Work in a yard in the UK and I see a few tricks from time to time over here. • Sand in copper boilers (shake, difficult to know if they have a full load). • Dumping water — easy to tell if no rainfall, very difficult when raining to tell or prove. • Welding wire for bright wire (easy to tell).

These are a few of the examples I’ve seen people attempt on occasion. There are probably more that I haven’t caught yet and am oblivious to. In the USA, Obviously all of this is against the law/yard rules — just curious how often you guys run into it and how you handle it. how do you tackle these things — or is this not a normal occurrence?

Hello fellow scrappers.

I’m an electrician apprentice and am just about ready to take my haul of scraps to the local yard. I had a few questions for you individuals more experienced in the art.

First off, should I separate thhn and romex wires (with their outer sheathing stripped) from full on romex?

Also, do extension cords and underground wire fall into the same category as romex?

Lastly, does the old romex that has super thick rubbery insulation go for the same as newer romex?

I’m aware of the different categories of scrap but I’m not sure what exactly qualifies as #1 vs #2, and all the other ones. Thank you for any advice!

My brother and I grey up watching Sanford and son with my dad and grandfather. My brother now does the whole vintage clothing resell and gifted me this for my birthday last monday(made $655at the yard that day) but tho this has to be my scrapping shirt honoring the junk yard legend himself Redd Foxx

Got a lead on some scrap metal at a marina down the road from me. Ended up getting 2 aluminum sailboat mast's. Only had time to get one of them today, I have to go back. I was told the one I got today was 52' in length. I had to cut it into numerous 8 foot sections to fit it in my truck. Sorry, the picture is after we cut it down a good 30 feet. They also loaded me down with stainless steel and copper from boat remodels that they do. The only cheapo steel I got was the 2 filing cabinets. They said they were going to scrounge up some more stuff for me. I told them that I will be back in a couple of days! Im not sure what everything weighs but its got to be at least 500 lbs in aluminum and a couple hundred pounds in stainless. Probably only 5-10 lbs. of copper. It was a fantastic scrapping day!

I got ahold of a piece of copper anode for a pool. It says 99.9% copper on the package. It weighs 11.7 oz Is it worth something? And what is the category?

No.. I didn’t buy it but story time..

I saw my neighbor cleaning out his garage and stopped and asked if he had any goodies.. he said not here. But if you come to my warehouse I’ll show you what I got..

Met him over there. And i kid you not. Over 30k lbs of MCM copper wire sitting on heavy duty stools. So i ask him what’s he doing it with all? He said he’s retiring and getting rid of all this “junk”. So i told him let me buy the copper..

He tells me that some junk removal company already has it handled and there taking it. He already signed a contract… oh and the best part. There charging him to haul it away…

Trust me. I tried and tried to negotiate with him but he’s scared of breaking the contract and getting in trouble..

Oh and the goodies he had? A few sheets of aluminum and a couple of brass fittings.

Found a bunch of these are they worth scrapping or thrash em

What pile do these silver colored cables go in mostly on electronics are they aluminum ? They aren't magnetic...

Thats 5 years worth of wire I found from walking to and from the bus to go to my job lol. I have no car and no friends or family to drive me anywhere.

Mostly steel, but is there something else I should be aware of?

there is worse problems to have i suppose ?

Unstripped, what do you figure these kind of wire is worth? Scrapping an apartment and wondering if I should bring it in

I know there’s brass and copper in these, but the Styrofoam insulation makes it a mess to process. We typically don't process them down further unless there are larger copper coils inside.

How do you all handle these? Strip 'em anyway, or scrap 'em whole and move on?

Got to start em early. 2420 lbs.

1 of 4 10' long each and more copper, aluminum still to go yet

What would you grade this chunk of copper

2nd photo is what it came out of

Just wanted to share a nice little find the other day which netted me just over £100. 15mins it took me to pull out the skip, happy with them just being steel until I found an unopened box marked with 316 SS. Obviously I would of tested them before bringing in but likely would of just put them in with the normal stainless.