Ceiling Fan - Sell Motor or Scrap for Copper? 

Here in the usa(at least where i live) the prices are a bit different- the yard i go to gives me $0.10 per pound for electric motors so that fan would net me $0.70. Taking it apart the 6.7lbs of steel nets me $0.335, and the .66lbs of copper nets me about $1.55. So selling it as a motor gets me $0.70 and taking it apart gives me about $1.89(more then 2x the price of just the motor). It may not be worth it time wise but if I do it as a hobby my time is worth whatever i want it to be.

I 'm retired and living on disability so I have plenty of extra time on my hands, scrapping it for copper and steel and aluminum is worth my effort in the long run.

It was informative and I do appreciate the extra input. Keep up the good work thank you

Thanks again for the great video Ben! I won't be driving by any more ceiling fans. I'm looking forward to more of your great videos! Best regards, Daniel

Thanks 4 the demonstration. I have a ceiling fan I will use what I learned just for the "fun" of it because I "love" taking scrape metals apart as I find si many very challenging. Agan, thanks.

Thanx Ben for taking care of your Fans !

Thanks so much for this demonstration. I'm new to scrapping and this was very helpful as a way to determine if it's worth my time to break down these motors or leave them whole.

I find it so cool that components look so much better than the actual product

good honest truth been there done this worked for an auto wrecker and used to strip starters and alternators during the winter months

Thank You Sir, As always enjoyed your video.

A great pleasure to watch a popular RU-vid video tell the truth to people!!!!!!!!! Good job Ben!!

hi Ben thats the first time i,ve actually seen whats in a fan motor very interesting.

Great video, E waste Ben You have excellent videos I didn't know a ceiling fan had that much copper in it Pretty cool sir... Thank you have a good Day I'm on the other side of the world

eWaste Ben, thanks a lot for the info.

Thanks Ben for the information . its fantastic to see your living the dream, keep up the vids yours truly Adelaide

i liked this video it's good for me only been able to scrap small thing's i just save the copper until it billds up

Worth it to do the work for me. I'm just a casual scrapper piling it up until some day the price of copper will be through the roof in higher demand.

I'm just seeing this video, normally I just scrap out the fans as electric motors, great info on this all depends on the time you have and the scrapper doing it.

Thanks for sharing Ben

Hey Ben yesterday I scrapped a crt TV outside my high school and every one there saw me and they now call me the scrapper and some of them give me cords from there old appliances at home

Ben I had a ceiling fan that had a big motor and good copper, but I had a hard time getting it out, so I had to leave as is and hopefully my scrap yard classifies it as a motor most likely they will say it's steel. Thanks this video was helpful. Dolores from Kansas

If you buy a cutting blade for a angle grinder its easier to zap that first side off. Makes it easier to pull or hammer the rest of the copper through. Thanks for the video

Bet you could sell that fan strator on ebay for more than scrap value. Very useful for ppl who are looking to make wind generators.

I do micro srapping for gold pins and silver from switches/relays and stuff. everything else goes to the scrap yard as it is. motors+transformers etc, cables. but when it comes to motherboards, modems network-plugs etc I pull out every golden tooth ;) a tin can for all of these gets me about 100bux via ebay sellings. AND I can treat these "teeth" during my regular job

Great video. Very informative. I always scrap my stuff out I find it enjoyable and it gives me the best value.

Good information!!

Very valuable video thanks

Thanks for the vid and showing us the $$ it all helps us manage our time and as U know time is $$$

in my spare time and only sometimes i might go fossicking for gold,i use to not worry about a few grains of gold but another fossicker said to me every grain adds to a gram and every gram adds to an ounce so keeping even the tiny bits will add up, so it is worth it even as a scraper.

The ha near the end is enough for most, however if you are not pressed for time and the need for money plus have enough room to store things that take awhile to get to the desired end (more copper) then it is entirely up to you if you go ahead with the dismantle process. This is the second video I have watched on this subject, will continue to pop the copper out as I have a load of copper bearing motors put aside from various points of collection that are worth stripping. I make money from other sources which are more abundant, so in my spare time I shall pop a few more pieces out. Again money versus time. Time is a commodity so use it wisely on the more abundant projects you have going. Copper prices will vary.

Ben do you keep all you nuts and bolts and screws them are a good source of money when you have a few buckets full

What kind of side cutters are you using. I doubt mine would cut through them. I have a pair of knipex to but they won't open that far. My electric 4.5 " cutoff tool would,but it makes a dusty mess from the copper. Thank you you opinion matters ☺️ David

What are they paying for brass at your scrap yards? Here, today, May 15, 2018, they are paying $1.70 USD. (Just to note prices, here, today, in USD: #1 Cu - $2.70/lb; #2 Cu - $2.25; Al cans - 0.30/lb; Steel (generic/not specified) $8.50/100 lb; Stainless steel - 0.25/lb.) Since I had the day off from work, but much to do outside, I thought, 'well, when it starts to rain, maybe I'll go online & hope eWaste Ben has something new...' I like you & your videos. I am extremely small-fry compared to you, but I always learn something from you! Thanks!

Good job on the video. Thanks for sharing......

wow those look like nice snips you use

The blade brackets are generally zinc so worth saving.

How does brass look on the inside compared to copper?

Will we be seeing a buffet of some sort this video?

what clippers did you use while cutting the copper?

Horse hair plaster was used in the US in the 1800s and early 20th century in some areas.

And you can save them for when your stuck at home during bad weather you have them to scrap

when you making copper ingots, have you considered adding either 10% elemental tin (sn) or pewter, and making bronze, would get a higher price, . or could add ferro silicate (would have to look up percentage) to make silicon bronze, could try it as a one off test, and see what results you get, . as bronze casts in finer detail than copper could cast decorative ingots , medallions , or something more complicated such as a skull

what brand of snips is that? or do you have a hydraulic elbow rigged up?

Ceiling fans motors are great!!! thank you for sharing Like #53

Well I finally found my headphones! Wife gives me this "look" when I turn the volume on.lol ok, Ben you have me totally confused. Is it copper or coppah. Just kidding love your presentation as usual.

Good info!

Hey Ben, new to your channel. I was wandering if you ever go dumpster diving for ewaste? I've seen you do kerbside, but have you ever gotten anything from a store dumpster?

Wow! I was fixing to micro scrap a few ceiling fans I have but now I am not so sure I want to that

The different colour is the varnish used on the copper, different coloured varnish relates to high temp v low temp

Where can i get a scale like that

It's not worth it on a small scale, but if you have dozens of motors, it may be worth it. Nice vid.

i am a fan of your work

cool vid i enjoyed thanks

wouldn't the copper be more valuable as a winding? isn't the EM power of copper what makes it valuable?

That's a lot different style guts than most of the ceiling fans I've come across. Not a lot extra, but like you said for those that want the copper. I have yet to take any copper to the scrap yard yet. Thanks for the vid!!!

Great video, however I kept thinking you were going to put that screwdriver into your hand

What scale did you use?

Just saw this from a time ago. I do scrap copper and I've got about 100 lbs now. I'm looking into pouring 5lb copper bars

Might be worth it depending on were you scrap

Screw gun at hand...uses screw driver...priceless :) Good vid thanks.

There is still a small amount of insulated Copper Wire(ICW) you did not include. It probably rated at copper #3.

my scrap yard in Missouri would not have called it a motor until 9:22 .Before that it would have been called scrap steel . They will not pay for scrap steel until you have 500 pounds

Hi Ben when you say 55cent a kilo, is that Australian dollar or US. By the way you are a great scrapper

For the average scrapper sell as a motor if collecting copper to smelt in coins or ingots its worth it to get the copper out of the motor 👍👍💯

Do they tax you selling scrap in Australia.

Nice cutting pliyer

Correct, they usually are zinc. I just throw them in with my cast aluminum and my scrap yard buys them.

The light socket with the 2 wires attached you should save. Any carpenter would give you a few dollars a piece for.

Half the fun is working out how to get it apart! Mandela's for tradies.

Though it's a good idea to see what the difference in price is, the time involved I don't think it's really worth doing unless copper is going for 6 dollars a kilo then it's worth it. But having watched your videos you can probably knock out a PC in about the same time.

I'm just bringing it up to date re the decision to scrap the motor as is or remove the copper... As at Feb 8th 2022, in Brisbane, motors are roughly $1/kg and #1 copper is roughly $12/kg. So for the motor weight of 3.3kg, that's $3.30. And for the copper weight of 0.3kg, that's $4. Plus there's the negligible scrap steel - currently 35c/kg ie peanuts. So removing the copper from the motor gets you an extra 70c. Let's call it a dollar. Is it worth the time and effort just for one dollar? Personally I wouldn't, no. So I'm going to stick to just leaving all my motors and transformers whole - but it was worth watching this video to see. Plus, there's always the risk that you open up a motor to find that the windings are actually coloured aluminium wire, not copper, so then you have to part put the motor back together again to add weight 🙂 Irrespective of what you decide to do with a fan motor, don't forget that when stripping a fan down to the motor you will always get some wires, sometimes aluminium blades (tin snips to cut them off the steel holders) and sometimes a cast aluminium motor housing exterior..

I had a neighbor that used to raise Horse Hair when he was Plastered.

Good scrapping for our envirement shouldnt just be about time and money .im retired and do it for entertainment and learning.

che genio ci hai fatto capire un mondo nuovo, sai romper con molta difficoltà ,un ventilatore da soffitto bravo ma secondo me tu sei un farmacista

how much is copper there

Being worth it always comes down to two things. Hobby yes, job no. Or how much volume you go through. If you move alot of material then don't take it apart. You will make more money taking in buckets of copper motors vs a few hand fulls of #2 copper wire.

This might be a stupid question but why does scrapyards pay $0.50/kg for electric motors? Is it because of copper? And do they pay for any kind of electric motors?

Iam a electrician so I have a scrappers dream job

What I do is save the copper until the price rises a lot higher. I'll save over 1,000 lbs of good clean #1. As far as the steel, same thing. I'll go out and collect what I can and hang on to it all until the price makes it more worth while. And since I'm on disability and during the winter I haven't much to do??

Sure if you've managed to accumulate say 30 or 40 of them, but otherwise it's time vs money. If you have two three wheely bins full of fan guts it still might not be worth it because your going to spend 5-10 minutes taking it all apart then separating the steal from the copper then taking it to the scrap yard. And in all that time you could probably scrap out a bunch of pcs. Sure you can stockpile copper but by the time you want to sell it in ingots the price can drop by 20- 40 percent and instead of making something for your time and effort you end up losing ,but good thought otherwise.

Wow. Watching this in 2020 the most shocking thing about this video is that there was an incandescent bulb still in use somewhere in 2018.

You could try building a wind turbine from it

Good

I took one apart the other day. Just like the one you have. Only 13 ounces of copper in it.

That is kind of a strange fan, I haven't seen one like that before

.10 here in the US for motors. 3.80/4.00 Per lb of copper earth day coming. Extra gains.

Wow that's a lot of work for the copper

Copper no1 is over $3.00/lb. now here in philadelphia.

Build up copper if not in a hurry. Then try to sell at the highest day price if there is a way to check prices.

copper wire is like 25p/meter on ebay (for the thick stuff), see for yourself, there is probably £30 here if you sold it like that.

whats the point of melting down the copper isn't that costly

but.. how do you recover pure copper from that enameled wire ?

Good stuff I fine in Ireland with big motors it's worth the time but I have motors I will strip cause of how fast it can be done but some ur right not worth my time great video

Cut the copper loops with a die cutter and use pliers to pull out the copper.

If you don’t remove the housing from around the motor in the U.S. they will only give you shred value for the motor so for me it worththe time to take the extra steps to remove the copper

Here in the states, since the embargo with selling scrap to China is in effect, those electric motors have to be clean. To many motors now have aluminum windings and the plants in the states are loosing out.

Thank you for sharing Ben, There are better and faster ways to get that copper off of their, Which I'm sure you are aware of, The line of work that I did for almost 40 years Was ceramic tile, marble and stone work, I had a side grinder with a diamond tile blade on it, a dry cut blade, I had one dedicated for cutting anything that need to do to be cut, And I cut nails, wire, rebar, And even plate steel believe it or not and it would cut right through it, The darn thing lasted forever seemed like, I still have it. But the dry cut diamond blades 4 or 5" on a side grinder Would rip right through one side of that,(I believe it's called an armature,) in seconds, Well, enough blabber, thanks again for sharing.

The Doctor is in....

I side houses for a living in Canada .one of the exterior house raps called typar has horse hair in it so I guess it goes on the outside not in 🤔just like the horse used it.makes sense😂😂😂

My USA scrapyard considers ceiling fan motors as scrap tin