mike93lx
ALLIANCE MEMBER
There have never been grandparents that didn't think of kids as spoiled
How hard will it be to pull 250' of 4/0 from 2" conduit
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bluedog225
Well-known member
We do lots of things not worrying about money. I bet the local 4wd club would accept it as a winch challenge.
I checked with my local scrap yard for pricing today. 78 cents a pound with the insulation still on it. Most online wire weight charts show 4/0 aluminum insulated to weigh about 200 pounds per 1000'. I probably have 1500' or 300 pounds. Looks like $234 scrap amount. I will be sawing it off just below ground level and leaving it there. Thanks for all the suggestions.
Seems light. When I get a 1000' spool of 4/0-4/0-2/0 urd I think it weighs around 1200lbs.
wyliesdiesels
Well-known member
if youre not worried about money, what are you waiting for? ask the OP for an address and head out there.... let us know how it goes
Codyboy
Well-known member
Ive never done it myself but I know how they(copper thieves) do it.
There is no challenge to ripping it out of the conduit when the goal is to scrap it.
As I said before, they bust the pvc riser at the utility pole to expose a couple feet or so of wire. They stagger cut the conductors one at a time.
They do kill the load at the building most of the time but sometimes not and they get some nice sparks.
Once it is cut and no longer energized they bust the load end of the conduit at the meter or trough etc.
Wrap a sling or chain around the wire hook it to their bumper on their clapped out Chrysler 300 and hit the gas.
Rips it clean out. They drag it down the road or parking lot behind the building.
Stop, roll it up and gone.
Probably less than a 10 minute job.
The only challenge is the time involved of chaining up, rolling it up, driving to the scrap yard getting a flat , yeah because its a scrapyard. Fix the tire and drive home. Ho next day for a tire patch or new tire.
Hopefully op doesn't have an AWD vehicle.
mike93lx
ALLIANCE MEMBER
300? Isn't it usually an off rental 200 or Altima?
Copper thieves don't drive clapped out Ridgelines?
Snapped-off
Well-known member
I just took an aluminum AC coil in yesterday. $0.60/lb for clean.
The aluminum breakage were 2 EC motors. They won't pay the motor price on EC stuff. But it beats the trash I guess.
Junkman
Well-known member
About 50 years ago, we would get a fire going in a 55 gallon barrel, and when the fire was extremely hot, we would put plastic coated copper wire into teh fire. When the plastic had completely melted off, we would use steel rakes to pull it out, and spray it with cold water to cool it. The cooling process had one additional benefit, it gave the copper a clean bright finish, which would bring more money at the scrap yard. It was probably about 35 - 40 cents per pound back then.
rust in the eye
Well-known member
I remember a ********* smoking fire at an auto junkyard when I was a kid. It was a huge pile, the size of a small house, of auto wire harnesses they were burning the insulation off of. I think about this when I want to complain about environmental regulations.
The ******* above was to read b ig black. WTF?
@ O.P.
No reason not to try to pull at least some out. If/when it breaks call it a day
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Codyboy
Well-known member
That was my first job at 18 in 1984.
My BIL had a communication company and had a contract with Bell helicopter in Dallas.
Running new phone lines and wrecking out old stuff.
We pulled miles and miles of 25 to 200 pair cables from under the floors , between buildings etc.
We would take pickup loads of it back to his house daily.
On the weekends and days we didnt go to Dallas I would throw loads of cable on top of an old wire mesh gate and build a fire under it to melt off the insulation.
It sucked.