Partial reels with unknown remaining footage

What a partial reel is, and is not

A partial is a reel that has given up part of its cable to a job and kept the rest. It is not a damaged reel and it is not a remnant bin. It has a construction, a size and a jacket print, and the only unknown is how much of it is left.

Partials are the most common thing a plant or contractor has to deal with, and the least understood. A storehouse can hold twenty of them, each on a different size, each tagged with a footage nobody believes. Sorting that shelf is usually the first productive step, because two partials of the same size can sometimes be married into one usable length.

Tag against tape measure

The tag is printed at manufacture and states what was on the reel when it was wound. It does not update. A reel can carry a tag reading 2,500 feet and hold 300, and the tag will still look official. Never treat a tag as a measurement; treat it as a maximum.

There are three honest ways to establish what is left. Pull the cable off and run it through a counter, which is exact and slow. Count the wraps on the drum and multiply by the mean circumference, which is close enough for most purposes and needs nothing but a tape. Or weigh the reel and compare it against the published weight for that construction, subtracting the empty reel, which is accurate but needs a certified scale.

Why partials are reviewed on different terms

A full reel is a product with a known specification. A partial is a length, and a length only has a use if it is long enough for the job in front of it. That is why a partial of an expensive construction can be worth less than a shorter, tidier coil of something ordinary: the buyer has to find a run that fits.

The other difference is that partials attract doubt. A reel with 400 feet on it may have been wound back badly, dragged across a floor, or left with the outer wrap cut and the sun on it. Each of those shows, and each is worth checking before the footage is even established.

• Tag photographed beside the reel, not separately
• Cut end photographed close, showing the conductor
• Wrap counted and noted, with the drum diameter
• Outer layers checked for sun damage and water
• Reel flanges sound enough to travel

What a partial reel needs before it moves

Not much, but the small things decide whether it arrives usable. The cut end should be taped or capped, because an open end will take water on the truck. The outer layers should be wrapped if the reel is going to sit outside, and the reel should be blocked so it does not stand on its flange edge in gravel.

In Ohio the seasonal problem is freeze and thaw. A reel stored outdoors through a winter will draw moisture into the wrap as the temperature cycles, and the water sits against the jacket for months. A partial that comes out of a heated storehouse in February is a better object than the same reel that spent the winter behind the shop.