CASE STUDY: How much can an electrician make stripping scrap wire?

After the total amount of wire is calculated, it is customary to purchase an extra 250 feet roll of each type of wire just to be sure you have enough of each type.  You will have wire leftover from each roll.  Take for example a typical house wiring project: you will acquire rolls of following wire sizes:  250 feet of 12-gauge,  250ft of 14 gauge and 250 ft of 14-2 ROMEX.

Make the most out of your scrap copper wire.

To get the most out of your copper wire for each lb that you recycle, the insulation should be removed so all that you are left with is #1 bare bright copper with a shiny copper color.   As long as the wire is free of debris and insulation it does not matter if it’s solid or stranded and you will get #1 bare bright pricing which is the best.

Stripping wire by hand is very expensive because it takes a long time and you would probably be paying an employee overtime to strip it by hand with a utility knife. There are many insurance claims associated with hand-stripping wire from employees cutting themselves that are Worker’s Compensation claims, which in turn cause an increase in your monthly rates.

Bare bright copper wire has to be perfectly clean without any other material on it, small bits of the casing, solder, paint or glue. If you fail to remove all of these materials from your copper wire, it will be classed as #2 copper wire because it is not “perfectly clean.”

Barebright scrap copper wire prices are currently at $2.10 per pound. Unstripped wire with the insulation left on it is priced at only $0.65 per pound.

Electricians can make alot of money stripping excess wire from jobs

By using a Bluedog wire stripper can speed up the process when you are stripping a large excess of wiring from jobs. A wire stripping machine removes all insulation from scrap wire to bare bright copper, even if you are stripping used wiring from a building or home that is being remodeled. That way it ensures you get the top price for your scrap copper, which is actually an added bonus of your work and it puts money in your pocket.

Typical Wire sizes used by Electricians for a house install :

Stripping Insulated wire yields the following amounts of bare bright copper:

50 feet of 12-gauge wire equals 1 lb
80 feet of 14-gauge wire weighs 1 lb
27 FT of 14-2 ROMEX wire weighs 1 lb

Let’s say that you have saved excess wiring from multiple jobs plus the wiring you have ripped out from retrofits and you have approx 10,000 feet of each of these common wire sizes.

After processing the following wire sizes using a wire stripping machine it would net you the following stripped copper wire  weight:

Stripping 12 GA wire x 10,000 FT = 196 lbs
Stripping 14 GA wire x 10,000 FT =  119 lbs
Stripping  14 GA Romex wire x 10,000 FT = 375 lbs

At current prices, you would get a total of 690 pounds at $2.10 per pound or $ 1449.00

This is a significant amount of cash towards your bottom line.

The same amount of unstripped wire would only net you $ 450.75 at the scrap yard.

It’s important to note we have taken common wire sizes into consideration for electricians and given you a break down of what a real-world scenario would be for stripping scrap copper.

Your return on investing in a wire stripping machine will pay off quickly. Especially if you start getting into 500 mcm or power main cable.  The thicker the cable the higher the return once stripped.

It is a great time to purchase a BLUEDOG™ wire stripper, as copper prices are rising and you can make back the cost of the equipment quickly.

After making that much off your scrap copper, you will pay for your machine in no time.  Any additional scrap wire you strip a workhorse such as the BWS-50 SAR will be pure profit.  This model of automatic stripper strips all sizes wire from 14-gauge to 2000 mcm wire. It has a 3HP motor with 15 feed hole self-adjusting cutting system, forward / reverse direction great performance and speed on a daily basis.  There is money in scrap metal recycling,  take advantage of the material you readily have.

In conclusion, this article should have helped you better understand how much an electrician can expect to make from stripping scrap wire using a wire stripping machine.

Recommended best selling machines to strip scrap copper wire: