[TheForge] reclaiming copper

[terry l. ridder]

hello;

i have roughly 700 lbs of copper cable and wire. the majority of this amount
still has insulation intact. i have researched the possible ways to reclaim
the copper minus the insulation. the reason for wanting to remove the
insulation is purely economic. the local scrap dealer pays 0.05 us cents
per lbs unclean copper. $2.69 usd per lbs for clean copper.

assuming that 90 percent is copper.

so
700 * 0.05 = $35.00 usd
700 * 2.69 * 0.9 = $1694.70 usd


manual strip by hand way.
strip the insulation using wire strippers and/or utility knives.


the shred and acid way.
shredding the copper cable and wire and placing the shredded mix into
sulphuric acid.
place a copper plate cathode in the acid solution. place some of the large
copper cables in the acid solution to act as anodes.
connect a direct current power source and plate out the copper.

the shred and smelt way.
shredding the copper cable and wire and placing the shredded mix into a
crucible furnace which melts the copper and incinerates the insulation.
the problem with this method is the casting copper into anything other than
ingots is difficult.

i have two coffee can foundries and several 3 inch schedule 80 pipe curcibles.
i was thinking of just making ingots. i have several ingot moulds made from angle
iron that i use for aluminum.

my thinking is cut the cable and wire into 6 inch long pieces. preheat these
lenghts on the crucible furnace lid than add to the crucible. after a pound or
two pour the ingots.

anyone have any suggestions comments?

anyone ever dealt with reclaiming a large amount of copper before?

-- 
terry l. ridder ><>