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Joined
Dec 16, 2023
Messages
23
Location
Colorado
On the advice of Golddigger76 I've decided to make some copper powder and possible other reagents or consumables we use. Made to order, to your specifications. I can make anodes or copper dishes for electrolysis. I can make shot or powder out of just about any metal that'll melt in a propane furnace. Stannous Chloride if anyone needs it.

Short and sweet but yeah, tell me what you need and I'll see if I can make it so
 
That's because I haven't made any yet. I'm looking to see what kind of demand there is, if there's a market. What do you need Kurt? What size mesh of what element?
 
That's because I haven't made any yet. I'm looking to see what kind of demand there is, if there's a market. What do you need Kurt? What size mesh of what element?
I am afraid some of the products you are outlining may need substantial investment in equipment like atomizers and such.
 
There are vendors on the internet selling atomized copper powder.
https://www.amazon.com/Copper-Powde...uBpTUQkvBSRfsx-Kakn0FZGxRXQFibTxoC1U8QAvD_BwEsome quick math will tell you they are getting $31.50 per pound for copper. That is truly value added. I think you would have to do some work on copper derived from waste to purify it to that level which would be your source of cheap copper.
Atomized copper is valuable to refiners to drop values from solutions. But maybe in 10 pound quantities. You would need an atomizer which you can learn how to build on this forum and a screen to classify the particle size.
 
Or you can do like most of the folks are - buy half a ton from China and resell here for profit. Not the nice and honest approach, but it is seen rather often on sites like eBay.
Doing it yourself would be quite hard from start - managing the size of the particles, building setup for production of some usable quantity... Acquiring the copper...

However, no chemistry included, no waste produced. At least not very expensive in this aspect.

I am afraid that you will saturate the market here with some dozen of kilos, and then the orders dry out. But I can be wrong.
 
Or you can do like most of the folks are - buy half a ton from China and resell here for profit. Not the nice and honest approach, but it is seen rather often on sites like eBay.
Doing it yourself would be quite hard from start - managing the size of the particles, building setup for production of some usable quantity... Acquiring the copper...

However, no chemistry included, no waste produced. At least not very expensive in this aspect.

I am afraid that you will saturate the market here with some dozen of kilos, and then the orders dry out. But I can be wrong.
All very valid points. I had the same fear of over-saturation and being unable to break into market and compete with established sellers. As for doing it myself from the start, I live for that kind of challenge. I was thinking about looking into making some of the copper into filament for 3d printing as well. The import thing is a great idea that I've had many times I'm just scared to buy a ton of goods from china with no clear end consumer. I don't wanna buy 500kg of copper powder I can't sell anywhere but here.

@4metals: Nice info, I appreciate all your help.

I'm not looking to start a business doing this, I'm just looking for something to do on the side to offset my initial investment but I'm not opposed if the numbers look right.
 
All very valid points. I had the same fear of over-saturation and being unable to break into market and compete with established sellers. As for doing it myself from the start, I live for that kind of challenge. I was thinking about looking into making some of the copper into filament for 3d printing as well. The import thing is a great idea that I've had many times I'm just scared to buy a ton of goods from china with no clear end consumer. I don't wanna buy 500kg of copper powder I can't sell anywhere but here.

@4metals: Nice info, I appreciate all your help.

I'm not looking to start a business doing this, I'm just looking for something to do on the side to offset my initial investment but I'm not opposed if the numbers look right.
I am afraid that small scale copper business ain´t gonna cut the initial costs, if you factor in your actual time working on the setup and price of feed copper + some at least basic analysis to back your claimed purity. That is why we actually refine precious metals, not zinc or copper.

But having working atomizer, you can make various atomized powders of metals or even alloys. That may be better approach. But I would start it just as hobby with no bigger expectations. Small scale business in your past time, selling cheap stuff is not the profitable area today. Maybe silver alloys would make some sense, some solder alloys powders could potentially have some uses...

To be honest, even I won´t be much interested into it (copper), despite the fact that my 13k yearly salary would be considered a joke in the US :) And making some money with side hustle would make much more sense here, where costs are lower and relative cost of work too.

I tried many things. One of them was that I once considered selling powdered tin here (I had few kilos, then I "accidentally" acquired even more). But there was no way of making it viable without huge investment of my time into the thing. Could be done, of course, and I am pretty confident that I will be capable of doing this. But for few hundreds ? Not worth my time. I sold the tin directly as it was, made some OK profit, and moved on.
 
I am afraid that small scale copper business ain´t gonna cut the initial costs, if you factor in your actual time working on the setup and price of feed copper + some at least basic analysis to back your claimed purity. That is why we actually refine precious metals, not zinc or copper.

But having working atomizer, you can make various atomized powders of metals or even alloys. That may be better approach. But I would start it just as hobby with no bigger expectations. Small scale business in your past time, selling cheap stuff is not the profitable area today. Maybe silver alloys would make some sense, some solder alloys powders could potentially have some uses...

To be honest, even I won´t be much interested into it (copper), despite the fact that my 13k yearly salary would be considered a joke in the US :) And making some money with side hustle would make much more sense here, where costs are lower and relative cost of work too.

I tried many things. One of them was that I once considered selling powdered tin here (I had few kilos, then I "accidentally" acquired even more). But there was no way of making it viable without huge investment of my time into the thing. Could be done, of course, and I am pretty confident that I will be capable of doing this. But for few hundreds ? Not worth my time. I sold the tin directly as it was, made some OK profit, and moved on.

I've been struggling to find feedstock as local e-waste recyclers won't sell to the public so I was thinking of different routes. Should I contact a local telecom company like Sturgis or Johnson Controls to ask to buy their scrap? I feel the copper powder is probably not worth pursuing now that I've picked a brain or two. I'd graciously welcome advice on finding feedstock.
 
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