Heavy Flexible Cable: Welding, Battery & DLO

Welding cable, battery cable, and DLO (diesel locomotive) cable share one construction: hundreds of fine copper strands for flexibility, wrapped in a tough rubber or EPDM jacket. That construction is why buyers like them — the copper-to-jacket ratio is high, the copper is clean, and the gauges run heavy. If a cable drapes and coils instead of holding a bend, you are probably holding one of these three.

• Welding cable — commonly 6 AWG through 4/0, sometimes larger. Fab shops, welders, and maintenance departments; also reused as jumper and battery cable.
• Battery cable — commonly 8 AWG through 4/0. Automotive, marine, inverters, solar battery banks.
• DLO cable — diesel locomotive cable, commonly 2 AWG through 777 kcmil (and made from 8 AWG to 1000 kcmil). Locomotives, mining, oil and gas, drilling rigs, heavy mobile equipment. Fine-stranded like welding cable, rated harder.

Ranges are typical — manufacturers and applications vary.

Recovery is the whole story: thick copper bundles under a single jacket grade high as insulated wire, and the copper strips cleanly for sellers who process it themselves. DLO and large welding cable are among the best-recovery flexible cables in the scrap stream. Keep them dry, keep them off the ground, and keep different types separated — mixed piles get graded at the lowest component.

Fab and weld shops (leads and whips), fleet and equipment yards (battery cable), mines and drill sites (DLO), marine and solar installers, and plant closures where mobile equipment gets parted out. Contractors and industrial sellers: one equipment auction or shop cleanout can produce hundreds of pounds of it. We buy heavy cable in every quantity — photographed, coiled, or still on the machine.

Photograph what you have — the wire, any jacket markings, and the overall quantity — and send it to Ironcrest for today’s offer. We buy nationally and coordinate pickup from your site.

Sell your copper to Ironcrest →  |  Call or text 312-880-8174  |  Send photos →

See also: Should I strip this wire?  |  What type of copper wire do I have?  |  Copper wire grades guide (canonical)

What is DLO cable?

DLO stands for diesel locomotive cable — a fine-stranded, heavy rubber-jacketed copper cable built for locomotives, mining, oil and gas, and drilling equipment. It is prized as scrap for the same reason industry prizes it: a lot of clean copper in a flexible package.

Is welding cable worth stripping?

It is one of the better candidates — heavy copper, single jacket, strips cleanly. Whether the labor pays depends on your quantity and setup; many sellers do well selling it insulated too. Our strip-or-sell guide walks through the decision.

What is the difference between welding cable and battery cable?

Mostly rating and application. Both are fine-stranded flexible copper; welding cable is built for welder leads, battery cable for automotive, marine, and inverter connections. As scrap they are close cousins — heavy, flexible, high-recovery.

Is DLO cable valuable as scrap?

Yes — DLO is among the highest-recovery flexible cables, with heavy gauges common. Mining, drilling, and locomotive sources produce it in serious quantities, which is exactly the kind of lot buyers compete for.

What gauge is welding cable usually?

Commonly 6 AWG through 4/0, with larger sizes in industrial service. The jacket print gives the exact gauge — and heavier gauges carry more copper per foot.