Making money stripping scrap wire

Bluedog International / September 20th, 2019

By Joe Williams from Bluedog cable stripping machines

Many people realize that working a 9 to 5 job isn’t quite that much fun these days.  The allure of being self-employed is tempting but also a very daunting task.  How can one make that first critical step towards financial independence?  What will you do?  What service can you offer?  How can you break free from the corporate ball and chain?

What?  Be your own boss?    Are you serious?

“There are lots of things you can do to make extra money that will lead to you eventually quitting your day job.  I’m not here to help you explore every job option under the sun.”

1. I am here to suggest that one of the easiest ways to be your own boss is to get started into the scrap metal recycling business.  At a bare minimum, you could earn significant amounts of cash which will help makes ends meet a little easier.
2. With a simple pick up truck and trailer, you can travel around, make deals and buy scrap metal or, just clean up people’s yards, charge them clean up service fees and claim the scrap metal value into your own pocket.  Yep folks, that’s exactly how it’s done!
3. Advertising for this type of work is fairly basic. You can post free ads on Craigslist or Kijiji, send out flyers, go knocking door to door, there really is no limit to getting the word out there for your new-found scrap venture.  Eventually, people will talk and your phone will be ringing off the hook for scrap metal clean up!
4. The nice thing about the scrap metal business is there is almost Zero – cost input except for labor and gas.  If you play the game right, you can charge people a cleanup fee and claim the scrap money 100% for your own.

The downside. Yes, there is always a downside.

Unless you have tons and tons of scrap metal and heavy-duty processing equipment, you will start to realize, that making $ 0.05 /lb takes a long time to make any profits especially after gas costs and labor expenses.

So what’s the solution?

Enter the world of making money scrap copper wire recycling.  Copper is a rare earth element that has surprising disappearing characteristics.  One swears it has legs because quite often it moves when you’re not watching.  (A little joke I tell our customers regarding copper theft.  )   Copper is a great commodity for the scrap metal business because at the time writing its worth approx. $ 2.75 / lb USD vs market value of $ 0.05 / lb USD for scrap metal.     That’s a huge difference!  Less work, more pay!

You can make money with scrap metal but you will need large scale equipment to process it.  You will also require 100’s of tons of scrap steel to make any serious money.

By using a BWS-50 SAR wire stripping machine, or a BWS-50 Multi Feed automatic wire recycling machine, or a BWS-60 scrap wire recycling machine, you can get into the copper scrap game and start making money from scrap copper wire recycling.   To give you an example, stripped bare bright copper is worth 2 to 3 times more than compared to the insulated wire.

“Scrap Copper wire is like gold, just easier to find!  Why not strip it using a Bluedog wire stripper?”

The thicker the wire cable, the higher the scrap copper recovery.  If you have  power main cable or large format cables, you will want to purchase a BWS-80 HD wire stripping machine, or BWS-100v2 cable stripping machine.  Thick cable weighs more and adds up quickly after being stripped.

We also have a scrap wire calculator available here:   Scrap wire recycling calculator     You can calculate your rate of return based on the processing speed of the machines as well as copper recovery per wire size.   It’s a great tool for anyone focusing on scrap copper wire recycling.

You will need to know and weigh how much scrap copper wire you are recycling.   Check out the BWS-WS-5000 weigh scale.  You will know exactly how much weight you when stripping scrap copper wire.  This is very important because scrap buyers pay based on weight.  The more accurate your weight the more honest everyone is in the chain.

Get a Bluedog automatic wire stripping machine and weigh scale together and you make money from recycling scrap copper wire.

BTW – you don’t want to burn scrap cable. Allot of Scrap yards will not take it after being burned due to potential environmental fines.   If the Ministry of the environment of the EPA finds out you have been burning wire, you’re going to pay hefty fines and it won’t be pretty.  This is why stripping your scrap wire with a Bluedog wire stripping machines is the best return on investment.

Where can you find scrap copper wire?

You can find it in dumpsters,  construction sites,  people throwing out old appliances,  car wiring harnesses,  garbage day, electricians, demolition companies,  estate sales, scrap yards who don’t want to process scrap wire,  Utility companies,  solar panel installers,  old military surplus. There are so many places to find wire its kind of crazy. Keep your eyes wide open all the time as you never know when you will run into it!    Take careful note that every place you find scrap wire will have its pros and cons regarding the amount of money the scrap wire can be purchased for.   You don’t want to focus on sources who want an arm and a leg for their scrap wire!

The one thing too – which you need to be creative finding clients who haven’t stripped their scrap wire, this is how you can profit the most.  For example, there are companies out there who don’t want to apply manpower and resources and recycling scrap copper wire.  This is a bonus for you!

It’s easy to see how this may be the case when you consider the cost of labor and ROI and profitability of certain projects.

“One man’s waste is another man’s gold.”

Shop for your local scrap dealer, weigh your stripped copper, and find a scrap buy who will guy you the best bang for the buck.  We will get into more details and tips on copper wire stripping on future articles on www.bluedogwirestripper.com/blog.   If you have a specific topic or question you would like to ask us regarding copper wire recycling send us an email: [email protected]

In conclusion, it is never easy going into business on your own.  However, with a little bit of hard work and some ambition you can make the scrap metal business pay off in no time.   Focus on recycling scrap copper wire to get the highest dollar per labor hour spent.   You won’t regret it.  And if you’re looking for some great machines for stripping scrap copper, portable hydraulic cable cutting shears, Copper Chopper Granulating systems, and Scrap electric motor recycling machines check out:  www.bluedogwirestripper.com