New to scrapping, how do you sort your nonferrous?

[KyleStar]

Hey folks, just joined up. I have been metal detecting for a couple years and my junk drawer of finds is getting out of hand, so I started sorting the stuff I will never restore into scrap piles. Mostly copper wire, some brass fittings, and a few aluminum odds and ends.

My local yard pays very different rates for number 1 and number 2 copper and I honestly am not sure I am grading mine right. Do you guys strip all your wire or is it only worth it past a certain thickness? And how picky are your yards about brass vs dirty brass?

Would love to hear how the rest of you sort before a run to the yard. Thanks!

 

[AU Seeker]

Hey folks, just joined up. I have been metal detecting for a couple years and my junk drawer of finds is getting out of hand, so I started sorting the stuff I will never restore into scrap piles. Mostly copper wire, some brass fittings, and a few aluminum odds and ends.

My local yard pays very different rates for number 1 and number 2 copper and I honestly am not sure I am grading mine right. Do you guys strip all your wire or is it only worth it past a certain thickness? And how picky are your yards about brass vs dirty brass?

Would love to hear how the rest of you sort before a run to the yard. Thanks!

@pepperj

Metal and scrap yards is his life.

 

[pepperj]

Hey folks, just joined up. I have been metal detecting for a couple years and my junk drawer of finds is getting out of hand, so I started sorting the stuff I will never restore into scrap piles. Mostly copper wire, some brass fittings, and a few aluminum odds and ends.

My local yard pays very different rates for number 1 and number 2 copper and I honestly am not sure I am grading mine right. Do you guys strip all your wire or is it only worth it past a certain thickness? And how picky are your yards about brass vs dirty brass?

Would love to hear how the rest of you sort before a run to the yard. Thanks!

Copper: #1 Mill bright is shiny clean wire
Copper: #1 clean pipe no flux/paint/green/solder. Green or brown copper wire (It's clean but just turned in color) Clean copper bus bar.
Copper: #2 dirty copper (not dirt/soil) soldered, tin plated wire/flux/paint/sheet/pots and pans or any other copper item.
NOTE: Every piece of copper cannot have any other main metal mixed with it. ( meaning iron/stainless/brass/aluminum)

Brass: Red/Cmetal/yellow
Red is threaded valves, very old tap valves ( when filed the brass is redder in appearance)
Cmetal are the soldered joints in copper pipe, some brass inner tap assemblies in older sets.
Yellow brass is pots, decorating items (figurines) sheet, propane valves, zippers, bullet shell casings. If it looks yellow it's yellow brass. (The file or grinder is your friend, as well as a good magnet)
Note there's over 85 different copper/brass categories)

Aluminum is 7 categories which can be nearly 300 sub categories of different mixtures.
But you just need to learn the very basics. Extrusion/MLC/Painted/cast

Extrusion is window/door frames a perfect sharp cornered angle is a quick way of telling.
MLC is clean unpainted sheet or formed item. (Bent rounded edges)
Painted sheet is siding, or any painted alum. that is thin usually.
Cast is BBQ/auto parts any aluminum that is casted into a shape.

Zinc is heavy like lead usually lamp parts/taps/dark grey casted items.

Scrap introduction 101.
Feel free to ask any question with a picture and I will answer all queries as it's easy for me to ID most items.
Here is a pricing list for reference on what he prices being paid in Toronto Ontario. CAD (Canadian currency) For US take off 35% roughly

 

[pepperj]

Hey folks, just joined up. I have been metal detecting for a couple years and my junk drawer of finds is getting out of hand, so I started sorting the stuff I will never restore into scrap piles. Mostly copper wire, some brass fittings, and a few aluminum odds and ends.

My local yard pays very different rates for number 1 and number 2 copper and I honestly am not sure I am grading mine right. Do you guys strip all your wire or is it only worth it past a certain thickness? And how picky are your yards about brass vs dirty brass?

Would love to hear how the rest of you sort before a run to the yard. Thanks!

Stripping wire it's a personal choice. Some folks buy a cheap stripping machine for a few hundred dollars and it's a money maker that really increases the end $$$.
So for example:
10lbs of #12 (Price $3.90) So you would receive $39.00

Strip it and it now becomes 7.5 lbs of Millberry @ $8.05 = $ 60.38
So there's a price difference of $21.38

A small stripping machine can do this in a hour or less if single shorter strands.
Knife-well it will take a longer time maybe and have a box of bandaids handy.

Typical Recovery Rates by Wire Type

• • THHN / THWN (Single Conductor, 10–14 AWG): ~75% to 80% recovery by weight (yields high-value #1 copper or bare bright after stripping).
  • Romex / NM Cable (10–14 AWG): ~65% to 68% recovery by weight (the outer plastic jacket and paper wrapping add extra non-copper weight).
  • 12-Gauge Single Wire Example: 100 lbs of insulated 12 AWG typically yields about 75 lbs of pure copper (75% recovery

 

[KyleStar]

Thanks pepperj, this is a fantastic breakdown, way better than anything I found searching. The file and magnet tip for telling red vs yellow brass is going straight into my notes, since half of what I dig up is old valves and shell casings anyway.

The wire math is eye opening too. I have been selling my Romex scraps as insulated and had no idea the difference was that big. Quick question: how much wire do you usually let pile up before you bother stripping it? I only have maybe 15 to 20 pounds saved so far and a knife is going to get old fast, haha.

 

[ncsuwolf]

Random question pepper….why such a big difference in 304 vs 316 ss? Nickel content?