Some solenoids have a hard plastic housing, and when crushed in a vice, the plastic shell breaks nicely, and one can remove the copper wire inside easily (like the black one sticking up further than the others on the left). Other solenoids, however, have a softer plastic housing that does not crack and break like the harder plastic ones do. The softer housing will deform without cracking. Cutting the solenoids in half is a messy job that causes copper windings to go flying. There must be an easier way to harvest the copper from these solenoids. Who has an effective method? When in the plastic housings, the solenoids only qualify as "copper motors" at my scrap yard, and go for about 25 cents a pound. Get the copper from them and throw it in the #2 copper bucket and your return goes up about ten fold, so as long as there's an easy way, it's worth it, right?
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