I was just rummaging around youtube for scrapping videos today. Ran across this one in my wanderings. It's a little interesting in that he posted his totals at the end. (188 lbs of copper out of 2775 lbs of sealed units. 6.7% yield of copper by weight.)
Nothing from Mike yet. Maybe he's busy scrapping window ac's. It looks like he's got his work cut out for him.
Last edited by hills; 10-02-2024 at 08:46 PM.
Alloy2 is sure a grumpy old man.
must be lonely for what's out of his reach.
Just something I've noticed...
Thanks for the tip on driving sheet metal screws through with a hammer. I had a couple more window ac's waiting on the bench when i got into work this morning. First thing i did was flip em' bottom up and drove the screws through with a 3lb maul. It worked beautifully.
It seems like they are getting easier & easier to do. They're not bad once you develop a method.
I've been setting the fan motors aside for one of the local scrappers to process. Quite a guy. He's turning 88 years old in a few days and he's still at it. That man has one heck of a work ethic.
Been busy with work mostly haven't got the acs yet still going round with the boss lady and her ever changing mind ugh. I've never had to work so hard to get 3500$ lol. Depending on prices of course. Rough estimate of what I'll get. I got two central ac tanks and a window ac tank open and done going to the yard on Monday to make room for 50 window acs on Friday hopefully if she don't change her mind again ugh. Have to break em down to dirty rads,fan motor,wires,compressors before the Friday after that so I get 50 more then the Friday after that 60. I wonder if I can do it is it possible?. 3 hrs after work Mon-thurs plus 11am-9pm Friday plus sat 12pm-5pm. Then I can break everything down fully later. Once I get the first load I can relax and no I'll get the rest.
Nice to know people care for my safety . I wear half respirator p100 filters and goggles I should probably wear long sleeves to since that compressor metal is kinda hot when flakes come off of them from the sawzall. I cut through 2 central ac compressors and one window ac I had already done. I used a. 12 inch carbide blade for all three. I'm not sure how many I'll be able to cut open with one blade. I have a 9 inch diablo amped carbide blade for the window ac compressors. Good news is they guy at the yard said I can mix the num 2 tubes with the wire so it saves me on buckets haha. So now I'll have 3 buckets of copper bare Brite,num 2 and num 1
Recently replaced a plasma cutter that I had sold years ago with the tiny one branded as Reboot for $200.00 Canadian.
The unit is dual voltage, I'm running on 220 volts for the air supply a 5hp compressor on 80 gallon tank but most smaller compressors will handle the demand if your patient.
Types of metals I tried it out on, Copeland refrigeration compressor case - cast iron, aluminum truck rim, stainless steel steam table, propane tank and some junk iron. Great fir zapping through bundles of insulated copper wire.
I have several large starters with my first plasma I would blow out the screws securing the steel shoe that holds the field coils in place to recover the copper coils. This plasma struggles at this chore, not large enough for gouging.
The propane tank had some fuel in it, the fuel ignited once the tank had been pierced and burnt externally. Cutting with plasma versus an oxy torch is that it injects an excess of oxygen - BOOM. Plasma is a safer method as it does not use oxygen to cut metals.
Mike1 I highly recommend using one of these small 60 amp plasma cutters for the task your faced with, it'll handle screws, copper lines, wires and cutting tanks. be the best money you ever spent on a tool.
And remember what I said, plasma does not use oxygen, so there will be minimal reaction with any oil remaining inside the compressor when cutting one open.
Last edited by alloy2; Today at 06:46 AM.
Cutting sealed units with a sawzall? now thats determination.
I know you dont have alot of room, but i would save up the Units, coils, copper and maybe even the motors and try to get bulk pricing on them. Most yards will pay around .05 to .10/lb more with alot of volume or 200+ lbs. Maybe not the S units cause they are heavy to begin with, might need 1000 lbs for those. Got to talk to the yard manager about that tho. My yards mgr is an awesome dude, i dont have to call the yard, i can call or text him personally. Currently the markets are not to stable at the moment. but thats how i would do it
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