cleaning the steel from copper aluminum coils with a chainsaw.

**ScrapmanIndustries** · 03-11-2019, 06:57 PM

I said it awhile ago on here and someone didn't believe me, claiming I would cut my leg off. The coils from Ac units can be cut with a normal chainsaw. I don't do this on all of them and it is kinda sketchy at first and really dangerous if you don't enter the cut wide open throttle, but some guy on here I forget who called me out and said he wanted to see video. so here it is. If I find that post I'll link the video to that as well. by the way this way is a lot faster than the sawzall. If it wasn't so dangerous I would do it for all of them.

**mikeinreco** · 03-12-2019, 07:09 AM

Great job I hate when they curl at the end and you can't cut them flat and have to use weird angles

**ScrapmanIndustries** · 03-12-2019, 04:04 PM

Originally Posted by mikeinreco

Great job I hate when they curl at the end and you can't cut them flat and have to use weird angles

yes. I hate that as well. but it wasn't as noticeable with the chainsaw the way I had it set up. it was the first time doing them standing in the bed of my truck like that. I may continue to do so when I start scrapping again after this deployment.

**wayne1956** · 03-14-2019, 10:34 AM

I remove ends also, but prefer to use a cordless saw

**nutpie** · 03-18-2019, 09:47 AM

That does not wreak the chain?

**ScrapmanIndustries** · 03-18-2019, 10:02 PM

Originally Posted by nutpie

That does not wreak the chain?

I'd Imagine if you did that a lot it would wear it out a lot faster than cutting wood, but as long as you don't cut the steel your good. Now when I did this before I hit the steel on one of the big roof top units and that wore down my depth gauges a lot. but once I sharpened the cutters It still cut through wood. It definitely wears down the cutters. I barely made it through that wood without sharpening but it still made it through. now its sharp so its tearing through trees like crazy now. I would also worry about the bar getting dinged up as well if that's your only bar. I know how to sharpen and fix the bar myself so its not a big deal. but if that's your only bar and chain set, and you don't know how to sharpen it, I would not recommend doing this with the chainsaw if you depend on the saw for wood.

I normally use a sawzall for the ones this small as the chainsaw is kinda dangerous. the only reason I even tried this in the first place is when I was in Ft. Hood the difference in price between clean and dirty fins was like over $1 a pound more at the time. The only metal saw I had was a home depot hack saw as I didn't have a sawzall. I was at the yard with the coils and they said the price difference. I was like hold on I'm gonna clean them. broke out the chainsaw and gave it a shot and sure enough I made $300 on them fins. more than enough to cover a new bar and chain had I needed one and still put money in my pocket. If any ones gonna do this I highly recommend learning how to use the saw on wood first as it kicks way easier in metal.