Refrigerator Compressor

Popped the top on my first refrigerator compressor today. Not too bad. Followed advice that I have found on here and it went as expected, and yeilded nearly 3 pounds of #2 copper wire from the windings. Used an angle grinder clamped the compressor in my WorkMate and cut just above the weld and took the top right off. Cut the tubing out and then separated the motor from the housing, exposing all that pretty copper wire. Then used a 12" metal cutting chopsaw to clear the top part of the windings and pryed the rest out with a screwdriver while the housing was clamped in a vice. Have 2 more to do and have a better idea of how to do them now. Thanks for this forum and all that post on it. There's money in there!!

The best tool I've found to pull windings so far is a seal puller from sears;

http://i1190.photobucket.com/albums/...sealpuller.jpg

Thanks, will look or one of those at the flea market. There is always an oddball tool table there.

I opened my first yesterday. Just to say I have done it. Was not fun. Had to use a sawzall with a metal-cutting blade. Took me about 3 hours. I tried to cut around three fourths of the way around it & pry the top off. Wouldnt budge. I then drilled holes in the rest & took a crowbar to it to finally break it enough to where I could bend it back.The reason why I had so much trouble was that It was hard to position it in a vice to where I could cut all the way around it.

After getting it open... thinking I had finally won.... I noticed that it had three metal tabs holding the motor in with springs. Had to sawzall them off. Then I tried to cut the top copper ring off with the sawzall & it just ripped out copper wires. I need a cleaner way to cut the ring off. Any suggestions? I may have to use a dremel cutting disc ... gonna take a while but I have the time. I prefer the copper be in one piece than a mess of cut & seperate wires I have to pick up with my fingernails.

Question... what grade copper is this? It didnt seem like the windings had varnish or anything else on it.

edit: I was prepared to throw a $h|T-fit if it turned out to be aluminum windings after going through all it took to open it.

I doubt I will bother doing this again. If I had a setup like this guy... http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dLU-q...tailpage#t=56s .... then maybe, but I dont.

I don't personally break them down. I've done the math and it's not worth it.

Resourceful. What would be the break down on some you have done ?

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Question... what grade copper is this? It didnt seem like the windings had varnish or anything else on it

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If it's in a winding then it has some kind of varnish on it or they would short out and burn up from touching each other.

Resourceful, I would be interested in seeing your math.

Dirtymoney, my yard grades it at field copper which is .10 less than #2. But then I do leave all the string on the windings and most of the plastic.

If they paid 'motor prices' for compressors it probably wouldn't be worth it.

But when they don't pay 'motor prices', they only pay 'lightgauge' or shred.

Thats when its worth taking them apart. You end up with 2Lb copper & the rest is now 'Heavy gauge iron'.

Use a angle grinder to cut them open, a 9inch disc cuts thru 15 or so. Say it costs 50 cents per compressor. Total return is like NZ$10 each.