One of these things is not like the other...

I'm new to scrapping. I've starting a couple of buckets separating out my clean copper from tin plated and other stuff. This morning I ran a magnet across my tin plated stuff to make sure I didn't have any ferrous wire in the mix (I was suspicious of some uninsulated ground wires in some power cords). Just for grins I thought I'd run the magnet over the 'clean copper'. To my surprise I picked up a piece that came out of a coax cable. If this pic attaches correctly, that's a magnet hanging on the side of the one wire. Looks just like the other, but I can see on the cut end that the one has a gray center with a copper outer plating.

Is this common? TIA

In newer coax it is. Always check it with a magnet

Yes. Both of these had the weaved shield wire in addition to an aluminum foil wrap. But I do suspect this wire was a pre-fab that came off an old DirecTV receiver I have. Just been cleaning out the tubs of old electronics/wiring from my attic and was surprised by this. Thanks for the info. So does that wire just go in the shred pile?

ok I did not know this very intresting indeed thanks for the thread!!!!
so this would be better left un stripped and chuck in the cord pile then i would say...would this be correct?
or is there a scrap value as stripped?

Originally Posted by Gravitar

Also, if for whatever reason you don't have a magnet,

No magnet? Haha, nearly every speaker I see gives me one ; )

Originally Posted by Bear

No magnet? Haha, nearly every speaker I see gives me one ; )

A scrapper without a magnet is like a car without tires.