Scrap Cable

[RF Lighting]

What does any one do with their scrap cable?

We took 3 full bin bags of cable (not stripped) to the scrap yard today and got £36!! This was mainly 1.5 & 2.5 scraps from the last 4 weeks.

I'm saving every last bit now. It all used to get slung in or skip

 

[SparkyMarky]

All our scrap cable on site (large manufacturing plant) gets kept, stripped down by our contract electricians in their spare time and sold by them for beer money. On larger stripout jobs the value of the scrap is normally allowed for as part of the quotation.

Couldn't believe my eyes last week. I went into one of our substations to check on some spare HV switchgear I had stashed there. The sub is equipped with two Merlin Gerin Power Factor correction units which were both isolated last year after one of them went up in smoke (loose connection). Obviously someone knew this (well I hope they did anyway!) as they'd taken a hacksaw to the 630 mm² cables linking the PFC to the LV switchboard and nicked the cable! Obviously the price of copper is now so high that people are willing to take silly risks to get hold of it. I'm now going to have to change all the locks on the substation doors as someone must have got hold of a key

 

[ban-all-sheds]

All our scrap cable on site (large manufacturing plant) gets kept, stripped down by our contract electricians in their spare time and sold by them for beer money.

The modern equivalent of "money for old rope"...

 

[the_jinj]

We used to save all the scrap which the labourers collected and took to the scrappies - same for old copper water tanks etc - made a few bob over the course of a few months

 

[Job_n_knock]

When I was a young apprentice for the LEB I had a little block of wood with a razor blade fitted so I could run lengths of 6181Y red and black through the hole and strip it fast. We used to make a few bob back then. Copper goes up and down in price but when its up, keep an eye out for our travelling cousins!!

 

[owspark]

will any scrap man take cable? how do you know you are getting what it should be worth? does it have to be stripped of its pvc b4 taking in? what do you do with bits of swa?

 

[Adam_151]

Around here, some gits have been nicking neutral conductors and have caused some housefires... well it doesn't actually say they have been nicking neutrals in the local paper becuase its dumbed down for the masses

Meantioned stolen wires, people reporting an erattic supply (kettle taking half hour to boil and equipment malfunctioning), house fires caused by a 'power surge' and the fire chief(?) saying that it can cause the voltage to go between 0 and 415 volts ... can't be anything other than an open neutral can it?

They have also been nicking the tape that forms the neutral-> earth bond at the substation... though god knows what they actually meant when a police spokesperson was quoted as saying its "potentially dangerous because it could cause the substation fuses to opperate releasing thousands of volts of electricity"

 

[RF Lighting]

will any scrap man take cable? how do you know you are getting what it should be worth? does it have to be stripped of its pvc b4 taking in? what do you do with bits of swa?

We usually take the cable unstripped.
We have two scrappers near our base, and they both offer pretty much the same price.
I am not sure about SWA. I guess they take into account the weight of the steel when they weigh it. (the steel is still worth money, just not as much as copper)

Clean (stripped) copper is worth more than dirty (unstripped) copper, so if you can be a***d to strip it it is worth doing.

Adam, we had all the drain grates nicked round our way about a month bach, presumably for the scrap value.

Theiving little g**s

 

[ebee]

up to a year ago I always said itsn not worth it to take odd bits even if you get what it costs for a new roll.
NBow it might (just) ne worth it