Hi all. my name is Fred and I have a question

about some wire that came out of an old UPS unit. The wire and terminals are copper with a coating of what I believe to be nickel. Does this sound about right? I did the match test to see if it was silver and it is not. This coating is to prevent corosion. [I think] Anyone seen this before and what might it be worth to the scrap yard? I have a few hundred pounds of this. Edit to add this material [coating] has a slight sheen [almost shiney but not as shiney as say chrome.

Originally Posted by fredp

about some wire that came out of an old UPS unit. The wire and terminals are copper with a coating of what I believe to be nickel. Does this sound about right? I did the match test to see if it was silver and it is not. This coating is to prevent corosion. [I think] Anyone seen this before and what might it be worth to the scrap yard? I have a few hundred pounds of this. Edit to add this material [coating] has a slight sheen [almost shiney but not as shiney as say chrome.

It should be #2 copper as long as it has no plastic.

I am thinking the coating would devalue the copper but if the coating is in fact nickel it shouldn't devalue it much.

Originally Posted by fredp

I am thinking the coating would devalue the copper but if the coating is in fact nickel it shouldn't devalue it much.

There is no difference between the tin coating and the varnish used in motors, glue, paint, or anything else used as some kind of insulator. It really doesn't devalue the copper, it is just a lower grade. At my yard I get #1 which they pretty much consider bare bright, #2, and #3 which is pretty much roofing copper. It's only like a .10-.15 cent difference between #1 and #2 here. I usually only deal with 10-20 pounds at a time so it never really mattered much to me. If I had a few hundred pounds .10 a pound would matter more, you need to make sure you consider this before driving an extra 20 miles to a different yard that pays a nickel more a pound.

Originally Posted by fredp

about some wire that came out of an old UPS unit. The wire and terminals are copper with a coating of what I believe to be nickel. Does this sound about right? I did the match test to see if it was silver and it is not. This coating is to prevent corosion. [I think] Anyone seen this before and what might it be worth to the scrap yard? I have a few hundred pounds of this. Edit to add this material [coating] has a slight sheen [almost shiney but not as shiney as say chrome.

Yes the nickel coating is "solder" (lead/tin/silver-low % age) the sheen coating is varnish, i get 98% copper price for this almost as good as bright price.It's not worth doing anything else with it.

This has the coating on every strand. I am going to try a pic. These are battery cables for the UPS unit. Even the attachment plates are made the same. I've never seen any wire like this before. Viewing the ends of the cables I can see that it is copper. I am not sure I communicated what I have very well. At least that's what the wifey says...... I hope this works. I don't seem to post directly from my computer. I uploaded the pics to a gallery on another site so we will see. [or not]

If you cut any plastic/rubber insulation off it's #2, same as copper pipe with solder joints. I don't think there is a reasonable way to clean the copper and get #1 but the price between the two is only a few cents as I posted before.

Thanks phantoms. I did strip the rubber off. This is gonna add to my tool fund!

Yes, if you strip the insulation off it will be #2 copper, if you leave the insulation on, it will be #2 insulated copper.