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 Post subject: Copper Weight in Cable
PostPosted: Tue Jan 30, 2018 12:51 am 

Joined: Mon Jun 13, 2016 10:38 am
Posts: 67
I have 80lbs of 20awg/12c Shielded Cable, 600 volt, PVC Jacket, Continuous Flex (500ft)

I am trying to determine what % of that weight would be copper?


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PostPosted: Tue Jan 30, 2018 4:39 pm 
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Joined: Tue Feb 03, 2015 6:57 pm
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Location: Low DOS
MLS may know so stick around a bit. MLS is a bit more hands on in that aspect of scrap, I tend to not go as far as actually stripping wires.

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PostPosted: Wed Jan 31, 2018 12:55 am 

Joined: Mon Jun 13, 2016 10:38 am
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What cable/wire class would be closest to this at a scrap yard? I usually see 4-8 different types quoted w/ a p/lb price but never this specific of a cable.


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PostPosted: Wed Jan 31, 2018 1:55 am 
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Location: Low DOS
The lower the number the thicker the copper in general.
20 is fairly common in usb cable.
24 is the norm in hdmi. External serial cable is usually 14-18
Old external scsi and parallel cables run 12-16
Specialty cables like monster use 12-16 in just about everything (there IS a benefit to higher priced cables, just not the signal nonsense the sales people tell you).


Most of my power extension cables are 12 awg. I use 18awg usb cables. They’re much thicker than the norm.
But I’ve never striped the copper out of any modern cables. I’ve pulled silver and nickel from cables but that’s like comparing apples to broccoli weight wise.

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PostPosted: Wed Jan 31, 2018 2:32 pm 

Joined: Sun May 17, 2015 4:17 pm
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Location: Md Eastern Shore
There are charts online for the weights of the different gauge wires. The charts normally give the weight based on gauge with a thousand feet of wire copper content only. 20 gauge would be 3.092 lbs. per thousand feet. So the weight of 500 feet of copper 20 gauge would be roughly 1.55 lbs per strand. If that wire has 12 strands there is 18.6 lbs of copper. I have been stripping copper wire last few years and the small twisted separate coated wires with outer sleeve are very time consuming since you have to first take outer sleeve off and untwist the wires to separate strands and strip each. To some it is not worth the time. I use drill to untwist wire and flaring tool block with blade with modification to pull wire through.


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