#1 copper

[petecnc]

i have a bunch of older ground wire, its all three strand two copper one copper coated steel. the yard said if i pull out the steel strand i would get #2 for the copper. the strands are a little bigger than an 1/8". the wire is green from sitting in the bushes for many years in coils. now why cant i wire brush the copper strands and have the grade go to #1?

 

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[silversaddle1]

Sounds like your yard is trying to burn you. If you remove the steel strand, you are left with #1 copper wire. Around here there is only a 5 cent differance between 1 and 2.

 

[hyderconsulting]

The scrapyard is not necessarily trying to burn you over it. Here in Tennessee if heavy quality copper is green with corrosion, coated with paint or something else like glue it will be graded as No. 2. You can wire brush it like the previous person said to clean it up or use some acid to clean it the same way. Get it clean enough to see some bright shiny copper and it should go for No. 1. Heavy copper wiring coated with a silver finish will also go for No. 2 at a lot of scrap yards. The silver finish is similar to solder. Right now I'm seeing about a 15 to 20 cent difference here between No. 1 and No. 2 copper grades. Regards, Chris Hyder.

 

[silversaddle1]

We used to buy this type of wire on rolls from our local REC (power company). We would chop it down to 3 inch lengths and run it past a magnet to remove the steel wire. We always got #1 price for the copper, no matter how green it was.

So here is a solution for you. Wire brush will take forever. Do this. Burn it. Strip the steel out and throw the rest on your campfire. There will hardly be any smoke as there is no plastic. The fire will burn the green right off, bingo, #1!

 

[petecnc]

this wire had no coating on it. thought i had a bunch to deal with but the second spool has no steel in it.