Dismantling and extracting copper from a 5 ton chiller

This chiller has been sitting unused in the boiler room of a government research facility for over 19 years. 2 (and eventually 3) of us were tasked to dismantle the entire machine into more "manageable" sized pieces and extract the copper from within. Being that it was in a basement, a chain hoist and elevator were the only available methods used to bring the pieces to ground level. Since we did not want to risk damaging the copper, we initially used angle grinders to gain access to the copper. Once all of the copper had been removed, we moved to a torch to cut up the rest of the machine.

[@AlwaysBored123]

Typical government fiscal responsibility. Buy an expensive piece of industrial equipment, let it sit unused underground for decades, then pay some workers to destroy it.

[@markstanley3534]

How much copper did you get?

[@containedcreative1236]

Over 1,000lb

[@markstanley3534]

@@containedcreative1236 How long did it take to remove the tubes with the saw? Did you ever melt the tubes with the torch? That is how we remove the tubes from chillers.