Reels for electrical wire
Electrical wire such as THHN, XHHW, service entrance cable and MC cable is usually wound on wooden reels with 18 to 36 inch flanges, small enough to ride a wire cart or reel stand on a jobsite. We buy and sell those empty reels by the size, the count and the condition, for distributors, contractors and anyone who winds building wire onto a reel of their own.
Which reels building wire goes on
Building wire is light per foot compared with power cable, so the reels are smaller and lighter too. Small gauge single conductors often ship on 18 to 24 inch reels. Larger feeder sizes, multi-conductor cable and long cuts move up to 30 and 36 inch flanges. Above that, a reel stops fitting most wire carts and starts needing a forklift, which defeats the point on a job where an electrician moves it by hand.
The size is written flange x traverse x drum, in inches. A 24x12x10 and a 30x18x12 are two common shapes for this trade: a narrow traverse so the reel sits in a stand without much side play, and a drum big enough that heavier conductors don't take a set. The actual drum a maker picks depends on the wire, so read the stencil rather than assume.
| Flange | Typical handling | Common wire on it | Notes for a used reel |
|---|---|---|---|
| 18 inch | Carried by hand, hung on a pipe or a wire tree | Small gauge single conductors | Check that the arbor hole is round; small reels split easily if dropped |
| 24 inch | Wire cart, multi-reel caddy, stand | Branch circuit and small feeder conductors | Flanges should be flat so the reel spins true |
| 30 inch | Reel stand, cart with a jack, pallet jack | Feeders, service entrance and MC cable | Look for torn tie-off holes and lifted staves |
| 36 inch | Stand with a bar through the arbor, forklift | Long feeder runs, larger multi-conductor cable | Weigh the full load against your stand's rating |
Who needs empty wire reels
Electrical distributors are the biggest buyers. They take a master reel from the plant and cut it into the lengths their customers order. Every cut needs somewhere to go, and a clean, sound wooden reel is the cheapest way to send 500 or 2,500 feet of conductor out of the door neatly. Distributors that run a cutting line go through reels steadily, in a handful of sizes, which makes them ideal trailer buyers.
Contractors buy reels for a different reason. On a large job, conductors pulled long, or pulled out of a change order, need re-winding so they can be stored and used elsewhere. A few spare 30-inch reels in the shop save buying a new reel for each leftover. Panel shops, solar installers running homeruns and maintenance departments at plants and campuses buy in the same way: small numbers, a couple of sizes, as needed.
What a building-wire buyer should check
Small reels look fine from a distance and fail in ways that matter only when a puller is drawing on them. Before you take a lot, or when we grade one for you, these are the points that decide whether a reel is any good for wire.
- Arbor hole: round, not split and not worn oval. A wire cart's spindle or a stand's bar must pass through cleanly so the reel turns without wobble.
- Flanges flat and whole: a warped flange rubs the stand and drags the pull. Cracks that run from the rim toward the arbor are a reject.
- Staves in place: a missing stave leaves a gap that bites the first wraps of insulation. On a small drum one gap is enough to matter.
- No proud nails or staples on the inner flange faces: insulation scraped on a nail head is a damaged conductor.
- Tie-off and start holes usable: the inside end of the wire has to be tied off somewhere. A torn hole is easy to repair, but count the repairs before you price the lot.
- Dry wood: reels stored outside on wet ground go soft on the bottom edge first. Press the lowest point of the flange with a thumb.
Working out the footage for a cut
A distributor wants a reel that holds the cut with room to spare, but not so much reel that freight and storage are wasted. The standard method is the reel capacity formula, footage ≈ (H + D) × H × T × 0.2618 / d², where H is the usable winding depth below the flange rim, D the drum, T the traverse and d the outside diameter of the wire or cable, all in inches.
As an example, a 30x18x12 reel with 2 inches of clearance below the rim has a usable depth of 7 inches. For a cable with a 0.5 inch outside diameter, that works out at about 2,507 feet. The same reel holds far less of a thicker cable, because capacity falls with the square of the diameter. The formula assumes round cable laid evenly, so treat its answer as a planning figure and leave margin. Our capacity guide has the full working and more examples.
Selling a stack of wire reels
Empty building-wire reels collect behind the warehouse of almost every distributor and in the corner of most contractors' yards. Many are non-returnable, which means they belong to whoever bought the wire and are theirs to sell. A few maker programs take back their own reels, but usually only in full truckloads of their own labeled reels, so a mixed pile of 24 and 30 inch empties from several makers rarely qualifies.
We buy those piles as a reel lot. Count them by size, stand them on their flanges or stack them flat in rows, and send a photo of the reel stencils and one of the roughest reel. Small reels are light and many fit on a trailer, so a yard with a few hundred of them can make a full load on its own. A smaller pile can sometimes ride on a trailer that is already collecting elsewhere.
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Count by size
Group the reels by flange, traverse and drum, and count each group.
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Photograph
One photo of a stencil, one of the stack, one of the worst reel.
- 03
Send it in
Email info@cablereelsforsale.com or use the form with your counts and where the reels are.
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Agree a price and a pickup
We quote the lot, then arrange a truck that suits the count and your loading dock or forklift.
Small reels and freight
Freight is the hidden cost on small reels. A single 24-inch reel is cheap to make and cheap to buy, so shipping one across the country by parcel or less-than-truckload can cost more than the reel. That is why we push buyers of building-wire reels toward lots, and sellers toward letting their small reels fill out a trailer. On a full load the freight per reel drops to a figure that makes sense.
If you only need two or three reels for a shop, ask anyway. Sometimes a trailer is passing near you with spare deck space, and sometimes the honest answer is that a local source will be cheaper. We will tell you which.
Questions people ask
What size reel does THHN wire come on?
It depends on gauge and length, but most THHN and similar building wire ships on reels with 18 to 36 inch flanges. Read the reel stencil for the exact flange, traverse and drum.
Will a used reel fit my wire cart?
Measure the cart's spindle diameter and the space between its uprights. The reel's arbor hole must be larger than the spindle and its out-to-out width smaller than the gap.
Can I re-wind building wire onto any empty reel?
Only if the drum is large enough for the conductor's bend limit and the reel holds the length with clearance below the rim. Small conductors are forgiving; large feeders less so.
Do you buy small 18 and 24 inch reels?
Yes, by the lot. Small reels are worth more in numbers because many fit on one trailer, so a count of the reels by size is the first thing we need.
Do you sell the wire too?
No. We trade empty wooden reels only and do not supply wire or cable.