Scrappers... Best way to...

Copper apparently depends on the yard. Ive sold it 3 ways. Coated(as in still had insulation, bright and shiny (coating striped off or ground wire that never had any) or dirty. Also #1 and #2 wire, thin stranded stuff was less $$. I always burned the copper wire for best money.

The radiator I would strip down. If the core is nonferrous take anything magnetic off it. Most yards like to buy nonferrous metals in as clean(meaning not containing other metals) as possible.

I have a friend that is a full time scrapper. I make fun of him sometimes for being so determined to get things striped down so far. But then I see the pallets of clean copper or brass that he has

 

Cut wire into 50 foot lenghts then drag it behind a vehicle down a few miles of gravel road... As long as it is bigger guage wire it will strip the insulation but not break the wire.

 

My brother has a lot of rental property. He rewires and takes old wiring to the scrap. He always burns the coatings off. Also my cousin and his father are electricians, they burn it also. Never heard them say, or complain of suffering a low price for wire. As far as ruining the copper? I am not a copper smelting expert..but is not the old copper wire going to be melted down anyway? For some other copper products? Or wire again? Call your scrap dealers. You may well know..not all pay the same, and honesty may not be their best virtue. Far as radiators, like has been said, anything magnetic remove. Any items with foreign metal, plastic etc they usually will take, but at a less price to you.

 

We deal with CMC down here and they will buy burned wire no problem. If it has a lot of green corrosion in it it will be considered dirty. Best to not let it sit to long after you burn it before you take it in. Aluminum radiators with plastic tanks will be relatively worthless. Anything that had oil or freon through it is considered dirty. You will get better prices if you seperate every different kind of metal but sometimes it really isn’t worth the labor if you don’t have much weight. You may end up with enough money to fill your pickup’s gas tank and get a tallboy for the drive home.