Ah man did I feel bad for the guy in front of me

And I'm posting this because in the beginning I had no idea there were different kinds of wire and maybe it will help someone else new to the game on here by reading it because it seems so simple but if you don't know any better when your just starting out...........




so this young kid (maybe 19/20) had 3 large garbage cans filled with insulated wire (2) and one with stripped. He got to the scale and they yard guy told him it was mixed - he hadn't separated the copper from the aluminum. Told him lets be honest here, I can give you $.30 lb for the mixed or you can take it home and separate it and get $3.35 for the copper and (blank) for the aluminum. Kid took it back home when he learned that. Now, those cans hold a honking lot of wire so I felt real bad for him I knew it was gonna take hours to check and separate it all. This happened to me when I first started, I had a mixed bag because nobody told me to sand it to tell if it was aluminum vs. copper so maybe someone can learn from this if they are new.

it's very nice of you to let the newby's know about this (although if they read the archives they's learn it, too).....I, fortunately had a yard manager who explained that to me when I brought in a whole radiator....still took me weeks to get it all straight in my thick head. If I'd had Mick's post for newby's I would have gotten it sooner.

On the other hand, they could've just paid him for the barrels mixed, and paid somebody there to sort it. As it was, he'd have had to sort it first anyway, so he really didn't lose all that much time, and the education he got was pretty valuable for what it cost him.

Originally Posted by Mick

I did the same thing. About 60 pounds of stripped wire. Took it back home and started scraping ends to check. Finally decided the jumbled mess was too much hassle and took it back in. Just took what they gave me.

Education costs money.

hey mick, if the wire was stripped already, why did you have to scrape the ends to check? it seems to me that all my wire is either clearly copper or clearly aluminum. am i missing something?

I've got one can full of assorted wire now. I was going to let it build up until I'm taking it in, but that might end up being a lot of work. Maybe better to Strip it as I get it.

I hate Aluminum wire, all the newer appliances are using it in Motors. My yard pays only 70 cents for insulated wire, but that's for any Grade.

Much obliged sir. I went through my bucket and found a few pieces like this. You saved a newbie some hassle.