r/ScrapMetal

Today I went to the scrapyard the first time as a business with a lot a granulated copper, some milberry (bare bright for the us folks) and a bunch of number 2 as well as some other small crap

I was surprised when they payed me full 38% copper cable price for 2 tubs of data wire (basically worthless crap)

Spent a few hours stripping with before and after pictures. Final weight is just the wire I picked up yesterday not including a bit of copper pipe and brass

Starting a new job next week and probably won't get a chance to snag as much good stuff, so made a run this morning. Pretty happy about it.

Got this 480v phase converter and fuse/breaker box a while back. Haven’t had any luck selling it and want it out of my truck bed so it’s probably getting torn apart tomorrow for scrap. I’ve heard and I see the sticker says to discharge capacitors. I’m by no means an electrician so I’m curios if the old insulated screwdriver across the tops is safe. I’ve even seen someone rig up some metal on a board so your hands aren’t near it but not sure if that’s necessary. If it means anything it’s been sitting disconnected from any power for almost 2 months. What do they go in for scrap or does the yard even take em usually? Anything else I should be cautious of or things like the big fuses that may be worth resale etc would be greatly appreciated. Taken apart plenty of motors and such but never anything this large.

Pic unrelated, just scored yesterday

Doing a demo job and noticed these cables and now I can't stop wondering.

How do I test if any of these wires are hot? The other end of them is exposed and proven safe, could there be any potential energy still in them.

I know the Electricity has been disconnected and all cables throughout site were cut to remove machinery about 2 years ago when business closed and it was left abandoned. The other end of these cables is exposed sticking out of the ground (see photos). There is no humming or buzzing coming from it. Theres actual cobwebs and spiderwebs all in this box. I took a no contact voltage indicator near some of them and it did not indicate any AC.

This would be a good little bonus to this job that really isn't paying what it should.

Thanks

edit: not messing with it

Anyone in middle Tennessee fool with e waste? Have several computer cables with gold fingers and about 10 old computer monitors from the 90s and one packard bell tower any value?

I’m probably an outlier here. I don’t scrap as my primary (or even secondary/tertiary) form of work. It’s sort of a happy byproduct of my real job (commercial real estate), and I find finding and stripping copper to be wildly soothing.

My coworker and I have been doing demo on a building from 1901 in Jax FL, and we’ve filled up over 500lb of copper wire. We got a quarter of the way through our first trash bag before I realized how fucked we’d be stripping this by hand. So I pulled the trigger on the stripmeister original and … wtf was I thinking NOT using this piece of wizardry?!? This thing is a godsend.

Also pictured: 100lb of stripped wire.

Wondering what the best way to scrap these would be to get the most money? Are there any precious metals on/in them? I have hundreds of these things lying around. Elephant is there for size comparison (jk, I just found it last night and thought it was pretty dope).

First time getting aluminum scrap wire, is it worth stripping the insulation?

Who knows how much money these could be

Not sure if anyone would know the answer to this or not but I have several of these pieces of old surveying equipment. It's now out of date technology and even though people on eBay do buy them occasionally, I live in Alaska so the shipping is kind of cost prohibitive. Just curious if there might be any gold in the electronics inside of these things.

Thoughts on using a grinder with a cutting wheel?

60 seconds in and out.

Appears to be US Navy memorabilia. Tarnished like
Silver and fairly heavy. Any info appreciated before I cut it up. Non magnetic