Printable View
Our last load back in Oct netted us $1.25 lb for 86 lb of mixed small and computer wire. The yard called it #2. O.D. save it up till you get a truckload and make a small vacation and enjoy some of our Hoosier hospitality and #2 prices. Can you imagine a truckload of #2, makes me drool.
http://www.dogguide.net/images/drool...f%20Tongue.jpg
Has that poor dog been exposed to MEK? :)
MEK probably does the same thing as DCM to plastic costed wire.
It gets soaked up into the plastic & it grows about 300% in size & turns into a soft pasta consistancy but it stays together or beaks up into grains. It dosn't get soft in a 'solution' sort of way.
You could use a twin roller wringer to squeeze the plastic out. Then shake the left over bits off the copper.
Its nice to see the copper 'in the nude' so to speak, a really really bright copper colour.
The solvent could be recycled if all the solvent soaked plastic was put in a drum & it was heated up & the solvent distilled off.
Since its a real low boiling point its a lot easyer to distill off. Nothing fancy needed.
That could be taken further if you wanted to go for 'destructive distillation' of the plastic coating.
Just heat it till it gets red & distill off the liquid.
Once its done, all thats left is carbon.
I got as far as 30mls & found I needed a water cooled condensor at the least, I just used a straight peice of pipe, in air.
And I was using plastic coated wire, I wanted to get the solvent & sift the ash from the left over copper wire.
This will not work.
Regular steam is a maxim of 212F or 100C you need super heated steam. Boiling the water and forcing the steam though a coil that is placed in the fire will super heat it.
Just watch your fingers. You now turned 212F steam into 500F+ steam.
That should melt the plastic right off.
MEK also known in slang as Methyl Ethyl Death in my opinion is not some thing that anyone should consider using in the envornment in which most of us scrap. (i.e. in the garage, storage unit, driveway etc.). MEK is violently flammable, its flash point low enough that a spark from static electricity could set it off as well as sparks from a grinder or slag from a torch. Its not the flammability that I would be so concerned with, it's the health risks of breathing the vapors and absorbing through the skin. MSDS personal protective equipment rating is an H splash goggles, gloves, apron and a vapor respirator should be worn during use. Not far from a full suit with an air supply. I am not an expert by no means, my day job requires me to read many MSDS sheets a 2 rating health and 3 on fire sends up a red flag for me. As far as some of the processes listed above, perhaps they are disasters waiting to happen. Sell it as is or strip if its worth while, consider the risk involved before you add any chemicals to a process, the wrong combination of things and you may have created a situation you don't want to be in. My post is not meant to ruffle feathers or start a conflict, just my thoughts and opinion.
I don't think they were talking about actually "burning" the wire itself, Victor.Quote:
Originally Posted by Victor
So that makes it ok?Quote:
Originally Posted by Kris Kringle
Burning the insulation off copper wiring isn't right, very professional or responsible. If we don't police ourselves to a higher standard somebody will for us. That's my opinion.
I think if you could get enough resitence in the wire it will heat enough to melt the insulation
paint thinner/toluene would be marginally safer than Methyl Ethyl Ketone
But the price of the thinner/mek etc. would outway the profit of the copper.
The recycling would have to be part of the process.Quote:
Originally Posted by Mechanic688
Since I never finished the destructive distillation of the plastic coated wire experiment I will put some time into it in a week or so.
The DCM experiment on plastic coated wire was interesting in how it got absorbed into the plastic so well.
Thats a good start since that soggy plastic will be easy to remove the copper from.
I'm thinking of a big 'coffee plunger' using a drum & sieve (bike rim & spokes?) pushing down from the top.
As the plastic absorbs the DCM it softens & is pushed up thru the sieve.
That'd have to be skimmed off & the DCM recovered from it, or use a massive amount of solvent...
Then recover the DCM from that.
A chopper sounds a lot easyer, Copper sinks in water. Plastic floats?