Quote Originally Posted by brucie View Post
Thanks everyone! i guess i was just tripping on the color change when i filed/scratched. the one on the right in the bottom picture was especially troublesome... to me it appeared more silvery than the other 2 that i was worried about.. they all kind of changed colors when i scratched them.. so it is really apparent that there the color changes to silver when you scratch if it is alum? i tried to look at the ends but i guess i am blind bc i could not see any difference...i even looked through a lens i got from an old vhs recorder.



i spent 30 minutes going from bucket to bucket scratching wire lol

thanks again

Make sure you're not shorting your profits by scratching them. I just turned in my copper so I can't look to be sure, but there are 2 that "scratch" and look like aluminum but if you cut the ends you can tell they are copper. I made that mistake when I first started out.

When my son is in the mood to strip the ones out of TV's he cuts them with wire cutters first so he has one long piece and you can see better by looking at the whole thing cut. Not sure how much time you want to spend checking things but if you're having problems telling by just a few strands take the extra few seconds to cut a big section. Hate to see anyone loosing out on money! Another easy way once you've been doing it for a while is by the weight, most of the time you wont even have to cut the wires you just know.