24-inch cable reels: the small spools under the take-back line

What a 24-inch reel carries

In Southwire’s catalogue the reels at this size come in two families. The C series reels are nailed wood, built for heavier copper and steel products, so a 23-inch C-1, C-3 or C-5 is the reel a short length of copper feeder or grounding conductor arrives on. The N series reels at 23¾ inches have plywood flanges and carry lighter insulated and multiplex products. On a commercial fit-out in Rockville or a tenant build-out near Mount Vernon Triangle, these are the reels that pile up in the electrical room, not the laydown yard.

Below the line for take-back

AFL’s program, run through Sonoco EcoReel, wants flanges of at least 30 inches and at least 1½ inches thick. Service Wire’s return starts at 30 inches too. A 23-inch reel fails both on size alone, before anyone checks the arbor hole or counts staves, and the plywood N-series reels fail twice. So the small reels are the desk’s to place, and they place well: they are the size people ask for when they want something they can lift into a hatchback.

Handling

At 16 to 34 pounds empty, one person can carry a 24-inch reel or roll it on its flanges across a slab. Stack them on their flanges, not on the drum, if they are going to sit for a few weeks; the thin plywood flanges warp if they lie flat in the wet.

What it suits once empty

• A side table or plant stand. Stood on one flange, a C-1 is 11 inches high with a 23-inch top; a C-5 is 20 inches high, close to an end-table height.
• Hose, rope and extension-cord storage for a shop, where the 3⅛-inch arbor hole fits a length of pipe as an axle.
• Re-spooling short lengths of wire in a contractor’s van, if the reel is nailed and the arbor hole is round.

If you have a box of these from a fit-out, count them and tell the desk whether they are nailed or plywood; if you want one, say which height you need.

Published dimensions at and near 24 inches

Nobody in these lists makes a reel at exactly 24 inches; the working sizes are 23 and 23¾. The plywood versions are the lightest reels in Southwire's whole catalogue.

Reading the numbers

Flange

The diameter of the round end, edge to edge. The size a reel is known by.

Traverse

The inside width between the flanges, where cable winds. It sets how tall the reel stands on end.

Drum

The diameter of the barrel the cable winds onto. Stiff power cable needs a big drum.

Arbor hole

The centre hole for a shaft. 3⅛ in on most wooden reels; 5¼ in and up on heavy steel ones.

Weight

Empty, or tare, weight in pounds as the maker publishes it. A tag on the reel gives the same figure.

Series letter

Southwire codes the build: A and C nailed, N plywood or nailed, E and G plywood, S steel.

Where 24s turn up here

Electrical rooms in downtown office fit-outs, rowhouse rewiring in Columbia Heights and Hyattsville, and fibre drops to houses on small plywood reels. Indoors and short term, small nailed reels can lie flat on a pallet, three or four high, and be shrink-wrapped for the truck; outside, stand them on edge so rain runs off. A sedan’s trunk takes one; a minivan, three or four with the seats folded.

Requests for 24-inch reels

Selling or clearing

Reels this small fall under every published take-back minimum, so the desk is the route. Give a count, whether they are plywood or nailed, and whether they can be carried to the truck.

Buying

Say whether it is for a table, a hose winder or re-spooling, and the height you need on end.

Empty weight to plan for

16 to 34 lb