Window ac units - Page 10

Originally Posted by hills

I'm looking on ebay right now. The 6" to 8" pipe cutters are about $ 300.00 new and $ 200.00 used. You take some of the money you make from scrapping and re-invest it back into the business by purchasing tools and equipment that help you work more productively. It's true what they say .... you have to spend money to make money.

There's another way of looking at it too. You might say to yourself .... gee .... i saw on the video that there's this man over there in Pakistan that's set up to do the job a whole lot better than i can. Maybe i will just sell my sealed unit at the scrap yard and farm the work out to him. It makes more sense for him to do that kind of work than for me to do that kind of work. That will free me up do do something more profitable than struggling with the sealed units.

Basically .... i'm just trying to say that you have different options. You just have to decide what approach works best for your own particular situation.

I usually use my angle grinder on rivets and screw heads that have stripped. Gt's hammer and hatchet sounds like another good way to do the job. I've recently started using a meat clever to split stators apart.

I've seen videos of the machete being used never tried it myself .unfortunately I have to take the strings off the windings on the reg motors it can be a pain when the strings have a finish on them and are hard good thing about the oil ones in compressors no hard strings so that's a plus.

Ahh ... the forum is back online again. That's good news.

As it worked out ... a 4" pipe cutter was just the right size for the compressors coming out of the window AC's. I got a used one off ebay and did a trial run. It worked okay. I tapped on the side of the compressor with a ballpeen hammer. You can tell where the stator is by the solid or hollow sound. Made a mark where the top of the stator was and cut there. Made a mark where the bottom was and cut there. The stator lifted right out and i stripped it for the copper like i would any electric motor.

It was a pretty smooth process. No oily mess. No grinder dust. No smoke from a torch. No more sawzall blades to buy.

There was one unexpected thing. I think there are a couple of decent chunks of brass built into the shaft that runs up through the middle. I guess you would call that shaft part the rotor.

I think i'll have to do a few more compressors the next time they become available. Maybe the brass parts were just a one off and not what you would normally find when you tear open a sealed unit.

Originally Posted by hills

Ahh ... the forum is back online again. That's good news.

As it worked out ... a 4" pipe cutter was just the right size for the compressors coming out of the window AC's. I got a used one off ebay and did a trial run. It worked okay. I tapped on the side of the compressor with a ballpeen hammer. You can tell where the stator is by the solid or hollow sound. Made a mark where the top of the stator was and cut there. Made a mark where the bottom was and cut there. The stator lifted right out and i stripped it for the copper like i would any electric motor.

It was a pretty smooth process. No oily mess. No grinder dust. No smoke from a torch. No more sawzall blades to buy.

There was one unexpected thing. I think there are a couple of decent chunks of brass built into the shaft that runs up through the middle. I guess you would call that shaft part the rotor.

I think i'll have to do a few more compressors the next time they become available. Maybe the brass parts were just a one off and not what you would normally find when you tear open a sealed unit.

The forum was down? I just thought they suspended my account for some reason that's what it said when I tried to login a while back. Anyways I've done 117 window acs worth of radiators wire and tubes when I started the prices were higher I've gotten 3k so far I have 36 acs to get yet plus I have all the motors to do yet plus the tanks. Cut through 28 tanks so far with the carbide blade. Clean rad prices were at $1.50 when I started now $1.36 num 1 was $3.55 before election now $3.14 num 2 $3.30 now $2.94 aluminum is pretty good sheet is at .51 that's pretty high for that. Is 1/10 HP motor going to have a higher recovery vs something that. Isn't fractional? I never thought about tapping the tank that cool. Also doing silver contacts from the power supply I was thinking of sending it to a refinery is that a good idea?. Do I have to separate them from the copper ?.

Originally Posted by hills

Ahh ... the forum is back online again. That's good news.

As it worked out ... a 4" pipe cutter was just the right size for the compressors coming out of the window AC's. I got a used one off ebay and did a trial run. It worked okay. I tapped on the side of the compressor with a ballpeen hammer. You can tell where the stator is by the solid or hollow sound. Made a mark where the top of the stator was and cut there. Made a mark where the bottom was and cut there. The stator lifted right out and i stripped it for the copper like i would any electric motor.

It was a pretty smooth process. No oily mess. No grinder dust. No smoke from a torch. No more sawzall blades to buy.

There was one unexpected thing. I think there are a couple of decent chunks of brass built into the shaft that runs up through the middle. I guess you would call that shaft part the rotor.

I think i'll have to do a few more compressors the next time they become available. Maybe the brass parts were just a one off and not what you would normally find when you tear open a sealed unit.

A video would be cool to see it in action don't think there are any YouTube videos of a pipe cutter being used on them as far as I know. I do know you get 2lbs out of them no matter what the size of the ac I know centrals have 4lb of copper weather those are static as well I'm not sure.

Yea the forum isn't what it used to be seems different now. Yea carbide blades work good I'm going to see how many I can cut through before it can't do it anymore haha. One person said they could go through 60 tanks on one blade not sure about all that though. I got the 9 inch for the window ac tanks and a 12 inch for the central compressors. The motors I have have rivets not screws wish they did though some of the motors are 10 lbs so prolly one pound of copper in those. The small ones not sure I have some fractional ones to. I put the window compressors into my vicewoeks pretty well. I'm going to try the pipe cutter.

That's a good thought on the vise. I checked mine and it should work if i cut one of the ears off the base. It's been busy with the day job lately so i haven't had much time for scrapping. Things will quiet down after the winter weather settles in. Right now ... it's a mad dash to get all the outside work wrapped up before the window of opportunity closes.

You might double check the diameter of your ac tanks before ordering a tool. 4" seems to be the standard but yours might be different if they're older.

I found a used Rigid brand ... model No. 6-S pipe cutter on ebay for $ 129.00. That one will do tanks 4" - 6" in diameter. It wouldn't be a bad tool investment if you're planning on doing this kind of work for a few years as a way of making extra money on the side.

Originally Posted by hills

That's a good thought on the vise. I checked mine and it should work if i cut one of the ears off the base. It's been busy with the day job lately so i haven't had much time for scrapping. Things will quiet down after the winter weather settles in. Right now ... it's a mad dash to get all the outside work wrapped up before the window of opportunity closes.

You might double check the diameter of your ac tanks before ordering a tool. 4" seems to be the standard but yours might be different if they're older.

I found a used Rigid brand ... model No. 6-S pipe cutter on ebay for $ 129.00. That one will do tanks 4" - 6" in diameter. It wouldn't be a bad tool investment if you're planning on doing this kind of work for a few years as a way of making extra money on the side.

If I did 50 tanks that's 100lbs of copper current price is $294 every 100lbs I have to count the tanks but I'm looking at at least 200lbs if I do them all. Some tanks are different in weld spots also some are close to the top those suck haha. How long does it take to cut one with a pipe cutter? You said you do the top and bottom both how much time for one cut ?. Takes me 15min or so to cut the top off with sawzall and 23 or something min to pull the copper out depending if it cooperates haha. I chop the top off then pull the string then cut the copper wire with snips then pull it out through the top I wonder would cutting the bottom off work better would it just lift off the middle thing then do you think?.

I haven't timed it ... but it's fairly easy to cut the top off the tank with a pipe cutter. No different from cutting any steel pipe with a pipe cutter. Maybe three or four minutes per cut ?

Here's a video of a gent using a single wheel cutter. He gets done with talking and gets down to business at about 2.38 minutes in. You can see for yourself that it's not that hard.



Making the cut at the bottom would be about the same.

Imagine breaking down a regular electric motor. You can strip out the copper once you get the stator out. This is no different. A cut at the top ... a cut at the bottom ... you have the stator in your hands and you're ready to go.

I've got an old digital camera. If i can ever get the time ... i'll try to figure out how to upload a few photos here to the board. A good picture is worth a thousand words.