Hi and welcome to the forum from Las Vegas! Dunno where you are in the UK but a couple of fellas recently joined the forum looking to get a chopper going. There might be some synergy there. Will DM them with a link to this thread. I've run two different choppers now but both were custom made for high volume 6000+kg/8hr shift so cannot offer a brand recommendation unfortunately. When you're shopping look especially for ease of blade changing and look at the style of blades to see if they'll be easy to have sharpened near you or if you'll have to go back to the manufacturer each time. For smaller machines like you're looking at motor quality is less of a worry due to lower demand on them but best to get motor specs to see what repairs might entail down the road. My absolute best recommendation is to invest in the travel necessary to see one in non-manufacturer use to get feedback from daily users.
Selling the copper granules will be easy. At the volume you'll accumulate running a chopper even very part time you should be able to get dealer pricing from the closest major yard for Cu #1 and #2. If Comex is trading copper at $2.60/lb it's certain you won't sell Cu #1 at dealer pricing better than $2.30/lb nor Cu #2 better than $2.20/lb and *very* likely less. Bringing in 225+ kg each time will help. Bringing 1250+ kg will really help your pricing!
Newer choppers have dry separation pretty much as good as wet so recommend that route, especially since you won't have to worry about your buyers docking you for moisture contamination. If you're under no pressure to sell the copper right away and can let it thoroughly dry before boxing up the wet separation does improve aluminum separation from the copper in my experience, should you be chopping wire with significant aluminum content alongside copper (closed eye heliax, a lot of phone charging cords, etc).
If you're getting enough wire through you're work to justify a granulator it can be a great investment and pay for itself much quicker than you'd guess.
Bookmarks