Re: [TCML] What's up with Copper Prices?

[Thomas Brown <redlamppost@xxxxxxxxx>]

Harvey, et al

There are many factors which enter into the pricing of magnet wire.  Your price of $4.56/lb sounds about correct for todays market.  Remember if you are buying from Essex you are getting a very high quality product. (and you pay for it)
(I have been in the transformer business for over 25 years and Essex has always been good high quality wire.)
The wire you got sounds like it was put on what are called taper packs.  These spools of wire are produced at the "factory".  Each taper pack usually have different poundage s of wire on them.  The are are not custom wound for each customer.  When you order "x" amount of wire you get whatever amount of spools that will give at least what you ordered.  So you will usually get more then you asked for.  You can try to ask for more extra amount but I'm not sure if they will accommodate you.
The shipping of magnet wire is always expensive.  It usually is shipped by truck on pallets.  I would avoid UPS (or other services similiar to UPS) for any wire shipments unless you are order less then 50 pounds.  The spools are heavy and the boxes do not hold up to UPS handling.  You will get damaged spools and/or wire.
You said your price was $1580.00 which sounds correct.  You wanted 320 pounds of wire so you probably got a little more.  320 x $4.56/lb = 1459.20 .  Assuming you got a little more, $1580 sounds correct.
You mentioned something about eye irritation and speculated that some of the wire insulation was flaking off.  If this is the case you should contact Essex and get your money back!  But I doubt it is the insulation flaking off. I have never had this problem with Essex wire.  Some people are sensitive to different chemicals used in creating these insulations.  I believe the MSDS actually mention this.  I would suspect that there was some kind of dust or contaminent on the spools that is producing the irritation (from the warehouse or whatever).

Well I hope my two cents has been helpful.

Tom
MOTOM Electronics LLC


 .


--- On Wed, 12/10/08, Harvey Norris <harvich@xxxxxxxxx> wrote:
From: Harvey Norris <harvich@xxxxxxxxx>
Subject: Re: [TCML] What's up with Copper Prices?
To: "Tesla Coil Mailing List" <tesla@xxxxxxxxxx>
Date: Wednesday, December 10, 2008, 12:06 AM

--- On Tue, 12/9/08, David Speck <Dave@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:

> From: David Speck <Dave@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
> Subject: Re: [TCML] What's up with Copper Prices?
> To: "Tesla Coil Mailing List" <tesla@xxxxxxxxxx>
> Date: Tuesday, December 9, 2008, 7:32 PM
> Greg,
> 
> As I see it, part of the problem is that the copper items
> for sale now was fabricated when prices for new copper
> and/or scrap were sky high.  It will take a while before all
> the expensive copper products get out of the supply channel,
> and they start making products with cheaper raw materials
> again.  I suppose if the manufacturers get hungry enough,
> they might drop prices to increase sales, and eat some of
> the losses, just as they make windfall profits when the
> values of their items in inventory rise rapidly. 
> I've seen similar trends when the price of crude oil
> goes down -- it takes quite a while before gasoline prices
> at the pump fall proportionally. 
> Best wishes for a happy and healthy holiday season!
> 
> Dave
On 11/21/08 I spoke with Karen Walls of Essex Group in response to internet add
for 25% discount for first time buyers from Superior Essex Wire. She quoted the
spot market price at $2.15/lb, which she said determines the price for their
wire spools on a daily basis, which after the additional associated
manufacturing costs and the type of insulation provided came to 4.56 /lb. I told
here I wanted four 80 lb spools of 23 gauge wire, as this was the standard size
when I purchased spools some 20 years ago.  The shipping cost was of course
horrendous, so it being almost a 500 mile round trip journey to Ft Wayne Indiana
facility from my Ohio residence,I decided to pick up the wire myself. When I
arrived my wire was on five spools of ~69 lb apiece, a total of 346 lb.s, about
26 lb.s more then I ordered, but this being made as a credit card purchase I
noted that the first withdrawal was  100 dollars over what she quoted me, and
then another 44 dollar withdrawal
 that came to the quoted figure of 4.56 /lb.
This was $1580.00 total for 346 lb. My rewinder has complained about eye
irritation, presumably from the HVY FORMVAR insulation perhaps flaking off in
microscopic quantities and becoming airborne, but I have never heard of this
before.  Have any other coilers noticed any kind of eye irritations from
rewinding insulated copper wire?  We were rewinding this at a high speed onto 12
lb coils for further uses, but the rewinder has also noticed the same effect to
a lesser degree when making single layer TC secondaries, which we can supply up
to 6 inch diameter.

Sincerely Harvey D Norris
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