Its a hello from Me and a hello to you

Hi Everyone,

Just dropping in to say hi!

I'm Chives from Event Sparks Cable Recycling, based in the South West of England, in the county of Somerset.... yep I can drive a tractor! .... and yep you can have a key

I have been in the Electrical game since birth being a third generation electrical engineer, previously I worked with a baling company (Presona) and since the days of exhibiting at RWM have always wanted to own a granulator - sure beats the days of old stripping cable with a knife for pocket money when growing up, my old man said if we wanted money we had to earn it - then would throw the cable at us and it didn't take long to get the "Knack" of cable stripping with a knife.

My Life path had lead me down an Events route, where I love to spend time and used to earn a crust but since the beginning of 2020, Covid has put a stop to that. A new direction was required and this has lead to Event Sparks Cable recycling being formed in March 2020.

Currently we have 3 strippers - 2 x Greemman, 1 x Wrights and 2 x Greemman granultors. Always looking at moving forward and find ways to improve, learn and hopefully thrive.

Wishing Everyone a great Weekend!

Welcome to the forum from Las Vegas! Got a bit of wire chop experience myself. Congrats on the endeavor. How's it shaping up thus far? Looking forward to seeing you around the forum!

Originally Posted by JJinLV

Welcome to the forum from Las Vegas! Got a bit of wire chop experience myself. Congrats on the endeavor. How's it shaping up thus far? Looking forward to seeing you around the forum!

Thank you, well the fun has begun! slowly clearing the stock pile of my old stuff that was waiting for kit to process it (only took 15 yrs to arrive lol), had a few issues with plastic in the copper so have been sending it back to the table and its come back clean, I think this is partly to do with operator error but also learning the machines of what they will and wont do.

so far i have pretty much stripped the machine and rebuilt, found a few things i want to change, the rubber matting being the first as its gone hard/brittle and starting to break up. have tried a few sieve sizes just not tried a 6mm screen yet - is it worth it?

How often are you resharpening blades on granulators?

Hi Chive,

Good to meet you. I'm in a similar position to you minus the x amount of years experience as a sparky. Good to hear about your journey and how you have adapted, would love to hear more. Have sent you a DM.

Josh

Originally Posted by EventSparks

Thank you, well the fun has begun! slowly clearing the stock pile of my old stuff that was waiting for kit to process it (only took 15 yrs to arrive lol), had a few issues with plastic in the copper so have been sending it back to the table and its come back clean, I think this is partly to do with operator error but also learning the machines of what they will and wont do.

so far i have pretty much stripped the machine and rebuilt, found a few things i want to change, the rubber matting being the first as its gone hard/brittle and starting to break up. have tried a few sieve sizes just not tried a 6mm screen yet - is it worth it?

How often are you resharpening blades on granulators?

If you're getting good separation already no need to change the screen size. And blade resharpening you can't really schedule. Like if you have 5000kg of 45% cable (power cables without ends for example) and 5000kg of 35% (the same with the ends on them) the blades will wear at different rates due to the brass in the 35% that chews blades a bit more. Best you can do is monitor your chop for decreased chop purity and go from there. If you notice poor separation and it's not do to weight fluctuations on the vibrating table or other operator error then pop it open and see if the blades have a bunch of significant chips or dents. If so, time to swap them out and get them sharpened.

I to like strippers. 3 of them is a bit to much, I am getting older after all.

Their not very smart, but usually quite good looking.

Oh wait...we're not talking about the fun kind of strippers, but the wire kind.

My bad. Continue on.

Sirscrapalot - Welcome new person, even if you didn't bring strippers.

Good morning!

I’m based in the south east and ironically I’m also a sparky and I’m in the event business!

I’ve been toying with getting a granulator for a while.

Be good to have a chat!

All the best

Seb

Originally Posted by Sirscrapalot

I to like strippers. 3 of them is a bit to much, I am getting older after all.

Their not very smart, but usually quite good looking.

Oh wait...we're not talking about the fun kind of strippers, but the wire kind.

My bad. Continue on.

Sirscrapalot - Welcome new person, even if you didn't bring strippers.

Haha, must admit to smiling whilst reading your comments .... I like the other type of Strippers too but my wife and wallet don't, well they wife don't mind as long as the wallet isn't being hit.

My Strippers are different sizes so handy as not having to keep changing them around too much, the last two were also part of a bulk deal with the granulators, so worked out alright in the end.

Originally Posted by Sebgray

Good morning!

I’m based in the south east and ironically I’m also a sparky and I’m in the event business!

I’ve been toying with getting a granulator for a while.

Be good to have a chat!

All the best

Seb

Hi Seb, Tough time with events at the moment so it was the push needed to get this going, always up for a chat you never know where it my lead hopefully in a field with a pint!

Granulators are not cheap but should last and will need regular tinker time from what i have found so far, but I definitely prefer chopping flex to stripping it!

I would say have a good stock pile before you get one as it doesn't take long to munch through it, i have had a few issues with mine and getting contamination but cleaning the table and putting it through (direct on the table) has solved this.

So far i have striped the machine and rebuilt - had to change : springs, rubber matting, blades, snapped bolts and i've order lights that were missing and waiting for them to arrive.

but did find copper inside the machine from previous owner (27kgs) which was a lovely brucey bonus!

Chives

Latest update:

I have set up one granulator with the 2mm screen for flex cables and the other with a 4mm screen for T & E type cables, found that if i keep to cables under 6mm on T&E the blades last longer and its quicker to strip the larger one however this will change when looking at the next granulator with a pre stripper but that will cost alot but will increase the throughput, at this time i can handle the cable coming in but when this changes then there will be a backlog so either more hours processing or increase the output but that has a price.

data cables are being stock piled until i have a turbo, wish list includes an alligator shear and a water separator - not getting much in the flex but there is definitely some copper left in the plastic of the T&E.

Hope all are keeping well!
CHIVES