10 Best Places to Find Scrap Copper
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- čas přidán 8. 06. 2024
- Wondering where to find scrap copper? Here's my list of the 10 best places where I find all of mine!
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if i give a price of that scrap what would think about that
"free scrap copper" then proceeds to tell you where to go buy old ac units to scrap
It's not illegal to spray chems from the sky. When they say something is bad I wonder what they are hiding. Just saying
Place near me you can scrap the AC adapters on there own, same with the boxy plugs, and all kinds of stuff. Light ballasts, Transformers, PC boards, even regular boards like out of a VCR, or you can even sell PC parts separate by the pound like the ram, CPUS, hard drives. place is endless on what they pay for.
Or a plumber
I'm not ever worried about how much time it takes to scrap anything. It's just fun to do.
Literally same but there is a limit with certain things
Yeah, on days off for extra money when you own a pickup truck. It's a learning venture but then it starts taking over when you see money $$$ everywhere, even on dates. Then you start recruiting your buddies with pickup trucks/ trailers for heavier stuff. You soon stop dating all for The Precious, THE PRECIOUS ! AAAHHAHAHAHA, AAAAAHHHHHHH !!!!
It IS a damn good free Hunka Hunka change for the taking.
agreed 💯 percent .so fun
@@loganwolf2037 lol.dam money I hate you .but you're right to much of anything is bad .gotta have a balance.
me too
U know you’re an old man when this is the type of content u watch because it’s what u like to do with your spare time.
Exactly
Is that what happened 😂
Im 16
Bruh I’m 22
Thanks for the reality check. Damn dose time go quick!
I feel like this guy could be a science/art/music teacher that moonlights as a radio host.
When harvesting copper, be exceptionally careful of capacitors! Capacitors carry an electrical wallop!
yes if you're not extremely careful you will regret it ..and the gas to ..take it and sell it to a HVAC place or they can drain it safely..I'm glad I watched videos like this before I started ripping into a units..kickass
Yeah, seconded. Microwaves have "You will die and it will hurt the whole time you are dying" sized capacitors in them. Do NOT mess around poking at their guts unless you know exactly what you are doing!
@@peteredwards2318 yup yup and when you're family finds you later on when they get back from dinner at rhe grandparents house they will see you laying on tje floor and plugging their noses because now the house smells like is burnt shit..and you dont want them to remember you like that do you guys ..so dont be a BS .leave it ti the pros.
How can I see a capacitor I’m really just researching this side hustle to see if it’s worth it any other things to look out for is there anything I should look for that’s safe ?
Copper seems worth collecting over time .I'm not about to go start looking the stuff like but glad I seen this comment. As my microwave is on it way out cuda been my 1st easy bit of copper lol 😆 😅
Great video!
RV tech here , lots of copper in RV’s ! Inverters, converters, dead leaked off fridges and AC’s, microwaves, copper gas lines and huge amount of 12V power cables!
Our shop has a lunch fund supplied by scrap metal, most of it derived from copper.
My addition to your list is "AUCTIONS"! I have picked up a lot of scrap at farm auctions and the occasional HVAC/Plumbing auction. I once paid $2,000 for a rack of type L piping. I was told I was nuts and must hate money. I sold it for $3,500!
I hear you. I got one of 2 big lots from a residential plumbing/heating contractor who died and his kids were auctioning off the estate.
The bigger lot went for $850 too high for me. But the smaller lot I got for $350, and after cost of fuel, wear/tear on my vehicle, made $400 profit so far!
Profit is good!
A buddy and I were scoping out an old abandoned stretch of train track and pulled several hundred feet of solid copper that was cut from the old power poles and thrown to the ground and left for many years, the wire was covered over with grass and weeds. That track kept us busy for days.
How lucky u were!
Did that too, we thought we were rich. Couldn't beleive it was high tension wire. Steel inside. The scrapyard knew where we got and gave us like 4.00$ gave us some magnts too😂 wondered why it was so hatd to cut...😅😅😅😂
Anything on a railroad tracks a railroad property is a federal offense
@@swarm6697Fuck the railroad
There's one in every crowd
Hello, I wanted to say thank you for making this video. I appreciated your kind thoughts tonight and wanted to just say, thank you! Have a wonderful evening, and you rock!
Love the “set” here and your lighting is perfect. Feels like grandpas shop on fraggle rock 😊
Sprocket, Sprocket get out of there. I loved Fraggle Rock I'm 40yo and I was so disappointed when my kids hated it 😭
Nice work Dr. Thub! 👏 And I fully support your community message about the sketchy activity of releasing refrigerant gas! Don't do it peeps!
@Brandon It's really bad for the ozone layer I believe!
My state has a reclaim program, and they supposedly pay between $20-$50 each for dehumidifiers, air, conditioners, anything with compressed refrigerant.
Soon i will be looking into this further and possibly cashing in Big!
I second the plumbing tip. I drive a residential recycling route and every time I see a sink or tub or shower in a dumpster in front of a house I know I'm stopping back there after work. Stripping down the faucets is a quick way to a hunch of clean and chromed brass too.
U know damn well u don't chance finishing your route first driving the recycling truck to wherever y'all empty then driving back to the shop, clocking out getting in your beater station wagon and retracing your steps from your morning route to see if maybe just maybe that bathroom sink is still sitting in front of the Clemson resident house 8 hours later it's sure to still be there.. I bet u carry a few of the must have scrapper hand tools with u on your route truck and and all day everyday u keep your eyes peeled for the jack pot. You don't wait till after work you're not kidding anyone!
@@brandonengler6451whole bunch of haterade getting drank at your house
@@brandonengler6451What does it matter to you? Very spastic comment, bro!
@@brandonengler6451depends, maybe he's not in a big city and can get away with it
Thub is spot on about extension cords. I weighed 1Kg of (UK) 3-core extension cable then stripped the outer it and re-weighed it as singles. Even with good singles prices the cable was worth 2.5% more unstripped, so the time & effort would have cost me money!
Extension cords have a 45% recovery rate of #2 copper wire. I work in the metal recycling industry.
@@mrobertson188p
@@mrobertson18898% over a fire 🔥 👍.
What i like about Microwaves is that there is no dead weight - we end up with copper and perfect container for scrap metal, unlike CRTs we end up with large mass of glass and plastic.
Another great video brother. Thanks for sharing your knowledge.
As always, very interesting and extremely entertaining 👍👍👍😊
Thank you for shared information that helps me out I do a lot of scraping
Great Vid thub! I love the content and motivation to git more!
Grateful for this video being posted
Thanks ! Exactly what I was wanting to know !
Very informative thank you buddy, good hunting!
Very helpful video...ty for sharing
Another great video brother. Thanks for sharing your knowledge.😎😎⛏⛏🔥🔥
Subbed and turned notifications on
Keep up the good hard honest work! 👍👍
Thanks Again For Your Hard Work Great Video
Transformers are great, and they are fun. The small ones can typically be taken apart in such a way as to allow you to spool the wire off the winding and onto a screwdriver shaft. The larger, older stuff is trickier, because its often coated in a potting compound or something, making the windings impossible to unspool in a tidy manner. A chisel, a hammer and a bench vice tends to sort those out though. You get a hefty whack of iron to boot!
Honestly large transformers (that work) I prefer to keep. They are just too much fun to play around with.
😂 Great minds, I literally did a video on this 2weeks ago! I never grow old of seeing the beautiful orange gold, I love it🧡 I get all my best cable and plumbing bits from skips. Toroidal transformers are my absolute favourite 😍 Nice video 👍
Skips?
@@vincedibona4687 in the UK the open type dumpsters are called skips 🙂 no idea why lol
So people can skip stuff!
Oh nice! It’s been on my production schedule for a bit but I wanted to get the recent few done first. I’ll have to check yours out, probably have a few good ideas that I hadn’t thought of 😄
@@thubprint thanks so much for checking it out, I didn't realise you didn't have the mini copper shower tanks over there, what a shame, I love them! Have a great weekend 🙂
I love scrapping ! My favorite is computers and electric organs . Lots of platinum and gold . It adds up . I’m doing my first leaching for gold recovery .
Thanks you are very helpful. I’m 25 and just started my scrapping jurney and also have my full time job. It’s a great hustle work. I got $106 yesterday for 3-4 hours of work 1/4 of gas tank tho which was around $30
yeah you didn't make any profit this not efficient
@@the-beneficiary1809 by the looks of it I made 19-25 and hr. 106-30 for gas is 76/4=19 hr…. 76/3= 25 hr. So I feel like I got 76$ for good amount of work
You need to learn how to siphen Gasolina
Who do you sell the copper to?
@@lettunengt3723 scrap yard
Good overview, as always.
Thanks for sharing some of your copper source ideas.😎😎⛏⛏🔥🔥
I found 4 of those huge 100 pound transformers in one dumpster near my house was insane!
I'm in southeast pa. Forklift batteries are insane.
Some dumpster companies have declared anything inside the dumpster is their property because they recycle the contents, therefore they can press charges for theft. Be careful, it might be easier (and safer) to ask. I got permission and help from a Radio Shack that had stuff inside they hadn’t had time to toss out yet. Fun stuff
Kind of hard for them to catch you since the dumpster is on the clients property and you are doing the client a favor by lightening their load and in some cases, they gave you permission.
if in the USA there is a law that helps police anything in the trash is forfeited of owner also helps scrapers police will say you can't because they don't want the call later to trusspass you (lot pf paperwork)
The Supreme Court has ruled anything placed in the trash is free to claim. They can try to press charges all they want but it isn’t going to stick
@@E-BikingAdventures yeh but you forget how so many Americans are trained to be autistic karens and will report you to the authorities over nothing.
If it’s mixed with trash they aren’t saving it for scrap. Also I look for no trespassing or a locked bin. If nothings locked or behind a gate I think it’s free game.
Very interesting video brother. You named all the good places to gather the scrappers gold (copper). Thanks for sharing. 😎😎⛏⛏🔥🔥
I’m very impressed that you brought up the tube TVs. They’re all over my neighborhoods. I get plenty of copper from them one thing to note if you get caught venting, coolant into the atmosphere. The person that reports you was supposed to get a $50,000 reward. This is what I learned in HVAC school.
$50k reward? That's fucked up
I'm obsessed with copper and this video has helped me learn how to get more copper
I am obsessed with sodium metal, I buy salt at the supermarket, then evaporate the chlorine using laser and get sodium into inert atmosphere inside a bottle and sell it for 20 bucks for 10 grams. you can make a lot of money if you learn science
@@absolute___zerono you don’t , cause if you did that there would be a huge conglomerate doing it to
@@JoeRogansForehead while there is no big demand for pure sodium metal, there is a huge demand for sodium-based products. Table salt costs 30 USD per ton here in Mexico where I am currently living. Caustic soda is priced at 4 USD per kg here in Mexico. If you sell 1 ton of caustic soda you will be making 4k USD per ton while in sodium you will be spending much less + energy and machinery setup. Of course if you don't know any physics, chemistry , mathematics and programming you won't make this money easily. But you can get this knowledge say in 3 years, and then lots of business opportunities will appear. Caustic soda is used to make soap, fyi, a product that everyone needs.. With solar energy dropping in price the production cost will be getting lower, and the profit getting higher, but for a guy who doesn't have any knowledge this money will always stay unreachable. Knowledge = money, literally, in 21 century.
@@absolute___zero okay Jose thanks for telling me how to make money while I sit in my house in the United States and every single person from your country is dying in the desert to come over here. But I appreciate the third world advice . Does the cartel know your using their internet to brag. Can’t wait to see you on best gore
Nice to see a new video.
I went to the HVAC guys that replaced my AC unit a few years ago. Told them what I'm doing and so now whenever I get a couple of Fridges together I call him up and one of their guys will come out and drain all my compressors for me so I can scrap them. I have a moderate sized side yard and try to get like 6-7 of them in the stall before I call my guy and it takes him about 30 mins to drain 6-7 and they leave. They get the chems, I get the scrap.
Separating the copper and aluminum from radiators is easy and worth it!!!
Thanks for the video.
Thank you sir for sharing this video
Thanks for sharing. Great video
Liked and subbed for the heads up on the dangers of coolants
Another source is the copper tubing used for oil tanks to furnaces. When they replace the oil tanks they tend to scrap the tubing and replace it with one that has a plastic coating over it. You maybe able to get some from that source as well.
killed it good job awesome information
Sounds like u got it covered dude. See you on next man!
I've been scraping for about 5 yrs and I really enjoy it
Nice vid as usual. When I get the copper stackers from heat sinks, usually a map or propane torch will heat up the core and it will drop right out. Only takes about 30 second. .....usually.
YUP! ANOTHA SCRAP CLASSIC
we always enjoy ur vids man. thanks for making such great content! we ❤️ u!
Roll off dumpsters from most renovations are a great source of romex and such!
good stuff. cheers
My neighbor does hvac for a living and he gave me his old air conditioner and furnace when he moved in and replaced them. He got the refrigerant and I got the copper!
"Some people just wanna get to the information" and we thank you for that.
Great video
as always like the info
Yes!! I always hit construction dumpsters bc I know I'll always find a good amount of copper.
About time you made this video ✊
It’s been a long time coming 😅
@@thubprint You're doing huge favors for up and coming scrappers like myself. This year is my first year I'm taking it serious. Usually it's turn in few bags of crushed cans with some scrap metal for a $30-$50 profit at least once a month. My collection of #1 & #2 copper has me wanting to learn more about scrapping. Also I have a suggestion, would you consider making a beginners guidebook for your website for people who doesnt have access to the internet such as my gramps? That would be helpful to lots of people who can download your guidebook and have it in their vehicle instead of going through youtube or get misinformation. Stay positive my brother thank you
Sub earned! Great video!
I'm a New subscriber ,thanks for the information
Appreciate it, thank you!
Best regards from Poland 😊😊
Great.
Good content bud
I made a video on scrapping lead from cast iron pipe. I do work at an apartment complex that had all of the cast-iron replaced with PVC. Most of the cast-iron is still in the basement or the crawlspace so if I am working, I throw all of the bell fittings in my van and take them home. I also see lots and lots of water heaters. When they replace one instead of removing the old one, they just said it to the side
Hello do you answer questions? You are very smart about all this scrap metal.
cool ty
For thick plug on stoves & dryers, chop with bolt cutters (I got free bolt cutters in bin of a wire company, rare find) & use needlenose plyers to pull out brass contacts & Cu wire.
Be sure your local scrap yard will take the condensers from Refrigeration units. I live in the states, Oklahoma to be exact. And I have three or four condensers that I cannot scrap without an HVAC license
Good Jobs
If you can find junk pool or spa heaters, usually the heater core is a nice solid chunk of copper, it’s easy to remove and once out you just have to cut the plates off on the sides.
My roommate had a christmas light cable which had a blown fuse. Burned out all bulbs and provide tons of wire for small electrical projects, such as jumper wire and such.
Where do I purchase one of those cable strippers, thanks for the video.
thanks for all the super legit vids. you are a wealth of info. a nice plus is most scrapping youtubers are major hicks and you are not one of them!
with the microwave, get the magnets if you don't already have any, also in the motors if you collect silver? some content maybe in the motors themselves (yes I know this video is based on locating copper, sharing information is the key to growth).
I LOVE air conditioners! found one down the road, yet to tear it apart, found another one in the bin, people who earn a lot of money often do not realize the money they are throwing a way. Some trades people will give them to apprentice workers so they can learn the value and apply the money to tools etc
I’ve been an HVAC technician for 20 years, so I’ve been scrapping for 20 years. I know exactly where you’re coming from. Prices have dropped recently which is really annoying but I plan on scrapping this weekend hopefully getting a three to $400 load
Maryland prices for #1 copper went from 3.80 last month to 2.50 this month. I was going to take mine in but I think I'll wait
How hard is it to pull the gas if you’re not an HVAC tech?
@@goobygoo3253 it sucks! Sometimes just better to wait. We were as high as like you said 3,80 $4 a lbs
It’s just hard to wait sometimes because we need rhe money
also a good thing for a scrapper is to learn about the economy and economic trends. usually when global economy enters deflationary period (like now) commodity prices drop big time. any economic deceleration (which is called recession or depression) causes massive hoarding of cash (and cash in a global economy is called US dollar) and selling of all the accumulated goods on the market (any market including scrap), this causes massive demand of cash (US Dollar) , rise of unemployment which triggers more cash hoarding and more rise in the value of cash (US dollar) and that goes like falling dominoes. The depressions are usually caused by industrial revolution and robotization, which is the era we are currently living so crisis is the "normal" thing you all will live through your life. Thats why if you have to save the money for a period (years) when you won't make any money in scrap, but have enough storage to store accumulated valuable metals to sell it later when the economy comes back. And btw, that's why folks with big bugs no longer do any physical purchases and sellings but use trading exchanges (like NYSE or CBOT) to make money.
@@goobygoo3253here in Utah roughly a year later than your initial comment and we're still $2.70-$2.90/lb! Rough!
I use a 4.5 cut-off tool to cut off the curled ends on the CACR'S and for most other cutting of metal. It is small. It seems like a sawzaw would be bulky to use. Your opinion matters since you do a lot more than me. Please advise, David outside Philadelphia. Thank you Kindly
I was an HVAC guy for years and we never took them apart before taking the metal to the yard
As a romanian i can agree with your tips
Discovered another good copper source recently and you can find them cheap at garage sales. Jumper cables! Preferably older ones. Newer ones can be aluminum wire or copper covered aluminum.
NICE! Thank you!
If the wire is able to be stripped, I strip it. Have truned in over $600 worth of #2 this year in my spare time. I strip vaccum, microwave, extention and PC pwr cords. Another good source is the pig tail from the cab to the trailer. Used to get lots of when I had a great gig.
Glad to be a scraper myself, wing involved in demolition work I spend half my time operating my digger and other half looking for copper. Any heavy cables I always cover up so nobody claims it. Last wk I cashed in 6k worth of number 1 and 2k of pipes with a nice 500 of brass. Best thing is my employer only cares on a quick demo and loading trucks leaving any salvaging to the lads, my work mates go for doors,windows, timber etc and I get the copper and brass. Win win all round down here in New Zealand
The city I live in made dumpster diving illegal. I do it anyway and play dumb but I have actually had the cops show up once and make me put the things back in the dumpster. Mind you this was in a public place, with no lock on the dumpster and no signs saying to keep out. Pretty B.S, right?
awesome :D
This was great!! And it gor me thinking, as a voice I trust to honestly inform I was wondering if you could do a short video on the silver buttons found in nearly every contact. I hearthsm described as silver buttons but I have a hard time believing they are solid silver, or even a solid silver alloy of some kind. Would you please do a vid explaining exactly how much is actually there (big and small and miniscule) to bring some clarity to the subject.
Oh I did a whole video on silver! czcams.com/video/JcbtwnOWq8M/video.html
The little buttons are not pure silver, they have a bit of cadmium in them to harden them. Very toxic fumes, which is why I can’t just melt them down as-is. They’re easy to clean the copper off though, just leave in hydrochloric acid with a splash of hydrogen peroxide to kickstart the oxidization and the copper/brass/solder just gets eaten away.
Hi you help me a lot but can you find a coper in old cameras? Please answer if you can because I have 3 of them
Old coax and ground wires for satellite dishes. I install satellite Internet and use #10 ground wire, rg6 coax with a copper messenger/ground wire. There are often old lines installed people want taken down.
5:44 Actually, in copenhagen (denmark) a good chunk of the downtown apartments have copper roofs, including the king's palace n what not. Found like 51 buildings on G maps with copper roofs within around a mile (1.6 km)
There was a time in my country people used to cut power lines for copper 🤣
New thubprint episode gotta go get my suit and tie
Are old car radiators worth anything, I have 7 with old electronic fans on them. But they are small. And the 2 outside edges have metal the copper hooks onto.
Great video
Thanks for the tips!
I wasn't even aware that Starfleet scrapped??
😂
dobra robota 👍pozdrawiam z Polski👍
as a person who cant carry this huge stuff home. no truck, or car, i don't mind doing the cords and small motors.. i'll prob do this all winter, so, def not in a hurry... I have about 12 lbs so far, and about 8lbs in brass.. and some steel like old drill bits... and the tinned copper silver stuff. thanks for the videos...
tankless water heater have a nice copper block inside and some aluminum
When you go dumpster diving at the construction sites, do you go during the day? And do you get permission from the foreman first? Also have you taken apart any of those electric lawn movers?
For number 10 dehumidifiers are also on the list
good video mate, (I'm a scrapper too) the single best source of copper (and brass) is without doubt commercial barrista coffee machines, between copper, brass and stainless steel here in Oz they can return over 200 bucks from one machine
Reeeeally??? Wow that ain’t bad! I’ll keep an eye out in case I see one haha
@@thubprint over 20kg of copper and brass
Don't forget about the condensers on refrigs ac's washing machines
There's also copper and aluminum in the freezer sec of a refrig - *
I have a big plasma cutter capable of severing 2 inch thick steel . But a hypertherm powermax 30 plugs into a 110 outlet has its own air compressor . It can turn a freezer into flat sheet metal instantly and do so for almost no cost .purchase it used off ebay for 1200 if your a scrapper this will pay for it self in 6 months
Yeah i love them dumpsters commercial industrial seldom residential unless construction