Stripping Copper Wire For Profit

In this video I show how I strip some large copper wire to sell for scrap.

[@CopperEyeJoe]

Nice engineering you did there. Enjoyed the video.

[@sierraspecialtyauto7049]

Always a pleasure to watch Gary work!!

[@OldIronMachineWorks]

Appreciate it Joe, Wishing you and your family a merry Christmas.

[@richardklein6720]

Gary, thanks for the video, I don’t know I why it was so much fun watching the blade slice through the insulation, maybe because that insulation is so tough. I also liked seeing that beautiful cast iron storage shelf in the background, the one made by Whitney. I have a similar one but mine says Wadkin on it. Happy holidays, Rich

[@jimpritz4169]

Nice video and always interesting to see your problem solving skills and fabricating tricks. Thanks for the video.

[@OldIronMachineWorks]

Thank you Jim.

[@AlmostMachining]

Awesome way to strip those wires! Great job Gary!

[@OldIronMachineWorks]

Appreciate it. Looks like your grinder is taking shape very well. Hope you have a great weekend. Gary

[@patrickcolahan7499]

Great project and doesn't hurt to put some jingle in the pocket either. Thanks for sharing Gary and Very Merry Christmas to you and the family.

[@OldIronMachineWorks]

Thank you Patrick. Wishing you and your family a merry Christmas as well. Gary

[@RalfyCustoms]

Wonderful stuff Gary, nice to see you buddy, I'm a huge fan of recycling and re-purposing

[@OldIronMachineWorks]

Always great hearing from you Ralfy. Haven’t had a lot of time to keep up with videos. I definitely have some catching up to do. I always appreciate your kind words. Hope you have a great weekend. Gary

[@TheAyrCaveShop]

Gary, Nice to see a fresh video! Stripping tool worked great ! Well worth the effort considering scrap prices these days. I hauled a mixed load to the scrapper about a week ago and was quite surprised at the $$ total ... at least double what I was expecting. ATB....Dean

[@OldIronMachineWorks]

Dean, there are definitely certain items that are worth taking the time to scrap out. I watched your latest video this morning on my TV but I haven’t made it to the phone or computer to leave a comment yet. I think your plans for your new base for your new Lathe is going to work very nice. I totally understand trying to maximize storage space. Always good hearing from you Dean, have a great weekend and stay dry. Gary

[@ProjectShopFl]

Great video, I love making things out of random stuff giving new life to things that would usually be scraped.

[@OldIronMachineWorks]

Thank you sir

[@kentuckytrapper780]

Good to see you Gary, alsome build on the wire stripper, great video, keep'um coming..

[@OldIronMachineWorks]

Thank you, I appreciate it.

[@willemvantsant5105]

Good idea Gary, copper price $3.86/lb today, nice pocket money. I sold a billet of Bronze, 90 lbs, the dealer classed it as Brass, ripped me off.

[@jdmccorful]

Good snag! Nice quick tool also. I would bet there are some electrical contractors that would love to have them with adjustable jaw. Thanks for the look!

[@OldIronMachineWorks]

Thanks for watching and commenting John

[@RRINTHESHOP]

Good deal worked great, Gary.😊😊😊😊😊

[@OldIronMachineWorks]

I appreciate it Randy. Watched your video earlier this morning on my TV, still need to comment on it . picked up a 1200 Oven from Stan this year at the bash. Still have not plugged it in yet, and now I’m thinking I need to upgrade the controller already. Always great hearing from you Randy, hope you have a great weekend. Gary

[@RRINTHESHOP]

@@OldIronMachineWorks Upgrade is worth it.

[@tunafish3216]

Great video again.

[@CruiserMac]

Very cool, purpose built tool !

[@Rustinox]

Interesting to see the evolution from idea to prototype to working tool.

[@OldIronMachineWorks]

Michel, It is nice when things work out that way. I hate when it goes from idea to prototype to not working worth crap and having to go back to the drawing board . LOL Appreciate you stopping buy the channel. Have a Merry Christmas. Gary

[@riverboat28]

Great thinking, always thought about the pipe cutter wheel as the perfect stripper but don't have the equipment to rig one up. I'll think of something. Thanks for the video

[@buderickson5843]

Cool video I think you gonna see a lot more people salvaging in the future

[@HaxbyShed]

Awesome device. Works like a dream.

[@OldIronMachineWorks]

Thank You Paul. Hope your having a great weekend. Gary

[@JourneymanRandy]

What a great day. Both Gary and RR in the Shop videos out this morning. I have stripped a lot of wire in my day. That is a much better way than my half assed way. I hope you made a bundle on that. Have a great weekend Gary. 🔧⚒🔩

[@OldIronMachineWorks]

Randy, always great hearing from you. The older I get the more I look for easier ways to do things. Hope you also have a great weekend. Gary

[@metalworksmachineshop]

nice wire striper. I made one with a broken C clamp. I used a pipe cutter wheel. welded the clamp to a stand , ran the different size wire between a guide. made it adjustable for different gage wire. Id bet you like working from home fulltime now.. Im looking forward to that day

[@OldIronMachineWorks]

Thank you Doug. I do still enjoy my job, but yes I do look forward to retiring where I could just play around in my own shop. Always nice to have you stop by the channel. I watched your videos on your slip roller on my TV. But forgot to go leave a comment. Wishing you and your family a merry Christmas. Gary

[@CuriousEarthMan]

Great video, thank you! Are you in the Duluth area? I could be wrong, but I think I've watched a lot of ore carriers pass under that bridge :)

[@hilltopmachineworks2131]

Well worth the effort seeing they would have paid you half for the shielding on it. Nice that you are working from home now. You can run your lathe wearing your bunny slippers and the boss won't know. LOL!

[@OldIronMachineWorks]

Tom, still working full-time. We just have too much work to keep up with. I made the proposition that I would rebuild all the compressor valves at my home shop under old iron machine works and they were good with that. So far it’s been a win-win for both of us, but I don’t seem to have much free time anymore. Wishing you and the family a merry Christmas.

[@joe74ta1]

Merry Christmas Gary look forward to the next video

[@OldIronMachineWorks]

Thank You Joe. You also have a merry Christmas

[@Derbyhobbiescrapper]

Nice load of copper scrap mate

[@AmateurRedneckWorkshop]

Gary I never knew you was a stripper. Great tool now all I need is a lot of wire.

[@OldIronMachineWorks]

Harold, seems like I’ll do anything for a buck LOL Hope you have a very merry Christmas

[@MrValhem265]

Always interesting Content thanks Bud yep im a scrapper on the side found a brass light system at work the other week about 30 kg's or 66lb worth . its amazing what people throw out in their Greenwaste.😲😄

[@OldIronMachineWorks]

Robbie, brass is also definitely worth grabbing. Doesn’t pay as well as copper but still pays well. Appreciate you stopping by the channel

[@MrValhem265]

@@OldIronMachineWorks cheers Gary

[@ottostasi197]

Pretty slick Gary , wondering what you sharpened the cutting wheel with , would have like to see how you did that .

[@OldIronMachineWorks]

Otto, I hand sharpened it on my carbide grinder with a diamond wheel. Nothing too exciting. I always appreciate you stopping by the channel. Wishing you a merry Christmas. Gary

[@oxtoolco]

I was wondering why our 50kA power supply wasn't working..... All the best, Tom

[@OldIronMachineWorks]

Wonder no more my friend . LOL

[@davidleduc9149]

Holy cow ! Where do you get all those cables

[@johnjaco5544]

Thank you

[@junkmannoparts9696]

Hey Gary neet video the weight add up so how much per pound ? man your neighbors must love you . when i lived in the San Fernando valley i built 4x4s in my folks driveway and parked a 1970 dodge PU with 2 1/2 ton military axle with a 23ft travel trailer in the street for a couple years then came the 2HR parking signs M-F 6am -4pm but no problem working in the driveway i move 20+ years ago . Keep up the good work. JM

[@bcbloc02]

Those would have made a killer set of jumper cables!

[@OldIronMachineWorks]

Brian, funny that you would mention that. Jack and I used a couple of them to jumpstart my Kabota. I did save one section for my service truck where I will be putting a 4000 pound crane in the back.

[@jd3497]

Nice quick build. Electrician probably would have skinned that pile of salvage wire with a hook knife during his lunchtime. Fine wire/welding wire pays less, cause it "burns up" during the melt is a scrapyard scam. #1 copper is bright, clean red wire, that's it. Were the lugs brass?

[@OldIronMachineWorks]

I'm sure the lugs were copper. I just did not want the chance for them to plays games because they were left on the cable and were plated. I had Jack take it in and wanted to make it as simple as possible. Thanks for checking out the video.

[@BillyTpower]

How long are lunch breaks where you live JD?

[@Dudleymiddleton]

There may be many ways to skin a cat, but only one good way to skin a cable! Thank you for sharing.

[@dougpersell8776]

I did some cable like that last year i split the out side then pulled it off with a tractor. I do alot of scraping i need to build a wire stripper to do alot of smaller wire.

[@zackzhao9007]

0.3-20mm wire stripping machine I have this machine.

[@gwharton68]

Nice snag on a lot of welding cable. Should buy a couple of hamburgers at least . Really liked your powered wire stripper.

[@TomChame]

Neat, thanks!

[@OldIronMachineWorks]

Thanks Tom

[@copperkingrecycling634]

Awesome video. Was it cost effective using the Kubota? I mean, that was a boatload of copper.

[@OldIronMachineWorks]

Since the Kabota is hydrostatic it worked out really nice for Pulling the cable. Plus the Kabota doesn’t burn hardly any fuel. Appreciate you watching the video and leaving a comment. Gary

[@dizzolve]

what was the weight? 565? Not sure how those scales work exactly but I saw you add the 500 counter ...... then the rail displayed 65

[@OldIronMachineWorks]

665 I had a 500 and 100 weight then ad the 65 that was showed on the scale. Then subtract 15 pounds for barrel. Thanks for watching Bobby

[@dizzolve]

@@OldIronMachineWorks at least it was one pound more. What did that earn you 1500-2000? Those were beefy ass cables.

[@gordbaker896]

Nicely done. The fixture on a hinge would make quicker loading.of cable. Sometimes those ends are copper with silver coating to prevent corrosion. Grind one a bit to seel

[@OldIronMachineWorks]

My original plan was to put it on a hinge, but knowing I would probably never use it again I wanted to make it as easy and fast as I could. And yes the ends were plated copper. Since JACK was taking it in to the scrap yard I decided it was easier to just remove them just in case they wanted to drop the price because of the plating. Appreciate you watching the video and leaving a comment. Gary

[@gordbaker896]

@@OldIronMachineWorks Thanks for the Reply. Upper Michigan view?

[@jimurrata6785]

​@@OldIronMachineWorks A dunk in acid will strip that zinc right off of there, and it will be pink as a new penny. 💡

[@PIOWOL1]

👍👍👍💪

[@TECHNICUSChannel]

I live stripping huge copper wires 👌💵💶

[@caseydangar4414]

What was the weight?

[@evankibbe590]

👍😊🌎🌞

[@seantbr2019]

i did the math i might be wrong but you made out with about 250?? that's awesome if you did

[@OldIronMachineWorks]

I think you may be off on the weight. The scale showed 665 pounds.

[@seantbr2019]

@@OldIronMachineWorks oh damn

[@BillyTpower]

triple that

[@seantbr2019]

@@BillyTpower I'm no good at math

[@kens.8834]

"Junkies" playing games with scrap prices ? ...... whoda thunk ! 😁

[@danascott1980]

That wire was worth a whole lot more before you scraped it , just saying.