What to do with a boatload of used motors

[Ken Vick]

I am helping the wife of a friend and former colleague here in Gainesville, FL, clean out his shop because he has cancer and his prognosis is that he won't ever be able to work in his shop again.  Like a lot of us who salvage the occasion motor, he too sort of collects used motors and has maybe 20 or more.  I am still finding them in hidden places even though I am a week into this project.  Some are typical motors but many are odd sizes that came out of I don't know what.  I don't think I am going to find many buyers for these so what should I do.  Copper is expensive so is there a salvage value to the motor for the copper?  Thanks.  Ken

[Robert Adams]

Without knowing what the motors are... Many may have aluminum windings depending on what they are from. 

     Copper prices aren't what they were 2 years ago. Much much less as copper was up near $4 but it's around $2.30 and many places will pay less than that. Also that's for #1 bright copper. Every other form is less and small diameter wire ie anything under 14ga will also lower lower the price. 

       I just accumulate copper for the moment. When I had lots of 600mcm and bigger cut offs I was taking it in as it gets heavy fast and takes up space.. I'll strip a few wires here and there and toss it in the barrel hoping prices will go back up. But $4 was a market manipulation fluke. Took advantage of it though.

[cvillewood]

Uses: shop made sanders, buffers, dust collectors, etc. all depends on the size of the motkr which you didn't specify.

[Bob Vaughan]

Bottom line: getting the copper out of an electric motor isn’t worth the effort.
Consider grouping all the motors together, taking a photo and putting them on Craigslist for one price so someone else can deal with sorting them out. Sometimes having empty shelf space is worth more than the little money gained by selling individual motors.
 
Motors of ½ HP or above may have resale value.  56 frame motors will sell better than 48 frame motors.  Ball bearing motors sell better than sleeve bearing motors.  There are a lot of detail subtleties that can define the difference between valuable and valueless.   As time goes on, fewer and fewer people are self-reliant enough to have uses for an inventory of electric motors.  

The below photos are of general purpose motors that someone may find useful.  If the inventory doesn't have motors that look like these, then disposal as a group will be the path of least resistance.

   

   

[Ed in NC]

A donation to a Habitat for Humanity Restore is another option. If they cannot sell the motor, they will put it (them) with their scrap metal for recycling.

Ed

[Steve N]

Bottom line: getting the copper out of an electric motor isn’t worth the effort.

It is if you can talk the neighbor kid into doing all the heavy lifting, and for his efforts you'll give him a 25% split of the profits.


I think the first thing to do is plug em in, do any of them run? Or was he collecting fixers? Now that is a losing proposition, unless it is already your trade in life. If they are fixers, advertise for a fixer opportunity, one price on all of them, MAKE OFFER.............

[TDKPE]

Speaking of scrap metal, when I worked in a scrap yard, we'd just pile motors. Outdoors. In the weather. Once in a while someone would come looking for a working motor, and we'd let them ring out the windings to see if they're open or shorted or ground-faulted, but they were sold as-is, where-is, with no guarantee.

Every couple of years we'd suck them up with a crane magnet and drop them in a small Load Lugger tank and haul them to a recycler. Too much effort involved to crack them open and strip out the copper, but the recycler was set up for that. Not worth much, but worth a lot more (in a 10-ton load) to the recycler than steel of various grades, so it was worth it to pull them out rather than toss them into the #2 steel bin.

If you have some name brand motors that work, they'll sell on ebay or CL. Especially TEFC. And especially especially if you have any 1200 rpm motors, which are not common, but desirable for low speed tools like drill presses and lathes.

[Arlin Eastman]

electric motors or lawn mower motors or I should say Gas or electric?

If some of them are running I know you could sell them.

[daddo]

Keep the bigger motors of the 30's- 50's. Have them rebuilt. They are great motors.

[Stwood_]

Any electric/starter motor repair shops in your area? Might give them a call