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#65175 04/27/06 10:30 PM
Joined: Sep 2004
Posts: 174
B
bot540 Offline OP
Member
In case you haven't notice copper is on the rise again. With gas and copper prices this high its going to be hard to make a profit. Anybody else feeling the pain?


Jesus may have been a capenter,but God was an electrician.Genesis1:3
Joined: Aug 2001
Posts: 599
N
Member
We are definitely feeling it. Copper has tripled since the first of the year. The job I am on now was bid back in 2004 and we are just now starting to put orders in for feeder wire. I just received the first two 480V substation secondaries to one of the buildings to a tune of $100K. And we have only just begun.

Joined: Jun 2003
Posts: 1,143
D
Member
My local house said they can't guarantee prices more than 48 hours.

Joined: Oct 2005
Posts: 100
J
JJM Offline
Member
I feel your pain... 500' of 500 MCM = $5,000 just like that. Was the best price we could find, nobody would guarantee the price for more than a few hours, and had to pay green cash to get that price.

Had to change a set of paralell feeders on a 600A 3-phase service because the POCO wouldn't allow splicing what THEY cut off when there was an explosion in THEIR hole. The copper was fine to splice into, and a meg test was done on all feeders, but the POCO said if the feeders weren't replaced and there was a problem, they would shut the building down and bill the customer if the transfomer blew.

The old cable in the conduit and CT was like new. What a waste.

By the way, the original problem was the insulation on the feeders was corroded from years of laying in salt laden water that never drained from the hole. The CB on the XFMR kept tripping as a result, so what was the POCO's solution? Upgrade the transformer from 150KVA to 225KVA. Made for a really nice explosion next time the fault surfaced!

Worst part is none of the scrap yards want the copper with the insulation. Who wants to sit there stripping it off. Anyone want any used 500 MCM cable cheap in good condition, LOL?

Joe

Joined: Jan 2004
Posts: 171
M
Member
No doubt!

I just picked up some 12/2 NM-B @ $81.00 for 250 ft. And 12/3 UF-B @ 130.00 for 250 ft. This is getting crazy - FAST!

Joined: Jul 2002
Posts: 680
W
Member
I bought 1000 ft of #12 thhn april 15 and it was 115.00, bought some more last week april 26 and it was 134.00 a thousand for #12 [Linked Image]

Joined: Jan 2003
Posts: 4,391
I
Moderator
Quote
Worst part is none of the scrap yards want the copper with the insulation.

Your going to the wrong scrap yards.

Here they will take either bare or insulated but there is of course a price reduction for insulated.

Last time I went in it was about $0.25 per pound less for insulated.

Heck they will even take cat 5 cable. [Linked Image]


Bob Badger
Construction & Maintenance Electrician
Massachusetts
Joined: May 2002
Posts: 1,716
R
Member
600 MCM was quoted over $11.00 per ft today. [Linked Image]

Roger

Joined: Jul 2005
Posts: 57
D
Member
[Linked Image]

[This message has been edited by distributor x (edited 05-03-2006).]

Joined: Jan 2003
Posts: 1,429
L
LK Offline
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"its going to be hard to make a profit"

How it it going to be hard to make a profit, you should be making a better profit, the supply house dosen't loose a penny their profits increase, not go down, the only way you can loose, is if you wrote a quotation, or issued a contract without a protection clause in it, or did not pass the cost of increases, on your billing.

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