What To Do With Old Cloth Electrical Wire?

[SkunkedAgain]

I've been slowly replacing all of the old cloth wiring in my house over the past several years. This summer I took a load of the wire to the Hennepin recycling center with the rest of my construction debris. Am I missing out on some $$ if I took this stuff to a scrap metal yard or do I not have enough to make it worth the effort?

[Powerstroke]

Copper wire is worth ALOT right now.

I recently made a scrap run and the number one money maker in my pile was brass, but the number two item was wire. It makes it worth it to me to save the wire scraps and cut off the scrap wire from items.

[CAMAN]

I've got 4 5-gallon buckets full of copper wire I've been meaning to run to the recycler. Don't know if there are better places to take it to, but the nearest place to me is JR's in Inver Grove Heights, just don't make it to that side of town very often.

I'd also recommend saving aluminum, that also has a good recycle value.

[JohnMickish]

Kirschbaum/Krupp in Minneapolis right now is buying bare copper at between $2.72 and $2.98 per pound, depending on the quality. If you don't strip it, it is worth $1.72 per pound right now.

Yes, you are missing out on some money, not a bunch of money but enough to make it worth your while.

[Powerstroke]

Express metals in Hopkins on Excelsior Blvd is where we've been bringing our stuff.

[Gordie]

Northern Meatals recycling probally has the highest prices on scrap over all the other yards just off of Broadway

[SkunkedAgain]

Thanks guys.

So I need to pull the cloth wiring out of the BX conduit to get full value?

[CAMAN]

Thanks guys.

So I need to pull the cloth wiring out of the BX conduit to get full value?

The less work they need to do to get clean copper the better

[Tom7227]

It may not be best for the environment but I have seen where folks just burn it off in an open fire outside.

I have gone to the one in Hugo and if you even have a brass valve on a long piece of copper pipe you get less for it. It makes sense to sort it all out before you get there.

[JohnMickish]

If it is burnt, most places won't take it. They don't want to get hit with the fine.

[Tom7227]

If it is burnt, most places won't take it. They don't want to get hit with the fine.

I didn't know that. So how do you clean it up to sell it without spending an awful lot of really boring time?

[SkunkedAgain]

Buy beer first, then it's not so boring

[reinhard1]

.good luck.

[JohnMickish]

I didn't know that. So how do you clean it up to sell it without spending an awful lot of really boring time?

If you are talking household size wire (10-14 gauge) it's not worth stripping. If it's romex, just take it in like it is since it too is not really worth stripping unless you have a whole lot of time on your hand and don't mind working for pennys and hour. If you really want to strip it, get a wire stripper and take the insulation off a couple inches at a time, but think of how much wire you will need to strip to overcome the cost of the wire stripper!

I personally don't strip wire that is 8 gauge and smaller, it's not worth my time and the weight of the insulation is very minor in the small stuff.

The best way to strip big wire is to lay it on the driveway in the summer time in the sun, let it soften up for a half hour or so and let the insulation gets flexable. Put one end in a vise and run a razor knife down the length and peel the insulation off. This works really nice for runs up to about 75', longer than that the weight can get to much for one guy, especially with wire 1/0 and larger.

If you are working with MC and BX wire, and you have a bunch of it, let me warn you it's hard on the hands but this is worth taking the outer aluminum covering and inner plastic/paper liner off.

Small wire is a PIA to strip, that pretty much summs it up. For 50 cents a pound difference, if you only have 5 pounds of scrap is it really worth a couple hours for $2.50?

[JohnMickish]

Express metals in Hopkins on Excelsior Blvd is where we've been bringing our stuff.

As an FYI, todays pricing Express metals is $1.38lb romex, Kirschbaum/Krupp is $1.45lb. Bare Bright, Express is $2.96, KK is $3.05.

Depending on how much you have, it might pay to drive the extra 10 miles.

[SkunkedAgain]

This is all 14-gauge BX installed in the 1950s, with cloth insulation. I've got lots of 5-20 foot runs lying around.

[leech~~]

Am I missing out on some $$ if I took this stuff to a scrap metal yard or do I not have enough to make it worth the effort?

Heck ya, haven't you read in the paper or heard on the news where people have been going into brand new home sites before people move in and pulling all of the copper wiring out by just ripping the walls apart with crow bars! I work right next to a Comcast cable service yard and they had to install barbed wire and cam's around the place. I actually seen two people early in the morning jumping the 8-10 foot fence to throw big rolls over to their buddies waiting with a car. The price on copper has been up for a while now so it is worth something.

[Powerstroke]

Thanks for posting the prices. Being in the SW metro, Express is certainly closer to me.

I will certainly keep KK in mind though if the scrap pile gets big enough, it may be worth the extra drive.

[JohnMickish]

I loaded up about 400 lbs of copper bar today, I am looking forward to my next trip.

[CAMAN]

I loaded up about 400 lbs of copper bar today, I am looking forward to my next trip.

Buss Bar?? Nice little paycheck!!!

[JohnMickish]

Yes, buss bar. I demoed out a 1200 amp motor control center and thats what I got out of it. I still have three runs of 500MCM to yank out before I take it in.$$$