Stripping copper wire

[kevink]

I recently got a small demo job wondering if anyone has any experience with automatied wire stripper or do they make such a thing.Not alot of wire in this building but would love to be able to have the capabilities to do the stripping myself and earn a little more per pound.

 

[bigcatpip]

look at ebay

 

[bobb]

sharp knife or a big fire.

 

[waterman28]

sharp knife or a big fire.

Here in Wa. recyclers wont take it if the sheathing is burned off.

 

[EGS]

Here in Wa. recyclers wont take it if the sheathing is burned off.

They won't take anything in Wisconsin that is burned either. If there is one burned item in the load they will reject the whole thing.

 

[bpogue]

They don't mind burned around here. That's about all I see in the yards.

 

[bobb]

sharp knife and a good technique. i dont think they take burnt here either. we just had a guy collect about 500 for a big can of stipped whar. what if you burn it and just leave it on the ground in the yard. after runnin it over for awhile it should look decent....or it will be wrapped up under all the trucks and whatnot and make a huge mess. lol. maybe if you cut it short enough it could work.

 

[ScottAR]

http://www.scrapwirestrippers.com/ Couple minutes on Google. Don't know anything about the company but they have Videos.

 

[nickbowers]

They don't mind burned around here. That's about all I see in the yards.

Yeah in aus we don't get penalised to hard for it, and it sure makes it easy

 

[John C.]

Years ago I did a job on a scrap yard that had insulation strippers for copper wire. The thing was three phase electric as I recall and basically pulled the wire through an orifice. You didn't want to get your hand caught is a loop of wire because the thing would simply have turned the wire into a cheese cutter on your hand. The wire was coiled in a drum on the input side and dropped into a can on the other side all clean of insulation.

I'll have to go back and see if I can find photos.

 

[123paw paw]

This sounds dumb but I drop mine into the parts washer in the shop for a couple days it seems to help ,made mine rubbery and once Istarted to skin it it peeled wright off

 

[Vantage_TeS]

Power wire is easy. Someone tell me a good solution to grease packed 200 pair telephone wire that doesn't involve burning.

 

[rasit]

Power wire is easy. Someone tell me a good solution to grease packed 200 pair telephone wire that doesn't involve burning.

There is none. Phone wire is hardly worth the effort so I don't mess with it.

 

[Turbo21835]

Ill cut the outer sheathing phone lines. Make sure the only thing left is the copper wire. Take it in as unstripped. Other than that, all you can do is burn it, or do what the scrap yard does. Run it thru a granulator, but those tend to be pricey.

 

[DrJim]

The issue with burned wire may be regulatory in nature. Here in Tennessee, I believe that it is against state law (TN Dept of Environment & Conservation regulations) to burn the insulation off wire. It's in the same code that prohibits burning mobile homes (or at least certain components), treated lumber, etc.. I think it may be illegal to burn OSB board, most types of paneling, etc. TDEC considers burning insulated wire about like burning automobile tires.

 

[Vantage_TeS]

There is none. Phone wire is hardly worth the effort so I don't mess with it.

My $1,200 I got for pulling an abandoned line out of a ditch and rolling it up will 100% disagree with you on that one.

 

[Randy88]

An electrician buddy of mine has an electrical wire stripper and he feeds the wires in and they automatically strip the coatings off for him, not sure of the brand but he does odds and ends left over. For phone wire its not worth attempting that, they really don't dock much at the scrap yards for it not being stripped first. As for even worrying about stripping the wire, the scrap price is so high unless you've got truck loads of it, cash it in the way it is and walk away with a check in hand, way more than you'd have gotten for even stripped wire a few years ago, or at least thats what we do, take it in by the dump truck load as is.

 

[BigDogz]

Yeah this is a skill you get better at with practice. I actually use a razor with a lot of caution. Works well for me.

 

[jeff 31]

Here in Ontario they'll report ya to the ministry of environment if you bring in burnt wire to the scrap yards. I dug a couple of miles of ditch along a major highway a got $1.50 a pound unstripped for phone cable. Couple grand in my pocket.

 

[250c]

http://genscoequip.com/products/Cable Processing