Big transformers and a large electric motor.

Check out these oversized items we received.

Holy transformers batman! Power pole transformers?

Originally Posted by logansryche

Holy transformers batman! Power pole transformers?

They are not off power poles, but I'm not sure what they came out of.

Worth breaking down for sure.

How much do those transformers weigh?

Looks to me like the one on the right would weight around 1000-1200 LB range and the other one may be 800-1000 LB. Just a guess on my previous experience with them.

Those are just dry type transformers...some are aluminum some copper.

Originally Posted by jimicrk

How much do those transformers weigh?

The one on the right is 1080lbs alone.

Originally Posted by sjones99

Those are just dry type transformers...some are aluminum some copper.

Those were copper.

Did you sell as is or strip them?

Originally Posted by myekem

Did you sell as is or strip them?

Sold them as is.

What kind of price did you get on them as is? And what is #2 or #3 copper going for where you are?

Originally Posted by myekem

What kind of price did you get on them as is? And what is #2 or #3 copper going for where you are?

I got .40/lb for them as is. #2 copper here is around $2.40/lb.

Did they have a low % of copper inside? If they had enough copper I would've taken them apart but I find large transformers and motors sometimes have a very small amount of copper. I only get .15 cents a lb here for copper bearing scrap so I take the copper out of whatever's worth it. Did you at least snip the wires off?

They have quite a bit of copper but some are harder to get apart than others. The glue/varnish is sometimes thick making the insulating paper stick to the copper. Other times you can unwind the copper right off by hand or do like I did and unwind it by winding the copper onto rotating forklift forks

My buyer doesn't go by set prices. If the the item is of higher quality, then we work out a higher price. I think the price I got was very fair.

The price was fair. Its more than I paid for the ones I have, but I bought mine as a transformer that way I could sell as is.

I have played with surplus 400 Hz motors and found that they run just fine on 60 Hz if you reduce the voltage on the motor to 60/400 (~1/7) of its rated voltage. A 115V 400 Hz motor will run on 17V at 60 Hz. The current draw increases rapidly and the motor gets hot if you try to go much above 17V. And of course, like in the video, the motor only runs at about 1/7 the speed. The torque is about the same and since power is speed times torque, the output power is about 1/7 of the 400 Hz rated power.
There are down-sides to 400 Hz power distribution. Long 400 Hz power lines would act like antennas to some extent and radiate some of the power into space. And 400 Hz transformers although smaller than 60Hz units, require expensive special metal alloys and structures in their cores to keep losses to a minimum.

If you need any kind of help, I will appreciate.

Do you guys know of any buyers that buy working transformers? Mostly out of chiller units, but I get others from time to time