Breaker panel switches

Hello all .. I am new to this and have a quick question ..I picked up a circuit breaker panel out of a house that was being renovated. I opened the box and pulled out about a foot of aluminum wire now my question is ... am I correct that the breakers are not good for anything else and should be left in the box for extra weight ?

Thanks in advance.

Inside the plastic switch boxes is brass and copper bus bars, very small, but if you start saving them they add up....

http://www.handh.net/ depending on the type of breaker, amount of breakers and their condition they may be able to help you out. I just shipped a large box of industrial type breakers starters and mcc bucket. Take a picture of it so they can see what you have, I contacted many dealers until they sent me an offer.

If your talking about the plastic breaker switches; I'd whack it with a big hammer and collect the brass inside it. It all adds up after you get enough. Do this after you had a bad day out scrapping and take it out on the breakers and not the family,,,lol Mike

Thanks for all the responses. I am low on space so I decided with this one to just take it in as it was. At this point in time I go to the yard about once a week when I get 200 - 400 pounds on my trailer or I feel that its it becoming unsightly. So far since I started this in Feb I make between $40-$60 each trip.


But I should have my shed in the next 2 weeks so I will be able to stockpile and sort more.

Save those breakers!!! Each one contains four little silver or palladium contacts!! Snip them off as close to the silver-colored-brass or silver-plated-copper connector as possible and save them up until you have an ounce or more to sell or refine. These things are also in switches, motor starters, and contactors. You will find them in washing machines, dryers, microwave ovens, fridges and electric stoves that you scrap out. ANYTHING that has a large electic motor will have some form of motor starter or contactor. (Large = bigger than a grapefruit) Home type circuit breaker contacts are: round, 1/2 the diameter of a pencil erasor, silver or black or burnt-silver looking. Beware: When you smack that breaker with a hammer, sharp pieces of black plastic will fly all over. Better to tap them on top of the rivets that hold them together.

I have sold lot of circuit breakers from 30 amp to 2400 amps and I to use http://pearl1.org/buy-or-sell-electr...RL-members.htm . This outfit
send out to lot of different company's and I send to the ones that will pay the most and shipping at that time. Found some company's will pay more if the breakers you
have are low on their inventory list. 99% of the time you make more this way than scrapping them. Just to let you have a sample of one deal, they payed shipping and I received
a check in less than a week for $2678.00 for a Squared 2500 amp breaker that I got just for demo of an old plant that I was getting paid to do. At the time I est. I would of got maybe $120 in silver scrap.

Before you scrap a braker box, take it apart, under the brakers is a metal bar that the brakers snap onto most of the time it is solid copper. These bars have a silver looking coating on them, you might want to hit it with a grinder or file and look for copper. I got over 5 lbs. of copper out of one box so keep your eyes open for this.

Any pictures of the silver contacts inside of the breakers and switches??

I have also wondered about the actual contacter points in a set of contacters out of a roof top air conditioner.The points are very small but have to be a precious metal.

This is out of a modern plastic breaker switch >
The raised rectangle part beside each matchhead is the silver connection.


I have a really old CastIron English breaker/switch at home that I will have a look into tonight.

Thanks for the pictures, now the question remains, how do you refine?