Areas · Prince George's County
Reels and spools in Lanham: a distributor town at US-50 and the Beltway
LANHAM, Md. — Lanham, in ZIP 20706 where US-50 meets the Beltway, is home to Graybar's branch for the eastern side of the region and many contractor yards, so it sees a steady flow of reels coming back from jobs. The desk handles those returns and clears yards on a schedule.
From the reel desk · Checked 9 November 2026
Schematic line map, not to survey: Lanham marked, with US-50, I-95 drawn heavier. The Potomac, the Anacostia, the District line and the Beltway are drawn for bearings.
Fact box: Lanham
- ZIP
- 20706
- Distributor
- Graybar branch
- Main roads
- US-50, Capital Beltway, MD-450 (Annapolis Road), MD-564
- Neighbours
- Greenbelt, Seabrook, New Carrollton
Supply house country
Graybar’s Lanham branch is one of its locations serving the Baltimore–Washington area, alongside Baltimore and Sterling, and its purchase of Shepherd Electric added more. A wire and cable distributor’s branch is a place where reels come and go: full reels out to contractors, and part-full and empty reels back. Lanham’s position at the US-50 and Beltway interchange puts it within a short drive of jobs in the District, Prince George’s and Anne Arundel.
Returned and stripped reels
Branches end up with two kinds of empty reel. Some come back from customers after a job. Others are emptied on site when the branch cuts cable to length for a customer and the last of a reel goes out. Either way the branch has a growing stack, often of several brands and every size.
A branch rarely builds a full truckload of one maker’s reels, and most programs are full-truckload only. So the right answer is a regular pickup:
- Weekly or monthly, depending on how fast reels pile up.
- Mixed loads accepted: nailed wood, plywood and plastic together.
- Steel reels set aside for return to the maker under its policy.
Contractor yards
Lanham and neighbouring Glenarden, Seabrook and New Carrollton have contractor yards and flex buildings along MD-450 and MD-564. Those yards fill with reels between jobs, and they usually have room to sort them.
Federal work nearby
NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center is in neighbouring Greenbelt, and federal facilities across Prince George’s are renovated and extended on long cycles. The Comptroller of Maryland counts about 54,000 Prince George’s residents working for the federal government.
Buyers
Lanham’s buyers are often small contractors who want working reels, and landscapers and homeowners from Bowie and Glenn Dale who want table and garden reels.
Getting here
US-50 and the Beltway meet at Lanham. MD-450 (Annapolis Road) runs east to Bowie; MD-564 runs through Lanham and Seabrook to Bowie. The New Carrollton station, with Metro, MARC and Amtrak, is just to the west.
Sending a request from Lanham
- Count and measure. Count the reels and measure the largest flange edge to edge across the face. A photo with the tape in it is better than a guess.
- Check the build. Nailed lumber, plywood sheet, steel or plastic. Look for a stencil or tag naming the maker and the reel number.
- Set aside steel and tagged returnables with their serial numbers. Those go back to the maker, not to the desk.
- Say where they stand: yard, dock, garage level, alley or curb, plus clearance, gate hours, badging or escort a driver needs.
- Say what loads them: forklift, pallet jack, loader, ramp, or only people. Reels over 42 inches weigh more than 100 lb empty.
- Say how often: one time, weekly, monthly or at each job close-out.
- Buying instead? Give the flange and height you want, how many, and how the reel gets from the truck to where it will sit.
- No form handy? Email info@dcwoodenspools.com with the same details and a few photos.
Reels you are likely to have
| Reel | Build | Flange | Traverse | Drum | Lb | Usually carries |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| C-5 | Nailed wood | 23 | 17 | 12 | 34 | Copper building wire, grounding |
| A-10 | Nailed wood | 30 | 22 | 16 | 66 | Service drop, bare aluminium |
| N-24 | Nailed wood | 36 | 28 | 14 | 83 | Insulated and multiplex cable |
| A-29 | Nailed wood | 42 | 28 | 21 | 154 | Overhead conductor, feeders |
| A-38 | Nailed wood | 48 | 28 | 24 | 212 | Aluminium and ACSR, large feeders |
| A-62 | Nailed wood | 60 | 28 | 28 | 397 | Utility conductor |
| A-76 | Nailed wood | 66 | 28 | 30 | 473 | Heavy conductor |
| S-120 | Steel, returnable | 84 | 36 | 42 | 895 | Transmission and medium voltage |
Other makers' reels differ by an inch or two. All flange sizes · How to measure
Questions the desk gets
Does the desk run regular pickups for distributor branches?
Yes. Weekly or monthly pickups suit branches that collect returned and stripped reels.
What happens to steel reels in a branch's stack?
They go back to their makers under each maker's return policy. The desk does not buy returnable steel reels.
Sources
Each opened and read on 9 November 2026.
- inside.lighting, Graybar expands in Baltimore-DC, acquires Shepherd Electric (2023): Graybar branches in Lanham and Sterling; Shepherd locations in Baltimore, Laurel, Frederick, Washington and Sterling
- Comptroller of Maryland, Impact of the Federal Government on Maryland's Economy (June 2025): $46 billion in federal contracts for work in Maryland in fiscal 2024; Defense and HHS 60%; third per capita
- Southwire, Steel Reel Policy: steel reels carry a charge, credited if returned within 12 months of shipment