Coils of wire

Lincoln Electric - 60# coils - 5/32" L-S3, Stock #ED028248 and another number, ES-AVGJ.

Tried to find under Lincoln Electric search - no luck. Thanks for any help. Bob F.

Link: L-S3

The description is correct (60# coil) the product code is partially correct.

All the best, Stan

A friend used to sell to some dealers like that, never at a huge price, but a whole lot more than scrap price..

The Lincoln product catalogs I have for wire electrodes don't show any match for those numbers. I find matches beginning with ED028xxx for all three classes of products: Solid wire (gas shielded); flux cored wire; and dual shield which is flux cored or composite metal wire which requires shielding gas. Not very helpful.

The diameter of the wire you have suggests that it is meant for a fully automated or semi-automated process, i.e. robotic welding, or submerged arc welding. That's huge wire.

Lincoln Electric is very helpful about answering questions. I've only contacted them via e-mail but I've heard that they will answer questions over the phone as well.

It's impossible to say what your wire is worth until you find out exactly what it is, of course, but you might get a rough estimate by checking the prices of each class of wire through an online retailer. In general, the price per pound goes down as the size of the roll gets larger and as the diameter of the wire gets larger. 60# rolls seem somewhat small for wire that large. Lincoln sells 500# drums and 600# reels of wire.

I'd be interested in what you find out.

All the best, Stan

I'll keep looking - if I find something - I'll post back. Thanks again bob f.

Most stainless is non-magnetic so putting a magnet against it may settle that issue. It can still be stainless if it's magnetic but the odds are against it. If it's non-magnetic, though, it's almost certainly stainless, and it's worth a lot of money.

Good luck, Stan

If you haven't contacted Lincoln Electric yet, that's your best shot. Their General Questions number is 216-481-8100. If you click on Contact Us from their home page, and then click on General Questions for more options, you can get to an e-mail page with a drop-down menu that lets you get pretty specific about the kind of question you want to ask.

How did you come into possession of this large amount of exotic material? The retail value of what you've got would be in the $6,000 to $10,000 range if sold by the individual roll, assuming it's solid mild steel wire. It could be worth quite a bit more if it's flux cored or composite metal (dual shield) wire, and even more if it were some grade of stainless that was magnetic. Each degree more exotic narrows the potential market, though.

If you run into a dead end about finding a market for it and have no option but to sell it for scrap, then it would be better if it were not flux cored. Scrap dealers rejected tons of stick electrodes from the local community college several years ago because of the flux coating. We toss damaged rolls of flux core wire in the scrap bin but there's obviously a difference between a roll or two in a truckload of scrap and a whole truckload of it.

All the best, Stan