Wire Types ยท MC / MC-AP / HCF
We buy MC and MC-AP cable.
Metal-clad cable leaves a hospital or an office fit-out in bent coils and short ends, and the copper inside is still the best part of it. We buy MC by the coil and by the armful.
Call or text the buying desk954-740-1983
ArmourAluminum, interlocked
Sizes we see14/2 to 4/0 multiconductor
Common findOpened coils at closeout
Value driverConductors, not armour
Get a buy quote
Send the reel list. A buyer reads it.
Six details are enough to start. Tags and photos can follow by text or email once a buyer has looked at the basics.
- A buyer reviews the lot: construction, footage and condition, not only metal weight
- Copper and aluminium, 600 V building wire through 345 kV cable
- Full reels, partial reels, cut lengths, pallets and truckloads
- No fee, no obligation, and no automatic pickup
Reel list · MC Cable
Reviewed by a buyerTell us what you have and where it sits. Nothing is moved until written lot terms are agreed.
MC is what lets an electrician wire a corridor without cutting drywall twice. Interlocked aluminum armour over THHN or XHHW conductors, 600 V, from 14/2 branch assemblies up to large multi-conductor feeders. In the Medical Center it runs above corridor ceilings, in Stone Oak offices it drops into partition walls, and on base housing it appears wherever the walls are already closed.
The leftovers are awkward. Coils of 12/2 opened for one room, 10/3 that came back in the bed of a truck, and full reels bought for a floor that was re-scoped. None of it is glamorous, and all of it has copper inside that somebody will pull out of the armour one way or another.
01
Where metal-clad cable is used here
Anywhere a job needs a raceway and a ground path in one product, MC shows up. Healthcare work likes it because it can be fished above a ceiling without opening a corridor. Retail fit-outs like it because it is faster than conduit, and warehouses use it for lighting runs where the deck is crowded with other trades.
- Above-ceiling branch runs in clinic refits
- Partition drops in office tenant work
- Lighting whips and fixture runs in warehouses
- Equipment connections in labs and imaging rooms
- Housing rewires where walls stay closed
02
The armour is not the value
Aluminum interlock is light and worth very little on its own. What a buyer prices is the copper inside: conductor count, gauge and length of the piece. That is why an MC lot has to be described by conductor size and footage rather than by the weight of the coil, which mostly tells you how much armour is wrapped around the answer.
Copper MC reads far better than MC-AP, which uses aluminum conductors under the same armour. They look alike on a shelf, so check the print or the exposed end.
03
MC, MC-AP and HCF are three lots
Standard MC with copper conductors is the straightforward case. MC-AP is aluminum conductor, common in larger feeder sizes and worth distinctly less. HCF, the healthcare grade, carries a redundant ground path and an isolated ground conductor, which makes it a more particular product and a more particular buy.
Mixing all three on one pallet is the usual mistake. A pile of three families is priced as the weakest until somebody separates it, and separating takes an hour nobody planned for.
04
Bent coils and short ends
Armour crushes. A coil that was stepped on, run over by a cart or folded into a dumpster has deformed interlock, and deformed interlock will not feed through a connector. The conductors inside are usually fine, so a crushed coil is still a copper lot, just not a cable lot.
Length is the other half. Fifty feet of 12/2 is useful; eight feet is a scrap piece. Put the stubs in their own box, because a mixed box of short pieces is valued by weight and not by the print.
- Interlock crushed at a fold or a door strike
- Armour slit or unwound at the cut end
- Connectors left on and rusted through
| Assembly | Typical sizes | Condition we take |
|---|---|---|
| MC, copper conductors | 14/2 to 10/4 | Coil, part reel, cut length |
| MC feeder, copper | 6/3 to 4/0 | Full reel, long cut |
| MC-AP, aluminum | 8/3 to 500 kcmil | Reel, tagged lengths |
| HCF healthcare grade | 12/2 to 10/4 | Opened coil, part reel |
| Crushed armour | Any | Sorted copper recovery |
Questions
Answers before you send anything.
If your question is not here, call the desk. A buyer answers, not a call centre.
Do you buy opened coils of MC?
Regularly. Most MC that leaves a job is an opened coil with a few dozen feet gone. Tell us the conductor size, the remaining length and whether the armour is straight, and the coil can be valued without being unwound.
How do I know if my MC has aluminum conductors?
Look at the cut end. Copper is unmistakable; aluminum is silver and lighter in the hand. The armour print often says MC-AP where aluminum conductor is used. If you are unsure, send a close photograph of the exposed conductor.
Is crushed armour a problem?
It changes the lot rather than killing it. Deformed interlock will not pull through a connector, so the cable stops being installable, but the conductors are still copper of a known size. We buy crushed MC on content and footage.
Can MC go in the same pile as BX and AC?
Better not. They are different products with different armour and different conductors, and a mixed pile gets valued as the least valuable of the three. Two pallets, one for MC and one for older armoured cable, is worth ten minutes.
Keep reading
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No fee · no obligation
You have the cable. We have a scale and a check.
Send the reel list, the tags or a photograph of the pallet. A buyer comes back with what the lot is worth and how pickup would work, before anything is moved.
954-740-1983 Call or text
- Reel tags, or the print on the jacket
- Reel count and footage, even roughly
- Where it sits and what can reach it
- Whether the cable is still energised