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Telephone wire

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  1. #1
    wayne1956 started this thread.
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    Telephone wire

    The folks here who maintain the telephone panels have mainly been discarding the thin wire they use. I asked them to save it for me and they said not a problem. It is very thin wire and a pain to strip. It is a thin solid core with an even thinner insulation coating. Does anyone know what most recycle centers consider this type of wire. Basically the copper wire is around half or more of the total weight, but again it is very thin. I was wondering if it was still considered #2 insulated. I am going to take a sample to my yard next time I go, but was wondering if many other folks here have had any experience with it.



  2. #2
    Mechanic688's Avatar
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    My yard doesn't go any lower than #2 in grading, as long as it's still copper and not copper coated steel.

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    EcoSafe's Avatar
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    pet peve of mine: stripped my yard calls it #2 but I took in a bunch of computer wire from connection cords the kind with a bunch of wires inside, when you cut off the end it appears to me to be 75 to 90% copper when you strip the cord coating you are left with a bundle of wire with very thin insulation, they call it communication wire insulated 45 cents a lb, they are making a bundle on this I would like to find a way to disolve that coating and turn it into #2.

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    Right now telephone wire is worth about $1.50lb

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    By me it goes as #2 wire. $1.10 a lb

  6. #6
    wayne1956 started this thread.
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    Quote Originally Posted by hobo finds View Post
    By me it goes as #2 wire. $1.10 a lb
    Hopefully that will be the same here.

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    I've been seeing people selling 1 lb copper bars on ebay for 15 bucks a pop.... only if I had a shop and a place to do a little melting

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    I just got 700 feet of the big hailf inch telephone wire im going tobe takiing it in this coming week end ill let you know i stripped the outer casing off so i should get the #2 Pirice i just took a hatchet and cut it in 2.5 feet long so its even ready to be ran through a wire stripping machine i wish i had one dang there are about 30 wires in there im guessing its for multiple phones for offices i stripped it out of a commercial building i was gutting down to the bare bones so they can remodel th whole thing so hope fully i can make a few bucks i got about 200 or so pounds maybe even 300 lbs
    Last edited by joe00; 07-19-2011 at 03:57 AM.

  9. #9
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    Its #2 with the outer casing...

  10. #10
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    sjones99 is right the wire is at $1.40 to $1.60 but I would not take any lower than $1.40 a pound.

    Phone wire, VGA cords, printer cords an cat5 cords an so on are all at around $1.40 to $1.60 easy.

    Save it up until you have around 600 to 1300 pounds then start calling the yards...that wire gets very heavy very fast.

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