I just returned from the local industrial surplus store, having purchased a roll of Alpha type 286 14-ga. wire. Both I and the counter clerk assumed it was a roll of safety wire for securing threaded fasteners.
It turns out that it's tin-plated, soft-drawn copper buss-bar wire; not lockwire.
I paid $26 plus tax for a 1000' roll. The price at suppliers like Newark and DigiKey is -- hold onto your hat -- over $875 per roll!
What makes this wire so expensive, and have I stumbled onto the perfect hook-up wire for my tube amp projects?
It turns out that it's tin-plated, soft-drawn copper buss-bar wire; not lockwire.
I paid $26 plus tax for a 1000' roll. The price at suppliers like Newark and DigiKey is -- hold onto your hat -- over $875 per roll!
What makes this wire so expensive, and have I stumbled onto the perfect hook-up wire for my tube amp projects?
A little more web surfing reveals that Allied carries it, too -- at well over a thousand dollars per 1000' roll! Maybe I should sell this stuff and buy some of that 'cheap' solid-silver wire...
Bst,
You have legally STOLEN all the top quality ground bus bar you will need for the rest of your life. 😀 At 14 AWG it's too thick for "routine" signal work.
Hell yes, sell some of it at a profit. Don't get greedy. 😉
Jeff (badman) made the important point. There's been a big run up in the cost of raw materials, over the last few years. Copper and Tin command mucho dinero.
You have legally STOLEN all the top quality ground bus bar you will need for the rest of your life. 😀 At 14 AWG it's too thick for "routine" signal work.
Hell yes, sell some of it at a profit. Don't get greedy. 😉
Jeff (badman) made the important point. There's been a big run up in the cost of raw materials, over the last few years. Copper and Tin command mucho dinero.
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Thats correct, Copper has certainly gone up in the last few years.
What probably has happened is that the company you bought it from has had it in stock for a few years and purchased it way before the price went to the current levels.
Or maybe it's an error 🙂
Hard to believe but true.
Apple stock was below US$15.00 in September of 2001. It was at US$300.53 this morning!
What probably has happened is that the company you bought it from has had it in stock for a few years and purchased it way before the price went to the current levels.
Or maybe it's an error 🙂
Hard to believe but true.
Apple stock was below US$15.00 in September of 2001. It was at US$300.53 this morning!
At 80 feet of 14 gauge per pound, you have 125 pounds of copper there. Worth about $375 as scrap copper...
Tom, I think you've misplaced a decimal point. The spool is about 10" in diameter, and I can pick it up with one hand. I'd guesstimate it's about 12 1/2 pounds, rather than 125.
A dollar a foot still sounds remarkably expensive for plain old wire. Are all the wire prices equally swollen?
$875 for 12.5 pounds sounds like $70 a pound to me. I mean solder is "only" $25 a pound.
I imagine all over, but in this area, homes are being broken into and copper plumbing stolen. The house next door is not currently rented, and we found the back door open and all the copper plumbing removed recently. This was the second time. The landlord replaced it all with PVC. They recently arrested a gang of copper thieves. Hopefully PVC won;t go on the scrap market.
$875 for 12.5 pounds sounds like $70 a pound to me. I mean solder is "only" $25 a pound.
I imagine all over, but in this area, homes are being broken into and copper plumbing stolen. The house next door is not currently rented, and we found the back door open and all the copper plumbing removed recently. This was the second time. The landlord replaced it all with PVC. They recently arrested a gang of copper thieves. Hopefully PVC won;t go on the scrap market.
Thieves have been stealing heat pumps and freon line around here for scrap copper. They were stealing catalytic converters off automobiles (even church vans) last year.
Baseball bat to the knees, I say.
Baseball bat to the knees, I say.
Aim about 17 inches above the knees and swing the bat in an upward vertical arc for best effect!😎
I bought and sold Freeport McMoran (big Cu miner/producer) a couple times in the past two years. I still own some shares of Southern Copper (ticker symbol = SCCO). It still pays a pretty good dividend, which is high compared to the price I payed for the shares. To celebrate, I bought some oxygen free copper speaker cables.
The copper ETF here
BigCharts - QuickCharts
keeps going up. I keep hearing on CNBC, such as Larry Kudlow's show that commodities are going up because of the falling dollar. The Fed might be encouraging this to some extent to juice stocks and other investments.
BigCharts - QuickCharts
keeps going up. I keep hearing on CNBC, such as Larry Kudlow's show that commodities are going up because of the falling dollar. The Fed might be encouraging this to some extent to juice stocks and other investments.
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