Help help help!!!

**Alex** · 01-06-2012, 11:03 PM

Hey everyone, so i am new here, i told a little about myself in the introduce yourself thread. I was recently given permission to take metal out of an old abandoned building. Today was my first day doing so. I hauled out maybe 300 pounds of steel no problem then decided to focus on the copper because there is alott of wiring, and that is worth more money. I barely made a dent in the wiring, but heres a picture of what i took. The bucket is filled with 15 pounds or so of copper, the copper pieces you see in the background were from a long wire i found. The wire is maybe half an inch thick, is copper coated then below the copper has a plastic, followed by another innner core of copper. I have about 20 pounds of those. Since they arent pure copper im not sure what to do with them. anyone have any ideas or ever encountered this before??? also i was wondering if it is even worth striping the copper wires because it took me forever to do, but if i didnt spend so much time on it, i could pull out alot more wires! well let me know the best way to proceed please!! Thanks again in advance

**iScrap** · 01-07-2012, 12:26 AM

Hey Alex that type of wire you're referring to is corrugated copper tube coaxial cable usually used for communication systems. The foam insulation inside is used for protection against moisture. It is a pain in the a.. to strip but if time is on your side go for it.

**Alex** · 01-07-2012, 12:48 AM

Thank you! about how much is it worth per pound if i only strip the outter rubber coating because i dont want to try to seperate the center piece, thatll take too long. And sorry everyone if i posted this in the wrong section

**iScrap** · 01-07-2012, 01:18 AM

Forgot to ask you did you find connector ends on any of those cables? Because if you did they're most likely made of nickel-plated brass.

**parrothead** · 01-07-2012, 05:45 AM

You need to take a hunk of it in to your scrap yard and ask what they will pay for it. Cable of that type will probably get different prices from yard to yard. Once you have that price, take 10 pounds of it, strip it completely and compare the clean price to the unclean price and weigh that against your time.

I would like to know what kind of yield you get from that as well.

If you have a lot of it, it would be worth the time to set up a jig with a blade in it for stripping that particular coax.

Oops, I just reread your post and you only have 20 pounds of it. Set it aside for stripping when you have time on your hands and get as much out of that building as you can before someone changes their mind.

**skipRAT** · 01-07-2012, 07:06 AM

Originally Posted by Alex

Hey everyone, so i am new here, i told a little about myself in the introduce yourself thread. I was recently given permission to take metal out of an old abandoned building.

Very Lucky mate, get in there ASAP and get as much copper out as you can!!

Originally Posted by Alex

also i was wondering if it is even worth striping the copper wires because it took me forever to do, but if i didnt spend so much time on it, i could pull out alot more wires! well let me know the best way to proceed please!! Thanks again in advance

I dont know if this is the professional response or even the one you was hoping for mate, but personally,
I would strip the lot, if you have the time, the end result will be worth it!

Be Lucky