I Spent $945 on Transformers to Scrap for COPPER 

I thought it was neat watching you unload truck and noticing the rise of bumper as weight came off

30hours of hard grafting for a jaw dropping $2300 cnd is awesome am glad you felt proud driving to the scrapyard with all that #2 copper

Soak the thick paper coils in a bucket of cheap paint thinners, I leave them in the thinners for a week, then the paper/glue will just slide off, make sure you hose down the copper with cold water afterwards, thanks for keeping us entertained with your videos 👍

Project shop FL is the expert on breaking transformers

Excellent result, simply super, it’s always a pleasure to work with copper, especially in small quantities.👍

To keep your hammer head tight keep it soaked in water. I'm a Faller and keep my axe in water once in awhile in summer. Also copper usually goes up in price in spring.

Wow this was satisfying. $1200 is definitely worth your time. That's almost a rent payment, in only 30 hours. For something that takes almost no tools and no skill, that's not a bad side hustle. Hell it's not a bad main hustle. If this was full time, that'd be an $80,000/year job. And, that's with your beginner's methods and tools. You'd get better and faster as time went on. One thing about breaking apart the stacked E-I transformers (versus interlaced), unless you want to re-use the transformer you don't need to use an angle grinder to cut the welds. An old hatchet as a wedge and a 3 lb hammer to smash it will punch right through those welds on the first strike. Also, since you left $400 on the table by selling high-silicon iron as tin shred... that's getting close to the cost of shipping a pallet to the coast. If you're doing quantities like this regularly (you aren't, but...), it's probably worth it to call around and find out just where the closest yard is that *will* pay you high silicon prices. Or, I dunno, if it's Edmonton or Red Deer or somewhere in-province, it'd borderline be worth your gas money and time to trailer it. I know yards in Ontario and BC pay for high-silicon, but, I've never heard of any here in town. I'm wondering if it'd be worth it for you to have/build a small hydraulic press (that's electric or air over hydraulic, so that it's 10x as fast). So much of what you do is hammering lettuce-sized objects, this has got to wear you down and slow you down. A fast-set vice (old impact driver and socket mounted to a vice, with a foot pedal to tighten/loosen) would also be a project worth building. Nothing you couldn't easily build out of scrap, and, I'd bet a project video series like that would be quite popular. Even not as a video series, your efforts are slowed down so much by your simple lack of clamping. You're wasting 90% of your body strength by having everything floating around all loose-like and never getting to apply proper leverage. Selling yourself short. As to peeling paper, my only thought is to maybe get it at a 15 degree angle and smash it into a parallelogram with a hammer. Might sheer the windings and sheer the fiberglass/paper. Fire is another option. Get a $25 weed burner propane torch and roast 'em. Copper soaks up heat magnificently, it'll soften the enamel and glues. Few seconds with a torch then the hammer perhaps? Like anything, you'll get better at it as you do more of it, but, for something you only do a couple times a year you're never climbing over the learning curve.

Blood sweat and tears won't describe the difficulty you'll encounter the 1st time you get the copper from these. 😂

Reading some of these comments I like the ideas of soaking everything in some sort of solution or finding a yard that will pay number 2 even with the paper. Also a good idea to leave the best looking stuff on the top :P

the easiest method to separate copper is to put the entire thing in the forge inside a cubicle and in copper melting point remove steel and pour the clean copper in a cast

Always a pleasure watching your videos ,your a well spoken ,intelligent and very interesting scrapper ,keep up the good work . Always look forward to your informative videos

Project Farm uses a salt water mixture he uses for oxidation on metal and it takes just a few days if I recall correctly. Might be worth reaching out to him and asking about it if you really are serious about rusting them before you process them

@ 10:05 Your technique was inspiring, no doubt.... I'm intrigued by your comments about the price of Copper.... Copper is a commodity... People do need it.... And, let me say, I am not a Financial Advisor. This comment is for entertainment only. I am a knucklehead commenter. Okay?? Good. If you found the price of copper was way down, Go buy more transformers for LESS money.... Clean those up... If the price is down again, buy more transformers, clean them up.... When the price rebounds, take your bounty & sell it at a high price.... It doesn't matter that much if you're looking to buy gold, silver, copper, platinum, pork bellies, soybeans, wheat, cattle, whatever.... although, taking delivery of cattle can present some serious storage problems.... Heh heh heh! My point is, If you believe in any commodity market, STUDY it... With the tools available today for free, look at your 50 day moving averages, your 200 day moving averages.... When the market drops DOWN, that's a buying opportunity. That's the thing you wanna buy, ON SALE. It's the same "thing". Except the price is down. When the price is running strong, that's your SELLING opportunity... Unload. Take your profits. Drag your money off the table. Book that profit in your notebook, reset, and start watching for the next buying opportunity..... Look, when I watch these videos, I see a guy with ambition... With energy... A guy willing to put in the work... And that is all very admirable... So, be SMART. If the price drops, buy more. When the price is up, sell it off.... Keep pounding. Get rewarded for your work.

You need a shop press, you put the transformer in it diagonally corner to corner and crush it till cracks and falls apart.

To make best score using a minimal hand forcé you Need : 1 - sorting of transforms for type of similar core and model 2- use the grinder to cut the solder joints. 3 - see RU-vid for learn another technic of dissambling trafo .

Motors are very hard work . My suggestion is to find you an old log splitter. If it's gas, do it outside. If you can swap it over to an electric motor then you can probably run the retrofit log splitter indoors in the winter.. But you will definitely have to change the anvil on the log's splitter So you can do the small motors Any type of hydraulic ram with a splitter on it would be helpful And I will encourage you to watch the project shop florida Videos, because he has a pretty good. Set up on how to get those things knocked quickly

Air chisel might be more efficient for the ones with the joins/seams.

Really nice camera work 👍🏼 Love your content 👍🏼🐼

You should go watch Project Shop FL .. he does this with transformers all the time, but he uses a press on the steel and cracks em...

Always the hardest part is cleaning the paper off the copper. Luckily for me my yard takes # 2 copper cleaned up, burnt,with paint on it or covered in paper insulation and they give the same price per kg

Nice job my friend👍👍

I use a chunk of I-beam to break the steel, I don't precut the transformers. Also suggested to use a 4# cross peen hammer but smaller will work. I have all my steel and copper stored in 55 gallon drums waiting for a rainy day.

Not sure if it would be cost effective but sulfuric acid(drain cleaner) works amazing at removing the resin and paper

If I recall correctly project shop nfl once said he stopped cleaning them up and still got the same price. Not sure which video he mentioned it in but I often go to his channel for information on transformers.

Your doing great Thub. Keep pushing yourself and all will be well. Love all your videos 👍

it's great that your yard was willing to work with you of the project.

I've never done this kind of work but just by watching I'm wondering if it would make sense to get a hydraulic press and press the outer steel and inner plastic off of the copper? Maybe even make different jigs for the press head to fit common transformer sizes? Keep up the great videos! Love em!

You have excellent hairy meatball skills!

A very good job was done and the result was superb 👍

Great job, love your channel. That vise needs to be higher so you don't hunch your back. Workflow, man.

I need to find some scrappers near me. I’d pay more for copper!! Unrelated, but very cool edits unloading-I especially liked watching the truck rise as it was unloaded. 😂 Lastly, carry a rake on your rig bro.

great work, couple of things, an anvil/rail track on that stump would help heaps, the vice on a sturdy bench with the little jaw bits screwed in tight as any bit of crud that gets under a loose jaw becomes a potential break point when its tightened so keep em snug. i also endorse the hatchet/hammer method to split them, quicker and quieter with the anvil/rail. But a cool video Dude, thanks for showing us

Phenomenal, stupendous! Loved this

Duuuude. Be proud. You earned that 💯

Amazing videos like these I absolutely love and wish you did them more often

Remarkable technique handling the meatballs 😳

I admire your patience. I work 2 jobs I don't have the time or patience to go to these lengths. I just turn it as is.

The round ones are a good source of copper wire, yes there’s a bit of paper but they are still worth breaking up.

Good job, Thub. Awesome work.

Wow. Those paper stripping skills were a thing of beauty

Wow, that was great.

Well done Drake! Your technique is second to none 😂!

I can dig it dude, just spent 2 hours pulling apart a car alternator with a 20oz estwing hammer and hand tools.loved it

Awesome work.... well done. You inspire!!!

Awesome job

Nice load mate .Next step a furnace

I have a hard of my own. Your vid has been most helpful my boy. 😊

Great video my friend

That was so awesome!! I love the copper toroids though, they take seconds to breakdown with a 🔨 and actually have 2 layers of copper, yum! I'd kill my back hammering at that low angle, how the heck do you do that 😬 but yes awesome, astounding and I can't remember the words you said lol. The level of effort and work you put in was formidable, great job as ever 👌😄

Superlative hammer work. Your videos have been so helpful to a newbie and now that pile of transformers I have looks a little less intimidating. Thanks mate 😎

This is a process wow 😳 very impressive technique 😅😅

Awesome this did look fun, if I were to do this I'd get only the transformers with welded plates. In my opinion more fun to Crack open and requires the least amount of tools. As you mentioned though it takes its physical toll. Great fun thank you!

Happy days, if you had fun making that amount an hour, got to be a bonus. Keep posting and I'll keep watching

I like how your vice is bolted to a tree stump… very Canadian.

We are 73 and we are glad that there are young people like you in the world. You have done more for the environment than the windbags, Gore, Kerry and Thunberg combined.

Amazing! Riveting techniques! Superb rhythm! Good eye and steadfast determination. 5 stars!

Very nice video! Love the humor in it!! Great pay day too !! Love it

Another great video!

YES! I cannot wait to see how this unfolds!

Maybe find yourself a slab of thick steel to use as an anvil, or an old piece of rail track, easier than smacking that vice all day

Great video dude the voice over was relaxing

ASTRONOMICAL HAMMER TECHNIQUE!!!!

This was so great! You have inspired me finally to deal with the transformers I have stored up. It's two orders of magnitude less, but it needs to be done.

Your copper skillz are MAD bro! Astounding, incredible, amazing, Randallicious, divine, i-Cream, beautiful, righteous, Bob's-your-Uncle, flash, and crafty! Glad the payout was worth your time. Thanks for sharing.

That was an awesome video my friend!!

One of your best videos yet and that's saying a bunch because you have awesome content. Great job on staying after the goal and bringing that profit home.

For real I’m such a big fan of yours I’ve literally watched and liked every single video I’ve watched them more than once too❤

Splendid!

Wow! Your hammer skills are astounding, impressive and inspiring. Your technique is remarkable in how you peel those hairy little meatballs.

Love these further away shots, great focusing!

I don't understand why Project Shop FL doesn't buy them from scrap yards. You are a madman cleaning them up.

Always learn something new watching your videos, thanks bro!

Great work man! Keep grinding. I found torch takes the sticky paper off, much faster.

Enjoyed the video, keep them coming

Great video Man! And those were some "Thor" like hammering skills!!

Hi, I enjoy watching your content. Just a couple suggestions. You can save alot of pounding by cutting right through the welds to the copper and then the sides should peel off pretty easy. Also, I'd suggest raising your log with your vise on it. It was killing my back watching you bent over pounding the the transformers. Lastly I'd suggest putting your processed materials in containers as you process them - hopefully reduce your handling time and efforts. Happy Scrapping!

You need a more stable surface to hammer. That log is bouncy, and it is sending energy back into your body.

That was and awesome video. Pretty cool return

Those hammer skills were Olympic qualifying like

Buying transformers and motors to break down further is really the only way to really make money scrapping. There's a ceiling to how much raw scrap a person can collect and process. Canadian Treasure Hunter works tirelessly at it and makes like $35k a year. He's sitting on probably $100k worth of copper though.

That was inspiring hammering there I must say

Beautiful hammering technique!

That round one w plastic you passed on is awesome. I get them off Uninterruptible power supplies. 16lbs of copper

Fascinating. Intriguing. Excruciating. 😄

Fantastic thanks for showing process and pay off Hard work $ well earned

Masterfully done!

I love you dude. Keep the info coming. I started watching your videos half a year ago. I have a pension and got bored. So I started scrapping and a slow week takes in 300$

Great video with epic hammer skills. Great opportunity and curious what amount of markup a yard would typically add.

Inspiring and astute hammer techniques as usual Thub!! Much love from Ontario

Impressive hammer work there mate great video as always look forward to your next one 😁👍

I think Thor himself would be amazed by your hammering techniques.

I really enjoyed your film it was very informative and well done

Great video! Some really nice shots and your voice-over is golden.

That's awesome! A really great video!

GREAT JOB! Great effeciancy!

@thubprint invest a framing hammer! Sure they were originally made to drive in 3 inch nails while building the bones of a house, but it works like a hot damn on these plus you won’t get tired swinging it

I love your videos thub! Always entertaining and love the camera angles!

Good day from Ontario. Interesting video. Yesterday my bro. crushed pop cans but we used shovel to scoop up goes alot quicker. Thanks Interesting!

You do a great job with your vids. Cheers!

You pulled it brother, awesome hammering 👊