Used cable reels for sale

Used or new: which one fits your job

A used reel is a reel that has already carried cable once or more and still has trips left in it. Sonoco, which takes back and refurbishes reels for manufacturers, says most reels can be recycled three or more times. So a used reel is not a lesser product by default. It is a reel partway through a normal working life.

New is still the right call in some cases, and we would rather tell you than sell you the wrong thing. If you are a cable plant producing to a customer spec, you may need identical reels from one maker, with a known build and a certificate trail. If you need hundreds of one exact size on a schedule, a maker such as Ely Reel or Sonoco can build to order. Used reels win when you need reels soon, in sizes the market already holds, and the work is taking up, storing or moving cable rather than shipping new product to a specifying customer.

Inspecting a used reel, part by part

Five parts decide whether a used reel carries cable again. Start with the arbor and the staves; if either fails, the rest doesn't matter.

How the trade's own rules set the bar

Reel return programs publish what they will accept, and those rules are a useful yardstick for a buyer. Service Wire takes back only its own labelled nailed wood reels with 30 to 72 inch flanges, in full truckloads, and only if the arbor hole is undamaged and at least 75% of the stave boards are intact. Dura-Line's reel credit covers only its own steel reels and inspects every returned reel on receipt.

Those rules exist because the arbor and the staves are where reels fail in use. We write up each used reel against the same points. You get the stave count and the arbor condition on the note, not a vague word like good.

Where a reel has been tells you a lot

A used reel's past shows in its wood. Before you look at a single stave, it helps to know what kind of place the lot is coming out of, because each source wears reels in its own way.

• Wire plant or distributor warehouse: often stored under a roof and moved by forklift on smooth floors; faces clean, arbors lightly used.
• Utility storage yard: outdoors for months, lifted by crane or boom truck; check bottom flange edges for rot and arbors for shaft wear.
• Fiber build staging yard: lighter cable, so drums and staves usually hold up; reels may be stacked tightly and scuffed at the rim.
• Contractor laydown area: mixed makers, mixed sizes, sometimes left with tails; expect more sorting and more condition notes.
• Coastal, marine or oilfield site: heavy cable and wet, salty air; check fasteners for corrosion and plies for softness.

Questions to ask any seller of used reels

• What size is each reel, measured, not just read from the stencil?
• How many of each size, and how many of those have every stave in place?
• Are any arbor holes split, oval or missing their plates?
• Have the reels been stored standing on a flange, or lying in the dirt?
• Is there cable, lagging or hardware still on any of them?
• Who made them, and do the arbor holes match across the lot?
• Can you send photos of the pile and of one reel stencil per size?
• Who loads the trailer, and with what equipment?

Small repairs you can do yourself

Many used reels that fail a strict check fail it on something a crew can fix in minutes. A loose stave takes a few ring-shank nails. A lifted flange board gets renailed from the face. A torn tie-off hole can be redrilled a little further round the flange. Those reels are often written up as minor repair and are worth buying if your people have a hammer and a box of nails.

What you can't fix cheaply is structure. A cracked flange ply under a heavy cable can let go. A split arbor can fail on a shaft while the reel is turning. Those are the defects we keep out of lots sold for cable.

Storing used reels so they stay usable

Wood reels last longest kept off wet ground and out of standing water. Stand them on a flange on gravel, concrete or timbers, or rack small ones indoors. Reels left on their rims in mud rot from the bottom edge of the flange up, and a reel that has sat that way for long is the one that fails inspection.

Keep sizes together and stencils facing out. When it is time to load, a tidy group can be counted and checked in minutes, which matters whether you are using the reels or selling them on later.