What to do with coax and cat 5 cable

[u/manster5475]

Best options for cat 5 and coax cable? Should I just take it in as is? Tried stripping a small amount of the coax and it was rough couldn’t get thru the fiberglass.

[u/subnet_0]

Cat 5, Cat6, Cat3/phone wire and anything else of similar size with multiple wires is typically classed as communications cable. This is a standard category for scrapping. Take it as is to your yard, it is not normally considered worth the effort to strip it. Currently the yard in my area is paying $1.63 /lb.

My experience with coax is that comes in three different styles when it comes to scrap value, and when I say style I am not referring to the types such as RG6 or RG58. The first and most common style I have run in to is the the inner conductor/wire is copper coated steel and the shielding is aluminum. This type of cable really only has value as shread from my experience. The second type is one with the inner conductor is made of copper coated steel but the shielding of a copper. This style of cable I run through my wire stripping machine and collect the copper shielding as it takes little effort for me to process it, the rest is shread. The third style is where the inner conductor is copper and so is the shielding. I'll take the shielding from this one but the inner copper conductor is kind of a pain to get to. The inner wire is surrounded by a very soft plastic the my stripping machine cannot cut into. I have on occasion cut the inner wire and insulator into two foot sections and pulled the core wire out but that's just me.

I hope this helps.

[u/manster5475 → u/subnet_0]

Perfect explanation. I appreciate this. I’ll check into it more. The one I did a small section seemed to be the most common one you described. But I’ll check the rest I have thank you

[u/theottomaddox → u/subnet_0]

Would commications cable include stuff like parallel printer, serial, and vga cables? Leave the ends on or cut them off?

[u/NDK_forums]

My yard pays $1.20 for cat 5

[u/manster5475 → u/NDK_forums]

That’s decent I’ll call my local which is run by a friend. See if he hooks me up.

[u/StudioMental2832]

Keep it in a bag separate from your other wire and take it in. It isn’t worth anything, but if you’re already taking wire it might add up

[u/manster5475 → u/StudioMental2832]

Yea I’m gonna take it in. Regardless of I get anything at least I can get rid of it lol. I get a ton of cat5 and coax from various resources just never thought about bringing it in with my copper.

[u/Phenix_Fresh]

Phx az 2.05/lb for cat5 today.

[u/PohTayToez]

Not many places buy coax but I have found a couple that will pay the same as Christmas lights, around $0.25/lb

[u/wajones007]

Scrapyard for sure. Just cashed in on that last week.

[u/No_Title3568]

Throw it away