Bare copper wire buyers in Tennessee
For plants and contractors holding grounding copper, this page covers where bare copper accumulates and how size and temper are established.
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.
Bare copper is the one material on this desk that is both inventory and commodity at the same time. A coil of 4/0 bare in good condition can go back into a ground grid; the same coil oxidized and kinked is weighed and sold on its copper content. The two outcomes are close together, and condition decides which one applies.
Most of what we see is left over from grounding and bonding work: a substation grid, a plant ground ring, the bonding jumpers around a tank farm or a run of equipment grounds that was cut short. It is dense, easy to store and easy to weigh, which makes it one of the simpler lots to price.
Bare copper is worth more as wire than as weight, and only condition decides which.
Lot basics
- Material
- Bare and tinned copper
- Sizes
- 6 AWG to 500 kcmil
- Temper
- Soft drawn
- Use
- Grounding and bonding
Inventory and recovery in the same coil
A grounding conductor has to be continuous where it matters, so crews buy more than they need and cut off the remainder. Those remainders are often long enough to serve another job, and a plant that keeps them labeled by size has a small inventory rather than a pile of scrap. We buy both, but we price them differently.
The difference is straightforward. Clean, bright copper in a coil with a known size and no kinks is bought as wire. Copper that has been buried, bent back and forth or left in a puddle is bought on its weight and assay. A coil that is half bright and half corroded is separated before either price is applied.
Where the grounding copper comes from
Substation and plant ground grids account for a large share. A grid is built from bare conductor run in trenches and welded or exothermically bonded at the crossings, and the tails from each run are cut and often kept. A decommissioned grid yields a great deal of copper, though most of it comes out straight and dirty rather than coiled.
Bonding work produces smaller quantities: jumpers around piping, structural steel bonds, equipment grounds in a motor control room, and the copper braid and strap that goes with them. Those lots are usually mixed sizes in short lengths, and they are priced by weight rather than as individual pieces, because no single jumper is worth measuring.
Size, temper and whether it is tinned
Size comes first. Bare copper from 6 AWG to 500 kcmil covers most grounding work, and the larger sizes carry most of the value per foot. Where the size is not marked, we measure the strand bundle or a single wire and count the strands to place it within one step. A caliper across the bundle, or a micrometer on one strand, is usually enough to settle it.
Temper matters for reuse. Soft-drawn copper bends easily and is what most grounding work specifies; hard-drawn copper is stiffer and less forgiving at a tight radius. A coil that has been work-hardened by repeated bending will not lie flat and is less attractive as wire, though it loses nothing as copper when it is weighed at the yard.
Tinning is the third factor. Tinned copper has a thin tin coating that resists corrosion in damp or sulfurous locations, and it is common in older plants and in marine or chemical service. Tinned material is still copper, but the coating changes how a refiner treats it, so we keep it separate from bright bare.
Related pages
Questions sellers ask
What is the difference between bare and tinned copper?
Tinned copper has a thin coating of tin applied over the strands, which slows corrosion in damp, salty or chemically aggressive locations. Bare copper is uncoated and oxidizes to a brown or green surface outdoors. Both are sold on copper content, but we keep the two separate because the coating affects how the material is processed.
Do you buy bare copper by weight or by length?
Both, depending on the lot. A coiled length in a known size with clean surfaces is bought as wire and priced per foot. Buried, kinked or mixed material is weighed on a certified scale and priced on copper content. Most real lots are a mixture, and we split them before quoting.
Can bare copper that sat outside for years still be sold?
Yes. Outdoor storage dulls the surface and can leave a green patina, but the metal underneath is unaffected. What we look for is pitting from prolonged contact with soil or standing water, and any section that has been reduced in cross section is cut out. Surface discoloration alone does not change the grade much.
What grounding sizes do you see most often?
Two ought, four ought and 250 kcmil from substation and plant grid work, with 6 through 2 AWG from equipment bonding and residential service grounds. The size is usually printed on a tag at the coil or stamped on the conductor, and larger sizes are often identifiable from the strand count alone.
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.
Grounding copper in the yard?
Send the sizes, whether the copper is bare or tinned, the approximate weight and a photograph of the coils.
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