native wives and all three out smarted me :).

any way I digress. I have been playing with my table top router and I think I am close to rigging it for any size wire using a grinding bit and a jig.

the ball mill lacks some info, how much will it handle at one time. capacity. it looks pretty small for bundles of wire . it woild be great for other things tho, ic chips. tv saddles, plastic and a lot more.

Im not trying to convince you which to buy just kind of thinking out loud. I am very interested in the out come here too. heres again where a co op would be very very helpfull.

P.S. wish I had a ball mill big enough to do these **** printers. :)

Olddude I agree with you on the printers, I try to stay away from them. The reason I picked those two strippers is because they claim they can work on very small wires. I have a lot of computer wire (power wire) laying around right now. Most of the other strippers claimmed to work on 14 gauge and larger and many not on stranded at all. If they don't work on smaller wire then they would be of no use to me.

I agree that the hammer mill's description is lacking. In addition there would be a lot of dust I would think. I see the wire granulator systems all seem to have big dust collector systems attached. I don't need lung problems as well.

I am wondering if there is an significate advantage the 220v motor over the 110v motor.

Wayne, I lean toward your idea as well, less money out is better. Thanks guys, Mike.

Miked if for know other reason than a sense of hope that this purchase can bring to your life , go for it . I purchased many tools trying to dust off my dreams. However I didn't do any where near enough homework to see how things penciled out when I bought a wire stipper for 2000.00 in 2007. Turns out that I needed to be stripping larger dia. wire or have several machines running around the clock to beat the lower yeild/cost of doing business equation. The machine was one of the nicest tool I've ever owned. .02

Which make model and is it forsale? Mike

Here's going to be my next tool purchase, the longer I wait the cheaper their getting. And it pay for itself in the first big run, not over the first year. I think one or two people on here bought these and I never heard anything really bad about them. That would come out to about $95.00 shipped to your door. http://www.ebay.com/itm/DRILL-OPERAT...item4cfe15543bhttp://i.ebayimg.com/t/DRILL-OPERATE...D)W!~~60_3.JPG

What guage of wire can they strip? I have and will contiue to get 16-20 guage wire. I believe I can buy/get this size wire cheaply. I might also be able to work a deal with the local yard, can't be sure til I try.

I know the strippers I am looking at are similar to what HighVoltage started out with. He of course changed over to bigtime wire grandulators. I don't envision for me do that. I just want to be able to strip most any wire I might get my hands on. I am not looking to make this a real full time job. I would just like to be able to repeat my small successes alot and often.

I will consider this as a possibility. Low inital cost and I could determine if there is some profit there. The multihole of the other machines attracted because it should mean less adjustment. I get a mix if different diamiter wires from one guy who also sells me motors. Mike.

Mike The model was an res. short for residential go to this web site arpiusa .com. Unfortunately I sold the wire stripper to make a truck payment. It s a long story. Hope this helps wb

I looked it up and answered my own question. 2mm-15mm. Which comes out to 12 gauge being the smallest it works with which is not good for me. Mike.

Thanks WB, I went to that web site. I have seen these machines before. The spec's on this one is also 16 guage as the smallest it will work with. Since you have used it I would like to hear about it. Also were you able to adjust it to work on smaller wire 18-22 guage? Mike.

miked i just read that you buy motors.I have been stripping motors for the last year but have a problem getting my hands on a decent quantity.I live in central Illinois and have approached a couple of the scrap yards,they seem like i am crazy.Any help from you or anyone else would be appreciated

kbob, I can't help with that eactly. I have a next door neighbor who scrapes but does not break down motors. I buy his insulated wires and motors at the same price that scrap yard pays. Its great for me so I don't have to go out and find scrap. All you can do is continue to ask. How much experience do you have? How old are you? Mike

miked i work for a sheetmetal cont. here in central Il. Any motors that we replace i am fortunate enough to get free.Bossman gets everything else.I am very fortunate.You ask about experience well i have dabbled for years stripping a.c.units and enjoyed that,then when the scrap markets went up i lost the units and now only get the motors.Adapt and overcome is my motto.Began working on a way to strip the electric motors and endcaps in a efficient manner.I can strip a 2 horse motor from start to finish in under 6 min.I use my log splitter to 'pull' copper from armature,works very well.I am in my middle 40's.Thank for replying

It gives me a point of reference, you age and experince. The scrap yards sell the motors to someone. So if you continue selling to them take the opportunity to talk with the employees and owner if he is in the area. They may have a difficult time fulfilling a contract so don't want to sell to others. Perhaps they just don't take you seriously. They may not be all that smart. keep trying, Mike.

Thanks miked for the encouragement, i am not ready to give up. I am beginning to like this site!Pretty awesome full of good info!

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Originally Posted by kbob

I can strip a 2 horse motor from start to finish in under 6 min.I use my log splitter to 'pull' copper from armature,works very well.I am in my middle 40's.Thank for replying

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I would like to see a photo or video of how you adapted your log splitter to pull the copper out of armatures. I have toyed with the idea of making adapters for my log splitter to do the grunt work involved in breaking stuff down, but haven't built anything yet.

Mike I don't remember doing any thing smaller than 16 gauge doesn't mean I didn't as a rule though didnt have much smaller than 16 gauge to strip . Sorry I not more help on the smaller wire.

Thanks WB, I suspect that is the case, 16 gauge and larger, Mike.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by kbob

miked i work for a sheetmetal cont. here in central Il. Any motors that we replace i am fortunate enough to get free.Bossman gets everything else.I am very fortunate.You ask about experience well i have dabbled for years stripping a.c.units and enjoyed that,then when the scrap markets went up i lost the units and now only get the motors.Adapt and overcome is my motto.Began working on a way to strip the electric motors and endcaps in a efficient manner.I can strip a 2 horse motor from start to finish in under 6 min.I use my log splitter to 'pull' copper from armature,works very well.I am in my middle 40's.Thank for replying

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A log splitter? So THAT'S how you guys are stripping motors. Brill-yunt!

I don't strip using a log splitter. I will be posting a break down of a mtr later today, Mike.

BurlyGuys this is what i came up with to ''pull'' the wire from motors.First of all i am not going to explain how to get motor stripped down i will assume that is a given.With one end of wire cut from armature,i drop armature in a bracket that fits over the ''foot'' of splitter,then i fabed a pair of heavy duty nail pullers with a small peice of chain attached to each handle.These plyers look something like catfish skinners but much heavier.Next step the pullers are pinned on the ram side of cylinder and ready to pull.I run ram out and pinch a ''mouthfull'' of copper and pull,works slick.I have come across a few motors that the wires have been coated and difficult to pull but overall works well.My problem is a quanity of motors to work on

I have one, I am investing my money in another direction currently so I didn't buy a rigbee. It has already paid itself off. It does not come with a proper manual, so I learned by trial and error. Given the operations are pretty self explanitory, I purchased it from affordable tools and they have run the machine and are pretty familiar with how it functions, I will say I have called them with a couple questions and they were more than willing to help. The smaller sdt 19 ports, four of the ports with individual blades for stripping ext cords and other multi insulated or jacketed material, after reading your thread I ran a piece of 20 ga and it stripped it, although I had the machine set up for 500 mcm so I had to pull the insulation off, it took me less than 10 seconds to run/pull insul off of 20 feet. Far from the best stripper but beats doing it by hand with a knife. not to mention cutting your labor time down drasticly. Hope this helps sean

Yes it does help, Sean. Its good to hear from someone who has acutally used one of these machines with the 20 ga. wire.

I have a small but re-occourring supply of 20-12 ga wire. I would like to go after more but its too difficult to stipe the stranded wire by hand.

This could prove to be a good direction for me. I have some physical restrictions and I can pick up handfuls of wire. Thanks to all who have contributed. If and when I do get a stripper I will report back, Mike.

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Originally Posted by rewire

I have one, I am investing my money in another direction currently so I didn't buy a rigbee. It has already paid itself off. It does not come with a proper manual, so I learned by trial and error. Given the operations are pretty self explanitory, I purchased it from affordable tools and they have run the machine and are pretty familiar with how it functions, I will say I have called them with a couple questions and they were more than willing to help. The smaller sdt 19 ports, four of the ports with individual blades for stripping ext cords and other multi insulated or jacketed material, after reading your thread I ran a piece of 20 ga and it stripped it, although I had the machine set up for 500 mcm so I had to pull the insulation off, it took me less than 10 seconds to run/pull insul off of 20 feet. Far from the best stripper but beats doing it by hand with a knife. not to mention cutting your labor time down drasticly. Hope this helps sean

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Hi Sean, I was wondering if yours was the res model from Arpi USA? If that's not the one, would you be willing to list the one you bought? I'm looking for one, but was hoping to find confirmation and a review(s) from someone who's actually used a particular make/model that they work on the smaller wire. Thanks!

The sdt-wra40 is the one I purchased. Like I said it has paid itself off already but I would still categorize it as commercial grade versus industrial grade. Don't get me wrong it is has helped indefinitely as an initial starter tool, but I have already started to out grow it. My application for this machine is primarily larger cable, I granulate the smaller wire. I ran some small wire just to validate that it is capable of doing it. Sean

I learned a lot from this website and have had fun reading and talking to the members. I made a couple of strippers that were shown on this website and a couple I copied from others(striptec K). I couldn't strip fast enough. I bought a striptech model A, the $79 ebay blue one, and the Stripinator 918. I agree with REWIRE, the 918, similiar to the SDT, is a light commercial unit. I hope it lasts forever and I get better with it but I still don't think it is a heavy duty work horse. My favorite stripper has to be the orginal stanley fixed blade. It just sits in my had right, doesn't jam, has multi use, and is the goto for unjaming all the other strippers

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Originally Posted by rewire

The sdt-wra40 is the one I purchased. Like I said it has paid itself off already but I would still categorize it as commercial grade versus industrial grade. Don't get me wrong it is has helped indefinitely as an initial starter tool, but I have already started to out grow it. My application for this machine is primarily larger cable, I granulate the smaller wire. I ran some small wire just to validate that it is capable of doing it. Sean

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Thanks very much for that info Sean, I appreciate it! Always love to hear from someone who has the experience with the actual piece of equipment in question!

I have not done anything smaller than 14g solid in quantity. I found that cutting the wire into 4 ft sections makes seperation and feeding less of a mess. It has a 110v 3hp motor and works best on small to medium feeder wire. I tried using the crushing wheel on small stranded and ended up with flat insulated wire. I haven't done the math but I don't think using a 3hp motor to strip 20g wire would be profitable unless you get spools of it. The prep time(cutting wire for feeding, putting all like wire together, and bending it somewhat straigt, removing twist and connectors) and seperation(picking up BB and putting in bin, looking for uncut or missed strip wire) takes me 2 times longer than feeding the machine. The feed rate of the machine is 125ft/min and wire weight was borrowed from a wire chart. The feed rate was reduced to reality because I timed myself and used actual times because the machine is proecssing nothing while you are picking up a piece of wire to feed it.

#20 g solid
323ft =1lbs
50ft feed rate
feed 20g wire for 1 hour
3000ft stripped wire=9lbs processed
80% recovery 7lbs BB or 3 hours of work for 7 lbs

Same thing #12g solid
50ft =1lbs
50 ft feed rate
feed 12g wire for 1 hour
3000ft stripped =60 lbs
80% recovery 48lbs of BB

I think it depends on what you buy your wire for