Granulator/wire stripper help

Tom,

Thanks for the reply. When you say, "Not worth it," what are you saying isn't worth? Don't granulate or don't turn in for borings?

I agree that it's a rip off, but I also don't think my buyer knew exactly what I was talking about. Because he said, something to the extent of copper shavings from a machine shop. I tried to clarify, but there is a language barrier.

I don't expect the granules to be bright and shiny pricing as it seems every scrap yard in California doesn't call thin wire bright and shiny. In fact, they call thin wire (non-coated copper) #2 copper, which is just so bogus. But, fortunately, it's only .10 difference in price.

The problem with bailing and selling on recovery is that I pay high prices for all of the scrap wire I get. I don't get anything for free. I'm just basically stripping it down and creating margins for myself which consist of .45-.65 per pound if I purchase locally. If I can purchase wire from more inland areas at a lower rate, then my margins are as high as $1.25 lb. My whole issue is how much can I process per hour per machine, whether that machine be a stripper or granulator.

I actually have no interest in purchasing wire from guys who already strip their own. I always encourage my sellers that if they want to spend time stripping, I cannot beat the scrap yards price on clean copper. On the other hand, if they don't care to strip, I like to purchase #1 65% wire, beating the local yard's price. It's the easiest for me to strip and it's fairly quick. Especially solid core. If that's all I had all day long, my life would be a lot simpler.

Tom - being that you work for a large recycler, do you guys strip wire?

on the thin wire, i have seen people post links to industry standards for grading, and there is a min wire size for bar bright. I don't know it off the top of my head, but a lot of stranded stuff doesn't make the cut

Originally Posted by MattInTheHat

on the thin wire, i have seen people post links to industry standards for grading, and there is a min wire size for bar bright. I don't know it off the top of my head, but a lot of stranded stuff doesn't make the cut

Correct. I too don't remember the exact thickness, but really, I woudn't mind not getting bare bright prices as long as I got #1 prices after granulation.