Scrapt communications wire/ want to buy granulator machine

Originally Posted by armygreywolf

You will need 50,000 lbs of free cat 5 to pay for that...and then an extra set of knives, another 10k for install, an outlet for the insulation, and to pay for your electric bill which is about to cost more than rent. Rethink your situation before you consider a machine.

I would probably agree with Army after running some numbers. Not taking into the cost of the equipment, there is probably only a 10 cent per pound gain. My analysis was done with romex and thhn and assumed that you could get dealer pricing for scrap wire and if you were selling copper chops, only paying about a 3% brokers fee.
Unless you are dealing with at least 50k to 100k pounds a month, i'd be looking for a yard that does thier own chopping and try to get dealer prices.

Originally Posted by mthomasdev

I would probably agree with Army after running some numbers. Not taking into the cost of the equipment, there is probably only a 10 cent per pound gain. My analysis was done with romex and thhn and assumed that you could get dealer pricing for scrap wire and if you were selling copper chops, only paying about a 3% brokers fee.
Unless you are dealing with at least 50k to 100k pounds a month, i'd be looking for a yard that does thier own chopping and try to get dealer prices.

Thank you army and mthomasdev for giving me good a suggestion. For me on my part time i buy wire and resell it to a scrapt yard. Now for today prices i would buy communications wire for 80cents a pound and sell it for 1 dollar and is that a good scrapt yard to sell? . And i do have money to invest in around 200k with cash, but i dont know if i should go that route with the granulator or continue to buy and sell and go biger. Im a computer science and i dont like it but i really to do recycling. And i was thinking when i do seperate the cable i could sell copper and plastic, let me know if im wrong to go further with this thinking. Please give me more advice.

Originally Posted by Trantran

Thank you army and mthomasdev for giving me good a suggestion. For me on my part time i buy wire and resell it to a scrapt yard. Now for today prices i would buy communications wire for 80cents a pound and sell it for 1 dollar and is that a good scrapt yard to sell? . And i do have money to invest in around 200k with cash, but i dont know if i should go that route with the granulator or continue to buy and sell and go biger. Im a computer science and i dont like it but i really to do recycling. And i was thinking when i do seperate the cable i could sell copper and plastic, let me know if im wrong to go further with this thinking. Please give me more advice.

I would think that if your selling to a yard that is chopping and getting dealer pricing, you should be doing better than $1.00.
The other issue is finding somewhere to sell the plastic. The place I have been using recently is actually throwing out the plastic. Looks like about a 40 yard dumpster a week.