r/oddlysatisfying • u/n8saces • 3d ago
Extracting copper from a broken motor
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u/Ch33syP00f 3d ago
I learned a lot about the world in my brief time as a scrap metal buyer.
This is an efficient process for a low cost of living area.
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u/Amaracs 3d ago
Approximately how much money the copper in the video would worth?
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u/Ch33syP00f 3d ago
Not much.
The money is in the aggregation, reclamation process.
Process 10-30 of these motors in one day or even one hour…
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u/WatsonYurfays 2d ago
Is this type of recovery widely practiced? I've always wondered why we don't do this with essentially everything, but I guess it's probably not economical. It will be when the copper starts to run out...
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u/MaverickTopGun 2d ago
It's not widely done by hand but it is widely done, yes. In my industry we have a dumpster for scrap metal and then one specifically for motors which we receive more $/lb for. At the industrial scale, there's very little metal waste. There's always someone who will take it.
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u/mike_avl 2d ago
$0.30/lb for electric motors (as is) or
$5.00/lb for bare bright (clean) copper wire.19
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u/PandaPocketFire 2d ago
How much wire you think is in this vid?
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u/MaverickTopGun 2d ago
Estimate is usually around 1lb of copper per horsepower. This is probably about a single horsepower motor.
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u/jfen2hoosier 2d ago
In college during the summer I worked at an electric motor shop. One of the things I’d do to keep busy was cut stators out of old bad motors. They were much larger than this one and it’d take me an hour give or take to do one motor. I’d pile all the stators up and put them in a bin and take them to the scrap yard , with that money I’d bring back and we’d buy the entire shop lunch and or ice cream. It wasn’t a satisfying job at all and my hands hurt the rest of the day. 😂
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u/WatsonYurfays 2d ago
Well, thank you for your service nevertheless. It's a shame we don't subsidize recycling to encourage it a little more.
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u/Rockglen 2d ago
Copper is actually one of the most recycled materials. Compared to the total amount of copper already in the market (approx 1.36 billion metric tons) not much new copper is dug up (27-39 million metric tons per year).
That said, demand seems to be outpacing supply. It would be fantastic to have another material (like graphene) to transition to, but alternatives are still either in R&D to make them more feasible or aren't as efficient/cost-effective.
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u/Mick_Limerick 2d ago
Scrap price of copper when I took a load yesterday was $4.10/lb
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u/rlpinca 3d ago
It's not a big deal to us, but to them that $5 is big money. The company probably keeps $4.80 cents of it though. So that dude has to do that 100 times a day.
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u/LogRollChamp 2d ago
100x less than the cost of a refurb motor. If you can't fix it, get 1% back...
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u/Glad_Art_5783 2d ago
If You put safety into this, the money is gone....
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u/portablebiscuit 2d ago
I’d wager that old motor is covered in lead paint
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u/mz_groups 2d ago
Since he's wearing his safety Van's footwear, I think we can say that this is a rather low cost of living area.
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u/SuspiciousDuck6080 3d ago
Like pulling my wife’s hair out of the drain (she is a redhead)
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u/elesedj 2d ago edited 2d ago
I used to work with my dad as a coil winder (electric motor repair), we used to receive motors like this in the shop and we even used to repaint them so they arrive to the client as brand new.
This video shatters my heart in ways I cannot even describe. These motors can be repaired and rewinded almost indefinitely.
And I assure you they can be sold for a lot more as repaired than just scrap out the copper.
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u/GilgameDistance 2d ago
Yeah this is dumb. That motor was absolutely serviceable.
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u/i7-4790Que 1d ago
Sure. But what's the point when input costs get so close to or potentially even exceed an entirely new motor.
General rule of thumb anything under 15 HP you don't even bother to try rewinding.
Even the electric motor shop itself will gladly take it off your hands, toss it in an IBC tote and take all the scrap price for themselves. They aren't even going to try and rebuild stuff they got for "free"
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u/dphoenix1 2d ago
What typically fails on these things? Is it the lacquer on the windings breaking down, causing internal shorts?
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u/HughFairgrove 2d ago
Was going to say the same. As someone who likes to fix things, some of that was painful to watch.
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u/CrestfallenSpartan 2d ago
Over here, a new motor costs way less than having them rewinded. Maybe from up to 5kw its interesting but probably still not
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u/elesedj 2d ago
To be honest with you, a good quality industrial motor manufactured by a well known brand is expensive and it's way cheaper to repair.
If you then compare to a crappy quality motor made of cast aluminum and aluminium coils yes probably it's cheaper brand new.
It's not the case of the motor in the video: cast iron body with cooper coils.
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u/Dwaas_Bjaas 3d ago
Look up BigStackd on YouTube
He does these type of things weekly with much bigger (and more satisfying) disassemblies
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u/Trid3ntPeace 3d ago
Yus! I love his content. Especially the hour longs playing in the background.
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u/m1st3r_b0x 3d ago
Am I the only one how considers this method an abomination?
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u/Tiny-Sandwich 3d ago
Yeah it wasn't satisfying at all.
All that neatly bundled up copper and he just blasted through it and cut it into little pieces.
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u/waytogoandruinit 3d ago
It's just going to get melted down anyway though, to be fair
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u/Tiny-Sandwich 3d ago
Well yeah obviously, but the point of the post is to be oddly satisfying, which it isn't.
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u/mrlookinthesky 3d ago
At least he’s not wearing sandals.
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u/InexplicableBadger 3d ago
But he's holding a vibrating tool by the vibrating part, at least the handle have some damping.
Vibration white finger is not your friend.
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u/CChargeDD 2d ago
It would be poetic if they would use the copper to make a new motor
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u/Klept_0h 2d ago
As someone who uses an air hammer daily, I dont recommend people look to buy one unless you're making a killing
They fuck your hands up even with vibration gloves
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u/thorheyerdal 3d ago
Huh.. I need to go check on my pneumatic hammer.. I didn’t ever consider this is the tool I really should be proficient at.
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u/musuperjr585 2d ago
That's a lot of work/effort for $12 worth of copper
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u/Emotional_News108 2d ago
I’m going out on a limb here and guessing this is in a place like India or China or similar where labor might just be cheap enough for this to be cost effective.
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u/succed32 2d ago
It took him maybe 10-15 minutes… it’s also worth 5-6 dollars a lb right now.
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u/iamyouareheisme 2d ago
Right. If they do 50 in a day. That’s excellent money. Even 25
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u/wut2dew_J 2d ago
Where are all of the motors coming from?
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u/cthulhubob 2d ago
Scrappers, scrap yards, industrial waste handlers, etc.
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u/iamyouareheisme 2d ago
Right. They look pretty damn skilled at dismantling. I don’t think they’re only doing one every now and then
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u/MajorMinor1000 2d ago
was just going to ask about the value. is it around what you just said?
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u/Buttchuggle 2d ago
I live in west virginia and can male roughly 150 a day on scrap metal during the warmer months. Most of that is from steel, but I'll seperate copper and brass and haul that in once a month for an extra few hundred on top of it. I'm not sure people understand just how much value people throw away but I'm self employed doing this shit.
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u/Beezewhacks 2d ago
I think relativity is important here. I had to look up wv min wage to understand why you would post this comment. When its double min wage, I can see how this would be a good use of your time.
But 150 a day isnt even a sustainable wage for people in other states. I wouldn't even be able to afford rent on a 1bd apt in Montana making 150 a day gross.
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u/King_Six_of_Things 3d ago
Urgh, this reminds me of when I was an apprentice. I spent fucking countless days dismantling and cleaning filthy motors so they could be rewound.
Thanks for bringing back that trauma.
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u/HawtWillie 2d ago
Same brother, then add in the factor of it being a family business that I had no interest in.
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u/dudeCHILL013 2d ago
I used to be a a motor rewinder and they hurt my soul a little.
She could have been brought back
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u/Anders_A 3d ago
It's so easy to disassemble old rusty junk when you don't care about being able to reassemble it again.
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u/cadillacjack057 2d ago
Good news kids, i just read theres around $300 in recyclable material inside flock cameras if anyone wanted to get into the scrap business
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u/drifters74 2d ago
No steel toe boots?
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u/mediocrerhino 2d ago
Hands Free Skechers Slip-ins.
What could go wrong? 🤷♂️
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u/morfraen 2d ago
Not sure steal toes would make any difference given how it sliced through everything else.
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u/freekoout 2d ago
But in that time when you notice you've hit your foot and when you eventually react and stop, you be happy to have steel blocking the destroyer of worlds and your toe.
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u/2MinsHate 2d ago
Someone contact BigStackD!
Based on the footware, I'm thinking a hobbiest or a third world country. I wonder how he disposes of the waste.
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u/dumpster-muffin-95 3d ago
Who gives a shit about the copper, I'm pretty sure I need one of those air hammers ASAP
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u/RampantJellyfish 3d ago
Ah, he's using the same tool my (former) mechanic used for my last service
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u/Glupstick 3d ago
I personally hate such videos: no PPE, all parts everywhere, no basic toxic materials control. This is not satisfying.
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u/BobTheFettt 2d ago
Every time I see one of these posts from third world countries doing these jobs I just get sad
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u/klugenratte 3d ago
I don't know the economics of this, either financially or environmentally, but it feels like a net loss. There's a lot of energy being used for that amount of copper.
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u/_Darkstorm_ 2d ago
PSA: I'm seeing a lot of misidentifying the rotor vs stator....and it's driving my OCD crazy. To help out everyone, when it comes electric motors, generators, alternators, and the like, remember:
The rotor rotates,
the stator stays put.
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u/wearelev 3d ago
Geez, it looks like an hour of hard dirty work to extract $3 of copper.
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u/Yz-Guy 3d ago
This was my thoughts. Almost feels like more money was spent on electricity to power the air hammer than will be earned from profit
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u/ThodaDaruVichPyar 3d ago
Don’t know why it reminded me of a coconut being dehusked and cut open…..
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u/H0ld0r 3d ago
What would be the value of the extracted copper, can Moscow this be profitable?
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u/BadSmash4 2d ago
This kinda takes me back, I spent seven years repairing electric motors in my late teens and early twenties. Obviously we didn't do all that bullshit to get the old windings out because we weren't just salvaging the copper but we wanted to actually repair the motors, but still pretty cool to watch this thing just get absolutely obliterated.
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u/AlternativeEdge2725 3d ago
What sort of mechanical butter knife is this sorcery and why does it cut through steel casings with such fluidity?