So I watched your channel, got hooked, bought a wire stripper and started in on my Dad's store of various wire to be stripped. He died before he got it done. Yesterday I was given $415.27 at a local scrap yard. This isn't about money for me, just something that I needed to do for my Dad. But I was amazed at what it is worth. Now I find myself doing just what my Dad did, hawk eyeing dumsters and construction site waste piles. It will become an enjoyable past time, I know. Thanks for all your work and good advice.
Thanks for your support and for saying hi! Condolences for your loss btw. I feel compelled to piece things together in clever ways from garbage to honour the spirit of my grandpa 👍
RIP to your Dad, I’m sorry for your loss… sometimes it’s not about the money- for example: look at what you did.. you cleaned up, recycled, saved some of the Earth, now that metal gets remade into something else and no need to dig that much more… AND you got paid to do it- Also it makes you think about your Father .. which in my book is never a bad thing! We all love our Dads.. but as Thub always says- you left it better than you found it!
@@thubprint hey Thub, my grandpa also got me into recycling when I was about 10 y/o - I’ll be 36 in December and I’ve been doing it ever since .. he died in 2021 and used to give me all kinds of scrap, but it’s something I’ll do Forever now
Problem is people not being able to turn off the scraping mindset. I've watched countless guys scrap $200-1000 used and or vintage equipment(no work needed) for $30-50 in scrap with hours of labor. All because there might be copper inside....
It's the mindset of you know what you know and not leaving comfort zone. Someone would rather yank out the $5 of copper from vintage audio gear than have to go through the effort of selling it for $20 more profit.
We were setting lines for Verizon an came to a power box that had a crack head trying to strip the copper an as we were going to tell him chill an explosion an blue light came out of him he had a hole on his chest an you could see smoke come out of it I’m sure his lungs were behind the hole idk if he lived or what ambulance took him
I'm a plumber working for a building company. I'm a diligent scrap collector and no one else on the firm can be bothered. I obviously get a fair amount of copper pipe, but I also get a LOT of cable. I've never spent a whole day stripping it, but I do put in an hour or 2 when I can. I don't actually see it as "work" I'm at home listening to radio and chilling in my shed with a stripper 😂 I have to say though I never strip the Flex cable (stranded stuff) it's a pain in the arse... Even though in the UK we get the same price for both, It's just under "bright copper cable". Also it's £6.20 a kilo here right now and Im gonna turn in my stash soon for Xmas presents for the kids 😉
8 years self employed in home improvement. Focusing mostly on new and replacement doors, windows, carports and patio covers. I never collected much scrap copper as I tried to avoid doing much plumbing and electrical. But I collected a LOT of aluminum and did much as you describe. Pile it up and now and then sit out in the yard with the few hand tools needed to clean it up. 2 piles, one for dirty, the other for clean. Then any time I felt the need or want for a few extra bucks in my pocket haul an armful or two off to the scrap yard.
@@henryk1031 yeah looking to get a better stripper at some point... But what ever it costs I have to make the money back in scrap... And the flex just doesn't seem worth it. When this one breaks I'll replace it with a better one.
@@draconusspiritus1037 I've dabbled in aluminium collection too... It's just so light and bulky, takes up way too much room. I do save the cast aluminium boiler burners though... They pack a punch on the scrappy scales
I'm not a recycling person, but I often repair electronics. If something is too old or broken, I take usable stuff out. I also have a box where I collect raw copper stuff like solid copper heat sinks. It's not much but if I would throw it away, I wouldn't get anything for it and so I might get something when I find someone to sell it to.
@@drcyb3r from the video he used the word "scrapper" which sounds right to me, never heard it before but definitely given me some ideas how to make a little money
I think the speed of the drill you use makes a huge difference. I bought a Stripmeister last month after watching your video on them. The first drill I used was a cheap menards tool shop brand one. took a awhile to get through stuff. Switched over to a stupid fast hammer drill and can race through the wires now. You are absolutely right about needing to have your wires sorted to similar sizes to save time. Enjoy your videos. Stay safe.
I'm coming back to this video a year later. I just ordered a Vevor 60w 7 hole electric stripper. I had the multi purpose ran by a drill like you had in this video and I got rid of that thing quickly. Most of my stuff is 14 - 12 gauge Romex. The wire always slipped off the multi purpose stripper for me so I junked it. This motorized one from Vevor apparently eliminates that issue so we will see when it arrives. The other reason I bought it for is the massive amounts of extension cords I get. If I strip the outer insulation off the price goes up $1.00 a pound. So I spent $200 US to see if I can make better profit on the 2 materials. I'll come back and edit this post with the results. Keep it up Thub!
@@mharrison1325 Man I thought I left the review already. I am absolutely happy I bought that thing. 14ga solid is about the smallest you want to go with it. It will do braided 14 ga but it will start to break some of the thin wires so getting the insulation off is a little extra work. 12ga braided is just fine as the wires aren't as fragile. I've also stripped about 200lbs of the thick aluminum wire as well. It is far better than the stripMeister by a mile. I wish I would have had this thing years ago.
Not to mention never breathing inside that space again, throwing away your clothes as you exit through a shower, and declaring the property a Superfund site! Asbestos is safe until you disturb it in a way that breaks it up into airborne particles.
I don't usually mess with or strip anything smaller than #6 sometimes #8 but I usually just let the guys have it. Only because I don't have time to work on stripping it. When I think about what my time is worth. I have ninth grade education but I also have a masters license in electrical. I make $41.60hr or $.69 a min. But when I work overtime it's $62.40hr or $1.04 a min but on Sunday and holidays it's $83.20hr or $1.38 a min. So unless I can make something close to that which you can very easily when you have some 500 or 600kcmil It doesn't usually make sense plus It makes me feel good knowing I've helped my guys out as a little extra appreciation.
Great explanation. The best part.... knowing the difference in taking the time and effort to strip the wire over just taking it in, as is. $64 in an 8 hour day. Worth it to some, not worth it to others.
I try to keep that in mind when I’m making these types of videos, it’s not my place to tell people what is it isn’t “worth it” because I don’t know the economics of their situation. Totally up to the individual, I’m just aiming to help people make informed decisions
I did 4 hours of stripping of 250mcm copper from a job I did way up north, all cut offs. And it got me $400 like 8 years ago... Really depends on the overall amount, type and gauge
No. The stripping didn’t get you that much. The copper got you that much. How much did you actually make for those 4 hours spent, rather than the total amount in the end
about 3 years ago in a warehouse clear out, I picked up a 4-foot by 4-foot by 3 feet high cardboard bin full of mixed wire to be stripped, with a proper wire stripper that has its own proper AC motor, my father and I managed to strip the box in 3 or 4 days and we barely made enough to pay for the wire stripper which at the time I paid around 250$ let alone our time of stripping wires, The only real way to make money stripping, is in a Topless bar haha
@@RxTerpsAgreed! Some of the statements people make reveal the amount of stupidity and lack of motivation they have. With the proper motivation, plan and knowledge, scrapping copper can easily make you upwards of $500-$600 a week. There are some people that don’t make that working a full time job! This guy is clearly lazy and entitled, so sad… 😢
Im a stripper from Estonia. All my stripping equippment is handmade, box cutters, wood, screws... I work daily but stripping is my hobby and i enjoy it. I like your videos been watching you long time.
Well thanks for saying hi! There’s no shortage of possible solutions for stripping wire that’s for sure. My personal favourite I’ve seen was a pair of rollers powered by a motor that didn’t even cut the insulation, they’d just crush it enough that the copper bursts out. Certainly larger than a vice mounted unit though lol
Greetings! I have put several Estonian strippers through university. Never needed a box cutter, though. All kidding aside, I used the sharpened screw and wood block method for years and it works very well.
$67 equates to 3,925.00 Philippine pesos. Minimum daily wage here in Metro Manila is P500.00 so your one day of stripping is almost 8 days of work for a minimum wage earner.
I recently bought a wire stripper after watching your review on them. What stood out to me was what you said the main problem you had and what many others had was that sometimes the wire would move out of place causing it not to cut. So I was looking at different types and found one from the brand Coppermine. What they had in there demo video was that it has wire clamps on the side of the blade so it stays in place. I got the 302 model for $199.99 U.S because it has a separate blade that will strip big guage and romax. I'm quite happy with it. It also has the option to hand crank or drill attachment. Just wanted to say thank you for all your reviews and sharing your experience. I don't think I would know what I know if not for your videos. :)
Yes, with my Golden Wire Stripper, cutting wheel had enough play that wire often slipped off. Seemed great in pics until you use it for a few hrs. Looking at your Coppermine stripper, problem is it takes 4 adjustments/wire. 1 adjustment/wire is ideal.
Nice, and thank you! There are a number of different devices on the market, but I’m glad my comparison helped identify a few pain points you could use to make an educated purchase decision 👍
I get literally tons (approx.10-12 tons) of 4/0 to 500 mcm per year from my job as an electrician in the mining industry. In my barn I currently have about 5 tons waiting to be prepared to run through my Vervor electric wire stripper. 98% of the wire I get is Teck 90 cable (copper insulated conductors covered by rubber jacket inside aluminum MC type covering and wrapped in another rubber coating) so I generally have to cut the outer layers off with a grinder cutoff wheel. I usually prepare wire for a month for the stripper then strip wire for a month a few hours a day on the weekends. February is a "stripping" month for me. I generally work about 3 hours a day on the weekend days and usually do about 500 lbs bright bare a day in those 3 hours which is about what my 30 gallon barrels hold. I have 35 or so barrels of bright bare full ATM as I only take 4-6 barrels a month to sell at a few different scrap yards so I don't get caught up in a 1099 situation. I also save and sell the aluminum and make about $100 or so a month off that. Bottom line is I average about 60k a year extra money from scrap copper and another $1200-ish from aluminum, plus the bright bare I do not sell that slowly adds up each year. Every year I end up with 5-8 more surplus barrels full (part of my retirement plan lol) A recommendation to you if all you do is the smaller stuff. Look into copper granulators. I bought one several years ago it was about $4,000 new. It made quick easy work of of trash cans full of random wire from data cable to #6 - 4 conductor cable like dryer cords etc. I could do about 40 lbs an hour and store it in 5 gallon buckets, about 200 lbs each. Just toss in everything, no stripping, no prep at all. AND if you can find a company that uses granulated copper you can get about 20% more in price than bare bright. I used to sell mine to a bearing company 2-3 times a year since it was a long drive. I made about 12k-15k a year doing it. I sold my granulator about 8 years ago when I took my current job where I don't actually see much smaller wiring anymore. I also know a guy who uses a Ryobi 3000 watt 240 volt impact shredder to do the smaller stuff. He says it takes 3-4 passes of the wire, but separates the copper from the insulation with water in the catch bin.
Love the channel Thub. From my experience it isn't worth it for me to strip anything smaller than 14 gauge, I figured it out the same way you did. I usually won't even bother taking the time to strip the outer casing off of 14 gauge romex, my scrap yard doesn't differentiate between 12/14 gauge romex for prices. I also have the motorized version of your stripper, I sprung for it because I'm an electrician and I come across a lot of wire. I think it is a lot easier to crank out higher volumes when you can go hands free on the automation and not have to worry about pulling the trigger. I've also found that if you split the task of running your pile through the machine and then pulling the insulation off it helps to speed up production. I also don't do it all at once, more often than not I'll do one bucket in the garage for a little bit after the kids go to sleep. I just fill up buckets with bare bright until I get tired of it sitting around and then go cash in. 🤑
The second hole from the top is made for stripping loomex, you can use it and adjust the blade to skin both the white insulation and one of the wire in one go. To untwist you can just tie the end to something solid and use your drill to untwist
I work at a motor rewind shop ,and occasionally someone stops by asking if we have any scrap motors. Sure ,go for it buddy. What I'll say is none of them have ever come back for more a second time. It's almost not worth it for us to strip them and use the burnout oven unless we can get one of the kids on a huge pile for a few days. Even then,it's basically clearing space and gets us a few free pizzas for lunch.
I used to do HVAC work and id scrap out all the old units i had replaced that year. Only once did i try to strip the copper from the compressor motors. What a nightmare that was.
@@GonzoDonzo We have had guys stop by and ask for old motors , and we might hand a few over for them to strip ,but they never come back a second time 😂
@@leonelmartinez2486 It's scrap, we can't waste time trying to get 3$ worth of copper. We do send it to a scrapyard , but it's all bulk and all we separate is steel and iron from other metals. Or just toss a whole motor in the main scrap pile. At least it's getting recycled.
Keep in mind that that's only that hourly rate if you have unlimited free copper rolling in. It takes exponentially more hours to extract the copper than to strip it.
Ugh. No? That’s the hourly rate for the extra he made BY stripping the wires. If he didn’t strip them, he’d make x amount. Spending the time, he makes amount. The difference, is the hourly rate he’s making.
A quick foot pedal switch for your drill is a surge protector on the floor. It let's you go both hands for feeding and separating the wire as it goes through.
For me it's always been about how much the cladding weighs in comparison to the cable itself. Because the local scrapyard assumes that cables are only 30% copper by weight. So it's just a matter of figuring out which cables have less than 30% copper by weight, those are not worth stripping. The ones that have more copper are worth it. Also depending on what kind of insulation is being used, it's worth keeping the different kinds of plastic sorted together. As over here we do have a company that buys sorted plastics in order to make new plastics out of them. And even if that gets you maybe cents per kilo for the plastic, the municipal dump charges 18ct/m^3 to take it away for you. So it's much more economical to sell the plastic as well.
@@jamesbizs yep, if it's non-recyclable you have to pay for it to be removed. If you pollute, you pay, at least that's the idea. Mind you my city does not charge for garbage removal through city taxes. So you have the option of making sure things can be recycled, at which point getting rid of them is entirely free. For non-recyclables, there is the normal pickup service like in any city. The difference being that you pay 1.50 euro per 60 litre garbage bag.
Just started watching your videos and I have to say that the CBC needs to hire you. You have a gift for communicating an idea. Awesomeness times infinity. Thanks.
I have always loved scrapping, but I realized early on that stripping most kinds of wire was not really worth the small amount of extra money as compared to selling with the insulation still on. I make exceptions for solid 10 or 12 gauge, especially if it's nice and straight. Kinked up stuff gets tossed in the #1 insulated pile. I also encounter a good deal of 8, 6, and even 4 gauge, all of which obviously gets stripped. One time I got three 20 foot sections of 500 KCMil from a decommissioned back up generator. That was a good day.
I started watching your videos, now I’m hooked. I’ve been binge watching your videos when I get home at night and I enjoy them so much that after learning you make more money on UA-cam when people watch the entire ad, I now watch every ad to the end
Thanks so much! I have a lot of fun making them so I’m glad you’ve been enjoying them. I wouldn’t worry too much about letting the whole ad play through, it’s just fractions of pennies for individual plays. The fact that you’re watching and enjoying them is why makes all the difference! If you have any questions or suggestions on how I could improve please let me know. All the best!
I'm the kind of smart that can see the gauge, but not the kind that knew that those amazing strippers exist 😮 you can't imagine how long it takes me. I make jewelry out of my copper and don't find things to take apart very often, but dang, I might just start looking around more ❤
I used to strip wire all the time, back when i worked in construction. It was always a nice little $150-$200 pay check, for like half a days work, once a month or so. I stopped doing it though. For 1) the price of all scrap metal had dropped so much. And for 2) the place that i took the scrap to, was known for having under weighing scales.
Love how you try to save a customer money it’s such a great thing. Fitters don’t have to do it cheap we don’t want that, but saving them is the way in the service industry. The IRR of saving a customer money is a win and the environment wins. They save bucks, you feel good inside, you get more work so more money later, and the environment feels better for less landfill for garbage. Your videos are amazing I love watching all of them.
I'm in Ohio, and it's getting really cold here, I believe one day this coming week, it's only going to be a high of 49. I love the colors of fall, but don't like the really cold weather. I can handle about 60-65, with minimal wind, but anything lower than that, I'd rather just hibernate lol. Loving the videos
I have a motorized stripper and it definitely saves time, plus it will strip almost any size. I’ve stripped stuff the size of a sewing needle just for fun.
I use to do this on the side. Saved up enough to buy a few tools and got into woodworking. Now I pay myself upwards of $100 an hour on most projects I do while putting half that back into tools and wood. Scrapping gave me a lot. The profit was horrible, the drive to improve was everything.
I love this, I have also found the less time i spend on it the better off i am. Just throw some in the truck and turn it in. Thank you for this great video! I was debating on buying the machine you have.
Thank you for checking it out! I really like my machine and I enjoy using it every time I have the opportunity. I’m glad I explored a bit though because I don’t like feeling like I’m throwing away easy money, and now I’m confident that the smaller stuff simply doesn’t give enough of a return to stress over. Straight to the yard as-is, no reason to doubt it
I'm thinking about investing in one of the motorized Stripmeisters. They're awesome machines and much better the el-cheapo I'm currently using. There's a lot to be said for understanding the ROI relative to one's time. Time is always in short supply for me, so I only strip heavy gauge wire. But it is so dependent on why folks do this and how much wire they get. Take care and keep up the great work.
If it has an earth or ground conductor use a box cutter to expose end then use pliers to unzip the entire length. Individual conductors can be unzipped passing conductor between two spaced blades clamped in a vice. So for those that don't have a mechanised wire stripper all you need is a box cutter and a few blades. If you don't have a vice, you could clamp your spaced blades in a mole wrench.
I bought at an auction a pile of welding leads for very cheap, I sold quite a lot of the good ones and set to stripping the bad ones. There is a lot of brass and copper in those, I was amazed at the prices I got, I basically tripled the money I spent to buy the leads in the first place.
@@JM-iz3fr I more than broke even scrapping the broken leads but I more than broke even with selling the good leads, from memory the leads cost something like 50, I got back something like 400 all up. As for the hours, I have no idea as I didn't record them, just selling one lead paid for all of them so the rest was gravy.
@@CovidConQuitTheCensorship What I sold the good leads for more than paid off the original investment, anything else I got from stripping out the bad leads was gravy.
That is why I pull the wires through a device I made with a screw. Takes only a little longer than the drill, but with proper form can be an excellent back and/or triceps exercise. Can isolate either back or tricep, or do a more full range of motion exercise that hits both. Scrapping for me is about having a nice hobby that develops skills with tools, helps me understand how things work, improves my fine motor skills, and is environmentally friendly.
A hardware store near me had 2” x 10ft copper pipe priced at 18.00. It was miss marked. It should have been 2” x 1.0ft. They had to honor the price. They were mad, until I said “I could have kept my mouth shut and bought all of it, then went to the others in the area and bought all theirs. They were okay after that. Their price tags come from corporate so all the stores got the same wrong tags.
Just to be clear for all the old people salivating, the store didnt HAVE to honor the price tag, it was their choice/policy. This is not an unalienable right.
Good effort for the calculation but, this is what i mentioned in a previous comment, witch is : i dont bother stripping 2/14 -2/10 gauge. But if i may give you a tip on your stripping machine, If you pass your wire a second time, the insulation will practically fall off. this saves time and frustration when trying to get the wire out (some are Hard Headed).. I didn't see all your videos yet, but if it is not done, may i suggest making one on the different types of (Non Ferrus) metals like ( Brass, Cast iron , ASCR , Gold ,' computer hard disks, Palladium In catalytic converter, etc.) and the difference between the categories of copper no.1 bare brite, no. 2 (dipped ) 'has a silver finish', the no 2 (burnt or corroded ) or copper plumbing pipes 'with welding' and the importance to cut of as much as possible the (brass valves and other parts) before selling in order to get most money from product. Good work
Just for comparison: in eastern europe, as a chemist (with a masters degree), my salary (after taxes) is about 4.5$/hour. Stripping copper cables isnt that bad. :)
One thing you could add is a winder for the scrap and one for the wire that can be easily connected to the drill; that way, it will save you time and energy.
A few years ago I used to help a plumber friend of mine. He was so busy he needed someone to clear out his 40 ' containers where he stored all his stock and spares parts. He also used to chuck all his waste in there. I used to clear all his waste for him, (carboard polystyrene and other rubbish. My pay was I could have ALL his scrap. So offcuts of copper pipe, wire, old boilers radiators. It was a great. He got a cheap job done and I earnt good £££. I agree the smaller bits of wire i just threw in as insulated. The rest I stripped. Very therapeautic
Would the dollar per hour average increase if you kept separate bins to avoid having to sort bins of tangled wire when you have accumulated enough to strip and scrap? Just a thought. Really enjoy the videos thanks for all the hard work.
I see scrapping as more of a hobby or even a side hustle. Only scrap yards can make a living doing it, but if you're scrapping instead of watching TV all day, it's worth your time (like you said)
Have the same stripper , going to use motor from a treadmill , add a footswitch to drive the stripper , the treadmill & foot switch were part of my free pickups ;)
Your stripmeister will cut that romex and one of the inside wires at the same time, thus saving an entire step. I was doing it your way too until I stumbled across one of their videos. And I put a motor I found on my stripmeister (same as yours) and it simplifies things as you get your 2nd hand back not having to work the drill.
Oh the motor adaptation would be really clever. And I hadn’t thought the oblong romex hole would cut into one of the inner insulated wires, that makes way more sense!
Took an old treadmill and used the motor, control board and rollers to make a wire stripper. Gets the job done super fast but there’s a lot of cleanup during the process.
I don’t think he’s talking about not scrapping it, just that it’s not worth it, dollar wise, to strip the smaller gauge, and that he should just sell it at the lower price with the insulation still on.
That’s exactly what I wanted to know, is it worth it to strip it or not? Awesome! Thanks for the videos, cheers! Of course you never factored in the amount of time it took to scavenge all this copper either
Does the extra twist on the wire after stripping really improve the storage efficiency? I think you could get away with just a loose coil in a trash can and save some time.
I have 3 different diameter plastic spools (with one tabletop edge missing) that I use to condense everything. The larger the guage, the larger the spool used. Smaller wire bends more easily. Then just slide it all into a 5 gallon bucket to form different rings of material. My 5 gallon buckets typically weigh around 50-60 pounds with room left over for copper pipe scraps or unprocessed #2 wire on top. Keeping a small footprint leaves more room for everything else (of lesser value). Crush the cans! For me, this helps to minimize trips to the scrap yard. The irony of scrapping is that getting paid for the effort takes away from the opportunity to find more treasure! Time is money.
Fascinating and worthy of a subscription if ever there were! A friend of a friend used to do this. One bought a fancy £2K machine to do this and I always wondered if it was worth it. The other guy just burned it off at night, which is totally illegal and terrible for the climate. The tiny value puts both into perspective and knowing that people will pull live wires for this kind of return really makes you think. Thank you!
My buddy built a stripper out of 2 dollar store can openers its by hand but faster then then it slices the casing in half so as he's pulling it thru the casing spilts off to each side leaving a bare wire and he pulls it thru with a crank style mech bad ass for what it is
Back in 07. I bought my first new car off the lot. By scraping copper. I filled the entire inside of a Astro van. I took the van and everything to the yard. Just so I didn't have to unload it. I scrapped the van as well.
My first investment with Mr Bernard gave me profit of over twenty thousand us dollars and ever since then he has never failed to deliver and I can even say he's the most sincere broker I have know
I watch a lot of informative vids like this on "To strip or not to strip" thubprints vid was very clear and realistic message to all.. Sell your cable as it is(unless its the thick heavy stuff). Its not worth the time, sweat and the sore fingers.
I had a few things happen this year for scrapping: We had a few power lines being replaced and the power company dumped the old wires nearby (for a solid month and said we could take them) Had a whole bunch of aluminium cans and scrap donated (be surprised how many people dont do much with aluminium) And we got access to a shooting range to collect a bunch of brass as they were leaving it to rot We had a tally total of: 300lbs copper (varying sources) 200lbs aluminium (cans and scrap components) 400lbs brass (lots of shell casings unattended) We havent sold it yet as were planning to do something with a bit of it but likely if we did sell it wed be sitting at almost $2k or over with current prices
That’s such a killer haul!! 400lbs of brass is a heck of a lot of casings.. if you can find a reloader you can make much better money on those too fyi. You probably know that already. That’s a really great bunch of scrap windfalls though, congrats and thank you for sharing! 😊
Good man !. About 1 1/2 years ago, i took 160 pounds, of pure red #1 copper to recycle place. Price was 4.00 $ canadian a pound. The wire was in large 2 and 3 inch cables; extra large heavy duty stuff. Invested an afternoon, stripping this with angle grinder, with very thin stone. Extremely hard work, as the pieces were from 4 - 6 feet long, heavily insulated for underground cabling. Earned 640 $ canadian. IT IS WORTH it.......
I worked in a Nuclear power plant for 15 years until it was shut down. We threw out so much good stuff that we were not allowed to take. The roll off dumpster guy loved us. He made several thousand per dumpster when he scrapped it out. We sent out 3 dumpsters a week.
What really effed up the scrapping out here is when the city went to the garbage trucks that load themselves. Forced everyone to put everything into a bin, unless you see something poking out the top or a cord dangling out, it's off to the landfill
12AWG wire is around 4 o'clock on the top dial. 14AWG wire is around 10 o'clock. I made the mistake thinking the spinning blade should be lined up with the wheels. Read the instructions and found out the blade needs to be higher since the wheels force the wire up This machine has absolutely ZERO problem stripping small wire. /
I'm glad I started watching this channel. I thought you could make money scrapping, but the videos show that scrapping isn't worth the time and effort ...unless you're making yt videos about how scrapping isn't worth the time and effort. Lol Thanks for saving a ton of time! 🤘😎🤘
🤣 not exactly the message I was trying to send! At this point I do make more on videos than scrap, but there is plenty of money to be made recycling. It’s just important to know what the low return tasks are and try to avoid them.
You need to make a more indepth video of what wire is what. I'm trying to learn from you I have been saving up wire for around 1 year now. I'm a appliance engineer so I have alot of motors,cable and transformers
I think low powered laser cutter would work wonders here, a properly designed machine would cut through the plastic insulation but not damage the copper at all, with a spring loaded gripping wheel kinda like a 3d printer, it could take different sized wires with no alterations except when it gets really thick and maybe increasing the laser strength would be good.
Lasers and PVC insulation jackets don't mix well, especially not in confined spaces where the potentially choking hydrogen chloride among the other thermal decomposition products is liable to accumulate. Not something you want to be exposing yourself to long term if you don't want to cause yourself lung damage that is difficult to measure.
Where I'm at, ANY gauge bright bare is called #1. Any un-tinned insulated, 14Ga. and up, is @1 insulated, whether it's stranded or not. Any insulated smaller than 14Ga and any tinned is #2.
I’m always picking up scrap on the side of the roads to and from my work and scanning the nearest neighborhoods for metals for several reasons 1. It holds value better then currency and your metal can be stored like a squirrel does nuts for that rainy day or when the price of that particular metal skyrockets🚀 2.those items you pick up often are useful around the house or can be made into other things if your handy 3. Is more of a tip ,you may have the option to sell your road side scrap to other people or places then the cheaper local scrap yards , there are people willing to pay more for your copper wire then scrap yards , some times twice as much direct to DYI smelters crafters ect. Scrap yards are middle men and they often double or triple there money , the only metal I take to them are the junk steel .
The Fall and Winter are traditionally worse scrap markets. You build up your stash and process your materials in the winter and haul it in the Spring. Late March/Early April
Depends on the wire. Am I stripping 22 gauge phone wires, or 500 MCM Power Cable? I'm a retired Electrician, and my experience is, it isn't worth stripping unless it's like 8 gauge or better.
You need fewer adjustments, especially for house wire, which you find a lot of. Suggestion: get a machine shop to make you a custom vice/hand tool with a series of holes (and blade in each hole) very close to size of house wire, so you can keep perfect adjustments longer or forever. It would be similar to TNT Tooling WSA hand wire stripper.
get a big board and several strippers (set them up) then move your drill from one to the other as you need to strip the wires. ( anchor each unit to the board)
This is a good video, and it reinforces what I suspected. In most cases, it is not worth stripping wire. Just take your insulated wire to the recycling center, so you can spend your time doing more valuable work.
I had a job stripping 3 core armor cable for around 3 weeks. My forearms are now fucked with tendonitis and i also got trigger finger in both hands. It was unravelling the steel armour wires from around the copper wire inside that did it. That was over a decade ago and my arms and hands are still done in
Armored cable is hard to strip, but what you need to do is takeoff the 1st foot of yeah, armoring from the end you’re not pulling from monkeys, not it then tie the other end off that you didn’t monkey snot grab the armored cable with a come along, and you can pull the armoring right off because once the monkey snot hits and makes a slick for everything else
So by far the best way to get the most from scrap if you have a motorized stripper is to strip it as you get it each day when you get home. The few min it would take to strip a 5 gal bucket of wire is better to not let it pile up. But better than that it is just to re-use it. I save and re-use nearly every scrap of wire I have from a job if its longer than my arm. I work on lots of panels where components have to be bridged,etc so having extra wire is always useful.
You can increase your margin if you invest in a bottle jack, some cribbing, a sawzall, and go to town on some of the local automobiles. They carry a small pile of precious metal bearing ceramic in a little can underneath.
Can you say chop shopping… That would be completely illegal give me a car is for scrap you Gotta be careful doing it because if you get branded as a chop shop, nobody will buy any of your stuff ever
I'm an electrician and I just bought a wire stripper for my kids to start using when I'm not at home. I've got endless clippings they can strip out to earn their own money if they want it. Don't touch my big wire though lol. I normally take a trailer in every 3 months and get anywhere from 7-14 thousand depending on price it's at 3.80 a lb. People don't realize how much money they are wasting by not picking it up. Good luck y'all but don't be an arse and steal it out of walls.
Just make sure they're careful. Theres a cool homemade wood device someone made for stripping every wire gauge on UA-cam. It looks very viable and fun. I'd check it out. I myself have cut myself on accident even with gloves.
I collected wires over the years, along with brass, and took it to the junkyard, and I got enough to make it worthwhile going down there once every few years. As I recall, they paid different rates for different types of wires -- but I never thought about stripping the wire and selling it as pure copper. In fact, I never saw one of those drill-strippers before, and that makes it seem worth the effort, at least for the larger-gauge wires, as you found out.
Being a part-timer in the realm of scrapping, I haven't invested in a stripping machine yet. Still using my own easily adjustable contraption that has a top and bottom blade and pulls wire through somewhat quickly with a hand crank winch attached to vice grips holding a small rolled section of stripped copper tip (then utility knife or bend and yank to pop the last bit of wire from the casing) However, the tip I would throw in here that saves me a lot of time is to set things up so that the wiring is pulled through an appropriately sized funnel. I have a couple that I use for oil changes on different vehicles. Straightens out all the kinks and bends, saving me the annoyance of time-consuming hassles. I will always take the time to transform anything to bare bright, but.. making the effort to upgrade #2 to #1? No thanks. Not even on a rainy day. I personally don't have nearly as much time for the thrill of the hunt as I would like.. certainly not going to waste time like that knowing my hours of labor would only be worth a few bucks. Can make so much more in the same amount of time scavenging random sidewalk iron shred or discarded appliances. Bonus -- more copper wire.. more aluminum.. more brass! But, I certainly do understand how many people enjoy tinkering in their sheds and garages.. That $60 difference is a free tank of gas! Hard to say no to that!
So I watched your channel, got hooked, bought a wire stripper and started in on my Dad's store of various wire to be stripped. He died before he got it done. Yesterday I was given $415.27 at a local scrap yard. This isn't about money for me, just something that I needed to do for my Dad. But I was amazed at what it is worth. Now I find myself doing just what my Dad did, hawk eyeing dumsters and construction site waste piles. It will become an enjoyable past time, I know. Thanks for all your work and good advice.
Thanks for your support and for saying hi! Condolences for your loss btw. I feel compelled to piece things together in clever ways from garbage to honour the spirit of my grandpa 👍
RIP to your Dad, I’m sorry for your loss… sometimes it’s not about the money- for example: look at what you did.. you cleaned up, recycled, saved some of the Earth, now that metal gets remade into something else and no need to dig that much more… AND you got paid to do it- Also it makes you think about your Father .. which in my book is never a bad thing! We all love our Dads.. but as Thub always says- you left it better than you found it!
@@thubprint hey Thub, my grandpa also got me into recycling when I was about 10 y/o - I’ll be 36 in December and I’ve been doing it ever since .. he died in 2021 and used to give me all kinds of scrap, but it’s something I’ll do Forever now
You may find scrapping therapeutic. I enjoy deciding what it is I want to do, and doing it.
Condolences for your loss solo cork. Scrapping is a wonderful hobby and I'm sure your Dad would love that you're getting into it.
Problem is people not being able to turn off the scraping mindset. I've watched countless guys scrap $200-1000 used and or vintage equipment(no work needed) for $30-50 in scrap with hours of labor. All because there might be copper inside....
I thought it a bit weird to strip a spool of wire that would likely be redrawn and insulated in another spool...
It's the mindset of you know what you know and not leaving comfort zone. Someone would rather yank out the $5 of copper from vintage audio gear than have to go through the effort of selling it for $20 more profit.
We were setting lines for Verizon an came to a power box that had a crack head trying to strip the copper an as we were going to tell him chill an explosion an blue light came out of him he had a hole on his chest an you could see smoke come out of it I’m sure his lungs were behind the hole idk if he lived or what ambulance took him
@@josephgaona1996 damn!
@@josephgaona1996 mann wtf
I'm a plumber working for a building company. I'm a diligent scrap collector and no one else on the firm can be bothered. I obviously get a fair amount of copper pipe, but I also get a LOT of cable. I've never spent a whole day stripping it, but I do put in an hour or 2 when I can. I don't actually see it as "work" I'm at home listening to radio and chilling in my shed with a stripper 😂
I have to say though I never strip the Flex cable (stranded stuff) it's a pain in the arse... Even though in the UK we get the same price for both, It's just under "bright copper cable". Also it's £6.20 a kilo here right now and Im gonna turn in my stash soon for Xmas presents for the kids 😉
i love chilling with strippers too
Strips all the same in stripper like thub has.
8 years self employed in home improvement. Focusing mostly on new and replacement doors, windows, carports and patio covers. I never collected much scrap copper as I tried to avoid doing much plumbing and electrical. But I collected a LOT of aluminum and did much as you describe. Pile it up and now and then sit out in the yard with the few hand tools needed to clean it up. 2 piles, one for dirty, the other for clean. Then any time I felt the need or want for a few extra bucks in my pocket haul an armful or two off to the scrap yard.
@@henryk1031 yeah looking to get a better stripper at some point... But what ever it costs I have to make the money back in scrap... And the flex just doesn't seem worth it. When this one breaks I'll replace it with a better one.
@@draconusspiritus1037 I've dabbled in aluminium collection too... It's just so light and bulky, takes up way too much room. I do save the cast aluminium boiler burners though... They pack a punch on the scrappy scales
I love watching you because you talk calm and normal. So many people scream and try to make an event out videos. You are awesome
I'm not a recycling person, but I often repair electronics. If something is too old or broken, I take usable stuff out. I also have a box where I collect raw copper stuff like solid copper heat sinks. It's not much but if I would throw it away, I wouldn't get anything for it and so I might get something when I find someone to sell it to.
@@Nighterlev A lot of old servers also have big and heavy heatsinks made from copper. And they often have 2-4 of them inside.
@@Greebli Sorry, I don't know the correct word for a person that does recycling for a living.
@@drcyb3r from the video he used the word "scrapper" which sounds right to me, never heard it before but definitely given me some ideas how to make a little money
@@Nighterlev e waste Ben on yt 😊
I just take care of the stuff I have.
Small tip: If it is hard to get hold of the insulation after the cut, have a hammer ready, smack the end of the wire and it is quite easy
Oh that’s a great tip! It really can be a nuisance starting the peel sometimes
Why have I never thought of this
Nice tip yo 👌
That's what they thought me in electric school. You squeeze or hammer the ends to soften the insulation and squeeze the conductor out
Another tip is to not start at the end and just bend the wire around and it will pop out.
I think the speed of the drill you use makes a huge difference. I bought a Stripmeister last month after watching your video on them. The first drill I used was a cheap menards tool shop brand one. took a awhile to get through stuff. Switched over to a stupid fast hammer drill and can race through the wires now.
You are absolutely right about needing to have your wires sorted to similar sizes to save time.
Enjoy your videos. Stay safe.
Once i got all one size i was just feeding them to the stripper.
Hammer drills are for drilling through masonry make sure it’s on screw mode
not just labor time, wear and tear cost on the drill, and stripper blade does cost something. Love thub economic analysis.
whenever you have long lengths of wire or spools, try to sell it as wire first, it’s worth WAY more as wire, instead of scrap copper
True
Where and who should you sell wire to
@@garrettsaulnier2651 Ebay?
I had no idea, thank you
Offerup I sell it there.
I'm coming back to this video a year later. I just ordered a Vevor 60w 7 hole electric stripper. I had the multi purpose ran by a drill like you had in this video and I got rid of that thing quickly. Most of my stuff is 14 - 12 gauge Romex. The wire always slipped off the multi purpose stripper for me so I junked it. This motorized one from Vevor apparently eliminates that issue so we will see when it arrives. The other reason I bought it for is the massive amounts of extension cords I get. If I strip the outer insulation off the price goes up $1.00 a pound. So I spent $200 US to see if I can make better profit on the 2 materials. I'll come back and edit this post with the results. Keep it up Thub!
Well we're waiting. How'd it go? I'm about to buy the StripMeister he's using unless you change my mind.
@@mharrison1325 Man I thought I left the review already. I am absolutely happy I bought that thing. 14ga solid is about the smallest you want to go with it. It will do braided 14 ga but it will start to break some of the thin wires so getting the insulation off is a little extra work. 12ga braided is just fine as the wires aren't as fragile. I've also stripped about 200lbs of the thick aluminum wire as well. It is far better than the stripMeister by a mile. I wish I would have had this thing years ago.
Just a FYI the old cloth/fabric insulation has a very good chance of being made with asbestos, so do take the precaution of using a respirator.
Not to mention never breathing inside that space again, throwing away your clothes as you exit through a shower, and declaring the property a Superfund site! Asbestos is safe until you disturb it in a way that breaks it up into airborne particles.
Holy shit i didnt know that
I don't usually mess with or strip anything smaller than #6 sometimes #8 but I usually just let the guys have it. Only because I don't have time to work on stripping it. When I think about what my time is worth. I have ninth grade education but I also have a masters license in electrical. I make $41.60hr or $.69 a min. But when I work overtime it's $62.40hr or $1.04 a min but on Sunday and holidays it's $83.20hr or $1.38 a min. So unless I can make something close to that which you can very easily when you have some 500 or 600kcmil It doesn't usually make sense plus It makes me feel good knowing I've helped my guys out as a little extra appreciation.
Stripping copper in developed country: U get nohing, you loose
Stripping copper in underdeveloped country: Wealth and prosperity be upon you
Great explanation. The best part.... knowing the difference in taking the time and effort to strip the wire over just taking it in, as is. $64 in an 8 hour day. Worth it to some, not worth it to others.
I try to keep that in mind when I’m making these types of videos, it’s not my place to tell people what is it isn’t “worth it” because I don’t know the economics of their situation. Totally up to the individual, I’m just aiming to help people make informed decisions
I did 4 hours of stripping of 250mcm copper from a job I did way up north, all cut offs. And it got me $400 like 8 years ago... Really depends on the overall amount, type and gauge
...and prices of copper when selling it.
What would you have gotten if you sold the scrap wire with insulation still on it?
No. The stripping didn’t get you that much. The copper got you that much. How much did you actually make for those 4 hours spent, rather than the total amount in the end
The meth is pretty good here in the northwest so money making is not the end goal
about 3 years ago in a warehouse clear out, I picked up a 4-foot by 4-foot by 3 feet high cardboard bin full of mixed wire to be stripped, with a proper wire stripper that has its own proper AC motor, my father and I managed to strip the box in 3 or 4 days and we barely made enough to pay for the wire stripper which at the time I paid around 250$ let alone our time of stripping wires, The only real way to make money stripping, is in a Topless bar haha
For 100lbs of copper you get $300-$400
That is amazing. The hell you people talking about
@@RxTerpsPretty sure he's talking about pulling down your underwire bra for 3 minutes and getting $300-$400.
@@RxTerpsAgreed! Some of the statements people make reveal the amount of stupidity and lack of motivation they have. With the proper motivation, plan and knowledge, scrapping copper can easily make you upwards of $500-$600 a week. There are some people that don’t make that working a full time job! This guy is clearly lazy and entitled, so sad… 😢
Im a stripper from Estonia. All my stripping equippment is handmade, box cutters, wood, screws...
I work daily but stripping is my hobby and i enjoy it.
I like your videos been watching you long time.
Well thanks for saying hi! There’s no shortage of possible solutions for stripping wire that’s for sure. My personal favourite I’ve seen was a pair of rollers powered by a motor that didn’t even cut the insulation, they’d just crush it enough that the copper bursts out. Certainly larger than a vice mounted unit though lol
Greetings! I have put several Estonian strippers through university. Never needed a box cutter, though.
All kidding aside, I used the sharpened screw and wood block method for years and it works very well.
@@gasstationpeanuts1814 lol a stripper from Estonia yea i got it xD. The wood block and screw method is good yes. Have a good day!
$67 equates to 3,925.00 Philippine pesos. Minimum daily wage here in Metro Manila is P500.00 so your one day of stripping is almost 8 days of work for a minimum wage earner.
I recently bought a wire stripper after watching your review on them. What stood out to me was what you said the main problem you had and what many others had was that sometimes the wire would move out of place causing it not to cut.
So I was looking at different types and found one from the brand Coppermine. What they had in there demo video was that it has wire clamps on the side of the blade so it stays in place.
I got the 302 model for $199.99 U.S because it has a separate blade that will strip big guage and romax. I'm quite happy with it.
It also has the option to hand crank or drill attachment.
Just wanted to say thank you for all your reviews and sharing your experience. I don't think I would know what I know if not for your videos. :)
Yes, with my Golden Wire Stripper, cutting wheel had enough play that wire often slipped off. Seemed great in pics until you use it for a few hrs. Looking at your Coppermine stripper, problem is it takes 4 adjustments/wire. 1 adjustment/wire is ideal.
@@DavidGS66 While I agree with you completely. Separating the wire like thub does help with that.
Anything that saves time definitely helps.
Nice, and thank you! There are a number of different devices on the market, but I’m glad my comparison helped identify a few pain points you could use to make an educated purchase decision 👍
I get literally tons (approx.10-12 tons) of 4/0 to 500 mcm per year from my job as an electrician in the mining industry. In my barn I currently have about 5 tons waiting to be prepared to run through my Vervor electric wire stripper. 98% of the wire I get is Teck 90 cable (copper insulated conductors covered by rubber jacket inside aluminum MC type covering and wrapped in another rubber coating) so I generally have to cut the outer layers off with a grinder cutoff wheel. I usually prepare wire for a month for the stripper then strip wire for a month a few hours a day on the weekends.
February is a "stripping" month for me. I generally work about 3 hours a day on the weekend days and usually do about 500 lbs bright bare a day in those 3 hours which is about what my 30 gallon barrels hold. I have 35 or so barrels of bright bare full ATM as I only take 4-6 barrels a month to sell at a few different scrap yards so I don't get caught up in a 1099 situation. I also save and sell the aluminum and make about $100 or so a month off that. Bottom line is I average about 60k a year extra money from scrap copper and another $1200-ish from aluminum, plus the bright bare I do not sell that slowly adds up each year. Every year I end up with 5-8 more surplus barrels full (part of my retirement plan lol)
A recommendation to you if all you do is the smaller stuff. Look into copper granulators. I bought one several years ago it was about $4,000 new. It made quick easy work of of trash cans full of random wire from data cable to #6 - 4 conductor cable like dryer cords etc. I could do about 40 lbs an hour and store it in 5 gallon buckets, about 200 lbs each. Just toss in everything, no stripping, no prep at all. AND if you can find a company that uses granulated copper you can get about 20% more in price than bare bright. I used to sell mine to a bearing company 2-3 times a year since it was a long drive. I made about 12k-15k a year doing it. I sold my granulator about 8 years ago when I took my current job where I don't actually see much smaller wiring anymore. I also know a guy who uses a Ryobi 3000 watt 240 volt impact shredder to do the smaller stuff. He says it takes 3-4 passes of the wire, but separates the copper from the insulation with water in the catch bin.
Love the channel Thub. From my experience it isn't worth it for me to strip anything smaller than 14 gauge, I figured it out the same way you did. I usually won't even bother taking the time to strip the outer casing off of 14 gauge romex, my scrap yard doesn't differentiate between 12/14 gauge romex for prices. I also have the motorized version of your stripper, I sprung for it because I'm an electrician and I come across a lot of wire. I think it is a lot easier to crank out higher volumes when you can go hands free on the automation and not have to worry about pulling the trigger. I've also found that if you split the task of running your pile through the machine and then pulling the insulation off it helps to speed up production. I also don't do it all at once, more often than not I'll do one bucket in the garage for a little bit after the kids go to sleep. I just fill up buckets with bare bright until I get tired of it sitting around and then go cash in. 🤑
Yup just by helping pull some of the installation off really gets the job done better I Kno what your saying Ive worked in recycling yards for years
The second hole from the top is made for stripping loomex, you can use it and adjust the blade to skin both the white insulation and one of the wire in one go. To untwist you can just tie the end to something solid and use your drill to untwist
I didn’t realize the Lumex gap would split one of the inner ones open at the same time, that completely changes it 😅
I work at a motor rewind shop ,and occasionally someone stops by asking if we have any scrap motors.
Sure ,go for it buddy.
What I'll say is none of them have ever come back for more a second time.
It's almost not worth it for us to strip them and use the burnout oven unless we can get one of the kids on a huge pile for a few days.
Even then,it's basically clearing space and gets us a few free pizzas for lunch.
I used to do HVAC work and id scrap out all the old units i had replaced that year. Only once did i try to strip the copper from the compressor motors. What a nightmare that was.
Yall dont just sell the motor?
theres profit im your guy
@@GonzoDonzo
We have had guys stop by and ask for old motors , and we might hand a few over for them to strip ,but they never come back a second time 😂
@@leonelmartinez2486
It's scrap, we can't waste time trying to get 3$ worth of copper.
We do send it to a scrapyard , but it's all bulk and all we separate is steel and iron from other metals. Or just toss a whole motor in the main scrap pile.
At least it's getting recycled.
The meaning of "these", has already described "which ones"!!!!!
Thank You
Keep in mind that that's only that hourly rate if you have unlimited free copper rolling in. It takes exponentially more hours to extract the copper than to strip it.
Ugh. No? That’s the hourly rate for the extra he made BY stripping the wires. If he didn’t strip them, he’d make x amount. Spending the time, he makes amount. The difference, is the hourly rate he’s making.
@@jamesbizs please improve your reading comprehension. That's exactly what I said.
@@jamesbizs It's still dependent on having a supply of copper wire
A quick foot pedal switch for your drill is a surge protector on the floor. It let's you go both hands for feeding and separating the wire as it goes through.
For me it's always been about how much the cladding weighs in comparison to the cable itself. Because the local scrapyard assumes that cables are only 30% copper by weight. So it's just a matter of figuring out which cables have less than 30% copper by weight, those are not worth stripping. The ones that have more copper are worth it.
Also depending on what kind of insulation is being used, it's worth keeping the different kinds of plastic sorted together. As over here we do have a company that buys sorted plastics in order to make new plastics out of them. And even if that gets you maybe cents per kilo for the plastic, the municipal dump charges 18ct/m^3 to take it away for you. So it's much more economical to sell the plastic as well.
Lol you get charged to have garbage removed, per pound?
@@jamesbizs yep, if it's non-recyclable you have to pay for it to be removed.
If you pollute, you pay, at least that's the idea.
Mind you my city does not charge for garbage removal through city taxes. So you have the option of making sure things can be recycled, at which point getting rid of them is entirely free.
For non-recyclables, there is the normal pickup service like in any city. The difference being that you pay 1.50 euro per 60 litre garbage bag.
Just started watching your videos and I have to say that the CBC needs to hire you. You have a gift for communicating an idea. Awesomeness times infinity. Thanks.
I have always loved scrapping, but I realized early on that stripping most kinds of wire was not really worth the small amount of extra money as compared to selling with the insulation still on.
I make exceptions for solid 10 or 12 gauge, especially if it's nice and straight. Kinked up stuff gets tossed in the #1 insulated pile. I also encounter a good deal of 8, 6, and even 4 gauge, all of which obviously gets stripped. One time I got three 20 foot sections of 500 KCMil from a decommissioned back up generator. That was a good day.
Yeah, as a hobby sure, but it's not worth the effort or pay someone.
@@joshbarr118 for the super big stuff (like 8 gauge and up) it is DEFINITELY worth it. Easy and quick to strip and comes with big returns.
I started watching your videos, now I’m hooked. I’ve been binge watching your videos when I get home at night and I enjoy them so much that after learning you make more money on UA-cam when people watch the entire ad, I now watch every ad to the end
Thanks so much! I have a lot of fun making them so I’m glad you’ve been enjoying them. I wouldn’t worry too much about letting the whole ad play through, it’s just fractions of pennies for individual plays. The fact that you’re watching and enjoying them is why makes all the difference! If you have any questions or suggestions on how I could improve please let me know. All the best!
Every time I think I have a suggestion I find you have already done a video on it lol
I'm the kind of smart that can see the gauge, but not the kind that knew that those amazing strippers exist 😮 you can't imagine how long it takes me. I make jewelry out of my copper and don't find things to take apart very often, but dang, I might just start looking around more ❤
I used to strip wire all the time, back when i worked in construction. It was always a nice little $150-$200 pay check, for like half a days work, once a month or so. I stopped doing it though. For 1) the price of all scrap metal had dropped so much. And for 2) the place that i took the scrap to, was known for having under weighing scales.
Soaking the wire in boiling water for a few minutes really speeds up the job as the plastic gets really soft, making stripping a lot easier to slice.
Nice tip! TY
But then you’re paying for either electricity or propane to boil the water, and that’s an add on cost.
Love how you try to save a customer money it’s such a great thing. Fitters don’t have to do it cheap we don’t want that, but saving them is the way in the service industry.
The IRR of saving a customer money is a win and the environment wins.
They save bucks, you feel good inside, you get more work so more money later, and the environment feels better for less landfill for garbage. Your videos are amazing I love watching all of them.
I'm in Ohio, and it's getting really cold here, I believe one day this coming week, it's only going to be a high of 49. I love the colors of fall, but don't like the really cold weather. I can handle about 60-65, with minimal wind, but anything lower than that, I'd rather just hibernate lol. Loving the videos
I have a motorized stripper and it definitely saves time, plus it will strip almost any size. I’ve stripped stuff the size of a sewing needle just for fun.
I use to do this on the side. Saved up enough to buy a few tools and got into woodworking. Now I pay myself upwards of $100 an hour on most projects I do while putting half that back into tools and wood. Scrapping gave me a lot. The profit was horrible, the drive to improve was everything.
I love this, I have also found the less time i spend on it the better off i am. Just throw some in the truck and turn it in. Thank you for this great video! I was debating on buying the machine you have.
Thank you for checking it out! I really like my machine and I enjoy using it every time I have the opportunity. I’m glad I explored a bit though because I don’t like feeling like I’m throwing away easy money, and now I’m confident that the smaller stuff simply doesn’t give enough of a return to stress over. Straight to the yard as-is, no reason to doubt it
I'm thinking about investing in one of the motorized Stripmeisters. They're awesome machines and much better the el-cheapo I'm currently using. There's a lot to be said for understanding the ROI relative to one's time. Time is always in short supply for me, so I only strip heavy gauge wire. But it is so dependent on why folks do this and how much wire they get. Take care and keep up the great work.
If it has an earth or ground conductor use a box cutter to expose end then use pliers to unzip the entire length.
Individual conductors can be unzipped passing conductor between two spaced blades clamped in a vice.
So for those that don't have a mechanised wire stripper all you need is a box cutter and a few blades.
If you don't have a vice, you could clamp your spaced blades in a mole wrench.
I bought at an auction a pile of welding leads for very cheap, I sold quite a lot of the good ones and set to stripping the bad ones. There is a lot of brass and copper in those, I was amazed at the prices I got, I basically tripled the money I spent to buy the leads in the first place.
How much time did you spend and with your investment how much did you make an hour??
You tripled how much you made, due to putting your own time into it.
@@JM-iz3fr I more than broke even scrapping the broken leads but I more than broke even with selling the good leads, from memory the leads cost something like 50, I got back something like 400 all up. As for the hours, I have no idea as I didn't record them, just selling one lead paid for all of them so the rest was gravy.
@@CovidConQuitTheCensorship What I sold the good leads for more than paid off the original investment, anything else I got from stripping out the bad leads was gravy.
@@CovidConQuitTheCensorship Time is relative ;)
That is why I pull the wires through a device I made with a screw. Takes only a little longer than the drill, but with proper form can be an excellent back and/or triceps exercise. Can isolate either back or tricep, or do a more full range of motion exercise that hits both. Scrapping for me is about having a nice hobby that develops skills with tools, helps me understand how things work, improves my fine motor skills, and is environmentally friendly.
A hardware store near me had 2” x 10ft copper pipe priced at 18.00. It was miss marked. It should have been 2” x 1.0ft. They had to honor the price. They were mad, until I said “I could have kept my mouth shut and bought all of it, then went to the others in the area and bought all theirs. They were okay after that. Their price tags come from corporate so all the stores got the same wrong tags.
Just to be clear for all the old people salivating, the store didnt HAVE to honor the price tag, it was their choice/policy. This is not an unalienable right.
Good effort for the calculation but, this is what i mentioned in a previous comment, witch is : i dont bother stripping 2/14 -2/10 gauge. But if i may give you a tip on your stripping machine, If you pass your wire a second time, the insulation will practically fall off. this saves time and frustration when trying to get the wire out (some are Hard Headed)..
I didn't see all your videos yet, but if it is not done, may i suggest making one on the different types of (Non Ferrus) metals like ( Brass, Cast iron , ASCR , Gold ,' computer hard disks, Palladium In catalytic converter, etc.) and the difference between the categories of copper no.1 bare brite, no. 2 (dipped ) 'has a silver finish', the no 2 (burnt or corroded ) or copper plumbing pipes 'with welding' and the importance to cut of as much as possible the (brass valves and other parts) before selling in order to get most money from product.
Good work
Just for comparison: in eastern europe, as a chemist (with a masters degree), my salary (after taxes) is about 4.5$/hour. Stripping copper cables isnt that bad. :)
One thing you could add is a winder for the scrap and one for the wire that can be easily connected to the drill; that way, it will save you time and energy.
I have been waiting for this
Wasn't there enough perfectly usable wire on that spool left, to sell it as such?
A few years ago I used to help a plumber friend of mine. He was so busy he needed someone to clear out his 40 ' containers where he stored all his stock and spares parts. He also used to chuck all his waste in there. I used to clear all his waste for him, (carboard polystyrene and other rubbish. My pay was I could have ALL his scrap. So offcuts of copper pipe, wire, old boilers radiators. It was a great. He got a cheap job done and I earnt good £££. I agree the smaller bits of wire i just threw in as insulated. The rest I stripped. Very therapeautic
Would the dollar per hour average increase if you kept separate bins to avoid having to sort bins of tangled wire when you have accumulated enough to strip and scrap? Just a thought. Really enjoy the videos thanks for all the hard work.
Fairly good idea, if one has the room
I see scrapping as more of a hobby or even a side hustle. Only scrap yards can make a living doing it, but if you're scrapping instead of watching TV all day, it's worth your time (like you said)
Beautiful bin of copper. 😁
Good to see you!
Have the same stripper , going to use motor from a treadmill , add a footswitch to drive the stripper , the treadmill & foot switch were part of my free pickups ;)
Your stripmeister will cut that romex and one of the inside wires at the same time, thus saving an entire step.
I was doing it your way too until I stumbled across one of their videos. And I put a motor I found on my stripmeister (same as yours) and it simplifies things as you get your 2nd hand back not having to work the drill.
Oh the motor adaptation would be really clever. And I hadn’t thought the oblong romex hole would cut into one of the inner insulated wires, that makes way more sense!
Yes, if you get it set right it will save so much time!
Took an old treadmill and used the motor, control board and rollers to make a wire stripper. Gets the job done super fast but there’s a lot of cleanup during the process.
I was like wow someone who’s not a tweaker stripping copper, then he said “I took the nicest ten pounds an buried it in the back yard”
Lol
Thanks for giving the real world perspective!!
Thats better then making nothing doing nothing. Its NOT about dollares an hour but about keeping it out of the dump site.
I don’t think he’s talking about not scrapping it, just that it’s not worth it, dollar wise, to strip the smaller gauge, and that he should just sell it at the lower price with the insulation still on.
Could make a 5 gallon bucket of 3 gallons vinegar and 1/4 - 1/2 cup of salt, soak the corroded copper for a while. Nice and shiny copper.
That’s exactly what I wanted to know, is it worth it to strip it or not? Awesome! Thanks for the videos, cheers! Of course you never factored in the amount of time it took to scavenge all this copper either
I believe he said it was mostly accumulated from his workshop and around the house etc.
If you ultimately know you’re going to sort it by type… do it as you save/collect it. It saves that whole block of time later.
Does the extra twist on the wire after stripping really improve the storage efficiency? I think you could get away with just a loose coil in a trash can and save some time.
I have 3 different diameter plastic spools (with one tabletop edge missing) that I use to condense everything. The larger the guage, the larger the spool used. Smaller wire bends more easily.
Then just slide it all into a 5 gallon bucket to form different rings of material. My 5 gallon buckets typically weigh around 50-60 pounds with room left over for copper pipe scraps or unprocessed #2 wire on top.
Keeping a small footprint leaves more room for everything else (of lesser value). Crush the cans!
For me, this helps to minimize trips to the scrap yard.
The irony of scrapping is that getting paid for the effort takes away from the opportunity to find more treasure!
Time is money.
Fascinating and worthy of a subscription if ever there were! A friend of a friend used to do this. One bought a fancy £2K machine to do this and I always wondered if it was worth it. The other guy just burned it off at night, which is totally illegal and terrible for the climate. The tiny value puts both into perspective and knowing that people will pull live wires for this kind of return really makes you think. Thank you!
My friend has scrap in Silverado way SW in the back side it is a washer
My buddy built a stripper out of 2 dollar store can openers its by hand but faster then then it slices the casing in half so as he's pulling it thru the casing spilts off to each side leaving a bare wire and he pulls it thru with a crank style mech bad ass for what it is
My mom does this without the copper wire and gets $300 in $1 bills
😂😂
Giggity.
250 of it come from me boy. Be glad you’re eating
Back in 07. I bought my first new car off the lot. By scraping copper. I filled the entire inside of a Astro van. I took the van and everything to the yard. Just so I didn't have to unload it. I scrapped the van as well.
Mr Bernard is legit and his method works like magic I keep on earning every single week with his new strategy
Wow I' m just shock someone mentioned expert Mr Bernard I thought I'm the only one trading with him 😊
he changed me recover all l lost trying to trade myself
My first investment with Mr Bernard gave me profit of over twenty thousand us dollars and ever since then he has never failed to deliver and I can even say he's the most sincere broker I have know
I think he's the best broker I ever seen
I think I'm blessed because if not I wouldn't have met someone who is as spectacular as expert Mr Bernard
I watch a lot of informative vids like this on "To strip or not to strip" thubprints vid was very clear and realistic message to all.. Sell your cable as it is(unless its the thick heavy stuff). Its not worth the time, sweat and the sore fingers.
@4:17 omg dude I love ur industrials! That's such a badass idea... I have mine done but just a barbell... That looks awesome tho
Nice to see a normal person doing this, in west coast cities tweakers steal wire out of unoccupied houses, or street lights, and under bridges
I had a few things happen this year for scrapping:
We had a few power lines being replaced and the power company dumped the old wires nearby (for a solid month and said we could take them)
Had a whole bunch of aluminium cans and scrap donated (be surprised how many people dont do much with aluminium)
And we got access to a shooting range to collect a bunch of brass as they were leaving it to rot
We had a tally total of:
300lbs copper (varying sources)
200lbs aluminium (cans and scrap components)
400lbs brass (lots of shell casings unattended)
We havent sold it yet as were planning to do something with a bit of it but likely if we did sell it wed be sitting at almost $2k or over with current prices
That’s such a killer haul!! 400lbs of brass is a heck of a lot of casings.. if you can find a reloader you can make much better money on those too fyi. You probably know that already. That’s a really great bunch of scrap windfalls though, congrats and thank you for sharing! 😊
Very interesting- thanks for taking the time to do this
Subscribed. Look forward to watching your videos. You’re fun to watch. Keep it up bud!
Good man !. About 1 1/2 years ago, i took 160 pounds, of pure red #1 copper to recycle place. Price was 4.00 $ canadian a pound. The wire was in large 2 and 3 inch cables; extra large heavy duty stuff. Invested an afternoon, stripping this with angle grinder, with very thin stone. Extremely hard work, as the pieces were from 4 - 6 feet long, heavily insulated for underground cabling. Earned 640 $ canadian. IT IS WORTH it.......
You could put the Stripmeister (tm) sideways in a drill press. I'd put the pulleys on the slowest speed to increase torque.
I worked in a Nuclear power plant for 15 years until it was shut down. We threw out so much good stuff that we were not allowed to take. The roll off dumpster guy loved us. He made several thousand per dumpster when he scrapped it out. We sent out 3 dumpsters a week.
This is why I strip very little of my wire. Romex do the first layer strip only like u said and that's it
What really effed up the scrapping out here is when the city went to the garbage trucks that load themselves. Forced everyone to put everything into a bin, unless you see something poking out the top or a cord dangling out, it's off to the landfill
12AWG wire is around 4 o'clock on the top dial. 14AWG wire is around 10 o'clock.
I made the mistake thinking the spinning blade should be lined up with the wheels. Read the instructions and found out the blade needs to be higher since the wheels force the wire up
This machine has absolutely ZERO problem stripping small wire. /
I'm glad I started watching this channel. I thought you could make money scrapping, but the videos show that scrapping isn't worth the time and effort ...unless you're making yt videos about how scrapping isn't worth the time and effort. Lol
Thanks for saving a ton of time!
🤘😎🤘
🤣 not exactly the message I was trying to send! At this point I do make more on videos than scrap, but there is plenty of money to be made recycling. It’s just important to know what the low return tasks are and try to avoid them.
You need to make a more indepth video of what wire is what. I'm trying to learn from you I have been saving up wire for around 1 year now. I'm a appliance engineer so I have alot of motors,cable and transformers
I think low powered laser cutter would work wonders here, a properly designed machine would cut through the plastic insulation but not damage the copper at all, with a spring loaded gripping wheel kinda like a 3d printer, it could take different sized wires with no alterations except when it gets really thick and maybe increasing the laser strength would be good.
Laser would be a bit slow, and the damage to the copper doesn't matter. But would be interesting to try.
Lasers and PVC insulation jackets don't mix well, especially not in confined spaces where the potentially choking hydrogen chloride among the other thermal decomposition products is liable to accumulate. Not something you want to be exposing yourself to long term if you don't want to cause yourself lung damage that is difficult to measure.
Where I'm at, ANY gauge bright bare is called #1.
Any un-tinned insulated, 14Ga. and up, is @1 insulated, whether it's stranded or not.
Any insulated smaller than 14Ga and any tinned is #2.
Nice analysis which will definitely help me decide whether to strip or not.
I’m always picking up scrap on the side of the roads to and from my work and scanning the nearest neighborhoods for metals for several reasons
1. It holds value better then currency and your metal can be stored like a squirrel does nuts for that rainy day or when the price of that particular metal skyrockets🚀
2.those items you pick up often are useful around the house or can be made into other things if your handy
3. Is more of a tip ,you may have the option to sell your road side scrap to other people or places then the cheaper local scrap yards , there are people willing to pay more for your copper wire then scrap yards , some times twice as much direct to DYI smelters crafters ect. Scrap yards are middle men and they often double or triple there money , the only metal I take to them are the junk steel .
You should color code your adjustment screw for the different gauge wires, less adjustment time.
The Fall and Winter are traditionally worse scrap markets. You build up your stash and process your materials in the winter and haul it in the Spring. Late March/Early April
Depends on the wire. Am I stripping 22 gauge phone wires, or 500 MCM Power Cable?
I'm a retired Electrician, and my experience is, it isn't worth stripping unless it's like 8 gauge or better.
You need fewer adjustments, especially for house wire, which you find a lot of. Suggestion: get a machine shop to make you a custom vice/hand tool with a series of holes (and blade in each hole) very close to size of house wire, so you can keep perfect adjustments longer or forever. It would be similar to TNT Tooling WSA hand wire stripper.
get a big board and several strippers (set them up) then move your drill from one to the other as you need to strip the wires. ( anchor each unit to the board)
This is a good video, and it reinforces what I suspected. In most cases, it is not worth stripping wire. Just take your insulated wire to the recycling center, so you can spend your time doing more valuable work.
I had a job stripping 3 core armor cable for around 3 weeks. My forearms are now fucked with tendonitis and i also got trigger finger in both hands. It was unravelling the steel armour wires from around the copper wire inside that did it. That was over a decade ago and my arms and hands are still done in
Armored cable is hard to strip, but what you need to do is takeoff the 1st foot of yeah, armoring from the end you’re not pulling from monkeys, not it then tie the other end off that you didn’t monkey snot grab the armored cable with a come along, and you can pull the armoring right off because once the monkey snot hits and makes a slick for everything else
So by far the best way to get the most from scrap if you have a motorized stripper is to strip it as you get it each day when you get home.
The few min it would take to strip a 5 gal bucket of wire is better to not let it pile up.
But better than that it is just to re-use it.
I save and re-use nearly every scrap of wire I have from a job if its longer than my arm. I work on lots of panels where components have to be bridged,etc so having extra wire is always useful.
When i was much younger my dad would burn the wires to remove the coating on them. Thats also how i learned different metals make different colors
You can increase your margin if you invest in a bottle jack, some cribbing, a sawzall, and go to town on some of the local automobiles. They carry a small pile of precious metal bearing ceramic in a little can underneath.
Can you say chop shopping… That would be completely illegal give me a car is for scrap you Gotta be careful doing it because if you get branded as a chop shop, nobody will buy any of your stuff ever
I'm an electrician and I just bought a wire stripper for my kids to start using when I'm not at home. I've got endless clippings they can strip out to earn their own money if they want it. Don't touch my big wire though lol. I normally take a trailer in every 3 months and get anywhere from 7-14 thousand depending on price it's at 3.80 a lb. People don't realize how much money they are wasting by not picking it up. Good luck y'all but don't be an arse and steal it out of walls.
Just make sure they're careful. Theres a cool homemade wood device someone made for stripping every wire gauge on UA-cam. It looks very viable and fun. I'd check it out. I myself have cut myself on accident even with gloves.
Me looting all the copper wire from the nearby building site 🗿
I collected wires over the years, along with brass, and took it to the junkyard, and I got enough to make it worthwhile going down there once every few years. As I recall, they paid different rates for different types of wires -- but I never thought about stripping the wire and selling it as pure copper. In fact, I never saw one of those drill-strippers before, and that makes it seem worth the effort, at least for the larger-gauge wires, as you found out.
Being a part-timer in the realm of scrapping, I haven't invested in a stripping machine yet. Still using my own easily adjustable contraption that has a top and bottom blade and pulls wire through somewhat quickly with a hand crank winch attached to vice grips holding a small rolled section of stripped copper tip (then utility knife or bend and yank to pop the last bit of wire from the casing)
However, the tip I would throw in here that saves me a lot of time is to set things up so that the wiring is pulled through an appropriately sized funnel. I have a couple that I use for oil changes on different vehicles. Straightens out all the kinks and bends, saving me the annoyance of time-consuming hassles.
I will always take the time to transform anything to bare bright, but.. making the effort to upgrade #2 to #1? No thanks. Not even on a rainy day.
I personally don't have nearly as much time for the thrill of the hunt as I would like.. certainly not going to waste time like that knowing my hours of labor would only be worth a few bucks. Can make so much more in the same amount of time scavenging random sidewalk iron shred or discarded appliances. Bonus -- more copper wire.. more aluminum.. more brass!
But, I certainly do understand how many people enjoy tinkering in their sheds and garages.. That $60 difference is a free tank of gas! Hard to say no to that!