City · Herkimer County
Wire and cable buyers in Herkimer
A village economy of machine shops and specialty manufacturers, strung along the West Canada Creek and the Mohawk, where a cable lot is measured in reels rather than in truckloads.
Sell wire in Herkimer
Tell us what is stored in Herkimer, how it is stored and what can reach it.
Prefer to talk? 614-715-3047 · saleselectricalbuyers@gmail.com
Herkimer lots are small. A shop closing, a machine sale or a stores cleanout produces one or two reels, a part pallet of cut-offs and a box of fittings. Welding cable, machine feeder, tray and control dominate, with occasional small medium voltage from a pump or compressor house. The Thruway exit is close, which is the only reason these lots travel at all: freight, not value, decides whether a collection happens.
Small shops, deep skills
Herkimer County's manufacturing is not built on a handful of large plants. It is built on small firms: screw machine shops, tool and die work, specialty products, metal finishing and assembly, many of them family operations that have occupied the same mill floor for decades. The county also carries a long metalworking and firearms heritage in its villages, which left behind a machining culture that outlasted the companies that created it.
For cable, this means each shop has one service, a few machines and a small stores crib. The cable that matters is machine feeder and disconnect cable, motor leads, welding cable, tray and control for a small process line, and the small medium voltage cable that feeds a pump house or a compressor. A shop like this buys ten feet at a time and keeps the leftovers.
The result is a lot profile that looks unimpressive on a scale ticket and interesting on a reel tag: a 500-foot reel of 12 AWG control, half a reel of 2 AWG welding cable, a coil of 8 AWG feeder, a box of lugs. Value comes from copper content and from whether the reel is still identifiable, not from tonnage.
Where a village lot comes from
The most common source is a shop that is closing, selling or moving a machine. When a lathe or a machining center goes out the door, the feeder and control cable that served it usually go with it, and the leftover reels in the crib follow a week later.
The second is a stores cleanout in a shop that stays open: a new owner, a new electrician, or a standardization on one wire type that makes twenty part-reels redundant. The third is contractor leftovers from school, municipal and commercial work in the villages, which is where most of the ordinary building wire in the county comes from. The fourth is farm and agricultural electrical work, which produces short lengths of heavy conductor and pump cable.
Removal is always the owner's job and the owner's responsibility. Cable is de-energized, proved dead, locked out and formally released by qualified personnel before it is coiled, and a shop that cannot confirm isolation should not be moving reels at all.
- Machine shops, tool rooms and specialty manufacturers in the villages
- Metal finishing, plating and assembly operations
- Stores cleanouts and owner changes at small plants
- School, municipal and commercial contractor leftovers
- Farm, dairy and pump house electrical work
Making a small lot travel
The arithmetic of a Herkimer lot is simple and unforgiving. A pallet of mixed cut-offs may be worth less than the cost of sending a truck from outside the county, so the lot has to be built up rather than picked up: several shops in the village combined, or Herkimer material added to a Utica or Amsterdam run.
That means the seller's most useful contribution is a clear inventory. Reel tags photographed, jacket print legible, weights estimated, and anything obviously damaged set aside. A pallet that is banded and labeled takes twenty minutes to load; a heap of loose coils on a dirt floor takes two hours and usually damages the cable.
Access is the other half. Village streets here have no loading zones, several mill buildings load through a door directly onto a sidewalk, and the creek-side grades are steep enough to matter when a reel is being rolled. The Thruway is close, which helps, but the last two hundred yards is where the day is lost.
Specification
What a buyer needs to know about this cable
Every row below changes what a lot is worth. If the reel tag is gone, the jacket print and a cut end usually answer most of it.
Missing detail is not a problem — say what is missing and the review works from photographs.
| County | Herkimer County, Mohawk Valley |
|---|---|
| Local economy | Machine shops, specialty manufacturing and metal finishing, with agriculture and tourism alongside |
| Cable families in local lots | 600 V building wire and machine feeder, tray and control, welding cable, small 5 kV pump and compressor cable |
| Typical lot sizes | One or two reels, part pallets and boxed cut-offs; a full truckload is unusual |
| Freight | I-90 Thruway exit at Herkimer, NY-5 and NY-28; NY-169 up the West Canada Creek; CSX along the Mohawk |
| Access notes | Village streets with no loading zones, alley doors, old mill freight doors and steep creek-side grades |
Constructions
Cable families a Herkimer lot usually contains
Small shops generate a narrow but consistent set of constructions.
Building wire and machine feeder
THHN and XHHW-2 in part reels, plus 8 to 2 AWG feeder to disconnects and panelboards. The most common item and the least valuable per pound.
Tray and control
Tray cable and multi-conductor control from small process lines, often 16 to 12 AWG, often in short remaining lengths on a tagged reel.
Welding cable
Heavy flexible welding cable from fabrication and repair bays. Jacket damage and field repairs decide whether it is reusable or recovery material.
Small medium voltage
5 kV and 8 kV cable from pump houses, compressors and small unit substations, usually short lengths left from a replacement.
Seller questions
Herkimer questions
Is a single reel worth collecting in Herkimer?
It can be, if the reel is identifiable and the trip can be combined with other material nearby. A tagged reel of control or feeder cable justifies a run on its own in some cases; a part reel of 12 AWG building wire usually needs company.
Can several small shops be collected on one trip?
Yes, and it is the usual arrangement in the villages. Give us each address, what is at each one and whether a forklift is available, and the route can be built so that the truck is full before it leaves the county.
Do you buy welding cable that has been used hard?
Yes, but it is judged on jacket condition and conductor integrity rather than on length. Cable with field splices, crushed jacket or exposed conductor is recovery material, and it is valued for copper content.
Do you cover Ilion, Mohawk, Frankfort and Little Falls?
Yes. Ilion, Mohawk, Frankfort, Little Falls and the rest of the county are within the normal run, as are the NY-5 and NY-28 corridors and the creek valley.
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Next step
Selling cable in Herkimer?
Local access notes are the difference between a smooth pickup and a wasted morning. Tell us the street, the dock and the gate.
Herkimer lot details
A buyer reviews it and replies with the questions that matter.
Prefer to talk? 614-715-3047 · saleselectricalbuyers@gmail.com