washer and dryer motors

i just dismantled my first washer and dryer set today....it's been fun. I have started unwinding the copper out of the motor and it is taking forever! my question is is it really worth taking that lb or lb and a half of copper wire our...or should i just turn it in whole at small motor prices and take the .45 cents a lb?

Good lord, Derek.....this has been discussed ad nauseum !!! PLEASE, look this up.....lol...had you going didn't I derek....but, seriously, there is so much info on this....you really would enjoy reading it, and then, what it comes down to is....you have to decide for yourself !!! But, first, you must perfect your method of harvesting that copper. Bells went off when I read "UNWINDING". I pictured myself when I was first learning...snipping and unwinding...snip,snip....and the clock keeps ticking...snip,snip....pretty soon you have cuts here and there.....drip,drip....oh, I'm half done...snip,snip...that copper sure looks white....oh, no....it can't be....ohhhhh.....sniff,sniff !!

i typed in "washer and dryer" and didnt see anything... so i thought id post....the time it took you to make up that snide remark you could have just helped a fellow scrapper out and thrown me some advice.

I sell the motors as is. 45 cents per pound is way higher than I get for them. I just went out and weighed a washer motor and it was nearly 20 lbs.

I dont unwind my motors either. Best way is to weigh the motor. Then strip it out and weight the copper and see what pays more. tyhen you will know for yourself if its worth your time. i did this once took me 30 mins to get all the copper out of the motor. Now if i get a plasma cutter it might be worth doing but ill be darned if im going to do it with hammer and chisel again.

A lot of the folks on here use a grinder.

Wow derek. Reckon you dont know much about that thing called "sarcasm"?

Perhaps instead of you takin time to respond in a rude way, ya coulda said, oh what is it...oh yeah, "Thank you" Ya know, for not rippin' into you like any other member here would. Dee's probably one of the nicest people on here. Need to learn some respect, bud.

Originally Posted by Derek Fay

i typed in "washer and dryer" and didnt see anything... so i thought id post....the time it took you to make up that snide remark you could have just helped a fellow scrapper out and thrown me some advice.

if you like your hacksaw, your gonna LOVE your sawsall, zak.....sounds like you are on your way. BTW, do you cut one side of the windings off completely or do you just cut one side in two ? It really depends on the size/type, but when I started cutting some completely off and punching them through...things really picked up for me...I love it. I NEVER sell motors. Now if I had 900 of them, it would be a different story !

not sure what your real voice sounds like but I'm sure I could hear it perfect in my head as I read that.

I tell you, if her voice sounds like Edith Bunker I'm going to be extremely disappointed. kinda like busting my bubble,,, lol

Check the windings on the motor,they might be aluminum with a copper coating.Just cut one and you'll be able to tell.Hate for you to waste time cutting out aluminum.

i noticed that a lot of the motors i encounter are in fact aluminum. i sell those as is, my yard pays .30# clean, .24# dirty for motors. so to save the copper ones its worth the time to cut and punch them through. Injun Joe gave a really nice breakdown of time, price and effort in one of those threads. changed my life.

well, of course Hurrikane. Isn't that a given !!!

Agreed....just cut it and save yourself a lot of time, nobody will care.

Originally Posted by Hurrikane

Check the windings on the motor,they might be aluminum with a copper coating.Just cut one and you'll be able to tell.Hate for you to waste time cutting out aluminum.

Bingo. I have found the VAST majority of washer and dryer motor windings are aluminum, so I just leave the motor intact and sell it as an electric motor. If it looks like it MIGHT be copper I will snip one wire, and if it is white it goes intact into the motor pile. If it is copper color, then I will make the attempt to remove the windings. Motors other than washers and dryers I will pay a little more attention to as to whether they are copper or aluminum windings.

A quick but not perfect way to check for aluminum vs. copper windings in smaller electric motors is to see if the motor housing around the windings is "open" or more of a sealed/closed housing. In other words, can you see the nice shiny copper-coloured windings just sitting there in the daylight, or do you have to look through a small cooling vent or maybe remove a cover? If they're exposed, like on the majority of appliances, they're usually aluminum windings. If it's more of a sealed motor where all the windings are inside of a tin can, so to speak, it's usually copper. Like I say not perfect, but it's sometimes handy like in a case at one of the local scrapyards, where lots of appliances are dropped off out front of the yard while the yard is closed for the weekend. Lots of scrappers come cruising by to strip wire/motors and such, so the good stuff goes pretty quick usually.