Originally Posted by
mike1
Yea hw said num 1 is num one no matter if it's tubes or wire same as num 2 the only thing I will have to separate is my bare Brite I don't get much of that now tho. If I really want to I could take the time to get the copper out of the AC power cords on the two sides and just leave the ground. I figure maybe 1 lb of loops on a ac unfortunately copper tubes don't smash down like wire does haha. I wonder has anyone ever filled a 5 gal bucket with loops? I'm going to try. I saw a guy sell the cut off ends whole they called them electric motors ouch I thought but maybe the guy didn't have time or wasn't able to pull them out. Some of the loops just practically fall out.
I normally don't bother with saving the cords but i ran across some flat 12 ga stranded a few days ago. The recovery wasn't half bad. Seems like it might be worth doing if i'm looking for something to keep my hands busy. I should try to keep an open mind about doing this in the future.
I can see why a fulla would just cut the ends off and sell them as electric motors. It would save a lot of time. It's a more productive way of doing the job. Just clamp the ac rad upright in a vise, rip down both sides with a sawzall, and you're done in less than a minute. The clean rads go in one pile. The dirty ends go in another pile as copper bearing material.
It's more complicated if you're looking to save the loops Mike. First off .... you want to make sure you are using a fine tooth sawzall blade so you get a cleaner cut. Use a blade that is 18 or 24 tpi so that you don't get ragged ends. You also get a lot less shaking with a fine tooth blade. A coarse blade will shake your eye teeth out with all the vibration sometimes. Especially if it starts to bind in the cut.
You would be surprised. A nice clean cut makes all the difference in the world when it comes to pulling the loops out of the steel ends. A difference of 1/1000 th. of an inch can be the key factor when working with metal.A ragged end on the copper loop will fight you every step of the way. A clean cut is more apt to pull through smoothly. Sometimes it even falls out all on it's own if the fitup between the two metals isn't too tight.
If memory serves ... i think i've used a punch on the tight fit loops before. You've got to have the right sized metal punch in your tool box though. A lot of time spent fussing with the fine details however. It's always best to ask yourself if it's worthwhile to spend time messing with all the little details or just bang the job out and be done with it.
mike1 
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