So you are thinking about scrapping electric motors, and you wonder what’s inside of them? Well…metal of course! Electric motors are used to power many types of devices from the simple spinning glass inside of a microwave all the way up to the engines on planes.
Inside of electric motors there are windings, and that is where the electricity is pushed through to power the motor and move whatever it is that it is attached to.
In most circumstances the motors are copper wound and could be worth more money if you wanted to take them apart, but sometimes they are wound with aluminum.
In the case of aluminum wound motors, we never suggest taking them apart but only scrapping them. Other then the copper and the aluminum the rest of the motor will be made of steel and can be thrown in with your heavy steel.
Scrap ya later!
-Tom
If you have electric motors that seem like they have copper winding wire inside, be sure to use your file to check. The outside of the wire may have a orange or reddish color, but it could be a coating on the outside of aluminum wire. To check use your file to file past the color on the outside and see what the color of the metal is on the inside.
If it is a reddish color, you have copper bearing motor. Depending on how many you have, it can be worth your time taking it apart for the copper wire on the inside. If it is silver color, you have aluminum bearing motor and if isn’t worth the time to take it apart for the wire.
