Bare and tinned copper · Georgia
We buy bare copper wire and grounding conductor
Copper with no insulation: bare, tinned or stranded, used for grounding electrodes, bonding jumpers and station bus. Reviewed on metal, size and stranding rather than on jacket condition.
- 14 AWG to 1,000 kcmil
- Bare and tinned
- Solid or stranded
01Overview
The one family with no jacket to argue about
Bare copper is the simplest material on the site and the one with the fewest hiding places. There is no insulation to check, no armor to inspect and no voltage class to establish. What is left is the metal itself: whether it is bare or tinned, whether it is solid or stranded, what size it is and what stranding it carries.
It arrives from grounding work, from station bus and jumper changes, from panel bonding and from the coil ends left on a spool after a ground grid is installed. Because there is nothing to strip, a lot can be assessed from a photograph more completely than almost any other family — provided the photograph shows the cut end and a rule alongside it.
02Specification
What a bare copper lot declares
- Forms
- Bare, tinned, solid and stranded conductor
- Sizes
- 14 AWG through 1,000 kcmil; 1/0 and larger stranded
- Stranding
- Solid, concentric-lay class B and C, and rope-lay on flexible sizes
- Temper
- Soft drawn or annealed; hard drawn on some line and guy applications
- Standards
- ASTM B3 for soft or annealed copper, B33 for tinned, B8 for stranded
- Packaging
- Spools, coils and returnable reels; 100 to 1,000 ft on small sizes
- Condition
- New, unused, installed and recovered, or oxidised from outdoor storage
- Use
- Grounding electrode conductors, bonding jumpers, station bus and overhead taps
Photograph the cut end with a rule across it. Strand count and individual strand diameter identify a bare copper conductor more reliably than the overall diameter, which changes with stranding class.
03Bare copper we review
Bare copper we review
Solid bare copper
Sizes from 14 through 6 AWG, used for grounding electrode conductors and bonding. Supplied in coils rather than on reels, and reviewed on coil weight and on whether the coil has been kinked by handling.
Stranded bare copper
2 AWG through 1,000 kcmil in concentric-lay stranding, from ground grids, station bus and heavy bonding. The bulk of what a buying desk sees, and the part of the family where stranding class and size carry the review.
Tinned copper
The same conductor with a tin coating, used in coastal and damp locations and in older switchgear. Reviewed on coating integrity at the cut ends, since heavy corrosion under a failing tin layer is the one real deduction here.
Rope-lay and flexible bare conductor
Fine-strand bare copper used for flexible bonds and jumpers. Recognisable by the very fine strand and the softness of the coil, and reviewed on stranding rather than on size alone.
04Evaluation
How a bare copper lot is reviewed
Size and stranding first, then whether the metal is bare or tinned, then condition. There is no insulation to hide behind, so a measurement at the cut end is the whole identification: count the strands, measure one, and the conductor identifies itself against published data. A single photograph with a rule in frame does the same job before anyone travels.
Surface condition matters less than sellers fear and more than buyers pretend. A green patina on outdoor-stored bare copper is normal oxidation and does not change the metal underneath. White powdery corrosion on tinned conductor, or black pitting that has eaten into a strand, is a different matter and belongs in the description.
Then presentation. Bare copper is dense and heavy for its size, so weight and footage are closely related and a stated footage can be checked against a scale. Coils that have been unrolled and rewound badly snarl on handling, and a coil that has been dragged across a slab picks up gravel that has to be cleaned out before it can be weighed fairly.
Bare copper offers no protection of any kind. A grounding conductor is normally carrying no current, but a faulted or improperly bonded system can raise it to line potential, and a bare conductor in a station yard can be energized by induction. Nothing is disconnected or cut until the circuit is isolated and proved dead.
05Seller terms
Before you sell: how it works
Four things a seller should be able to pin down before a truck is booked.
Verification
Footage is checked against the reel tag, the sequential marks on the jacket, the wrap count against the barrel, or a published weight per 1,000 ft — whichever the reel actually supports.
Payment
Payment method and timing are agreed in writing for the specific lot before anything is loaded or moved. No verbal number is treated as an agreement.
Paperwork
A bill of sale for the lot, and for utility material the owning utility’s release reference. Neither is optional and neither is created after the fact.
Freight
Collection is arranged as part of the terms. Say what can lift the reels and whether a 53-foot trailer can reach them, and the pickup is planned around that.
Sending a reel list and photographs costs nothing. A review is not a purchase, and nothing is bought, moved or scheduled until written lot terms are agreed for that material. Request a pickup when the lot is ready.
07Questions
Bare copper questions
Is tinned copper worth less than bare?
It is reviewed as its own material rather than as a lesser one. The tin coating is a deliberate choice for corrosive locations, and the coating condition is what the review turns on.
Does green oxidation matter?
Mostly no. Surface patina on outdoor bare copper is normal and sits on top of sound metal. Deep pitting that has consumed a strand is a real deduction and should be photographed.
Do you buy bare copper from a demolition job?
Yes, once it has been removed and released. Recovered grounding conductor is reviewed on strand damage and on how much foreign material is mixed in with it.
How is footage checked?
By weighing the coil and working back from the published weight per thousand feet, or by counting wraps on a spool and measuring the barrel diameter.
Put a rule against the cut end
Bare or tinned, solid or stranded, size and approximate weight. A photograph of the cut end with a rule in frame settles the stranding in one look.