Wire identification

[BRASSCATCHER]

New here and reading a lot of posts about wire I d and what it is classified as. I have a nidea for us noobs. Cut a piece of wire from all types you have, get a a board, glue it,staple it onto the board. Go to whatever scrap yard u are going to deal with and ask them what type of wire they call it. This way you low what it is for where you live. Then hang it up whe ever you separate your wires and now you have an easy reference for your self. Hope this is useful. Sorry for the typos, I have fingers like sausages.lol.....Just saw that link to "scrap monster" on top of page...check it out it gives a good decription of wire types and their description. If you click on picture of the wire it gives the description. Seem like a good place to start...jmo.

[HLH&R Metals Recycling]

Even better, DO THE RECOVERY BEFORE YOU SELL IT! I'll explain for those who are unfamiliar.

Wire pricing is generally done by recovery. This is basically the percentage of weight that is copper. MCM is generally 88%, THHN is 78%, CAT 5 is 55%, etc. to determine the recovery, you will need a very accurate scale. I recommend purchasing something from an ammunition reloading supply company, such as midway usa. To do a recovery:

1) cut a small section of the wire that you wish to sell
2) weigh this piece and write down the weight. Any unit of measure is fine, it won't matter.
3) strip the wire, saving all of the copper
4) weigh the copper and write this figure down
5) divide #5 by #2 and multiply by 100. This is the recovery percentage for the wire.

Knowing the recovery of wire before you sell will help any time that you bring in something that is not a "standard" type of wire when you deal with whoever is grading it at the scale.

[HLH&R Metals Recycling]

Sorry, the last post should read divide #4 by #2. Sorry for any confusion.

[BRASSCATCHER]

Thanks HLH thats some great info, it's going in the notebook now....

[TMoney]

Great idea Brass! My un-stripped wire is starting to pile up, and I've been putting off dealing with it since I wasn't sure how to separate it. I'm going to put your idea to use for my next trip to the yard.