Originally posted by Steve VW:
That is a blast from the past. My grandpa was an electrician.
He spent most of WWII rebuilding/rewinding commercial electric motors, since no new ones were available except for defense contracts. Tricky business since they have overlapping windings and you did it by hand, counting the number of windings to keep it balanced. When the motor needed bearings he would smooth the shaft and cast a babbitt bearing right in place.
The only way he could get wire was to trade in scrap copper. He had to burn off the insulation and turn in the mostly pure copper. It would be weighed and he could get same weight of new wire. (Not as much copper due to weight of the insulation.)
Those were the days.
Makes me think of old pinball machines.