AC and BX cable buyers in Tennessee
For maintenance managers clearing older plants and mills, this page covers how AC cable is identified, where it survives and what determines what it is worth.
Send us your reel list
Six details are enough for a first review: what the cable is, the metal, the size, the footage or reel count, the condition and where it sits. Photographs can follow by text or email. There is no fee and no obligation, and nothing moves until written terms are agreed.
Armored cable with a thin aluminum bonding strip inside the armor is AC cable. Electricians have called it BX for so long that the trade name has outlived the product it described, and the two names are used interchangeably on most job sites in the state.
The lots we see come out of mills, older manufacturing buildings and schools where a renovation has stripped a ceiling. Some of it is decades old and some was bought recently for a repair. Separating the two matters, because the age of the conductor insulation changes what the copper inside is worth.
With AC cable, the copper is the value and the armor is the condition report.
Lot basics
- Type
- Armored cable with bonding strip
- Voltage
- 600 V
- Conductors
- Copper, 14-2 to 10-2 common
- Typical age
- Older installations
Telling AC cable from MC on sight
The bonding strip is the giveaway. AC cable has a flat aluminum strip laid inside the interlocked armor and in contact with it along its length. MC cable does not. If you cut back a few inches of armor and find that strip, the cable is AC. If you find only conductors and paper, it is MC or an older armored product without the strip.
The bonding strip is the giveaway. AC cable has a flat aluminum strip laid inside the interlocked armor and in contact with it along the full length of the run. MC cable does not. If you cut back a few inches of armor and find that strip, the cable is AC. If you find only conductors and paper filler, it is MC or an older armored product.
- Bonding strip inside the armor
- Steel armor on most legacy stock
- Paper wrap and cloth insulation on older cable
- Copper conductors, no separate ground
Where AC cable is still found in older plants
Textile mills, older machine shops, schools and prewar commercial buildings are the usual sources. AC was the standard wiring method for exposed branch circuits before conduit and MC took over, and a great deal of it is still in service behind ceilings and above boiler rooms. A renovation generates coils and cut lengths rather than factory reels.
Textile mills, older machine shops, schools and prewar commercial buildings are the usual sources. AC was the standard wiring method for exposed branch circuits before conduit and MC took over, and a great deal of it is still in service behind ceilings and above boiler rooms. A renovation generates coils and cut lengths rather than factory reels, and the material often arrives mixed with other debris.
Conductor size and armor condition set the price
Copper is the value in a legacy AC lot, so conductor size comes first. Twelve and ten gauge in reasonable lengths are worth recovering as cable. Fourteen gauge in short pieces is closer to scrap, and the arithmetic usually favors stripping rather than resale. Where a lot mixes both, we separate it by gauge before anything is weighed.
Armor condition comes second. Crushed or rusted armor cannot be reused, and where the armor is failing the conductors may have absorbed moisture over years. We open a section on any coil that looks suspect and check for green corrosion on the copper, which is the sign that water has been sitting inside the jacket rather than passing over it.
Length comes third. AC cable from a demolition is usually in short runs, so the lot is assessed by total conductor weight and by how many pieces are long enough to be usable. Bundles of like lengths are worth more than a mixed pile, and a bundle with a written label more again. That is a small thing to ask of a crew, and it changes the offer.
Related pages
Questions sellers ask
Is BX the same thing as AC cable?
In practice, yes. BX was a trade name for one of the early armored cables, and the name stuck to the whole family. What identifies AC today is the bonding strip inside the armor. Cable sold as BX that has that strip is AC cable, and we treat it the same way when we review a lot.
Do you buy AC cable with cloth-insulated conductors?
We will look at it. Cloth and rubber insulation becomes brittle with age, and it cracks when the cable is bent, so the conductors are often only good for recovery. Send a photograph of a cut end and one of the coil, and we will tell you whether the lot is worth handling as cable or as scrap.
How do you handle cable pulled out of a ceiling?
We expect it to be dirty and kinked, and we price it that way rather than refusing it. What helps is keeping the long pulls separate from the short pieces and noting the approximate length of each bundle. Cable that was cut into short sections during removal loses most of its resale value.
Can old AC cable be reused in a building?
That is a question for the authority having jurisdiction and the current code, not for a buyer. Our position is simpler: we buy the material for its copper and for reuse where it is permitted and sound. Where the armor is damaged or the insulation brittle, we treat the lot as recovery material.
Send us your reel list
Six details are enough for a first review: what the cable is, the metal, the size, the footage or reel count, the condition and where it sits. Photographs can follow by text or email. There is no fee and no obligation, and nothing moves until written terms are agreed.
Old armored cable to clear?
Send a photograph of a cut end, the approximate lengths and the building it came out of.
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