Which parts of a consumer unit are copper?

[HappyHippyDad]

I am getting into the habit of stripping fuse boxes and consumer units when I replace them. However I was wondering which parts of the CU are copper.

Neutral and earth bars?
The screws in the neutral and earth bars?
The bit that the old BS3036 fuses push into?

I enjoy pottering for a few hours taking them apart. I don't like the thought of them going to landfill which I expect some do even when taken to the recycle centre. But I would like to make sure I'm not mixing metals when I eventually (in many years) weigh them in for scrap.

So apart from the question above regarding which parts are copper It would be good to know what you think a scrap yard would do if I had inadvertently mixed brass with copper? How would they actually know if it's all mixed in together and mainly copper? I'd rather avoid this though and just have copper.

Here is a picture of a few of the bits in my bucket so far..

I'll be taking out the brass banjo!

 

[ChrisElectrical88]

SWA Gland Is brass
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Assuming you have a full gland and not just the banjo.

 

[Baddegg]

I do the exact same thing @happyhippydad again purely from an environmental point of view, sometimes you just have to have mixed metals....

 

[Lucien Nunes]

Hockey stick link and flat busbar are copper. Fuse contact blocks, neutral bar, earth rod clamp are brass. Fuse contact springs may be phosphor bronze. Neutral bar screws are BZP steel, screws in back of fuse busbar might be brass.

All of the above components except the BZP screws are self-colour, i.e. the bits that look like copper and brass are indeed copper and brass. Nickel-plated brass used to be common in switchgear but less so now. That can be mistaken for steel so test with magnet.

 

[davesparks]

In modern CU's the earyth and neutral bars are brass with steel screws.
In the old Wylex CU's the earth and neutral bars are brass with brass screws.
The busbar is copper, the solid blocks attached to it are brass and I think the sprung contact may be brass too.
The terminal blocks for outgoing lives are brass.

You should be able to tell by the colour of the bare metal, just give it a quick clean.

If you mix brass in with copper the scrap dealer might only pay the price of brass, which is less than for copper, for the whole lot, or may class it as mixed metals and pay you pennies.

 

[radiohead]

I'm not entirely sure the banjo's today are brass, cheap substitute maybe?

 

[Zerax]

I'm not entirely sure the banjo's today are brass, cheap substitute maybe?

Probably "brassed"... that new wonder material that fools the general public.

 

[telectrix]

most banjos are brass. rub a file on it to be sure. brass is an alloy of copper and zinc. that's why it' fetches less.
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Probably "brassed"... that new wonder material that fools the general public.

you mean like CCA and CCS cat5 and phone cables?

 

[richy3333]

I just hung it all in to the scrappy and let them sort through it. Mine often gets flustered with big deliveries and things get overlooked in my favour ? particularly if you make an ‘effort’ to give them a bag/box of non copper (eyes stage right!).

 

[static zap]

A Magnet would be my first port of call.

That can be mistaken for steel so test with magnet.

 

[telectrix]

A Magnet would be my first port of call.

or a Pikey or a Scouser. we can spot copper a mile off.

 

[telectrix]

and that means copper as in the metal and copper as in the Scuffers (Fuzz).

 

[ipf]

and that means copper as in the metal and copper as in the Scuffers (Fuzz).

Oh, thought you meant 1 and 2p coins!
......that's all you get from stripping and weighing old CU's