How to Recycle Motor Scrap?

Copper ones are the most common electric motors used because they do such a great job of conducting the electricity and power through the appliance they are used in. They are worth a lot more than ordinary scrap iron. To get full value, just disconnected it from a mounting base, pulley, pump or anything else that may be attached. The idea is to sell just the motor itself so the ratio of steel to copper will be correct when the consumer buys it for recycling.

Some appliances,like washers and dryers, have electrical motors with aluminum winding. These are merely worth scrap iron price. The fate of them is to be sent to a shredder so the aluminum can be separated from the steel after it is ground up.Refrigeration compressors are used in air conditioning units, refrigerators and freezers. They have copper winding inside a steel shell. The steel content is heavier than it is in the electric motors, so they bring less money, but it is still quit a bit more than ordinary scrap iron.

Another problem is how to recycle them efficiently. Still by hand？You are kidding. Motor recycling machine is designed to recover the copper wire in various scrap motors. By using it, copper wire and silicon steel case can be recycled efficiently, greatly improving economic benefits. Motor recycling machines consist of two machines:copper cutting and copper wire pulling machine. Copper wire cutting machine is used to cut one end of copper winding in the motor, while copper wire pulling machine is used to pull copper winding out of the motor.

I will still prefer to process my refrigerator electric motors (cutting & pulling the wires) by hand, it gives me something to do when I have some down time. I hate sitting around being bored.

Same here like to pile them up then get the grinder out gives me a sence of satisfaction and more money in my pocket as I don't have to pay off an expensive machine

When you have enough posts post a video of it working, Do the compressors need to be cut in half for it to work on them? Hand jobs are not that great!

Originally Posted by hobo finds

When you have enough posts post a video of it working, Do the compressors need to be cut in half for it to work on them? Hand jobs are not that great!

I'll have to disagree with you Hobo........They are awesome!

I've seen some videos on youtube showing these machines at work. They seem to work really well but you would have to have a boatload of motors to justify the expense.

I would charge people per pound or per unit to use my machine.

The fridge motors here I cut a bit different. After draining the compressor oil out, most of them I will cut just above the seam with a 4 1/2" angle grinder with a thin metal cutoff wheel (Harbor Freight works good, and they are cheap. Both the grinder and the wheels). After removing the top, most of them have 4 bolts to securing the electric motor to the compressor. After removing the bolts, I cut the wire and it is done. I then use a razor blade to cut the threads securing the windings and pull the threads out. After setting the motor aside for a while to allow the compressor oil to drain off, I cut one side of the windings with wire cutters, then pull them out from the other side with pliers or channel locks. It is a pretty easy process. I can usually cut open 3 compressors with one wheel, and have enough left on the wheel to start another compressor.

Once I've taken them all apart I just cut the copper winding at one end with my grinder then a few good hits with the hammer and the rest pop out there a lot more easier than washer machine motors

I have always used grinder and air chisel to pop windings. Now i have my car trailer, I use the winch and a chain to secure the stator. I even used the winch one day to rip a stainless steel shell of the metal frame to clean it. And I use the winch to pull the windigns with a hook I bent with a torch and some scrap. You can look on utube. A man built a hydraulic ram with a hook. One ram vertical holds stator still while the other ram pulls the copper. Almost like using a hydraulic press. He even used the vertical ram to essentially break the motor in half, so no cutting the shell or anything. Sadly I dont cut motors much anymore, as it is not worth it to me. Turn as in. Been too preoccupied selling resale parts than tearing apart motors. Although I miss it. Was quite enjoyable and relaxing. Sadly sealed units are 7c and now they have several grade of motors so price ranges from 7c to 10c. But dont have time. Rather rip apart a furnace and sell 400 in parts in a few hours, then make 10 bucks a hour cutting motors. Now if it wa sstill 20 a hour like years ago, then by all means, sure thing.

If you just have a few motors, of course you don't have to buy machine. If you have a quantity, the profit brought by this machine is enough to return your cost. It depends on your situation.

Originally Posted by AMSrecycling

If you just have a few motors, of course you don't have to buy machine. If you have a quantity, the profit brought by this machine is enough to return your cost. It depends on your situation.

Lets see an apples to apples cost analysis,
convince me I can make Money and I will buy the machine,
I get enough motors to feed it at least 20 hrs per week...
But I warn you I cannot get employees to work for $300/ month
And I will not be starting from clean stators, but rather from A pile of electric motors.

V/r HT1

P.S. I've run cost analysis on just about every specialized processing machine, and with a good market and a nice volume, cheap foreign labor almost always tips the scale away from processing in the USA.
But i will give this one a fair chance since it will not produce an environmental or permitting issue.

Originally Posted by HT1

Lets see an apples to apples cost analysis,
convince me I can make Money and I will buy the machine,
I get enough motors to feed it at least 20 hrs per week...
But I warn you I cannot get employees to work for $300/ month
And I will not be starting from clean stators, but rather from A pile of electric motors.

V/r HT1

P.S. I've run cost analysis on just about every specialized processing machine, and with a good market and a nice volume, cheap foreign labor almost always tips the scale away from processing in the USA.
But i will give this one a fair chance since it will not produce an environmental or permitting issue.

Overhead! Never forget the overhead