a source of free wire

[willib]

your local generator rewind shop or auto alternator repair shop is a good source  for free wire , if you are willing to work for it.

the only tools you need are a dremmel w/a abrasive wheel attachment

they throw large starter relays out in the junk everyday

inside you will find an outer layer of ~20ga. wire , and an inner layer of 17 to 15 ga wire depending on the size of the relay

these are bigger than your average car starter relays , which may also have some useful wire in there

the first picture is an average sized solenoid

the metal case is crimped around the bake o'lite(sp) at the upper part where the metal meets the bakeOlite , thats where you dremmel right on the curved part , i've gotten pretty good at it by now and can cut the lip off of one in a few minutes

once you get the lip off just hit the bottom part with a hammer and the wire pops out all wound on a spool , like on the right , which is the outer layer BTW ~20 ga.

beneath that is about 50  feet of 17 ga wire all wrapped nicely around the spool you see there.

[harrie]

thanks Willib, that information will come in handy, with the price of the mag wire nowdays, it sure would be worth the effort.

[motoman465]

Thanks, Willib.  I am going to have to search out a shop nearby, I think I know where there is one.

Todd

[Titantornado]

Heck!  It might be worth it just for the price of scrap right now.  I know of at least two auto electric shops on the way home from work.

[willib]

Maybe ,

there is about 1/3 of a lb of 17ga. on a average spool

[elvin1949]

Scrap copper was $1.77 a pound a few week's ago.

later

elvin

[ghurd]

You need to go somewhere else!

It's well over $3 here, for clean motor wire.

[willib]

why are they paying so much  recycled copper

probably bcause the power needed to produce it has gone up?

you would think scrap Al would be high also?

[strider3700]

we got $3.10 /lb a couple of months back for clean wire.   The reason the price is so high is the mines are having trouble producing enough to keep up with demand.  There is only so much of anything in the ground and eventually it becomes economically infeasible to produce.  In the mean time china can't get enough of just about anything.

[Gary D]

Got 72 cents a pound for scrap cans a few weeks back, much better than the 20 cents a year ago...

[ghurd]

Lets not forget the degaussing coils in TVs and monitors. The regular old CRT type. Runs around the outer perimeter.

It is also clean and not glued into a solid mass. (Like microwave transformers)

So far, it seems to be #20 to #22.

The larger the tube, the larger and longer the wire.  I think.

G-