Metal Recycling Entrepreneur
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hello all,
I'm new here and had a quick question, i was thinking about melting my copper wire into bars for scrap but after researching, is it really worth it? i had thought that the yard would give you #1 price for bars and since i have a lot of #2 copper that would be good for me but now i don't know if it's worth the time.
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call your yard. Will they buy home forged bars? Most wont. So unless your yard will buy the bars your quick answer is no.
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Hello and welcome. Quick questions often seem to require long answers, or at least it seems that way to me. While I have not researched it myself, it has come up a time or two on this forum in other posts. My best recollection is that it's not a good idea. But if you want, you can use the search function to read the related threads for yourself if you wish to pursue it a little further.
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Not a good idea. If you are zoned and licensed for such activities, then great. The problems that stem from what you suggest would take all night to discuss. The short of it is; yards are accountable for what they buy, if they bars from you. How do they know how or what you melted to form the bars. Was it stolen copper piping from a home? Are the bars from melted pennies? You get the picture.
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Talk with Sipi,
SiPi METALS CORP
I would describe them as the last authority on anything copper, they have literally acres and acres of copper electrolytic cells.
There are all kinds of crazy laws all across the United States governing how copper is processed through recycle yards. Also if you are a business it's somewhat different in most places, than if you are an individual Joe Blow.
Scott
At the heart of science is an essential balance between two seemingly contradictory attitudes--an openness to new ideas, no matter how bizarre or counterintuitive they may be, and the most ruthless skeptical scrutiny of all ideas, old and new. This is how deep truths are winnowed from deep nonsense. -- Carl Sagan
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if you were to melt them into bars you would need to make them top notch, and then sell them on ebay for way more than scrap!
Metal Recycling Entrepreneur
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I kind of thought that is what people were trying to do with all the pennies they buy off of ebay. I couldn't think of any other reason to pay over face value.Originally Posted by PartTimeScrapper
Metal Recycling Entrepreneur
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ok thanks, i'm still young and learning haha good thing i didn't try it and waste my copper
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P & M Recycling - Specializing in E-Waste Recycling.
If you enjoy your freedom, thank a vet.
Metal Recycling Entrepreneur
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thanks for the links! i have decided it is not worth it for me, would just be wasting time and money
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I figured I would mention this here since the discussion is about copper, and melting it into dore'
If you do have a large quantity of copper, check with SiPi to do your refining instead of sending it to a scrap yard. Here is the reason why.
Copper used in pipes and wire is of high purity, usually 99.9+ % copper specially for heavy duty electrical applications. However, there is that small percentage that isn't copper. Interesting thing about this is that if you have enough copper, you can start to retrieve the minute amounts of precious metals. It's that .01% that isn't copper, that starts to build up. Then when you send your copper to be refined at SiPi, you tell them you want what's call a "full accountability".
What happens when copper is run in an electrolytic cell, the copper is put in a basket that prevents the other metals from mixing with the copper as it dissolves into solution, makes it's way through the filter bag, and plate out on the cathode. What is left behind is called "anode slimes" and contains precious metals among others. If you don't ask for full accountability the refinery isn't going to talk about anode slims, and retains the values. The money is not in the copper they refine, but in the residual precious metals left as anode slimes.
So if you ship off 4-5 thousand lbs of copper, you might have 1-15 ounces, or possibly more, of gold and other PMs retained as anode slimes.
Scott
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