How much more do pulled copper motor windings pay compared to stripped bare wire?
Short answer: Pulled motor windings usually price close to bare bright copper once fully separated from the core and free of varnish residue, but that depends heavily on how clean the pull is — windings still carrying steel laminations, insulation paper, or heavy varnish coating grade lower than genuinely clean stripped wire, so the gap is really about pull quality, not windings versus wire as fixed categories.
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List Free →What “pulled windings” actually means to a buyer
Pulled windings are copper wire that has been physically removed from the motor’s steel core, as opposed to the wire still wound inside an intact motor. Once removed, it’s just copper wire again — the price gap to stripped bare wire narrows dramatically because the buyer no longer needs to separate copper from steel themselves.
Why “close to” bare wire isn’t the same as identical
Pulled windings almost always still carry a thin varnish or enamel coating on each strand, plus sometimes insulation paper or slot liners mixed in. That residue is a genuine, if small, contaminant compared to bare stripped wire, which is why pulled windings typically grade just under top bare-bright rates rather than matching them exactly.
What pushes windings closer to full bare-wire pricing
The cleaner the pull — free of steel fragments, minimal insulation paper mixed in, no visible burning — the closer you’ll get to bare wire rates. A rushed pull that leaves chunks of lamination steel or slot wedges tangled in the copper will get priced as a mixed lot, not clean windings.
How ScrapTrade Makes This Easier
Listing pulled windings as “clean copper windings, varnish only” versus “windings with steel/insulation debris” on ScrapTrade lets buyers price accurately from the description instead of assuming the worst case.
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