Copper recycling, is there an easy way to take copper out of radiators?
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- čas přidán 22. 03. 2017
- I had a viewer ask a great question on another video. Is there an easier way to get copper out of radiators? I tried it out and this video explains what I came up with, and my opinion on the matter. Hope this helps!
You did a superb job in explaining the disadvantage of removing the copper tubes. Thanks so much!!!!
Forget to add the grinding disc costs and also the danger factor. Noise slithers of aluminium and aluminium debris making a big mess everywhere. Not fun picking that alumi shavings from your shirt and nostrils 😂 do you just sweep all the fins into a box to try cashing in as aluminium cereal mix.
Light & healthy flakes you might pop in the cab on the way into cashing in or might lose half of it along the road. At least birds could build non Ferris nests from it 😂😂
To each his own. At my yard, i get #1 copper price for taking out the copper from the radiators. I scrap full time, all day long and i break down my hull on my down time, bad weather and so on. It really depends on how you manage your time. If you have to keep running to the scrapyard everyday or everytime you get a load, then it's understandable if you feel like it's not worth breaking them down. I hoard #1 and #2 copper in my basement. I haven't sold copper to the yard in a very long time. It's my copper piggie bank. I'm at 50 bins, with 100 lbs in each tub. By my math that's 5000 lbs of copper. Because i break down the rads, when theres nothing else to do. So if you don't have the time, fine but don't say it's not worth it. If i cashed in right now, my copper is worth $13,250 Save it up if you can, don't take your copper or bass and when the day comes, i bet you'll say that it was worth it too!!!!!!
I'm with you on that!
If scrapping is your primary income, and you can afford to hoard #1 and #2 copper, then go for it, for most of us the copper isn't the icing on the cake, its the cake mix 😜😜
JAY DA SCRAPPER
What is the benefit of hoarding the copper and not cashing it in? The only time that that makes sense is if you are very confident that the price of copper will be going up significantly. If the price goes down overtime or stays the same, then you would have been much better off cashing it in.
@@trendinvestor2893 and it's really low right now...it was high 5 years ago and probably be high again in another couple years...
Ya I would get number 1 out of it
Man, I am so glad I found your video! I was looking for something like this to see how much I would make to strip it vs if I would just sell the whole thing. Great work!
It all depends on what your yard pays you,my yard pay 35cent per kilo for radiators,taking em apart i more that 25x my money
These videos are great, I love the angle of volume vs a couple of pieces of clean copper. Bracken is always my first choice of scrapyards
Thanks for this video! I was pondering this yesterday because I have a couple of aluminum and copper rads laying around. I will just take them in after harvesting the copper noodles. Thanks for saving me a ton of time
Glad you did this video because I've been thinking about a radiator recycling machine. I get so many rads. Now I see it would take years before the machine would pay itself off.
Uberism, I'm glad it helped. Every time I buy new machines I ALWAYS calculate it out to see how much weight I will have to buy to pay it off. It doesn't matter if it is a $5,000 or $700,000 piece of equipment, I always do it! Sometimes I've spent days working on spreadsheets. It would blow your mind if you knew how many large scrapyards buy stuff without doing the math. And never let a sales person throw numbers and spreadsheets at you with how much money the machine will make you because they are not out there like you and I, and they have no hands on time with what you are doing. They can't calculate unknowns, you just have to understand and have a good sense of these things.
Good idea. The numbers don't lie.
it really comes down to the prices. In my area right now acr they are paying 1.32 pound which would mean 19.80. they are paying 3.16 for copper 2 and .54cent for the aluminum so that would be 25.28 and 3.71 for a total of 28.99
so the difference would be 9.19 or .61 cents per pound of acr. Finding a way to do it efficiently could be profitable, with those prices 4 acr's like that in 1 hour would be 36.76
uberism81 yo I have 6 years in the industry. Just cut the iron off of the sides. That is the only true upgrade you should shoot for if you ask me.
Sell the face ends as a whole, we pay a modified price for the iron copper, or pull out the elbows for cop two. I personally wouldn't go any further than that.
good video buddy so many people don't look at the big picture thanks for sharing
This is my take on it. The scrap yard here in boise idaho only pays 5 cents a lb for AC units..that is only a couple of dollars at best to turn in an AC unit. they strip it down to other parts inside and make 10 times what they gave you. For me.. im not going to turn this into them for that 5 cents.. All of the copper and aluminum in these units will give me and my family a hot meal for each of us . Definitely worth my time .
eraser, in my opinion, it is always worth breaking AC units down. In this video, I'm just going over taking the copper pipes out of the aluminum/copper radiators.
im in idaho too prices are super low nowadays
I'm in caldwell idaho and was wondering what scrap yard pays the most
He never told you not to tear them apart to get the radiators. He told you not to tear the radiators all the way apart. This was not difficult to understand either. You somehow missed the entire point though.
@@josh8607let me know if your still wondering this
I’ve watched like 6-7 of your videos...you have a great channel here...keep up the good work
Thank you so much KMike! Always love words of encouragement!
Thanks for the video. My brother cuts the copper out of the coils and I just wondered if it was worth it. Thanks for answering the question.
That is a lot of work for little reward! I worked in the scrap ward as a kid we only cleaned car raidators by removing steel. Alot of hard work but add good pay check at end of weed. keep safe and good luck! Helke B.
thanks for your time and the break down. ove not having to reenvent the wheel. thank again.
Fantastic information.
Awesome Video! Thanks!
Great video!! Interesting to see how times have changed a bit.. that same 8lbs of copper is worth over $30 at most yards now.
I was thinking back to when I made solar hot water panels that had aluminum fins clamped on to copper tubing. We cut the aluminum extrusions with a plywood saw blade. This was 40 years ago, so the memory is a bit fuzzy. It may have been a carbide blade, but I'm not sure. They put the blade on backwards so it would spin backwards, and not clog the teeth as fast. I would think that the grinder wheel would clog with soft aluminum before it wore out. I saw how someone said that they use a utility knife to cut the aluminum. A hook knife blade for the utility knife blade holder might do a better job. Maybe a linoleum knife would work well cutting the fins.
You know your stuff mate, I would love to work at one of your yards, x
Thanks man always wondered about this
You're welcome. Glad it helped!
Agree 100%. I used to cut copper out of radiators, but it's time consuming and just not worth it.
Yeah big mess and a time consuming wrestling match. Definitely not worth the effort. Cutting the steel ends off is time consuming & messy enough imo.
The copper tube in most split coils is only a light weight copper tube.
Unless its a really old fridge or commercial A/C coil. Even then it's alot of unpleasant energy burning activity for not much extra $$ at the yard. If you make it down after committing to Cutting the lot out and her indoors dosnt scrap you because of all the noise, mess & time it's robbed u from her. The gimp suit can't lick her toes and get whipped without a willing participant inside the latex naughty play tuxedo😂😂
great work!!!!
Thank you, George!
Great video.
Serrated razor knife does cutting so nicely on or next to copper !
Thanks.... great video....
For some people it might be worth it, but the time it would take me to strip it would be better spent hustling more potential scrap
Very helpful.
I do these all the time I mount a saws all in a vice with the blade facing up. Use a dull metal blade. Not a sharp one you want it to ride next to the copper not cut it. Move the radiator down with the blade next to the copper tube. Do entire rad or several end up large pile of AL And copper tubes with some Al on them using gloves grab tube. And just pop remaining Al off. The sheet Al goes in large mattress bag (holds 350ish lbs). Time about 8-10 2.5' copper tubes a minute first cut then 2-4 tubes a minute cleaning them up. Often no clean up on tubes is needed. Sometimes you get a hard one that has to be recut. They were not included in the 2-4 a minute estimate. Edit purchased a couple tons from the county auction at a great price first few sold high then the rest 5000lbs iron ect on them. Got the lot for $12.00. Tried many ways to see if was worth taking the copper out and this way worked very well. Now i never pass one when I see it. Build up 7-800 lbs and do it in three days. One day set up, one day work one day putting it away the Al pickup takes most of the time. Work day 5-8 hours. Setup day 2 hours. clean up day 3-5 hours. Could be less clean up time I hate dust and at times these give lots of dust. I usually end up with aprox. 45% of starting weight in copper 52-54% Al rest is dust. And would always do them it is fun.
I appreciate the value in both approaches.
Very nice video thanks you
A good hot fire will take the aluminum off, but if you just roast it, and put it over a pipe you can pound the copper tube out to get a hold on it, then pull the tube from the mashed fins.
Thanks for the video! I was wondering if the math approved the breathtaking work of doing it. The mat6h adds for a wholebuyer, but not on small scale.
I'm considering scaling up buying a shredder and an electrostatic separator. I'll see how many coils I would need to process to at least, break even.
Man thanks for this one. Your so right about time is worth more than 2.89.
Thank you very much.
here is my take on this. If you are scrapping to make a living time is money and i agree its not worth it. However if you are part time scrapper and doing it to supplement your income or for some special item ypu want in thos case yes time isnt money and it is worth the extra time. So it totally depends on why are you scrapping and what your time is worth.
Ken, These are all very good points. One of the most common phrases I use in this industry is "situation dictates"! Thanks for your input and thanks for watching!
Good luck selling that aluminum in Georgia once you strip it. Found that out the hard way. Razor knife down the length of each copper tube. Then,with an edging/curbing shovel,go in between each tube with shovel and it will expose the tube. Is it worth it,probably not,depends on what your time is worth like you said. Good video,
Because I already have a job and scrap on the side I will usually stockpile my copper,brass and sometimes aluminum and take it in once I have a good amount but I mostly save it for a rainy day lol it's like my junk bank and all the weight (metal) that I have I usually run it over the scale the same day I get it as long as it's a thousand or more pounds.
Cool vid! I noticed the copper ends were cut off the rad, do you recommend cutting it off? Thanks!
I took your weights with the best prices i could find here and concluded i would be making about six bucks more taking it apart then takeing it in whole. It might seem insignificant to some but when you're on a budget and all your pay goes to bills and rent an extra six bucks is helpful.
i know it's quite randomly asking but do anybody know a good website to watch new movies online ?
@@rogeliovalentino3826 what dose this have to do with this video or my comment for that matter??
@Rogelio Valentino Lately I have been using Flixzone. Just google for it :)
How about a press that drives the copper tubs while holding the aluminum. An idea. I think in the backyard I could use the wood splitter with a plate on the ram and a diamond shaped grid on the base plate. ???
THANK YOU. I just commented on another guy's video that he is only making pennies, that he is making a mess cleaning this far, that he is wasting time and opportunity for his next score. I will point out, you still want to cut off the ends. It takes 10 seconds each side with a sawzall and a block, one foot on it while you cut. Then you just smack it with a hammer to remove that tin. Now the radiator is worth $1.50 per lb (today) and you do get a small amount of copper to throw in a bin for later. This method is what is 'clean' at the yard when you sell it, not removing those ends drives the value below $1 per lb, so it is vital to at least take the time to do that part. But stop there.
When you cut the ends, you just run the saw blade along the tin. The tin is your guide. Then a hammer smack will knock the tin off easily.
nicely done, also couldn't help but notice how many aluminum chips were coming off your grinder, but consider the cost of your grinder wheels too, and how many you'd go thru, would separating the copper even pay for your grinder wheels? then there's the wear and tear on your grinder itself. and say it took you an hour, that's making 2.38 an hour minus the cost of your wheels...
unfortunately, prices aren't enough to separate these things, but check your own buyers to compare.
i been recy all my life and yes i take out the copper cores from rad. but i found out there is a easy away get a razor knife and you will understand and a long screw driver is all i us ty cheap charlie
Good very detailed information which every one dont give
You ever use a mosonary blade on your grinder? It is awsome cuts good and anything and is like an everlasting cutting wheel.
Nice display, time is money that would take too much time to tear those apart I wonder how the scrap yards separate that they probably melt it all some kind of way where did you get that big large radiator I've never seen one quite that big .
I did this one time, curious as you were. That copper is so thin compared to regular hook up lines. So I agree to just turn it in as most do.
Now it might be fun to know if the copper could be yanked out using winch and some sort of clever hook up, attached to the macaroni Bends, possibly pulling all the tubes out at the same time heating the aluminum maybe over burn pit I'm just stabbing here in the dark.
yes do this, but use a torch to melt the solder and aluminum off while yanking tubes out. havent tried this, but plan to sometime
@@JamesPlatt88There's no solder.
i like wat u said if you dont see us doing it most likely not worth doing lol great vid well laid out ther bud..yewwww
How much was the cutting blade, just the cutting blade, and do you think you would have gone through a single blade if you would have finished the project?
Thank you
Thanks
Great video. But you would actually have less because of the shavings/dust from grinding or sawing. You lose a little that way too.
If you cut your copper in a clean area, you can just sweep the copper dust up and eventually have enough in a container to melt into an ingot.
great way to cut down along the tube to free the copper pipe /cheers scrapbongo
Great mathematics lesson
I have a few hundred pounds of these. Thanks for doing the math! I'll save my time. Have a good one!
Hi, How much % of metals will get after recycling copper radiators?Generally from Copper radiators we are going to get Copper,Zinc,lead and tin.
Thanks for the awesome video brother , I do it slightly different , I only make 1 cut with my bringer down the middle of each piece of copper, then I take a pair of pliers or channel locks and grab/bend the end and then while standing on the radiator pull it out. Very similar to how you do it , stay at it and be safe brother , hope you and the family have a great christmas
Thanks,
Damn you got a coil 8 copper tubes thick! Exactly where did that come from? I got one 4 thick.
best way to do it is a hammer mill machine, works great for turning copper , brass into clean salvage.
The easy way is to cut off the ends, remove the noodles and the steel. Then take a razor knife and slice through the aluminum along the top of each copper tube. Then take something wide like and old chisel and press the aluminum down away from the tubes. The tubes then pop right out. You're left with a bunch of tubes and a block of aluminum.
and you got $2 for doing that. It is a waste of time no matter your method. Period.
You crushed it.
I tried pulling apart a radiator some months ago. It was dang hard work pulling the copper pipe out of the aly foil. My arms are nowhere near as strong as yours. Apart from the fact that it was a waste of time $ wise, it was just too tiring. Oh - and there is the hidden cost of the grinder bits and the lost aly to dust, which I expect someone else has already brought up.
So if you take in a coil without stripping it the scrap yard will know how much copper is in it?
Well yea the machines are out there that do it. It's slick looking, one person just puts the rad in up against one side and the copper comes out the other and the aluminum underneath and some comes out with the copper and the person on the other side just grabs the copper and tosses it a bin. However by the looks of the machine you have to do a large volume to justify having it. But I never priced one so I don't know for sure.
Do you accept spent brass casings at your yards?
I've cut open a few 100 so far with a steak knife and large flathead screwdriver. Copper is $4 a lb right now, and aluminum is .62 cents. Im pretty sure with 20 year high prices it is worth doing on downtime.
Like you said. Get yourself 20 of them. But if you could cut them apart with a cutting torch, it might be worth it for an hour’s worth of work. Maybe you can have the best of both worlds.
Plus, the grinding wheel would wear about 50c worth, and the wear on the bearings, another 20c, electricity, 30c. Overhead lights.....
Everything you said is exaggerated but I still know for sure it's not worth pulling out tubes
Aluminum has a lower melting temp than copper. You might want to melt the aluminum off if you want the copper. I don't know if it's worth it though.
No,tried it,pain in the ass is what that is!
Aluminum melts off pretty easy but it's time consuming. Most scrapyards won't buy burnt copper. So don't waste your time. You're never going to get it back.
Thanks...your video saved me a lot to time. Not worth the time to remove the copper tubing from radiator.
Steve, glad it helped!
You are right Not just time management you use electric that adds cost. We have to use cutting tools I rather be pucking up scrap than cutting it down its more profitable and safer .
Loosing a couple pounds of aluminum in grinding dust.
Would that be considered #1 or #2 copper
Is it worth cutting compressors open?can u make a video of that?
It is however there's oil inside that has to be drained out first. Also some have aluminum windings which is a big disappointment. The fastest way I know of is using a cutting torch to open them.If this method is used you need extreme ventilation because the gasses coming from the leftover refrigerant is deadly. Otherwise the copper from this usually comes out fairly easy ,do to the fact that the windings are oily. Messy work.
Use to burn them but fires would have to be huge to melt the aluminum. Just take them in as is now
My scrap yard gives me 1.17 per pound for the the whole thing ..is it better money to cut them out
In my opinion, no it is not. That is a good price in our current market.
Definitely not worth the time spent.
Where I live at though, you have to be HVAC certified, which I am not. So I got no choice but to take it apart.
the copper pipes is #2 copper because the aluminum is soldered to the pipe
number one in my yard
It's not soldered on it is pressed on
But most places do make it number 2 because of the oil inside the tube
Hey so my guy gets 480 for #2 copper. And 36 cents on the aluminum he has two air condition companies so always has a large volume of ac units so you said 15 lb coil 8 was copper and 7 was aluminum so fair to say if u have 2000 lbs of coils half will be copper half aluminum so 1000 times 480 = 4.800 and the 1000 at 35 is 3.500 and if I take 2000 at the dollar its 2.000 so in that case would it not be more profit. At 480 compared to 100 is a 380 gainer lb sorry if it was confusing hope not let me know ur thoughts
Provided you can control the temperature well enough (and you won't get into trouble for smelting). You can cut the Rad's up (reciprocating saw or band saw) and melt the aluminium off of the copper. Aluminium melts at about 1200 degrees F while Copper melts about 1900 degrees.
Melt the aluminium and fish out the copper.
Value for the effort would depend a lot on volume. If you're already setup for melting down Brass, Copper, or Aluminium then you may as well make use of the equipment. If you don't already do any sort of smelting the setup expense could be prohibitive unless you get a LOT of radiators to be cleaned up
Good idea, the only problem is that when you melt the aluminum. It is very difficult to remove it and the solider from the copper tubing. Unless you have a way to clean it off it's #2 or #3. Personally I'll stick with a razor knife w/straight blade, hatacht and hammer. I do think I'll try the angle grinder for the speed
@@jasonmadden6771 again, volume is a deciding factor. I would guess much of anything that was 50/50 aluminum and copper would be pretty rare. Chop or break the radiators up and heat to a bit over the melting point of aluminum. Any aluminum present would then either melt or burn off. The copper could then be scooped or pulled out. The difference being, without some viable means to separating the materials, you're going to have to sell everything at the lower, dirty rate. And probably only get to sell it all as being dirty aluminum. Because there's (probably) more aluminum than copper present. Anything that allows you to separate the two metals even partially will help you get more money out of it.
But the main factor, of course, is how much time and effort you want or are willing to invest in the doing.
What part of 'separating them is onl;y worth a grand total of $2' did you not understand??? You: 'Well, let me come up with an elaborate and more expensive way to chase that $2, because I am so smart!!!'. Good f'ing god, dude. Haha
@@raheppe as stated, volume and opportunity. If you're only scrapping a very few hundred pounds per year? The less effort you must put into it the better off you are. Hundreds, even thousands of pounds per week, most every week? A few hours of effort can result in a dramatic increase to your income by 50% or more.
It's up to YOU to decide if the extra effort is worth it or not.
Do scrap yards buy magnets? What do they go for?
In my experience, scrayards don't have a category for magnets. There might be companies that buy used magnets, but I have never done any research into it. Most of the time if customers have any type of magnets in their scrap they just go into the tin or shreddables. Magnets are found in lots of items like speakers for example. So when a whole car gets scrapped the speaker magnets will go with it! Hope that helps. When I get some time, I'll look into this further. Thanks again Bob!
If you get a big enough forge and crucible you could just melt the aluminium off of it
Great video BTW
With the cost of propane wood or coal u will lose 15.00 plus just in fuel costs. most buyers wont buy castings because most are molded in dirt or gravel
@@al9094Yes it would be a waste of time in most cases.
Time, electricity and grinding wheels I will sell to scrap yard before I wast my time on that
Tyson Walsh I do it with a full knife and it dose a better job
I would use a knife to not waste electricity lol
wow
Not only would it take you a long time to cut out the copper, which you could be out getting more scrap, but you also have to take into consideration that you would have to go out and buy an angle grinder if you don't have one, but let's say you do, then you would have to pay for the grinding wheels as they ware down after use. But, they wouldn't ware down that much on that thin aluminum, but they it will over time, so would it be worth it....not to me, I wouldn't waste the time on it. Now, if there was a much better and faster way of removing the copper piping, like a long bandsaw table with the blades running the length of each tubing so you can cut all 8 tubes at once, then it would maybe be worth it to me.
With some work I have done in the past, I'm surprised the grinding wheel doesn't just clog up with aluminum before it wears out.
Nice idea. It could very well be the solution.adjustable width on blades will be an added advantage.
@garylangley4502 Yes, that's usually another issue, because with heat it softens up the aluminum and it gets stuck in the wheels, I've seen it happen.
I don't think it's going to be worth it. .Just saying
Opportunity cost. That's a big technical word. Someone knows a little bit of economics. Good on ya. Everyone should.
Looks like you got done on the copper price. Scrounging scrap, youre not going to get 20 more in the time it takes to seperate that copper. Scrap comes very slowly unless you're buying it at auctions, but then there's not so much profit. There's always time to process scrap because there's always times you can't be out collecting it.
I been in this business a long time and Ive seen people take the time to do this...Its worth their time if they have nothing else to do ..otherwise there is no way its worth it . I buy and sell clean and dirty but I buy and sell hundreds of thousands of pounds per month.
If you factor in , electricity, cutting disc , time , etc is it worth the extra effort?
It was not worth it before factoring that stuff in. Stay focused.
@@raheppeAgreed one hundred percent.
It's #1 yall
People set them on fire a lot here in England
Reading the comments, you can see most these people have no idea what time management is. Listen to what he is saying. It's not about what you are making. It's about about you are making vs the time you took to make it. Scrapping is a job. A job that should return an hourly benefit. He clearly explained that idea behind losing $2 extra to go find more volume to make you (for example) $10 more for that hour worth of work.
Facts hurt some people's feelings.
I just keep them and boy they stack up!
made $3?? no. why not? because you are using disks for the angle grinder.. here in norway those are $10 each..
1 dollar in nz
I use a razor knife. The aluminum is thin and blades are cheap
Grinder blade 1.49$ in florida
Classic car, I will try that. No dust flying around.
Like You said Your time is valuable, You need to figure Your hourly wage into the equation. So if it takes maybe an hour to strip it and You pay Yourself say $10.00 an hour,deducted from the gross amount of $17.89.You are now being paid $7.89 for Your $15.00 core.
i do no the coopper tube in ther is alot thiner and dont way up wast of time tryed it
I got 10 ac of property. The more I cut the more fits in truck
I highly disagree with the data extrapolation. I can do one rad that size, by hand, every 10 to 12 minutes. So 5 to 6 an hour, or, $14.45 to $17.34 per hour. Which to me is worth it. To be fair though, I do not have to hustle for scrap. I live in an auto wrecker and have unlimited access to an endless supply of material.
See a man who works for a living don't mind putting in more work to make a little more money . Scrappers on the other hand don't like to work. Which explains thier laziness
@@cotton_eyed_jim2767Scrapping metal is some hard ass work. So who wants to work hard and make almost nothing . Built up calluses on my hands are proof you have no idea what your saying. Lazy?
I would use a diamond blade and a mask with goggles. And you still have to cut off the steel.
You forgot to factor in turning the aluminum in by itself
thanks , a whole rad is better all the way around,
Dissolve aluminium off with lye caustic soda bath very cheap it Cleans copper also but you lose aluminium it will be alu sludge .