Brass wire clips question

I did some searching on the forum and couldn't find exactly what I was looking for. I recently started going through my bin of insulated wire to remove the brass clips on the end and about 1 of every 4 I pull brings about a cm of the insulated or exposed copper wire with it. Since I've never scrapped these before, my question is how picky are yards about that small amount of wire? Does it become dirty brass vs. clean? What is the price difference? Is there a better way to remove them than yanking off with pliers? All advice appreciated as this is my current way of passing the time during the coldest weekend of the year.

You should get clean brass for the clips with the little bit of copper and insulation, I use a pair of dykes or pliers with the wire cutter in them to snip them off as close to the clip as possible.

my yard doesnt bother about a bit of copper wire when i bring in my brass

Brass is nothing but an alloy made of copper and zinc. A little added copper won't hurt and your yard shouldn't care a bit.

Crazy winter for Buffalo, eh? I'm glad that this has been the worst of it.

If it is bare copper my yard doesn't say anything, but if there is insulation on the wire I either pull that off or trim it with dykes.

Brass is an alloy comprised of Copper and Zinc. Brass goes for $1.20/lb locally. Copper is $1.85/lb for #1 wire. Having some "extra" copper in small quantities, probably isn't going to matter because it's worth more than the brass itself.

I learned as a youngin if it's brass and the coppers to hard/costly to remove and u don't have any iron attached to it just throw it in with the yellow brass. The old timers I worked with taught me a lot and I def wouldn't be in the position I am in if it wasn't for them.

The little bit of copper is just iceing on the cake for the brass mill's.

When prices were high it may have been a issue, now with such low prices they are happy to get metal any metal... And I think dirty brass would be any iron or plastic on it, not sure about other non ferrous metals attached to it.

the yard I used to go to changed where they sold thier brass. the non ferrous manager updated me on a few things.

he said it sound kind of stupid, but the new buyer does not want excess copper on the brass. they wanted to melt it with minimal adjustments to the mix

Thanks gentlemen, quick and reliable advice as always.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by brassbuster

The little bit of copper is just iceing on the cake for the brass mill's.

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I have figured that too. Having a excess of the more expensive metal must be a bonus.
Sorta like the Ali/Copper radiators. If its a CPU one and I can knock the Copper off, I do it. If its going to take any extra time at all, its a bonus to the buyer.

And when I have a 'Silver soldered' Copper or Copper/Brass connection, I cut as close to the join as possible and make the join a separate preice of metal in my 'Domestic Copper' scrap.
Any good peices of heavy Copper tube go into 'Copper #1 and I get more for it.
The silversoldered joins probably get separated out somewhere in China. Its only 5-15% Silver anyway.

But yeah, things are changing as Mattin the hat said. 'Keep the grades clean' seems to be the new way.