J Kelly wrote:

On Wed, 17 Aug 2005 21:23:23 -0500, Duane Bozarth
wrote:

Fred wrote:


The wire is mainly 12 and 14 awg Romex, knob and tube, or mineral
insulated. It is not high value copper pipe drain pipe or 250 kcmil SE
cable.

The copper in the Romex and K&T should be pretty good with minimum NEMA,
ANSI or some such standards. Even better (in terms of copper purity) than
copper pipes as it needed to meet some minimum conductivity standard. 12 AWG
Romex and 250 MCM copper should be about the same quality which means it has
the same current density about 1,000A per sq. in. - i.e., same purity unless
if I'm mistaken.

It's not that the copper isn't as high as much else, it's that the
recyclers won't pay anything owing to the insulation--the "value" here
is the salvage value.

The scrap yard I go to WILL take wire with insulation. The price may
be lower but they will take it. Many yards now have ways to remove
the insulation. Prices in early june for copper wire (no insulation)
were around 95 cents per pound.

They'll take it here but I meant "anything" in the sense of "anything
approaching enough to make it worth hauling in"....I'd be surprised if
the prices for small Romex/cloth insulated would be more than 1/4-th of
that.