Hello from Alberta

Ive been following the site for a couple months. Lots of good info, thanks. Working rigs up here so I have access to mostly brass valves, copper wire, and aluminum. My company allows its employees to pick whatever we want out of thier scrap bin. They say its less for them to haul. Ive been collecting scrap for around 6 years and I find Scrap is a great way to maximize my earning potential.

The Canadian penny is becoming extinct and as of Feb banks wont give them out anymore. Ive been every town in 100km buying pennies and stripping out the copper. Was wondering if anyone has any suggestions for burying copper. PVC makes me nervous because it reacts with the copper.

Welcome from Indiana...

Im just doing it while i watch TV. Im stripping out all the pre 96. People probabley thought the same about pre 67 silver coins. Bet people wished they would have stockpiled them now.

Originally Posted by klydom

Im just doing it while i watch TV. Im stripping out all the pre 96. People probabley thought the same about pre 67 silver coins. Bet people wished they would have stockpiled them now.

Ain't no problem getting free silver from your scrap venue. Silver is much more abundant than gold.

Bet you could build a simple machine to separate the copper bearing years from your bulk pennies for ya, big difference in specific gravity between copper and zinc.


Copper is 8.96
Zinc is 7.133

I was thinking abput it to but the banks tell me after feb 4 they will not give them out anymore. its a 1 way trip to the mint from the bank, therby cutting off my supply. To be honest its kind of fun and addictive so its really no trouble. I have also made some sets of mint coins that i may sell in 10 years when nobody has pennies anymore. I did however build a wire stripper that is basically a chunk of 2x4 with different size holes in it. i tapped a razor blade through the wood just till it poked thru the holes. Then i just feed the wire thru the hole an it cuts the insulation. Then peel it off.

Youtube to the rescue, simple home made penny sorter - works on specific gravity.

Once you get over the penny habit, start looking for silver.

Yes you can find plenty of silver in the scrap pile, I use the back end of a claw hammer to strip the screws loose from the back panels of electric ranges, washing machine, dryers and electric hot water tanks. What your after is the rheostats inside each one has small silver contacts.
Since the rheostats are made from Bakelite you can smash them open with the same hammer you used to strip the screws off the back panels.

Circuit breakers from old electrical panels, magnetic start switches the bigger the better all have silver contacts inside, the copper bolt below came from a large Delco Remy starter from inside the solenoid.

Stop messing with pennies your not even making gas money.

So how do you extract the silver then from the contacts. Or do you? I see breaker panels and stuff like it in or scrap bin all the time. Look at the size of the bolt, and its solid copper? Wow. amazes me how much money can be made off what people are throwing away.

Hey I really thank you for all the great info, and you bet on the part about regurgitating old questions. I do understand sacrificial anodes are used as a sacrficial metal as the name suggests, thereby protecting the copper pipe in say your hot water heater. I have removed them from some due to them causing an odor in with some well water. Shortens the life to varying degrees but makes showering etc. Less likely to induce vomiting.

thanks again on the heads up with the forum I will be checking it out.

In the picture below copper is the sacrificial anode, exchanging copper ions for silver which cements out of solution.

Credits of the image belong to Silver Refining

Glad to see you've hooked up in here dude. You are in the right part of the country and there's plenty of stuff thrown out for you to score. Say, are you melt'n those pennies or reverse plate'n them or just what are you doing to 'em? I've got a few pounds here myself that I'm sort'n through pull'n out the coppers and getting a fair stack going so far. lb