question on romex

i was wondering if i was to get 14 gauge 3 wire romex and i had 300lbs of it insulated how much would there be in bare wire? i saw somewhere that 3lbs of insulated is 1lb of bare is that true for romex?

I think I read somewhere that Romex was 60 percent copper but I guess it depends on what gauge. We can't sell stripped wire here in AZ so I never bothered to do the math on it myself.

But I do think the 3lb to 1lb ratio is off. At 60 percent it would be 1.8lb per 3lb. For it to be only 1lb per 3lbs the recovery rate would be 33 percent. I know for a fact it's more than 33 percent.

Originally Posted by mike1

i was wondering if i was to get 14 gauge 3 wire romex and i had 300lbs of it insulated how much would there be in bare wire? i saw somewhere that 3lbs of insulated is 1lb of bare is that true for romex?

Romex is roughly 65 percent copper. 300 pounds should yeild 195 pounds of bare bright.

Originally Posted by mthomasdev

Romex is roughly 65 percent copper. 300 pounds should yeild 195 pounds of bare bright.

ah so that would yeild me a extra 90$ u know some people dont bother stripping romex or extension cords? i think thats strange. i always strip extension cords and any wire except for anything smaller than cat 3 wich i think is 24gauge wire? ok how many feet of romex would that be if it was one long section of romex and not cut? that way i would know how many feet is in 300lbs of romex 14gauge wire.

Originally Posted by mike1

ah so that would yeild me a extra 90$ u know some people dont bother stripping romex or extension cords? i think thats strange. i always strip extension cords and any wire except for anything smaller than cat 3 wich i think is 24gauge wire? ok how many feet of romex would that be if it was one long section of romex and not cut? that way i would know how many feet is in 300lbs of romex 14gauge wire.

There are resources posted in the threads many times about how ft/lb for wire. Also easily googleable. And lots of people don't strip much or even all wire, preferring to spend that time instead sourcing more wire to sell as is. Deciding on which strategy works best probably hinges upon material availability and hauling capacity.

ah i see thanks for the info=)

Originally Posted by mike1

ah so that would yeild me a extra 90$ u know some people dont bother stripping romex or extension cords? i think thats strange. i always strip extension cords and any wire except for anything smaller than cat 3 wich i think is 24gauge wire? ok how many feet of romex would that be if it was one long section of romex and not cut? that way i would know how many feet is in 300lbs of romex 14gauge wire.

I currently don't strip any wire. I have some 500 mcm copper that I'm not stripping. When you can get dealer pricing, it isn't always worth the time to process stuff. If I had a high quality stripper or granualtor, that would be a different story.

I don't bother stripping any wire either, Romex or otherwise. I get payed a little more for Romex and CAT 5. A bit less money for insulated wire, but being the insulation adds a good bit of weight, I don't see I'm losing enough to warrant the time / energy cutting off insulation. Some of the wire I get, I'd bet the insulation weighs as much or more than the copper, so the extra weight there "somewhat" gets me closer to what I'd get stripped. At the end of the day, I have no desire to manually strip wire, just not worth it to me.

I see yeah i strip everything except 18 gauge. Since i dont find or get muxh wire to begin with.

I think it would be a lot of work for little return. Best case, 330# of clean bare bright... eh, $2 a pound=$600 and I don't think you would realize anywhere near that. 300# @ $0.80/# would be about $240 and you would be in and out without spending hours stripping wire. Unless you have a ton of time to sit and drink beer and strip, just turn and burn. Just my opinion.

I bought a variety of salvaged " house wiring " as mid-grade .40 /lb last summer. That way i would have some work ahead for when things get quiet this winter. ( It's all experimental.)

Some of it was romex where the outer sheath was removed and the bare ground taken away as easy copper. What was left over was spaghetti wire. Insulated strands w/ 14 - 10 gauge copper wire inside. It's about 70 % recovery. The copper wire inside doesn't always qualify as bare bright. Oftentimes it's tarnished and has to be downgraded to #1 copper.

The heavier insulated 2ga - 4ga. cable varies. It's seldom bare bright. More often goes as #2 copper. Recovery is anywhere between 30 - 60 % by weight. Jumper cables are the worst. Hard to strip by hand and fairly low recovery because they are so heavily insulated.

Hand stripping doesn't seem like a good way of doing things. Had a small windfall last Christmas so i'm going to order in a small motorized stripping machine in a few weeks and see how that goes.

The machine will (hopefully) pay for itself after the first load.

Originally Posted by 520

I think I read somewhere that Romex was 60 percent copper but I guess it depends on what gauge. We can't sell stripped wire here in AZ so I never bothered to do the math on it myself.

Just curious ... is it possible that the ban is on burnt wire ?

That was the way the old timers used to do it.