Let me know... do you strip out microwaves?

Just FYI : . The magnetron, which generates the microwave energy, has a sintered ceramic insulator that is made from beryllium oxide . During use it is inert and harmless but if it is crushed and the dust is inhaled you can get berylliosis, an incurable disease of the lungs.

The secondary windings are wrapped with more insulating material because those wires carry more than 10 times the voltage of the primary and the engineers didn't want that to arc to the transformers core.

It will tell you on the serial and model number tag in the rear of the oven. Look for the copper symbol CU or aluminium AL or both

Just got back from the scrap yard. Nice little copper score you got. Gj.

I have not seen a microwave Transform that was 100% copper since the early 1970s. It's all copper-clad nowadays! I have 5 or 6 different microwave Transformers I keep for electronic experiment purposes in the back room. I can only dream to find a 100% copper Transformer!👍

Nice showing.

Are used to work in the scrapping business most of the newer microwaves. Nowadays are not copper they are actually aluminum wire with copper coating. Only old microwaves and I’m talking from the early 2000s it’s just like a Lincoln 250 amp arc welder is not copper inside. It is aluminum wire inside which are crappy welders. You have to get the early model welders like that that have the copper wire in them. It’s very easy to tell the weight the true copper ones are really heavy. The aluminum ones are a lot lighter. Same thing with microwave ovens the older ones heavier because they’re copper, newer microwaves, are aluminum coated with copper

Also dealer depending some buy electrical steel at a big bump from shredder prices. Not many keep it separate but some true mega places do.

Cool. I have my scrapping thing going on. Nice to see other hard workers here.

Cardboard is an excellent heat insulator. It prevents heat transfer to the iron core which would melt all the windings by contributing to the heat generated by magnetic eddy currents within the soft iron core. These eddy currents are created by rapidly increasing and decreasing magnetic fields, which induce electrical fields within the iron as well.

that looked pretty easy , I got some old streetlights this summer , they have transformers in them 🙂

That is cool my friend. 👍💪👍💪👍💪👍🇺🇸

I play wit Turbo Chefs ALL-DAY!!

Good information thanks

Great video. I have a few to do

Nice one m8

Where did you get the music from? In the background? I’ve never heard that on KZfaq music.

Cool 😎

I would have liked to have seen the micowave units that still have Cu windings. I guarantee that your vise won't last very long..don't ask me how I know. Nice hammer for weld cracking.

I’m crying. That poor little transformer!

So which brand have them and which don't or do I have to learn the hard by getting them and searching ......???

where do you find these microwaves and electric motors and such to harvest the copper??

How much did you pay to get rid of the rest of the microwave? How much time did it take you to get the coils out of each microwave? Spare change but not even close to 360 an hour.

Very interesting regardless of copper or aluminum it’s still worth money some cases I don’t even break my transformers down. I just take them out of the microwaves and I take them straight to the scrapyard where I’m at. They considered to quote a motor price so I still get two dollars a pound for it, but in my case it’s better to do it. That way to spend a whole day scrapping transformers. I might lose 100 bucks but whatever I’m still getting pretty good money for doing nothing but scrapping transformers some of the Maggotron. I also scrap I don’t deal with anything with wire, just not worth it and then the metal of the cabinet of the microwave itself is worth a little bit of money, not much and then streetlight the old cobra heads talking about money because of the old aluminum cobra street lights are worth money. I cleared out a Kmart one time that closed and I picked up over $5000 in a period of 24 hours scrapping out the cobra heads take all the transformers out take out the aluminum shields they don’t take the lightbulbs they don’t take the ceramic sockets at the bulbs fit in, but they will take the transformers, the aluminum shields and of course the overhead housing itself is aluminum when you gotta take out the glass and the cell is not worth it either so that’s another thing you should check into check out the old parking lots that are no longer can find out who owns it if there wasn’t let you take it down in case I got lucky so people bought out the store. They were changing out the lights and they gave me the cobra heads.

Good video

Still got to enclude the time taking them out of a microwave, and yes you are lucky if you find one transformer out of every 5 microwaves that is copper ( and if it is it will only be the top windings ) and most are aluminium windings

quite a few around me don't pickup microwaves because the yards charge for them unless you take them apart. so I get quite a few of them because I am 1 of the very few that actually tears their scrap apart for more money. I also get lot of fridges and air conditioners because they charge for those too if you take them in whole. I cut them up, I even take the copper out of the condensers on fridge and a.cs.

I've never found a double copper transformer. I found one a few months ago that was made is the early 90's and it was half copper and half aluminum.

That's great but where did you find 18 microwaves????

is the transformer housing made of steel or aluminum? r they worth scrapping??

New subscriber always watching your videos❤❤

what brands should we look out for? also have you found any solution or trick to melt the crud off

Can you short the whole winding up with an electric charge, and soften that glue?

How long did it take to get the transformer out of each microwave?

Good video! Subbed

New subscriber here my yard won’t take the paper do you think a wire wheel on the bench grinder would work?

I pull the transformer out of all of em, even if they're aluminum wound I still make em worth my time. My local yard has a loyalty program, I stash n em n take a lot in for 5cents more than normal irony aluminum

That winding is wrapped up because there is 8000 volts on it! Throw the coils in acetone for a few minutes. All that cardboard will peel easily off. If you soak the whole transformers in acetone before disassembly, they will come apart easier. Keep in mind the flammability of the acetone. Soak outside in a bucket for an hour, pull them out & then drain & disassemble. The acetone will get dirty but will still work.

Are there any magnets worth anything in a micro oven?

Why do you save the red part? Is it valuable?

If im not wrong, most older power supplies in many things have these copper blocks

How long does it take you to take the transformer out of the microwave?

Idk anything about scrapping, though I was hoping it would tell me how to disassemble one of these so that I could re-wind it myself. Anyway, One of the coils, the primary, takes about 120 Volts AC. The transformer turns that into around 2000 Volts AC, output by the secondary. The coil that's wrapped up is the dangerous secondary coil, in case there is some kind of stored energy somewhere you do NOT want to touch that coil

What would you charge me for 1500 to 2000 watts copper windings transformers ??? I am experimenting with electricity and need a dozen Sir. Thanks

4.70 copper prices rose. Great video.

One of the coils(secondary) is much higher voltage, so it requires more insulation and isolation.

I've picked up 20 microwave novena this year every one had all8windings un the transformers. So just throw them in the hard iron pile .and take the wire out and throw the rest into the shred pile

How long did it take to remove transformer from each microwave

You need to do the "scratch test". Sometimes what looks like copper is aluminum

360 minus finding micro minus getting the coper out minus going and getting 360 😂 Im write with you though I usto scrap back in the day I usto be the guy giving the money at the register and weighing in the materials but I still love watching it... Good luck love your channel

How old was the microwave they came from? I've scrapped over 50 microwaves and havent seen a transformer that wasn't ally wire yet. Newer ones dont even have a transformer. I now only scratch the transformer wires to see theyre ally, then throw it in the heavy steel. Rip the wires out and cut the cord. And ive scrapped all the top brand names and no copper yet.

Is there an easy way to tell what brands have mostly copper?

Thanks for the method of flipping it over (2 min mark) - always wasted time banging on the windings the opposite way.

one is the high voltage coil. requires more insulation. by high voltage, i mean 2000+ volts

Which brand is all copper usually they are copper and Alluminum

you are very lucky if you find a microwave that has been made in the last 5 years that has any copper in the transformers

Were these really copper or aluminium windings? The weight is a dead giveaway...

Nobody has 100 microwaves laying around.

Great video sir thank you!

when calculating the return, you also have to calculate the amount of time it took you to obtain and transport costs

Would it hurt to burn the cardboard off?

Why not soak them in acetone for shellac?

So you don't have to separate each little metal plate in the transformer to get the copper out ?

Most microwaves have the DOM on the sticker. Sharp and Panasonic are good one for copper

170 bucks will get you a propane crucible that doubles as a forge if turned on it's side from Ebay. Melt some of those down and scrape out the slag and see if you can get a better purity ingot out of it. Purchase a unscented box of Borax from target for flux to help adhere to the slag. You'll need to fashion a scraping tool for the slag. I used an old metal ladle spoon that I connected to a long piece of metal from a crappy jack that comes with most vehicles. Line a muffin pan with tin foil and there's your ingot molds to pour into. Aluminum foil keeps it from sticking to the pan.

Keeping coils as is, could be used in generators.

It would be nice to know those brands to look for?

Using these to make free energy devices for small generators works better !

So the manager at the scrap yard I sell to told me not to tear apart microwaves for that box because it's copper colored aluminum and not copper at all. Now I'm confused!

Most Scrap yards will take the Mircowave shell as light Iron, bouns $ added in.

That's one way of dismantling them. Just brute force with a hammer eh, rather than mucking about with a hacksaw, angle grinder or hammer & steel chisel. I'll try it. Do microwaves in America plug into 240v like they do here in the UK, or they still only plug into 120v? Took a few apart with intention of making 240/50hz power inverter, saving the wiring for projects. Took some smaller high frequency ferrite transformers out of TV's, which are easier to take apart just putting them in the oven first. Learning how they work instead to get to 400 volts then use high powered Mosfets to attain 240v ac, tho' find it tricky to understand some of the maths involved.

Pound on that vice 😂

Don't feel bad, I suck at math too lol.😂

Aren't they worth more as a transformer if they work?

He said "number two"! =)

A friend has a farm that was used as a dumping station for ole industrial motors some that are about as big as a vw bug. I would say there is probably 2 semi truck loads. He said I could have it if I remove it. I should start breaking them down this spring. I would think there is 10k lbs just in copper. Then 5x that in steel. Cast iron and aluminum. I also have 3 huge sail boat keels I need to cut into manageable size to recycle. Probably 20k lbs in lead. Only thing I can think of is buy a cheap chainsaw and cut them up. Allot of work.

Get yourself some digital scales, more accurate and can weigh up to 2kg or more depending which ones you buy!! Great work.

Did you fie noth for copper???

That's great but I live in Saskatchewan where finding free microwaves is next to impossible. It was ok in BC, I had a house full of stuff to scrap. But here it sucks. Valu Village sells 476,879-year-old microwaves for 20 bucks each. at the weight you showed, at 4 bucks a pound, that's $11.50. I'd be losing $8.50 on every microwave. This province sucks for scrappers and recyclers and repurposers. In BC there were plenty of places you could get microwaves, TVs, appliances, or just about anything. At every landfill there was a shed that you could take stuff OUT of for free. At the bottle/electronics depots you could take anything you wanted as long as it hadn't made it inside yet, and people would drop off electronics by the door and the staff would take it inside. Curbside scrapping was seldom there but it was there, people don't put things curbside in Saskatchewan. Any scrap bin was fair game unless it had a lock and fence, or a no trespassing sign. That was in BC. Saskatchewan SUCKS!!!!

If they're newer at least half that is aluminum. Sometimes one side is copper.

That winding that is well protected can produce enough power that is used in an electric chair

Do you include your time and transport for collecting microwaves in that $360 an hour?

The coated copper wire is graded at #2 coated wire unless you strip the coating off of it. It is only worth $1 a lbs. as coated wire. If you mix it in with your #2 clean copper some yards will down grade the whole batch to $1 a lbs. And if you tell them you will take it some where's else they will tell you not to ever come back. You tried to sell them lower grade material mixed in with higher grade, claiming it was all higher grade. They don't like that. :)

When I was a kid back in the 70's, I remember seeing these strange looking E's and I's all over the creek bed and had zero clue what they were... Lol. It wasn't until years later I found out. Evidently someone was tearing these transformers apart for the copper wiring and tossing the E's and I's in the creek. Funny how some things don't changed, people still stripping for copper.

What’s the dollar value!

Not sure where the word send it came from but when i used to cook , when a order was done we wouls say send it

I always just leave the paper and tape on the copper coils. Its all counted as #2 copper anyways (since its coated in lacquer) so its a waste to fiddle around cleaning it up

How much is copper a pound?

The Magnatron has that deadly dust from it -- if any gets in your lungs ? You deal with that ?

I would say the transformer it is worked would sell for more on ebay then the copper would bring at a scrap yard.

🎉

Not bad

. Seems like the older microwaves would be most likely to have the copper since everything is made so cheap and disposable these days.

So maybe $45. Then you have to spend your gas to get there. Plus there's the time for getting the transformer out of the microwave itself, hoping there's actually even copper in it. This is a great idea for keeping retirees busy lol

Man I just knew your gonna smash your hand .. 😵‍💫

13 min vid, with fast forward, 1 min to extract copper plus remove card board, more time, 18 units took u 15 min? but! im impressed , ur very good at this! good job man!, plus getting those 18 microwaves would be ur biggest problem, but not 15 min...

When they melt the windings the minuscule weight in the wire coating is gone it burns off. What their doing is a rip off, it would be lucky 2 be 2grams of coating. Penny pinching its called

Size of copper makes it #1 or #2 pencil lead size like house wire and up is #1 fine wires less size than house wire is #2

Around $4.82 a pound Man copper's up huh. ❤❤❤