Stripping Copper Wire

Wow.... what an interesting notion. Crazy it's never come up on this forum before!

/sarcasm


SRSLY tho... there'll be several links to related threads at the bottom of this page. You can find further cussin & dis-cussin in them.

No 2 wires are alike. May I suggest you take a 1 foot section of the wire in question and weigh it on a gram scale. Then strip it and weigh the copper on that same gram scale. Then you will know if it was worth stripping it or not. Here is a link to a scale for very cheap if you dont have one. Its small but will get the job done for you.
Pocket Jewelry Digital Scale 0 1g x 1000g oz Weight | eBay

It's up to the individual.
Do you have more time then money or more money then time.
Do you have other scrap you can go get with your time.
In the example you gave it's not worth it to me...I just threw my knife in the shred bucket and went looking for more wire.

Usually 12 ga and larger strip and 14 ga and smaller sell as-is. Especially 12 ga solid will strip easy compared to stranded. Check out some of the do-it yourself wire strippers, they'll make the job go faster.

I once had an insulation knife that looked like this:



It worked great for stripping stranded wire by hand. It cut through the insulation with ease and didn't bite into the strands like a razor knife will.

Originally Posted by sjones99

If your only gettin a buck a lb your gettin screwed big time!

My yard only recognizes one kinda wire, and only pays .60 for it. :confused: Learned that the hard way awhile back.... thankfully on a smallish tote of mixed wire. That's why now they only get the tee-tiny copper, the coax, the ribbon, and the aluminum; things I wouldn't strip at any price. Pretty soon I'll have a 30gal tote full of power cord & better insulated copper. Problem is, I haven't got enough time to do the major breakdown I need to do.... much less strip wire.

Originally Posted by auminer

My yard only recognizes one kinda wire, and only pays .60 for it. :confused: Learned that the hard way awhile back.... thankfully on a smallish tote of mixed wire. That's why now they only get the tee-tiny copper, the coax, the ribbon, and the aluminum; things I wouldn't strip at any price. Pretty soon I'll have a 30gal tote full of power cord & better insulated copper. Problem is, I haven't got enough time to do the major breakdown I need to do.... much less strip wire.

Your yard pays you for coax?