60 inch wooden reels, five feet across

Published 60s, and the 58s and 62s beside them

Three sources print a true 60 inch flange. Southwire's A-62 is a 60x28x28 nailed wood reel for bare aluminum and ACSR, 34 inches out-to-out, about 397 lb, with a 3.125 inch arbor hole and the Aluminum Association code NR 60.28. Superior Essex's outside-plant fiber guide lists a 60x36x29.5 at about 416 lb and 39 inches out-to-out. Anixter's NEMA capacity table uses a 60x28x28, the same size as the A-62.

Okonite's table has no 60 and lists a 58 and a 62 instead, each in two builds. Southwire has an N-62, a 58x30x27, and Superior Essex's copper guide has a 58x25x20 and a 62x30x24. In a yard all of these get called 60s, and they do not stack together, so we write each one up as its own line.

The same 60x28x28 in steel

Southwire's packaging sheet lists a second 60x28x28: the S-62, a steel reel, 34.5 inches out-to-out, about 340 lb, with a 3 inch arbor hole. Its steel reels are returnable and carry a charge, while its wooden reels are non-returnable with no deposit. So two reels with the same stencil size can have opposite rules: the steel one goes back to the maker for credit, and the wooden one belongs to whoever received the cable.

We trade wooden reels only. If a lot of 60s has steel reels mixed in, set them aside and send them back through the maker's own return; they are not ours to buy and not yours to sell as empties.

Why the van count drops to 39

Sonoco's van counts fall fast as flanges grow: 60 reels at 54 inches, 56 at 58 inches, then 39 at 60 inches. A five foot reel standing on its flanges leaves no room for a second tier in a dry van, and its width eats floor space in each row. At Southwire's 397 lb, 39 empty A-62s weigh about 15,500 lb.

With fewer reels to spread the freight across, each 60 carries more of the trailer's cost than a 48 or a 36 does. That is the single biggest reason a lot of 60s is quoted differently from a lot of smaller reels: by Sonoco's counts a full van carries 100 reels at 48 inches and 39 at 60, so the freight per reel is about two and a half times higher. A seller near the buyer, or a load that tops off a trailer already headed that way, makes a 60 lot work.

Open-deck trailers are common for 60s. A flatbed or step deck can be loaded and unloaded from the side by a forklift working on gravel, which suits a substation laydown yard, a pole yard or a solar or wind site with no dock. The reels ride standing in a single row along each side or down the center, chocked and chained or strapped through the arbor holes, and the driver checks the straps after the first miles because empty wooden flanges settle. A van suits reels going dock to dock between warehouses.

How much cable goes on a 60

The NEMA WC 26 formula in Anixter's handbook is Footage = 0.262 x T x (H - C) x (D + H - C) / d squared, with H as half of flange minus drum and 3 inches of clearance for 54 to 96 inch flanges. On a 60x28x28, H is 16, H - C is 13 and D + H - C is 41, so 0.262 x 28 x 13 x 41 is about 3,910, the footage of 1 inch cable and the table's own figure.

Superior Essex's fiber chart puts 14,487 ft of 0.60 inch cable and 5,083 ft of 1 inch cable on its 60x36x29.5, a little above what the NEMA formula gives because its charts assume 2 inches of clearance. Use these as approximate guides.

Cable and crews that use 60s

A 28 to 29.5 inch drum takes tape shielded cable of roughly 1.4 to 2.1 inches under NEMA's 14 to 20 times rule and fiber up to about 1.4 inches at 20 times. Aluminum sheathed cable up to 1.75 inches needs 25 times, so a 28 inch drum stops near 1.1 inches for it. Utilities and line contractors handle the A-62 on bare aluminum and ACSR transmission and distribution conductor. Fiber builders handle the 60x36x29.5 on long trunk and feeder runs, where fewer splices are worth a bigger reel. Industrial and data center electricians see 60s on large copper feeders and medium-voltage cable.

Moving a 60 safely

Nobody should roll a 60 by hand on anything but flat, firm ground, and even then two people at least. At about 400 lb empty and five feet tall, a 60 that starts to tip cannot be stopped. Lift it with a forklift and a shaft through the arbor hole or forks under both flanges from the drum side, never from the tail-flange side and never by the top flange. Strap each row on the trailer.

Full, a 60 with heavy cable can exceed the 2,500 lb gross weight at which MIL-DTL-12000 asks for a metal bushing or plate in the arbor hole of a wood non-returnable reel. A missing bushing on a reel built with one is a grading note.

What to check on a used 60

• Material: wood or steel; a steel 60x28x28 is a returnable Southwire S-62, not a wooden empty
• Arbor hole and bushing: round, unsplit, plate or bushing intact
• Flanges: the outer ply on a 60 takes the blows when a full reel is rolled; look for splits from rim to arbor
• Staves: count the missing and broken; a 60 missing a quarter of its staves is a repair job
• Lagging nails left in the flange rim
• Stencil: class, size, maker, date and rolling arrow, all normally present on reels this size