30 inch flange wooden reels

One size everybody prints: 30x18x12

If you lined up the published size tables and asked which reel they share, the answer would be the 30x18x12. Okonite's 2016 bulletin lists one at 39 lb, out-to-out 22 inches, rated for about 950 lb of cable, and its 2002 bulletin names it among the reusable reels it bought most often, as a Class 2 reel with a 3 inch arbor hole. Superior Essex uses it as the smallest reel in both its outside-plant fiber and copper guides. Anixter's NEMA table uses it. Superior Essex's premises fiber guide lists a plywood version at 28 lb.

Southwire builds its 30s differently. Its A-10 is a 30x22x16 nailed reel for bare aluminum and ACSR, coded NR 30.22 under the Aluminum Association's non-returnable designation. The A-11 is a 30x23x17. The N-7 is a lighter 30x17x17 nailed reel. All three have a 3.125 inch arbor hole.

The clearance step that makes a 30 hold what a 28 holds

Anixter's NEMA WC 26 table changes its clearance at 30 inches. Reels from 16 to 28 inch flanges are figured with 1 inch left below the rim; reels from 30 to 48 inches get 2 inches. The result is a quirk in the table: a 28x18x12 at 1 inch clearance and a 30x18x12 at 2 inches both come out at 2,509 ft of 0.5 inch cable. The extra 2 inches of flange are spent on the larger safety margin.

The formula is Footage = 0.262 x T x (H - C) x (D + H - C) / d squared. On a 30x18x12, H is 9, H - C is 7 and D + H - C is 19; 0.262 x 18 x 7 x 19 is about 627, and that is the footage of 1 inch cable. Divide by the square of any other diameter. These figures are approximate, and Superior Essex's own charts, also figured at 2 inches of clearance, land close: 603 ft of 1 inch fiber cable and 609 ft of 1 inch copper cable on its 30s.

Bend radius on a 12 inch drum

Superior Essex flags its 30 inch fiber reel with a double asterisk at 1 inch cable, meaning the drum is less than 20 times the cable diameter, its recommended bend radius. The same mark appears on its 30 inch copper reel at 1 inch, where the threshold is 15 times. A 12 inch drum is fine for building wire and small fiber but tight for anything thick. Its fiber chart gives 1,564 ft of 0.60 inch cable on a 30, which is a more comfortable fit.

Southwire's 16 and 17 inch drum versions trade a little footage for a gentler bend, which is why its aluminum and ACSR reels at this flange use them.

The smallest reel a take-back program will look at

Sonoco's EcoReel packing guide draws its accepted reel with a 30 inch minimum flange and a 1.5 inch minimum flange thickness. Service Wire's free reel return covers only its own labelled nailed wood reels, from 30 to 72 inch flanges, in full truckloads, with an undamaged arbor hole and at least 75% of the staves intact. So a 30 sits right on the line: the top of the reels that nobody collects and the bottom of the ones somebody might.

In practice the line leaves a lot behind. A 30 from another maker does not qualify for Service Wire's program. A plywood 30 is not the nailed wood or polyfiber reel Sonoco asks for. A yard with forty mixed 30s and nothing else has no truckload to offer. Those are the reels that end up on our lots.

Who runs 30s

This is a reel for feeders, branch circuits and service cable in the smaller sizes, aluminum service drop, telephone and fiber drops, and control cable for plants and pump stations. It is also the cut reel distributors use when a contractor needs more than a 24 holds. Linemen see the Southwire A-10 and A-11 on bare conductor. Fiber crews see the 30x18x12 as the smallest outside-plant reel.

Sonoco's van-count table starts at 36 inches, so there is no published figure for how many 30s fill a 53 ft van. They load like the 36s, stood on their flanges in rows with the flanges overlapping, but with lighter reels and a thinner flange the count per trailer runs higher. We work it out from the measured out-to-out width and the number of rows, not from a rule of thumb, and quote the lot by the trailer once we know it.

Most of our 30s ride as part of a mixed trailer anyway. A seller clearing a warehouse usually has a dozen sizes, and the 30s slot between the 42s and 48s on the floor or go up top where the trailer's height allows a second tier.

Moving and checking a used 30

A 30 weighs 21 to 66 lb empty: one person can roll it, two can lift it onto a tailgate. Full, use a reel jack or a forklift with a shaft through the arbor hole, and never lift by the top flange. Stand them on both flanges for storage and on the trailer.

When you write one up, check the things a buyer will check first.

• Staves: count the missing or cracked ones; Service Wire's 75% rule is a useful yardstick for anyone
• Arbor hole: round and unsplit, and note whether it is 2, 3 or 3.125 inches
• Flange plies: nailed two-ply flanges should be tight; plywood should not be separating
• Stencil: on reels under 40 inches, Okonite notes that usually only the size, reel maker and assembly date are marked
• Drive and tie-off holes: torn ones lower the price but rarely end the reel's life