oops found a white guy in the wood pile

there is a very good reasion carpenters and Santa Claus check every thing twice.



I compact my cop wire in to 5 gal buckets till I get close to 50 lbs per bucket. yes I know that is maybe a little on the eccentric side but hey thats just me. Any way today I was just getting ready to cap a bucket when a cloud moved and deep within the compacted strands, what catches my eye but a single glint of silvery white. yup you guessed it there was alum wire mixed in with my compacted copper. guess what I did all day ?

just a reminder , dont get in too big of a hurry, some yards are really pickey and looking for a reasion to turn that $150 bucket into a $50 bucket of Alu/copper.

lol I am on the 5 gallon bucket idea too, I got burned once at a yard where they put all my copper in a cart on wheels, cart had 50lbs written on it, but I weighed my copper before I came and their cart is loaded, it is actually 60lbs, rotten buggers.

I do that too. I have 1 bucket, an old tater bucket on wheels, that i put all my "freshly pulled" wire in. At the end of the day, i go through it all. All the alum wire goes in a bucket out back that i forget about. The copper wire gets checked and rechecked for any ends, then into a huge plastic trash bin on wheels. Once thats full, i sell it. I average around $250-385 for a full trash bin.

At first I thought he was talking about white people/black people...I was like wow...I have to read this post..

Title is kind funny if you think about it alittle bit..but anyway...moving back to the topic.

Some yards are picky..some of my buyers try to be picky but I tell them where to put it. If they downgrade it....I walk out the door...so they tell me have it at a %ratio an we are all good. But then again I am taking in around around 3 tons on a avg week.

Originally Posted by olddude

there is a very good reasion carpenters and Santa Claus check every thing twice.

I compact my cop wire in to 5 gal buckets till I get close to 50 lbs per bucket. yes I know that is maybe a little on the eccentric side but hey thats just me. Any way today I was just getting ready to cap a bucket when a cloud moved and deep within the compacted strands, what catches my eye but a single glint of silvery white. yup you guessed it there was alum wire mixed in with my compacted copper. guess what I did all day ?

just a reminder , dont get in too big of a hurry, some yards are really pickey and looking for a reasion to turn that $150 bucket into a $50 bucket of Alu/copper.

From the replies it looks like you are not alone. I also do the same thing, I put #1 copper wire in one bucket, #2 wire in another bucket and tubing in another. One thing about the "aluminum" wire, make sure it is not coated copper wire. I have stripped several pieces of wire that came out white, but cutting it a little you could clearly see the copper underneath. Plus with the weight it was clearly not all aluminum. My main yard takes this coated copper wire with no problem as #2 copper.

good thing I didnt find a copper wire in my aluminium bucket, Id proly be banned by now 1.....2.....3.....4

make them weigh the cart.

Originally Posted by MilitiaMetals

lol I am on the 5 gallon bucket idea too, I got burned once at a yard where they put all my copper in a cart on wheels, cart had 50lbs written on it, but I weighed my copper before I came and their cart is loaded, it is actually 60lbs, rotten buggers.

If their cart is 60# and they think 50# aren't they OVER paying you by 10#? I wouldn't complain.

I always thought that the silvery wire in my burnt off copper wire was just Nickel coated Copper. Its non magnetic.

Then a few days ago I noticed there was a lot of it, so I started picking it out & double checked it.

To find it was Stainless steel wire........

Oh nooooooooo... Picked it all out, filed some, maybe brass?
Under a inside light its hard to figure out, some looked to have a goldish colour.

I figure that it came from a electric stove I scrapped, now I have to double check 2 different ways, that its copper, dam.

Originally Posted by High Voltage Processing

So true. If I see a hint of ALU in that mixed box I am paying a lot less. It takes me hours to have my guys sort the entire box looking for anything else. While it is true that mistakes happen, my smelter customers think I walk on water, or at least they expect me to.

I have a question on wires. Do you want the plugs cut off? I am talking about wall plugs, cord ends, electrical connectors, etc.

Will tape and zip ties get me a lower price? I have been tearing down harnesses from cars. Getting the plugs off and as much tape as I can, but if tape/ties doesn't matter I won't bother so I can move the load quicker.

Save the cut ends though.

There's metal in thar!