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Posted: 3/9/2013 1:20:19 PM EDT
| I'm wondering how much if anything my dad could get for a couple hundred pounds of lead encased copper wire. He takes it to the scrap yard for a small fee. I could see selling it to someone who casts their own bullets. It's easily a solid 1/4" of lead encasing the copper wires. |
| Telephone wire lead is good lead. Be careful of melting it off the wire. Molten lead and water is very bad! The wire is coated with paper and burns off nicely. What I do is use my plastic pipe cutter from Rigid. It is the ratchet one for 3" schedule 80 pipe. I use an old blade and it cuts right through. I cut them in about 8" pieces. Put them in a cold pot and start to melt them. If you are brave you can through them in while the lead is melted. Wear a face shield. And heavy leather gloves. I pull them out as the lead melts off. They go in a small cut off barrel and are lit on fire to get the paper off. Scope the wire out when done burning. |
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Normally lead sheathed cable has a covering of lead about 1/8 inch thick. Easy to score with a sharp knife and peel off. It it were me, I would separate the lead from the copper if you are going to recycle it. Will bring more $$. The lead from the sheath mixed with wheel weights makes good bullets.
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Break the scrap down into components..
#2 copper scrap brought $2.75/lb here recently,, I scrapped close to 300lb of copper transformer winding from pole/shop lighting ballasts after recovering them from the iron frames. The lead on the copper will knock all the profit off the product to be recycled.. |
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