All your pictured wire would've been #1 insulated at my yards... they like thicker than a pencil lead or if you bend it and it holds its shape...
All your pictured wire would've been #1 insulated at my yards... they like thicker than a pencil lead or if you bend it and it holds its shape...
~You have to start somewhere to get anywhere~
Some pictures of my second load of insulated copper wire. So far, in less than 1 hour, I have stripped 100lbs. I have stripped the larger diameter wire by hand with a utility knife. The largest diameter wire is MCM 250. It is pretty easy to cut along the length of the wire with the knife. The insulation just pulls right off. I have also relocated my drill powered wire stripper from my garage to my shop. It is somewhat noisy while running in the garage and can wake up the wife and kids if I strip for a prolonged period of time. The shop is away from the house and I can make as much noise as I want. I will have some photos from the shop in the next couple days showing the cart with my stripper mounted to it. I have a lot more room in the shop also so I can store the cable without taking up garage space.
This time I purchased 300lbs. My electrician is removing the wire from a school that is slated to be torn down. Sounds like that could be thousands of pounds. I hope I can get some of it to strip for my third load.
This is a piece of the larger diameter wire. This wire came in 3 to 4 foot lengths so I stripped it by hand.
This is a photo showing how I use the utility knife to cut the wire and then pull it out of the insulation. This is pretty quick and easy but my shoulder is a little sore from having to apply pressure to the knife as I pull it down the wire.
Last edited by silverockdzl; 05-11-2015 at 12:00 AM.
WoW!!
Hey again. I am halfway through load #2 of stripping insulated copper wire for cash. It goes pretty fast so I am already planning to purchase more from my electrician friend. As stated, I will do another video showing the stripper cutting through larger cables. Check it out!
http://www.scrapmetalforum.com/scrap...tml#post245580
Nice video! Looks like it will be a nice little haul.
I can't speak highly enough about foot pedals. If I were you I would have a foot pedal controlling the drill to free up both of your hands. You could put a hose clamp around the trigger of the drill and crank it down just tight enough to run the drill at about 1/2 speed. And it would be adjustable for when you wanted to run flat out for short stuff.
If you had nice long strands you could even feed about a foot though and start the separation of copper and plastic and separate the two as it's coming through the stripper. No more wasted time (and back) of shooting it on the floor then picking it up, starting the separation then doing it all by hand.
I know you're doing well and making money but I'm a huge advocate of eliminating steps. When I get my stripper up and running I will make a video of what I'm describing.
This method wouldn't make sense for all wire or lengths but the blue stuff you sent through in your video is a prime candidate of wire you can save steps on while stripping.
Hope you see that 1000# from the school!
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