Experienced Scrapper
Scored 30 heavy duty electric motors from commercial HVAC units today. Every one of them is 30 pounds and up. All of them appear to have copper windings!! A good start to the #2 copper wire bucket. It has been looking sad since I cashed everything last Friday. Breakdown time!!
Metal Recycling Entrepreneur
would be a good time to take a total weight and find the final breakdown analysis
Are they single or 3 phase motors?
Experienced Scrapper
Well rvs a little tip electric motors are low now around 35 cents a lb i think once you do the totals you are proubly wasteing a lot of time get a ararge motor put it on a scale and then weigh the copper recovery case closed
Experienced Scrapper
About a dozen are 3 phase. I will do a break down anaylasis and see what the yield ends up being. These are not new motors, they are shorted or otherwise burned up, so scrapping them for the copper was my option. They would otherwise been sold for shred price as they would have stayed in the unit or been thrown in with another unit on the next shred run, and I would not make a dime. The guy I got them from needed the space they were taking up more than the shred price. He does not have the time to separate them all out, and is happy for me to take them, and I have the time. Found money the way I see it.
If he would only give me those GIANT al-copper radiators that come out of those big chillers. They are about 6 foot square and 6 inches thick!! He does take the time to cut those bad boys out.
I would be interested on the yield of the bigger a/c motors. On the smaller 1/2 and 3/4 horsepower fan motors I have been getting a little over 15% copper yield.
Experienced Scrapper
I shall let you know. I know they got a lot of steel in them but looks like at least 1/2 more copper lengthwise. Will start whittling on them in the next couple of days. Like I said, kinda like found money.
Experienced Scrapper
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It's a start to the new copper hoard every bit adds up.
Experienced Scrapper
Well, looks like its 74 pounds of #2 copper wire. Don't know the weight of the many heavy as hell rotors in each motor, the steel that holds the windings, (also heavy as hell), the split motor housings, and the cast alumunum from the ends of the motors. Also the fan housings that they were in.
The weight and density of the copper varied per motor. The 3phase motors were actually much easier to get the copper out of than the smaller motors. Big gobs of pretty wire as opposed to little clumps of tight wire.
The 3 phase motors averaged 3.0-3.75 pounds of copper and the smaller motors were between 1.5 - 2.5lbs Cu each. Right about 15% copper yield across the board.
Will sit on the copper and aluminum, and sell the rest as shred.
Like I said, found money. I will keep cutting em up. I like the challenge. A country boy can survive.
Last edited by RVS; 07-13-2012 at 04:00 PM. Reason: misspell
Metal Recycling Entrepreneur
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The steel that holds the windings, also known as the stator you should be able to sell as #2 steel. If you are selling them as shed you are cheating yourself.
Experienced Scrapper
Good to know KCR. I will look into that. Anything that a magnet sticks to here is shred.
Metal Recycling Entrepreneur
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#2 steel is also sometimes refereed to as "3 foot" or "prepared steel".
Does the yard you are selling to have a shredder? If so they might not want to mess around with a little load of #2 steel, especially if you have other light sheet iron items that you need to throw off in the shred pile.
A yard that doesn't have a shredder will make more money buying all your material as shred and then sorting out the #2 steel from the shred.
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