Wire brief · Conductor metal and grounding
Copper wire: THHN, XHHW, feeder and bare copper
Copper arrives under a dozen names and leaves in two directions. The sorting question is simple and consequential: is this still cable, or is it now metal.
Request a quote
Tell the desk what you have in Copper wire
Send the basics and a buyer reviews the lot, usually the same working day.
- Reviewed by a buyer, not a scale
- Reels, pallets, partials or a full truckload
- Anywhere in Ohio, one desk
- 01Send the wire type, quantity and pickup city.
- 02A buyer reviews the lot and replies with a basis.
- 03Freight and release are agreed, then the load is booked.
Lot details
Everything helps, but the wire type, the quantity and the pickup city are enough to start.
A family, not a single product
Copper building wire covers THHN and THWN-2 singles, XHHW-2 in both copper and aluminum, copper feeder assemblies, bare copper grounding and bonding conductor, and the small hook-up wire that lives in panels. Same metal, different insulation, different ratings, different buyers.
The distinctions matter because a mixed pallet of copper is not a lot; it is a sorting job. THHN in a coil, XHHW-2 on a part reel and bare copper bundled with tie wire all leave by different routes, and the effort of separating them is real. A storehouse that has already kept them apart has done half the review.
The reuse question and the metal question
Unused copper wire on a tagged reel is cable. It has a construction, a rating and a footage, and someone will install it. That is the highest use and the one worth establishing first, because once a reel is cut up it cannot go back.
Pulled copper is a judgment. If the jacket is intact, the print readable and the ends sound, it can be reused for work that does not require a new-product listing. If it has been dragged, kinked, or stripped at the ends, it is metal. Burnt wire, tangle, and wire pulled out of conduit in short random lengths are metal without discussion.
What the print tells you before anything is cut
Jacket print is the whole identification on single-conductor copper. THHN and THWN-2 are often the same reel of wire with both ratings printed, and the difference decides whether it can go in a wet location. Gas and oil resistance, sunlight resistance and machine-tool ratings all appear as suffixes on that print, and each one narrows or widens the list of jobs the wire suits.
Bare copper has no print, so size and condition carry it. Bright, straight, untarnished conductor in full coils is worth separating from the dull, kinked and green material, because the two are not the same product even when the scale reads the same.
- Full print legible along the length, not just at one end
- Coils tied and tagged with gauge and strand count
- Bare copper kept separate from insulated
- No kinks, pull marks or crushed insulation
How copper lots are sorted in Ohio
Most copper comes out of two places: a plant storehouse clearing shelf stock, or a contractor emptying a job trailer at the end of a project. Storehouse copper is usually tidy, tagged and in original wrap. Trailer copper is coils in milk crates, part reels under the bench and a bucket of offcuts, and it arrives already mixed.
Machine shops and tool rooms around Dayton and the Miami Valley generate a steady trickle of small-gauge copper and hook-up wire from panel builds. Steel and forging plants in the Mahoning Valley produce heavier feeder copper when a line is rebuilt. Neither is a large lot on its own, and both are easier to review when the gauge is written on the outside of the container.
Related pages
Adjacent cities, wire families and regional briefs.
More in conductor metal and grounding
All wire typesQuestions sellers ask
Does stripped copper wire get treated the same as insulated?
No. Stripped copper has left the cable category entirely and is reviewed as metal, and that is usually the lower use. Insulated wire that still has its print can often be reinstalled, so stripping a usable reel to save space destroys the value it had. Keep the insulation on until someone has looked at it.
How can I tell THHN from THWN-2 on an old reel?
Read the print in full rather than the first few letters. Most modern wire carries both ratings on one line, and THWN-2 adds the wet-location suffix that matters for underground conduit and exterior work. If the print has worn to THHN only, the wire is treated as dry-location wire, which limits where it can go.
Is it worth separating copper by gauge before a review?
It helps, and it costs nothing but time. Copper sorted into gauge and construction reads as stock and can be matched to a use. The same weight in one mixed container reads as a sorting job and is handled as one, which is slower for everyone and rarely produces a better outcome for the seller.
Request a quote
Tell the desk what you have in Copper wire
Send the basics and a buyer reviews the lot, usually the same working day.
- Reviewed by a buyer, not a scale
- Reels, pallets, partials or a full truckload
- Anywhere in Ohio, one desk
- 01Send the wire type, quantity and pickup city.
- 02A buyer reviews the lot and replies with a basis.
- 03Freight and release are agreed, then the load is booked.
Second look at the lot
Everything helps, but the wire type, the quantity and the pickup city are enough to start.