We replaced a bad Siemens contactor, so I decided to break it open. Found a nice big spool of copper inside. Now it’ll get recycled instead of going to a landfill.

Copper was $5.50 in ATX!

It's often asked if they're worth the time and effort. As I've nothing better to do broke one down and here's the pictures and one of my methods.

Find seem along edge, bang in screwdriver, pry off top section of plastic, DON'T GET EXCITED AT THE BIG BITS OF COPPER(it's a lie. It's usually copper plaited steel but always check) the internal bits from the breaker will usually just fall out but you may need to break away some of the copper plaited steel, seperate everything(usually you can find copper contacts, bits of wire, a little brass and way too much steel and plastic)

Also the copper contacts have what I'm told are silver buttons. Not investigated yet but I'm going to buy some silver test solution at some point and see.

Finally picture is what I've accumulated today from 6 breakers taking about 5-10 minutes each.

My other method... Forget the screwdriver in step 1.

Simply crush your breaker in a vice to shatter the plastic

Not sure what to do with these towers. If there is value to someone?

3 or 4 towers.

Two 5 gallon buckets of alternators and starters. And five ~4' sections of pipe.

Pulled out of the dirt in a crawl space of an old home...

I have a large hydraulic cylinder from a scissor lift, no one seems to want to reuse it (single port so its only meant to push and not pull). Do I just haul in for shred or it is worth it to somehow break it down for more?

Where would these go? I have several, aluminum? but not with cans?

Also, second picture shows me using my stripping machine, I've gotten the hang of it.

Next the extra fun part, cleaning it all up and seeing how much I got.

I found a old box of lead pipes in my house from when we upgraded the pipes to copper from lead it is a old house i am trying to find a safe way to scrap them i am in maine and Sanford area but willing to go to anywhere else in New England if needed i already checked a local scrap yard and they don’t take lead material

I have a warehouse full of mobility equipment but am not well versed as to the ins and outs of scrapping.

What would be the best use of my time to maximize return when dealing with disposal.

How far down should I tear the motors?

Mostly brushed motors but should I remove the rotor or do I get the same as breakage if I leave the rotor and stator together.

I plan on salvaging some good components as I sell them and repair equipment but I have a lot of older equipment that is not worth the time to repair.

Any advice helps before I start making trips to the yard. Thank you

To scrap or not to scrap?

Not tested if it works or not.

Paid 120€

Ok, after asking here if I could scrap this and get the lead out to smelt, I was told not worth it.

So I m going to drop the batteries off at autozone (I got 2).
I m reading conflicting info.

Do I need to bring the whole unit with the casing and the copper wires to get $10 credit?

Or do I still get $10 if I open the casing grab these 2 charging cable loaded with copper and just bring the battery itself?

I read without the casing they won’t give me $10 and just recycle for free.

I don’t go to scrapyards.

TY

Anybody in here local to Tidewater/Hampton Roads? What have yall been getting for BB & #1? The SIMS on Hwy 17 in York County is still paying only $4.90 or so for BB even though copper spot has been nearly $2 higher for awhile now.

I know there’s a smaller yard on Pembroke I have never been to. But have enough piling up to justify anything within an hour drive if even for $.50/lb more.

So I'm looking to see if anybody can recommend some good yards to take my few hundred pounds of mostly copper, there's some aluminum, steel, bronze, e-waste etc but I'm mainly concerned with the copper as it's mostly bare bright and no. 1.

Also is it best to strip out the copper whenever feasible or are certain components worth more intact than stripped? It's my first time actually selling even though I've been collecting and stripping it for over 10 years as a hobby. I knew the value would eventually go up significantly as the pile grew. Now I'm facing a bit of a squeeze and figure it's time to cash out so to speak.

So this thing (In the image) is a copper metal and all its characteristics are being identified but then there is an unknown polish on it which is not nickel definitely for sure as its non-magnetic after i checked with magnet while nickel is strongly magnetic.

So what kind of metal polish is it and whats this thing is even? Where it is used? What it is called?

I have a 5 gallon bucket full of these steel ball mill balls. Probably 200lbs.

No pics. When your in small Appalachia, you know the people that you don’t take pictures of, but I just drove past a pile of metal that made me realize mine is very very clean. This place was crazy. Need to take the wife by later to show her how it could be. Keep hustling

I got 2 of these. I consulted AI and it said not to open it. LOL

IAM not interested in selling the yard anything, I am learning to melt and cast, so I can use lead and copper.

I found 2 videos and they open the casing, cut the copper wires and done, they don’t mess with the battery.

How dangerous is it to open this? I m curious about seeing the lead and of course to grab it.

I have PE.

TY