I’ve gotten pretty good at stripping #1 wire. What I get a surplus of it collected, I strip it while watching a movie or something, like my grandma crocheting a scarf.
You do an amazingly thorough job on your scrap videos. I've been scrapping a long time and done lots of research as well as self experience on most all parts of scrapping. I must say, your scrap videos are THE MOST thorough, detailed and informative! Well done, Sir. I commend you.
At my scrap yard they pay me #1 price for all stripped Romex, THHN stranded, basically anything that's not copper - clad. So I do a cheaper motorized copper stripper (180.00) and it does great. I just cashed in my stock pile of copper scrap and I received about $4800.00!! It was about 1300 pounds of completely stripped #1 copper!!! I stripped as a hobby during the winter. Oh and I'm an Electrician so I kinda have a Neverending supply of scrap
I bought a Stripmeister after debating a while, and it paid for itself the first time I used it!! It does all wire extremely easily even romex. I've been stripping all wire ever since I bought it.
I also went top of the line with a Stripmeister. I had about 700lbs of 500mcm to strip so I spent the 1800$ on the stripper. I literally made that 1800$ back in less than an hour. If you scrap wire often it’s a no brainer get yourself a stripper. 🤙🏻
Stripmeister drill powered kicks wire butt. If you scrap u need to get this machine, bc u will find wire and want to do it by hand if u haven’t got the machine yet. You can’t feed it fast enough
I've learned more from your videos than I have in 3 yrs... My local yard has been awesome since it changed hands. I started doing this more often to help our local Cub Scout pack due to this pandemic. It's helps alot. For me the only thing I'm going to get is the STRIPER 😂 (MACHINE.) Wire I can get alot of most don't bother with it here. But the copper/brass I turned in about 1 mo ago brought our Pack almost $500. That was what I collected over last summer. I had over 300 lbs in the brass. Most over look that item here. But that was my gain. It would have been more but 5 foot surgeries was a set back. Now it's game on..... 😂
I used to deliver and install household appliances. I kept a few of those power cords from some dryers. I filled a small metal coffee can with clean copper. I got $45 for that in 2014. I wish I kept collecting all that copper for the 4 years I did that job.
Hello Thub. First I would like to say as always, (even though it's my 3rd comment ever on your videos) thank you for putting your time, and effort into making these videos. I cannot stress enough at how much the videos you put out keep me from absolutely losing it with everything going on not only in my life, but around the world. So thank you, I'm not sure if you've ever been told this, but you're simple, joy-filled, positive, encouraging, informative, adventurous, absolutely are a necessity in my everyday life. You have unknowingly, and most likely unintentionally, saved my life. Being who you are, and doing what you do, is an absolute inspiration. Keep doing the thing! ~Humbly Human: Jason R.
❤️❤️❤️ I’ve not been told that in so many words, no! But every now and again I’m reminded that some people really appreciate my sharing my perspective. I have great days and days that are pretty tough like anybody else of course.. and I’m not trying to do anything other than what feels right. And that includes making these! It really helps that they’re getting a few more views these days, but it especially helps to be reminded that someone actually likes them. So thank you sincerely for that. I’ll keep putting out as many as I can while still reaching for the best quality Im able! All the best out there, lots of love, keep doing that thing!
Hope you're doing well brother! Stay the course. It always gets better after the storm. Going through some really heavy personal shit too and it's interesting that we'd both end up watching the same shit. It's therapeutic no doubt.
Oh hey, another Drake! Yeah the tldr is it’s all worth stripping and a decent wire stripping machine is absolutely worth it for scrappers of all volumes, but doing it by hand means anything under 10ga or 12ga is probably just going to annoy you
I’ve thought about those ones too! I only have the one drill for everything though so I don’t want to replace it too early. If a person finds a cheap wall-power drill though, probably perfect 👍
I would suggest that unless you're a part time hobby scrapper (like me) Or a pensioner (almost like me) Then it's really not worth the time or effort to strip the thin stuff.
It's very easy to make your own wire stripper with a piece of steel, a nail and a set screw. You need a drill and a tap the same size as your set screw. Drill 3 holes, one downward from the top and 2 going through that hole perpendicular to it. Thread the upper hole for the set screw, cut off the head and sharpen the nail in your drill then put it down into the top hole, pull the wire through the lower hole. Put the steel in your vise and pull. It works best if you set the nail into the coating then pull but once it starts its very easy to pull through. Trying to come up with some type of drill mechanism to spool the stripped wire so the drill does the pulling. We'll see
Thanks for the video! I just started working at a landfill as a bulldozer operator and I find tones of wire. Really been wondering what's worth stripping and what's not I cannot believe the things people throw away 😑
That’s so cool! Legitimately a dream job in my mind lol. I was surprised to find that *every* wire is worth stripping, but it’s the time it takes that makes it difficult to answer. I’m glad I did the research though, and now I know what makes sense for me. Hoping it’s useful to others and doesn’t sound like avoiding the question.
@@thubprint 100% is a dream job 👍 It really seems to be more about managing your time based on how much wire you are bringing in and how quickly you need to get rid of it. With my flow of wire being so large and my free time being so small its almost not worth stripping anything. I dont even pick the bottles anymore because they are honestly not worth wasting time that could be used for picking wire
As an electrician I get a lot of scrap loomex. It all gets the first layer stripped (super easy and quick with a hook knife) and then the bond wire is seperated and the insulated is shoved in a box. I have an absolute ton if it sitting around so this was quite informative. I think I'll keep hoarding and buy a stripping machine in the future.
Well you’ve probably got a bunch of the good stuff too huh? You’d pay for the stripper in the afternoon it took you for sure. I’m curious what to expect copper prices to do from here.
@@thubprint prices are expected to go up from here. All the local contractors are hoarding wire because it's supposed to jump crazy high and it's starting to cause shortages. And yeah, I got a bunch of 6awg and a ton of 12 from a grow op we just did. And a pocket full or more of 14 trimmings on the daily. Pretty privileged in that respect. None of my co-workers scrap because it's not worth their time they say. Well my time is free because I don't do much outside work so I'll take the the free metal haha
just beware the Rack A Tiers wire peeler is vey testy to setup with 14AWG. Spins out quite often and gets a bit frustrating after a several strips. Not much to setup other than adjustment blade up or down and feed hole up or down... good quality build though.
I started my copper journey today, and after acquiring roughly 100g of copper from old wires I found my fingers went numb and I cut my thumb with a knife 😆, I can tell a while after doing this the skin on my fingers will be very tough, by hand stripping copper wire is harder then it looks especially with small wires
As a former Chippendale from the 80's, I love your humour! 😎 I'm new here, and as I have a lot of things with copper wire within that I could scrap and lighten my life load, I decided to educate myself for profit, thus through a search I found you. I now subscribe and will continue to watch and learn. Thanks! 👍
My wife said "naughty naughty thub" lol. but about the wire, I just separate #1 and 2 and turn in as is. I spend my time cleaning all my copper pipe (#2 ends off etc) and cleaning a butt load of pressure relief valves every week. But I do pull the #1 wire out of the paper and plastic comex. Enjoyed the vid, see you next week. From Sacramento, CA USA keep doing the thing.
That’s one thing I should have done the math for!! Removing the ground wire and leaving the rest intact. Although I imagine a person’s yard would figure that out pretty quickly and adjust the individual’s price for it, so perhaps not as much of an oversight after all. All the best to both of you!
@@thubprint yeah. I mean I separate the #1 copper from the #1 ICW in romex. I may lose a little $$ but I only bring 2 bins (of wire) to yard. Everything that bends back is #2 icw no matter how thick (for the most part) and everything that stays bent is #1icw. I definitely wasn't trying to find and point out a fault in your math or method. Just to clarify my friend.
Buy a non electric wire stripper to save more money while stripping all wire you have. Collect all wires and stripp those in the winter season and do a time lab video with meditation music. Save the stripped wire until copper prices peaks high in $$$ 👍👍👍 Love this video, stay safe and blessings
Could be a real good vid actually! Do you think copper prices are gonna keep going up? I keep thinking about that. There will be a peak somewhere but when? Idk.
@@thubprint My guess is as long as the gold price is going up the metal prices will going up, too. I watch a lot of scrabber videos and many show good and increasing prices for copper , aluminum ect. Maybe a comparison in history charts with high prices will be helpful for analyzing. Same technique goes with shares and exchange rates ;-) Stay safe and blessings
Thanks. I've been scrapping for a long time. I like how you compiled the data. Wire is easy to collect and get a nice pile going. My wife likes getting in the truck and going out there picking metal with me. She's a stripper.
Hey Thub I just bought a electric table top stripper but I have a like new tnt tooling wire stripper you put in a vise. Is that something you would be interested in I would gladly send it to you to help increase your profits.
That’s awesome, thank you! I’ve seen moosescrapper use of that one, seems alright? I’m pretty convinced at this point to get the electric one myself though, but I really appreciate your kindness ☺️
@@thubprint yeah that's where I got the idea to get one. It works pretty well made things a lot faster. I think electric ones are totally worth it. Expensive for a good one but well worth it. An of course anything to help out a fellow scrapper.
I would say if you regularly obtain copper wire from 14awg and bigger, yes it’s worth it. Purchasing that 149$ stripper one time will be well worth it increasing profits for brite bare wire.
Using the $100 TNT wire stripper hand tool (when Cu $2 -$2.30/lb Can.), I stripped everything thicker than house wire, unless house wire/thinner than house wire is very long and/or thick & in good condition, not kinked, not burnt, nor has clear 2nd plastic outside layer that bunches up in holes. This means you should strip wires where you find them before handling causes tangling & kinks. Stripping multistranded is risky; you could leave small bits of Cu glistening on ground in Sun, so don't cut deep into the Cu. Coaxial wires are especially bad for this; most people don't strip those anyways. I don't strip wires twisted together. Tell me if there's an easy way to untwist them.
Awesome videos and you are in Calgary i live 2 hours away happy wire stripping. We recently bought a strip mister smaller than our other one but worked better .
Well. This video only proves what I already knew after IDK how many hours of stripping the wires I snip off of appliances to get 6 pounds of bare bright copper wire. So not worth it! I know have a bin I toss all that into, even though my local yard pays about 25% of what BB copper brings. Those hours I’d rather spend looking for more scrap! And I still don’t know where to find good wire, solid stuff like you have, everything I find is the wound fine strands, except for deGaussing wire, and even found that once in a small, cheap TV!!’ Thanks for the great video, Thub!
No problem, this was a fun one! Took longer than I expected though, lol. It’s true, great cable is not common. That’s the real reason I don’t have a power stripper, it just wouldn’t get used very much.
And what about copper pipes and fittings? I take them from work when they are being thrown out and saved a bunch of them. What would that be considered ? Just copper ?
It’s not that bad then? I have very little experience with power strippers, I’d just heard that they don’t love romex. I suppose there’s different types though
@@thubprint I had a pretty decent pile of silver-coated copper from a local ballpark that replaced its main Light Panel. 400-amp service required 1 and 0 gauge wire 😁
I’m stripping miles of wires now on my China made $79 US dollar stripper. It’s okay but I keep having to adjust the cut wheel center with the V wheel lol. But I got fast at doing that so… make a moneys right.
a really good video, thub, looking forward to the next one, I purchased the entry level drill driven striper from stripmeister, made in canada and super affordable!
Sitting alot, mostly appliance wire, based on a percentage I take out for every scrap load I take in. Should have a table top stripper mid summer. But with lock downs in Ontario starting tommarow, hopefully will not slow me down
It doesn’t sound like they’re going all in with a stay-at-home order so tbh I’m not sure what it’ll change. I stopped digging in resi bins when we started lockdowns for my own peace of mind
What would a Apple charger and block be worth in weight if copper wire? Sorry if this question is dumb, I’m just thinking about stripping wire and Apple chargers and blocks are just about all I have.
Nice find there buddy! A longtime viewer mentioned I should do one and the next day I found that bin with all the beautiful bits of good wire. Perfect timing for both of us really 😎
Thub... would it be feasible to melt down the bright & shiny #2 copper fluff wire into ingots ? It would be worth more right? I realize the fuel would be an added expense but still it would melt fast. Worth it or not ? Maybe use a wood fire with a flat top & ingot molds.
I’m sure you’re right, it couldn’t really take long if I decided to start identifying them properly. I used thick/medium/thin as relative terms regarding the common types and aimed to support that with visual examples. In my mind I was aiming to keep things as easy to understand for as many people as possible so I didn’t want to alienate anyone by using terms they may not be familiar with. In hindsight it would have been a more helpful piece of work to quickly include that somewhere, and I’m glad you reminded me 👍 I suppose in my mind 8g is the point where it isn’t worth the time to strip.
I can’t say definitively which place is ‘best’ because I haven’t been to all of them and there are small ones I don’t know about, and they change sometimes. I personally choose to take my wire to Empire Metals because in my experience they have the best price most of the time, are generally the first to raise their buy price when the metals go up, and are pretty generous with what counts as “#2”. Other places give me a better price on the phone but then when I get there they call my bins #3.
I'm saving up metal cuz I'm wanting to pickup a new hobby smelting metal into bars saving them for a rainy day I'm curious what's your opinion on bringing in metal like that
Worth it for me, I find it relaxing just to turn on some music and strip in my spare time. I’ve got every bit of copper I’ve collected over the past 5 years... it’ll always have value. I’m in no rush to sell. Size #12 or bigger is getting stripped I don’t care if it’s an inch long of 500’ lol
I’m with you there buddy. It’s still copper inside there. People get jazzed about silver and gold but look at what copper just did. From a percentages perspective, those gains were crazy. I’m thinking about cashing out, at least a portion
@@thubprint If I retire as an electrician, my kids will inherit a treasure map leading to the hundreds, maybe thousands of pounds of copper coins and ingots lol. I’ve been contemplating getting a 3D printer recently so I can do more sand casting projects. It would make great gifts, made a coworker a solid pair of copper Klein’s for Christmas
A small socket, cut length-wise on one side, a narrow cut for a blade, weld the blade to a platform that is adjustable, lower and raise the blade and the wire is fed through, slicing the sheathing as you pull it through. Inquire for a prototype. Makes copper extraction at least 60% faster. Costs almost nothing especially if you have scrap laying around. I'm not scrapping at the moment but I do like to melt metal and copper sheathing is time consuming.
Would really appreciate your prototype please? I’m trying to clear out 25 yrs worth of garage clutter and make it pay as I have the time. Can you possibly recommend a video on the various wire cutters ?
Sorry guys, I'm just seeing your requests for a prototype. The concept is similar for certain gauges of wire. Stranded or solid doesn't seem to matter. My next post will be a link to what I'm talking about.
If at all possible you should definitely try sell them as reels first! It would 100% be worth stripping but you could easily get twice the scrap value if sold as is
Now if i have a few hundreds pound of various copper wire, and im planning on melting and pouring it into bars.. would that be number 1 or something else?
That’s the best solution really. I just wanted to put in the time to know how much I was improving it. That and I was convinced I would lose money on the small stuff by reducing the weight, which I now know isn’t true
with the very small fine strands of copper I just burn them to be honest because taking the case off of those is a pain and not to mention that I still have some wire in my fingers from helping dad clean off copper. also couldn't tell you how many times the utility knife slipped and cut my thumb.
I been telling people that about stripping wire. I do it and know I don't make that much extra but I also do it when I have time on a rainy day and just bored
It’s a funny thing isn’t it? It’s not a super profitable use of time but most of us don’t get big money hauls every day. I find if I set it aside I eventually have a day when I need some money, and there it is.
Thanks for the videos, had a question. the copper wire that has that is silver looking, it is that still able to just be put in with the regular copper wire?
I would say so, I usually do. Sometimes I’ll find wires that look like they’re silver all the way through (like in a computer power supply) and just to be considerate I usually throw those out, but most of the time they’re tinned copper and still mostly copper inside so I add those to the same #2 insulated bin. If you’re stripping them though they’ll still be #2 clean
I strip everything i can, except for the tiny telecom wires... I strip all my copper at work during coffee breaks and lunch... lots i find at work but if my stash runs low i bring it by the grocery bag from home. I store the bare copper in buckets - then take it home once they’re full and keep it locked in the garage until i have enough to bring it in @ good price. Its a sick deal... im getting paid on my breaks/lunch while stripping copper making more $$. I usually put a podcast on for something to listen to. It adds up like crazy. I get about 250$ a month in clean copper and about 120$ in brass. My only issue right now is not enough extra time in the day... my stash is piling up and needs sorting/cleaning!
I would suggest stripping as a pastime. Turning it into a job only makes it work and nobody likes work. I never consider what I make per hour. I only look at the extra money that I got for free. In 2023 it only takes 50 pounds to cover the cost of a drill run stripper. Thats about a 5 gallon pail of stripped wire.
Been piling a lot of romex over the years - I've heard of burning the coating off. Ever do it that way? I've always thought it would burn up or ruin a lot or am i completely wrong? Im in a farmland area with no neighbors to stink out
I’ve never personally done it, hopefully it doesn’t surprise you to hear me say: please don’t, it’s not about stinking out your neighbours, it’s the environmental damage that makes it ignorant and irresponsible and that’s gross. That said, it depends on your local scrapyard whether the price will change. Mine has a ‘burnt copper’ category that is quite a bit lower than the #1 it would have been otherwise, but yours might not care. But romex is SUPER easy to strip with a plain old kitchen knife, you just pierce the knife through the broad side between the strands and it slides through it incredibly easily, it’s basically effortless and very clean. Then you’ll have a strand of #1 clean and a couple insulated #1s! I regret not discovering that before making this video 😅
@@thubprint I've never actually seen it done but that's the only way I've ever heard scrapers say its done. It sounds like they would be losing money. Believe you me the big corps in Detroit are ignorant and irresponsible - the air at night always smells like burning tires. Just discovered your channel today - great stuff
They certainly will! Copper pipes and fittings are just copper but you’ll pretty much always get #2 for them, not sure if they’re an alloy or just because they’ve got stickers on them
Got my drill powered stripmeister on sell last Christmas for90 and it kicks wire butt. U can’t live with out it. His numbers are skewed bc it’s done by hand.
I hand strip ,I heat wire cut in 2’ lengths with a 2 plate electric stovetop using a flexible blade fillet knife and a $20 farriers leather apron as protection from ten blade and to place the wire against.
That’s my kind of solution! I am thinking about investing in the electric one but I’ve done it by hand for awhile and as I’m sure you’re aware, a person can get pretty quick once they’ve done it a few times.
Good to know, I still need to get a stripper.I've been really lazy about it.I normally just take my number one and number two in with the jackets on but i'm gonna change that this year.
I like that , Life is always better with a Stripper , I think I have a Low Tech one , Or even a knife . Hey at least it is a Lawful and Profitable Hobby . and It's good to save some Number One Wire for a Rainy day , Witch is coming , Soon . Keep up the good vids , Don't scrap no working computer parts .
Like pressure washing - I find stripping cable very therapeutic and both can be money making side hustles unless you are able to scale one of them into a full time gig 😉
Oooo, pressure washing is SO good! My pressure washer is pretty bad (dumpster find) but it’s still really satisfying. Hard to imagine stripping wire full time
Wow! Your whole presentation, info, and well-spoken video blew me away. I've seen people with double your subscription count, have half the content and skill. Please consider leaning into other content for your videos, and I assure you, your viewer count will sky rocket (if that's what you want)! Your talent deserves much more attention. Keep it up, real talent tends to float to the top here. Keep it up, G!
Thank you for the kind words! I definitely want more views as I consider this my career, and I’ve been tossing around the idea of different kinds of content. Whatever I go with it will definitely start here, I’m blessed with an audience of some really great people here 😊
Holy wow that was extremely well done and informative! I would have paid for that knowledge you so freely shared. Oh and I loved the "like and subscribe" after the stripper joke. You should really be making money from your channel. I don't know anything about making money on UA-cam but I've watched a lot of your content and it's all so good.
I’ve gotten pretty good at stripping #1 wire. What I get a surplus of it collected, I strip it while watching a movie or something, like my grandma crocheting a scarf.
I strip wire by hand after the ladies go to bed while watching UA-cam. Amongst other evening activities.
Time multiplication
This is the way 👌doing it for hourly earnings, naw, doing it as a cathartic evening activity, totally.
I do it watching TV even the vacuum cords
And high
grew up in the 1970s. Dad was an electrician and brought home wire scraps by the bucket. I was his wire stripping machine.
You do an amazingly thorough job on your scrap videos. I've been scrapping a long time and done lots of research as well as self experience on most all parts of scrapping. I must say, your scrap videos are THE MOST thorough, detailed and informative! Well done, Sir. I commend you.
Thats how all videos should be. Right to the point and informative.
At my scrap yard they pay me #1 price for all stripped Romex, THHN stranded, basically anything that's not copper - clad. So I do a cheaper motorized copper stripper (180.00) and it does great. I just cashed in my stock pile of copper scrap and I received about $4800.00!! It was about 1300 pounds of completely stripped #1 copper!!! I stripped as a hobby during the winter. Oh and I'm an Electrician so I kinda have a Neverending supply of scrap
That’s an amazing stash!! Yeah that justifies the investment in the motorized stripper pretty easily. Nice work!
I bought a Stripmeister after debating a while, and it paid for itself the first time I used it!! It does all wire extremely easily even romex.
I've been stripping all wire ever since I bought it.
Nice! It sure would be a treat to use. I’m not sure my volume justifies it, but it would pay off eventually regardless
I also went top of the line with a Stripmeister. I had about 700lbs of 500mcm to strip so I spent the 1800$ on the stripper. I literally made that 1800$ back in less than an hour. If you scrap wire often it’s a no brainer get yourself a stripper. 🤙🏻
Stripmeister drill powered kicks wire butt. If you scrap u need to get this machine, bc u will find wire and want to do it by hand if u haven’t got the machine yet. You can’t feed it fast enough
I've learned more from your videos than I have in 3 yrs... My local yard has been awesome since it changed hands. I started doing this more often to help our local Cub Scout pack due to this pandemic. It's helps alot. For me the only thing I'm going to get is the STRIPER 😂 (MACHINE.) Wire I can get alot of most don't bother with it here. But the copper/brass I turned in about 1 mo ago brought our Pack almost $500. That was what I collected over last summer. I had over 300 lbs in the brass. Most over look that item here. But that was my gain. It would have been more but 5 foot surgeries was a set back. Now it's game on..... 😂
I used to deliver and install household appliances. I kept a few of those power cords from some dryers. I filled a small metal coffee can with clean copper. I got $45 for that in 2014. I wish I kept collecting all that copper for the 4 years I did that job.
It could’ve added up for sure but humans aren’t meant to spend every bit of time and energy stacking up money haha
Hello Thub. First I would like to say as always, (even though it's my 3rd comment ever on your videos) thank you for putting your time, and effort into making these videos. I cannot stress enough at how much the videos you put out keep me from absolutely losing it with everything going on not only in my life, but around the world. So thank you, I'm not sure if you've ever been told this, but you're simple, joy-filled, positive, encouraging, informative, adventurous, absolutely are a necessity in my everyday life. You have unknowingly, and most likely unintentionally, saved my life. Being who you are, and doing what you do, is an absolute inspiration. Keep doing the thing!
~Humbly Human: Jason R.
❤️❤️❤️ I’ve not been told that in so many words, no! But every now and again I’m reminded that some people really appreciate my sharing my perspective. I have great days and days that are pretty tough like anybody else of course.. and I’m not trying to do anything other than what feels right. And that includes making these! It really helps that they’re getting a few more views these days, but it especially helps to be reminded that someone actually likes them. So thank you sincerely for that. I’ll keep putting out as many as I can while still reaching for the best quality Im able! All the best out there, lots of love, keep doing that thing!
Hope you're doing well brother! Stay the course. It always gets better after the storm. Going through some really heavy personal shit too and it's interesting that we'd both end up watching the same shit. It's therapeutic no doubt.
Thanks man, I came into some wire and was debating on if it was worth stripping, you saved me a lot if time
Oh hey, another Drake! Yeah the tldr is it’s all worth stripping and a decent wire stripping machine is absolutely worth it for scrappers of all volumes, but doing it by hand means anything under 10ga or 12ga is probably just going to annoy you
The inuendos are layers deep in this video! Gonna need a stripper to get through all those layers! Hahahahaha 🤣😂🤣😂🤣😂 I can't even! I'm dying laughing!
Had to do it to em 😂
There are other wire stripping videos out there so SOMEbody had to do the dirty one!
"Life is always better with a stripper" - Thub 2021
I can’t argue with that.
How could it not be? There’s no downside!
“An experienced stripper knows... that's how money looks like“
I got to get my ass back to Vegas.
As long as you don’t tell her your real name nor where you live.
I have a small drill powered tabletop stripper. Your teaching session was most informative! Thank you.
I’ve thought about those ones too! I only have the one drill for everything though so I don’t want to replace it too early. If a person finds a cheap wall-power drill though, probably perfect 👍
As a young college student looking for any sort of extra wages I will do any sort of “time wasteful” thing just to double my dime
I can appreciate that!
Tools made for skinning copper wire
I would suggest that unless you're a part time hobby scrapper (like me)
Or a pensioner (almost like me)
Then it's really not worth the time or effort to strip the thin stuff.
It's very easy to make your own wire stripper with a piece of steel, a nail and a set screw. You need a drill and a tap the same size as your set screw. Drill 3 holes, one downward from the top and 2 going through that hole perpendicular to it. Thread the upper hole for the set screw, cut off the head and sharpen the nail in your drill then put it down into the top hole, pull the wire through the lower hole. Put the steel in your vise and pull. It works best if you set the nail into the coating then pull but once it starts its very easy to pull through. Trying to come up with some type of drill mechanism to spool the stripped wire so the drill does the pulling. We'll see
Thanks brother I appreciate the info you’re putting out here! 👍
Thanks for the video!
I just started working at a landfill as a bulldozer operator and I find tones of wire. Really been wondering what's worth stripping and what's not
I cannot believe the things people throw away 😑
That’s so cool! Legitimately a dream job in my mind lol. I was surprised to find that *every* wire is worth stripping, but it’s the time it takes that makes it difficult to answer. I’m glad I did the research though, and now I know what makes sense for me. Hoping it’s useful to others and doesn’t sound like avoiding the question.
@@thubprint 100% is a dream job 👍 It really seems to be more about managing your time based on how much wire you are bringing in and how quickly you need to get rid of it.
With my flow of wire being so large and my free time being so small its almost not worth stripping anything.
I dont even pick the bottles anymore because they are honestly not worth wasting time that could be used for picking wire
As an electrician I get a lot of scrap loomex. It all gets the first layer stripped (super easy and quick with a hook knife) and then the bond wire is seperated and the insulated is shoved in a box. I have an absolute ton if it sitting around so this was quite informative. I think I'll keep hoarding and buy a stripping machine in the future.
Well you’ve probably got a bunch of the good stuff too huh? You’d pay for the stripper in the afternoon it took you for sure. I’m curious what to expect copper prices to do from here.
@@thubprint prices are expected to go up from here. All the local contractors are hoarding wire because it's supposed to jump crazy high and it's starting to cause shortages. And yeah, I got a bunch of 6awg and a ton of 12 from a grow op we just did. And a pocket full or more of 14 trimmings on the daily. Pretty privileged in that respect. None of my co-workers scrap because it's not worth their time they say. Well my time is free because I don't do much outside work so I'll take the the free metal haha
just beware the Rack A Tiers wire peeler is vey testy to setup with 14AWG. Spins out quite often and gets a bit frustrating after a several strips. Not much to setup other than adjustment blade up or down and feed hole up or down... good quality build though.
I started my copper journey today, and after acquiring roughly 100g of copper from old wires I found my fingers went numb and I cut my thumb with a knife 😆, I can tell a while after doing this the skin on my fingers will be very tough, by hand stripping copper wire is harder then it looks especially with small wires
As a former Chippendale from the 80's, I love your humour! 😎 I'm new here, and as I have a lot of things with copper wire within that I could scrap and lighten my life load, I decided to educate myself for profit, thus through a search I found you. I now subscribe and will continue to watch and learn. Thanks! 👍
My wife said "naughty naughty thub" lol. but about the wire, I just separate #1 and 2 and turn in as is. I spend my time cleaning all my copper pipe (#2 ends off etc) and cleaning a butt load of pressure relief valves every week. But I do pull the #1 wire out of the paper and plastic comex. Enjoyed the vid, see you next week. From Sacramento, CA USA keep doing the thing.
I mean romex
That’s one thing I should have done the math for!! Removing the ground wire and leaving the rest intact. Although I imagine a person’s yard would figure that out pretty quickly and adjust the individual’s price for it, so perhaps not as much of an oversight after all. All the best to both of you!
@@thubprint yeah. I mean I separate the #1 copper from the #1 ICW in romex. I may lose a little $$ but I only bring 2 bins (of wire) to yard. Everything that bends back is #2 icw no matter how thick (for the most part) and everything that stays bent is #1icw. I definitely wasn't trying to find and point out a fault in your math or method. Just to clarify my friend.
Your hilarious/genius or just a little nuts. I haven’t fully decided yet. But I appreciate your hard work and attention to detail.
Happy Easter....... i have electric wire stripper and I always strip my copper wire
I think I need to get one at this point 😊
Thank you so much for doing all the work and answering all the questions..😊
STRIP STRIP STRIP!!!!! Well done, sir!
Buy a non electric wire stripper to save more money while stripping all wire you have.
Collect all wires and stripp those in the winter season and do a time lab video with meditation music.
Save the stripped wire until copper prices peaks high in $$$ 👍👍👍
Love this video, stay safe and blessings
Could be a real good vid actually! Do you think copper prices are gonna keep going up? I keep thinking about that. There will be a peak somewhere but when? Idk.
@@thubprint My guess is as long as the gold price is going up the metal prices will going up, too. I watch a lot of scrabber videos and many show good and increasing prices for copper , aluminum ect.
Maybe a comparison in history charts with high prices will be helpful for analyzing. Same technique goes with shares and exchange rates ;-)
Stay safe and blessings
Thanks. I've been scrapping for a long time. I like how you compiled the data. Wire is easy to collect and get a nice pile going. My wife likes getting in the truck and going out there picking metal with me. She's a stripper.
She's a stripper huh lol
Nice video, a lot of great info. I like the horror movie style knife. lol
There’s a certain joy in using a comically large knife 😆
Always good to see you bud!
Youre the best! You sure have helped me make more fron the yards and taught me a lot! Thanks dude
Thanks for checking out the vids! I really appreciate it, I’ll keep doing my best to put together useful stuff 👍
Hey Thub I just bought a electric table top stripper but I have a like new tnt tooling wire stripper you put in a vise. Is that something you would be interested in I would gladly send it to you to help increase your profits.
That’s awesome, thank you! I’ve seen moosescrapper use of that one, seems alright? I’m pretty convinced at this point to get the electric one myself though, but I really appreciate your kindness ☺️
@@thubprint yeah that's where I got the idea to get one. It works pretty well made things a lot faster. I think electric ones are totally worth it. Expensive for a good one but well worth it. An of course anything to help out a fellow scrapper.
I would say if you regularly obtain copper wire from 14awg and bigger, yes it’s worth it. Purchasing that 149$ stripper one time will be well worth it increasing profits for brite bare wire.
Using the $100 TNT wire stripper hand tool (when Cu $2 -$2.30/lb Can.), I stripped everything thicker than house wire, unless house wire/thinner than house wire is very long and/or thick & in good condition, not kinked, not burnt, nor has clear 2nd plastic outside layer that bunches up in holes. This means you should strip wires where you find them before handling causes tangling & kinks. Stripping multistranded is risky; you could leave small bits of Cu glistening on ground in Sun, so don't cut deep into the Cu. Coaxial wires are especially bad for this; most people don't strip those anyways. I don't strip wires twisted together. Tell me if there's an easy way to untwist them.
I don’t have an easy way to untwist them, but maybe clamping one end in a vice and the other end in the mouth of a drill and just reverse twisting it?
Thank you for telling me exactly what I needed to know. Not all hero’s wear capes❤
Base model is $179 and it pays for itself quite quickly. That said, this video was suuuper helpful, thank you for doing the math🥰🤘
Took longer than I planned but I’m glad I did!
Top notch info squire, many thanks 👍
Great info! 👍 thanx for sharing. I'd like to say you have a very soothing voice, you could actually do a video to help people relax. Wow 👌
Great in-depth explanation on wire differences.
Did my best!
What is your method of heating the wire
Awesome videos and you are in Calgary i live 2 hours away happy wire stripping. We recently bought a strip mister smaller than our other one but worked better .
Well. This video only proves what I already knew after IDK how many hours of stripping the wires I snip off of appliances to get 6 pounds of bare bright copper wire. So not worth it! I know have a bin I toss all that into, even though my local yard pays about 25% of what BB copper brings. Those hours I’d rather spend looking for more scrap! And I still don’t know where to find good wire, solid stuff like you have, everything I find is the wound fine strands, except for deGaussing wire, and even found that once in a small, cheap TV!!’ Thanks for the great video, Thub!
No problem, this was a fun one! Took longer than I expected though, lol. It’s true, great cable is not common. That’s the real reason I don’t have a power stripper, it just wouldn’t get used very much.
@@thubprint I am totally with you on that one, brother!
And what about copper pipes and fittings? I take them from work when they are being thrown out and saved a bunch of them. What would that be considered ? Just copper ?
Romex is easy to strip, use the ground to get it out if the original jacket then my table top motor power stripper dies the rest. Great vid !
It’s not that bad then? I have very little experience with power strippers, I’d just heard that they don’t love romex. I suppose there’s different types though
Is it a good idea to take stranded insulated phone charger wire to the scrapyard at all?
Where and can I get wires ti strip for copper. Thanks for your video
Tabletop stripper is definitely worth it. I make back double what I paid for it the first time I used it!
Dang son, you must have had a stack waiting for that to show up!
@@thubprint I had a pretty decent pile of silver-coated copper from a local ballpark that replaced its main Light Panel. 400-amp service required 1 and 0 gauge wire 😁
That voice. Not gonna lie, very soothing.
😄👍💙
Digging the change of pace on this one! Be nice to hear you cut loose with your humor more often!
Thanks! It’s challenging though, sometimes a person can think they’re funny when they’re really just annoying..
I agree. I enjoy listening to you explain the what and how of stuff. You're the reason I got interested in scrapping.
I’m stripping miles of wires now on my China made $79 US dollar stripper. It’s okay but I keep having to adjust the cut wheel center with the V wheel lol. But I got fast at doing that so… make a moneys right.
DoooooooD ♥️
a really good video, thub, looking forward to the next one, I purchased the entry level drill driven striper from stripmeister, made in canada and super affordable!
I’ve seen those! I’d be a bit worried about burning out my good cordless on it though
@@thubprint pick up a old wired drill at a garage sale or estate sale?
Sitting alot, mostly appliance wire, based on a percentage I take out for every scrap load I take in. Should have a table top stripper mid summer. But with lock downs in Ontario starting tommarow, hopefully will not slow me down
It doesn’t sound like they’re going all in with a stay-at-home order so tbh I’m not sure what it’ll change. I stopped digging in resi bins when we started lockdowns for my own peace of mind
I just now figuring out the benefits of selling scraps.
We’re talkin dollar bills y’all...
Mother great vid
where do you find those big wires? I can only find the small ones when people throw stuff out
What would a Apple charger and block be worth in weight if copper wire? Sorry if this question is dumb, I’m just thinking about stripping wire and Apple chargers and blocks are just about all I have.
Awesome vid man! This was just what I was looking for since I found a big stash of wire yesterday! ^^
Nice find there buddy! A longtime viewer mentioned I should do one and the next day I found that bin with all the beautiful bits of good wire. Perfect timing for both of us really 😎
"Found"
Thub... would it be feasible to melt down the bright & shiny #2 copper fluff wire into ingots ?
It would be worth more right?
I realize the fuel would be an added expense but still it would melt fast. Worth it or not ?
Maybe use a wood fire with a flat top & ingot molds.
Learning to recognize 14, 12 and 10 gauge wire came quickly.
Is that your equivalent to thick, medium and thin?
I’m sure you’re right, it couldn’t really take long if I decided to start identifying them properly. I used thick/medium/thin as relative terms regarding the common types and aimed to support that with visual examples. In my mind I was aiming to keep things as easy to understand for as many people as possible so I didn’t want to alienate anyone by using terms they may not be familiar with. In hindsight it would have been a more helpful piece of work to quickly include that somewhere, and I’m glad you reminded me 👍 I suppose in my mind 8g is the point where it isn’t worth the time to strip.
Crack hoes are too thin. You need the more seasoned strippers that have a little weight. All kidding aside I clean up 14 gage and larger.
Always a pleasure to watch your videos. Another great source of copper wire and brass would be welding leads (the gun) and the ground wires..
Ohhh, yeah those are some high amp devices!
Thanks for laying the subject bare!
👌👌👌
Is it worth stripping 12 gauge extension cords down to the green, black, and white wires on the inside?
Do you have a video about the classifications again?
What is the best place in Calgary for wire.?
I can’t say definitively which place is ‘best’ because I haven’t been to all of them and there are small ones I don’t know about, and they change sometimes. I personally choose to take my wire to Empire Metals because in my experience they have the best price most of the time, are generally the first to raise their buy price when the metals go up, and are pretty generous with what counts as “#2”. Other places give me a better price on the phone but then when I get there they call my bins #3.
what do you do with the wire coatings once stripped? do you recycle them or do you throw them away?
Is it worth it to strip out sheath on cat wire??????
I'm saving up metal cuz I'm wanting to pickup a new hobby smelting metal into bars saving them for a rainy day I'm curious what's your opinion on bringing in metal like that
I just love your voice. I could listen to you all day. You should definitely do voice overs. Awesome video.
He does have one of those great voices that you could listen to forever
'Life is always better with a stripper'the line that earned my 👍&sub, well played sir, well played.
Such a great video man. It was super thorough and FULL of awesome information.
Very nice video! Anyone have any suggestions on a table top stripper?
Worth it for me, I find it relaxing just to turn on some music and strip in my spare time. I’ve got every bit of copper I’ve collected over the past 5 years... it’ll always have value. I’m in no rush to sell. Size #12 or bigger is getting stripped I don’t care if it’s an inch long of 500’ lol
I’m with you there buddy. It’s still copper inside there. People get jazzed about silver and gold but look at what copper just did. From a percentages perspective, those gains were crazy. I’m thinking about cashing out, at least a portion
@@thubprint If I retire as an electrician, my kids will inherit a treasure map leading to the hundreds, maybe thousands of pounds of copper coins and ingots lol.
I’ve been contemplating getting a 3D printer recently so I can do more sand casting projects. It would make great gifts, made a coworker a solid pair of copper Klein’s for Christmas
A small socket, cut length-wise on one side, a narrow cut for a blade, weld the blade to a platform that is adjustable, lower and raise the blade and the wire is fed through, slicing the sheathing as you pull it through. Inquire for a prototype. Makes copper extraction at least 60% faster. Costs almost nothing especially if you have scrap laying around. I'm not scrapping at the moment but I do like to melt metal and copper sheathing is time consuming.
I love that idea, I will build something like that today. Thanks for the inspiration
got a pic or video?
Would really appreciate your prototype please?
I’m trying to clear out 25 yrs worth of garage clutter and make it pay as I have the time.
Can you possibly recommend a video on the various wire cutters ?
Sorry guys, I'm just seeing your requests for a prototype. The concept is similar for certain gauges of wire. Stranded or solid doesn't seem to matter. My next post will be a link to what I'm talking about.
Show us how and link the video.
hi, if i have 16 to 28 gauge insulated stranded . what is that considered ICW scrap % recovery? i cant find any info online. thank you
I don’t know what icw means but 16-28ga is usually #2 grade which is 60% recovery on average
So I have 4 x 1000ft reels of 14awg 2c FPLP(solid fire alarm cable). What should I do. So it has an outer jacket, then each conductor has a coating...
If at all possible you should definitely try sell them as reels first! It would 100% be worth stripping but you could easily get twice the scrap value if sold as is
Now if i have a few hundreds pound of various copper wire, and im planning on melting and pouring it into bars.. would that be number 1 or something else?
After you pour it into bars? It’s gonna be #2 unless your scrapyard really likes you
My scrapyard sorts by stranded and unstranded which is super simple. I only strip the thick or easy stuff.
That’s the best solution really. I just wanted to put in the time to know how much I was improving it. That and I was convinced I would lose money on the small stuff by reducing the weight, which I now know isn’t true
Did you upload your scribbles somewhere? Doing some great work, thanks for doing the hard stuff so some of us don't have to!
I haven’t yet, not sure where I’d put them? I was a little disappointed in the quality I ended up with having them in the video like that.
with the very small fine strands of copper I just burn them to be honest because taking the case off of those is a pain and not to mention that I still have some wire in my fingers from helping dad clean off copper. also couldn't tell you how many times the utility knife slipped and cut my thumb.
My state (AZ) Requires a licence if you strip wire. Is there a way around this without having to get a electrical contractors licence?
Im new to scrapping thanks for your help
Thanks for saying hi!
Thank you for saving me so much time
Trying to help!
Great video, love it.
I stripped a lot of wire by hand, thick, thin and got quite a good payout, didn't bother me doing it by hand as my time is free.
I’ve only ever done it by hand, doesn’t bother me if I can make the time 👍
I been telling people that about stripping wire. I do it and know I don't make that much extra but I also do it when I have time on a rainy day and just bored
It’s a funny thing isn’t it? It’s not a super profitable use of time but most of us don’t get big money hauls every day. I find if I set it aside I eventually have a day when I need some money, and there it is.
Thanks for the videos, had a question. the copper wire that has that is silver looking, it is that still able to just be put in with the regular copper wire?
I would say so, I usually do. Sometimes I’ll find wires that look like they’re silver all the way through (like in a computer power supply) and just to be considerate I usually throw those out, but most of the time they’re tinned copper and still mostly copper inside so I add those to the same #2 insulated bin. If you’re stripping them though they’ll still be #2 clean
@@thubprint really appreciate it, thank you.
What if i forge out the copper personally and mold it into ingots?
they don't like that because of fear of filling them with trash
I strip everything i can, except for the tiny telecom wires... I strip all my copper at work during coffee breaks and lunch... lots i find at work but if my stash runs low i bring it by the grocery bag from home. I store the bare copper in buckets - then take it home once they’re full and keep it locked in the garage until i have enough to bring it in @ good price. Its a sick deal... im getting paid on my breaks/lunch while stripping copper making more $$. I usually put a podcast on for something to listen to. It adds up like crazy. I get about 250$ a month in clean copper and about 120$ in brass. My only issue right now is not enough extra time in the day... my stash is piling up and needs sorting/cleaning!
Could always hire the neighbour kids! That sounds like a good system though, slipping it into time which is already accounted for if possible.
Be very careful with this. Companies will turn on team members in a heartbeat. I have seen it ruin careers over something very small. Good luck.
@@onefixitman im a union protected repairmen running maintenance at an apartment building of 250 units solo... its all good, trust me
I would suggest stripping as a pastime. Turning it into a job only makes it work and nobody likes work. I never consider what I make per hour. I only look at the extra money that I got for free. In 2023 it only takes 50 pounds to cover the cost of a drill run stripper. Thats about a 5 gallon pail of stripped wire.
Been piling a lot of romex over the years - I've heard of burning the coating off. Ever do it that way? I've always thought it would burn up or ruin a lot or am i completely wrong? Im in a farmland area with no neighbors to stink out
I’ve never personally done it, hopefully it doesn’t surprise you to hear me say: please don’t, it’s not about stinking out your neighbours, it’s the environmental damage that makes it ignorant and irresponsible and that’s gross.
That said, it depends on your local scrapyard whether the price will change. Mine has a ‘burnt copper’ category that is quite a bit lower than the #1 it would have been otherwise, but yours might not care. But romex is SUPER easy to strip with a plain old kitchen knife, you just pierce the knife through the broad side between the strands and it slides through it incredibly easily, it’s basically effortless and very clean. Then you’ll have a strand of #1 clean and a couple insulated #1s! I regret not discovering that before making this video 😅
@@thubprint I've never actually seen it done but that's the only way I've ever heard scrapers say its done. It sounds like they would be losing money. Believe you me the big corps in Detroit are ignorant and irresponsible - the air at night always smells like burning tires. Just discovered your channel today - great stuff
You really do not want to burn it , it ends up being low quality and it is a mess , and I think maybe illegal to do so in most areas these days
Wait scrap yards take copper wire without stripping it ? I’ve been trying to strip wire for weeks to sell it
They certainly will! Copper pipes and fittings are just copper but you’ll pretty much always get #2 for them, not sure if they’re an alloy or just because they’ve got stickers on them
Very informative. Thanks for posting.
Thanks for watching!
Thank you you just talked me out of buying a $160. wire stripper .Very helpful 👍🏻
Got my drill powered stripmeister on sell last Christmas for90 and it kicks wire butt. U can’t live with out it. His numbers are skewed bc it’s done by hand.
Nice vid, keep up the good work :)
Happy to do it!
I hand strip ,I heat wire cut in 2’ lengths with a 2 plate electric stovetop using a flexible blade fillet knife and a $20 farriers leather apron as protection from ten blade and to place the wire against.
That’s my kind of solution! I am thinking about investing in the electric one but I’ve done it by hand for awhile and as I’m sure you’re aware, a person can get pretty quick once they’ve done it a few times.
1 other tool is “easy cut 1000” utility knife for cutting casing .It auto retract ,3 depth settings and has guides that keep blade centered on wire
Good to know, I still need to get a stripper.I've been really lazy about it.I normally just take my number one and number two in with the jackets on but i'm gonna change that this year.
I like that , Life is always better with a Stripper , I think I have a Low Tech one , Or even a knife . Hey at least it is a Lawful and Profitable Hobby . and It's good to save some Number One Wire for a Rainy day , Witch is coming , Soon . Keep up the good vids , Don't scrap no working computer parts .
Like pressure washing - I find stripping cable very therapeutic and both can be money making side hustles unless you are able to scale one of them into a full time gig 😉
Oooo, pressure washing is SO good! My pressure washer is pretty bad (dumpster find) but it’s still really satisfying. Hard to imagine stripping wire full time
Wow! Your whole presentation, info, and well-spoken video blew me away. I've seen people with double your subscription count, have half the content and skill. Please consider leaning into other content for your videos, and I assure you, your viewer count will sky rocket (if that's what you want)! Your talent deserves much more attention. Keep it up, real talent tends to float to the top here. Keep it up, G!
Thank you for the kind words! I definitely want more views as I consider this my career, and I’ve been tossing around the idea of different kinds of content. Whatever I go with it will definitely start here, I’m blessed with an audience of some really great people here 😊
Holy wow that was extremely well done and informative! I would have paid for that knowledge you so freely shared. Oh and I loved the "like and subscribe" after the stripper joke.
You should really be making money from your channel. I don't know anything about making money on UA-cam but I've watched a lot of your content and it's all so good.
If we remove the insulation does that make us a "Stripper"?
I would say yes!
Have a question but i believe youtube took away the messaging on here.
Yup, there’s no direct messaging on YT. My email/fb/insta are all in the video descriptions though