Copper Transformers

I find it that it is almost always more money breaking them down. higher margins with larger ones though... obviously.

in general, it is usually more profitable to break down metals to their individual sections. what makes them not profitable is how long it might take you out some other people to do them.

weigh before and after and time how long it takes you to do it. take your profit from separating and divide it by how long it took you, in hours... or minutes.

I tried hammering at the ones with the steel around em, and ended up giving up. the other ones were nice and ez though.

On the bigger ones if you have a vise and reciprocating saw, with metal cutting blade of course, it pretty easy to cut off the steel bands. I've used the chisel and hammer method as well, but it's obviously way more time consuming and not very profitable.

Yea..the hammer technique will not work on ones surrounded by steel. The ones in the picture shouldn't be more then ferrite, tape,plastic(spool) an of course copper.

Hammering things...therapeutic since the invention of the hammer!

Edit: Last on in the bottom row on the right looks like it's got the steel around it. Usually it's only the bigger ones like that, but now an then some of the small ones will have it. Rare in my experience. as always..YMMV.

Sirscrapalot - Hammer time.

take the steel ones and burn,they fall apart. ed

we do NOT condone burning anything. do it right, and legal, or not at all. BroJer

I unwrap the copper by hand, but now, I am going to smash them

I put them in as is with the electric motors...

Originally Posted by Scrap808

I have been looking all over for a straight answer and I have not found one regarding whether copper transformers are worth scrapping:



I have ones ranging from smaller than my pinky nail to pretty large 5 pound ones. My yard takes them at $0.25/lbs. with my motors. The ferrite around them (especially the big ones) I imagine make up most of the weight. Is the copper + ferrite worth more at $0.25/lbs. than only copper at $1.29 (both will rise when copper rises. I'm hoarding till then) and shred at $0.06? If the majority of the weight is shred, the yard is paying me 3 to 4 times for the ferrite than if I separated it. Is the seperated copper enough to make up the difference and then some?

I've searched around and I've only heard that its worth it because the copper is worth more. But if you are removing 75% of the weight by sorting out the copper, is it really? A 5 pound transformer will need a full pound of copper just to break even. Most definitely not worth the work. And of course when the price of copper goes up, so will the price for motors. But the price of steel will not fluctuate quite as much making the ferrite and plastic all the more valuable when copper goes back on the rise. And when you factor in the plastic spool (that the yard pays $0.25 per pound for when sold as a motor), breaking apart the transformer looks less and less attractive.

Personally, I leave them whole simply because I'm also located in HI. Can't sell it for anything worth a buck on the Island. I guess I could always break them down and save it up to ship out on my next lot.

Does anyone just smash the ferrite and plastic out of the tape wrapped ones and leave the copper in the tape?

Yep. Hammer method..works awesome on most of them.

An that copper adds up, if you get enough. Hardest issue is making sure the little ones on plastic spools, don't go flying off into the great beyond..lol

Sirscrapalot - If you can't open it easily, break out the hammer.

On the steel transformers I place in a vise and use my cutoff Wheel on my grinder to cut thru the copper on the top where it meets the metal. Then use a punch to tap against the cut copper edge forcing it out through the bottom. Then I remove any tape or string as this also works on the stator in electric motors.

I dont know whether any one else has found this, but almost all of the small, pcb mounted transformers that have the ferrite cores have yellow tape on them, and the steel cored ones have blue or red tape on them.
If I am right (doesnt happen often), its an easy way to spot the ones for hammer dis-assembly Vs painstaking removal of the steel shims.

I tried doing the small ones but it didn't seem worth doing for what you get out of em'. The five to seven pound ones yield about 3/4 - 1 lb of copper. For me: It's a lot easier to cut the copper with a sharp,quality, 1" chisel and then drive out the remaining U shape with a punch. A lot of the local guys here use a meat cleaver and a chunk of I-beam as an anvil.

Just watch where you're swingin' that cleaver !

I always break these down no matter how big or small, after some attempts the best way I've found is to take a hammer and break them apart,
you will notice that the unit, |_{|}_| (the brackets are the copper, straight lines are the metal prongs that hold it in place)!has a metal cap welded along the top holding it all together.
With a solid hammer (I use 5lb lump) striking the weld in a glancing blow (down and away from the copper coil) will break the weld after one to three hits allowing you to punch out the retaining bracket.
you end up with a neat little copper coil that's easy to clean up (tape, plastic) and whatever metal is leftover, steel, iron etc....
The only issue I've found with this is one tricky little bugger, that has the |__|__| going one way and then the other... These have flat spacers in between, once you bang them out the retainers come out easy.

Hope this helps with my little keyboard pics.