Electrician Talk banner

How much wire are you really buying?

3K views 15 replies 3 participants last post by  Joe Momma 
#1 ·
Has anyone ever really measured how much #12 you get from a 500' spool?

I've done the identical motor re-wire job 4 times on separate occasions over the past year and a half.
The job is to pipe (6) 480volt motors with surface mount GRC and demo the existing underground wiring.
The first estimate I did with pretty precise measurments of wire came to just under 500' ea. brown, orange, yellow. So I bought ea. spool.
Then when it came time to pull them in I measured the whole thing, first tape measure for overhead, then wheel measure on the ground. came up after adding all feeds with 490'.
Set up spools and measured across the ground with the wheel measuring tool and marked out each length on the ground. Pulled them quite precise and cut them.
Each and every time every roll was short! some by as much as 30'! couple were within 15' NONE were 500':mad:
Here is a pic of me finishing the last (6) today.
 

Attachments

See less See more
1
#2 ·
Never really thought to measure one. What a ripoff.

I did order a 155' cut piece of 6-3 MC a month or so back, and I got almost 290 feet. Bill said 155', so I got a little extra for a rainy day.

What is that aparatus, anyhow? Are they grain dryers?
 
#3 ·
Mt. Pleasant MI waste water treatment plant.
They call them the RBC motors. (Rotating Biological Contactors) :blink: These motors turn large plastic discs that bacteria grows on. The bacteria aids in removing ammonia and Nitrogen from the waste water.
 
#4 ·
What sorta panel is that in the background? Are they little MCC buckets? or an old drawout breaker rack? Can't really tell. Don't really recognize the brand or model.
 
#7 · (Edited)
Couldn't even guess. We're still at the "we need to get those panels changed soon" stage. And I may not even get to supply them as to keep the project "off the street"
It's a municipality, I don't care for reverse auctions.:thumbdown: And they don't care to have just any yahoo in the plant.:thumbup:

They are a great bunch of guys
 
#10 ·
I've heard the manufacterers ask for 10% leeway on their spools, ...
If they do ask for that much leeway, they need to shape up. If they can weigh out a box of Rice Krispies down to one or two crispies, why can't they give us the wire we're paying for?
 
#12 ·
Well I guess ther're two ways to think of the last 2 posts.

If they're over charging everyone then there is no difference, hell they've been raping us on wire for over a year now(think I heard a statistic saying copper is the most abundant metal and we've only mined 10% of it).

And I think that much leeway all has to do with the machines. There are a lot of variables to how the wire is spooled (overlapping of the wire on the spool, bearing grease for the machine, and what not) and I imagine it's all fully automated with some sort of timer between the thing reading footage and the thing cutting the wire.
Or who knows how the automate it, but it's off/wrong, and they're making a killing.
 
#13 ·
Don't get me wrong Joe, I'm not losing sleep over it. I mark it up plenty to cover the shortfall. I would have liked to have seen ONE spool over 500' out of 12?
Then maybe you could give them some benefit of doubt? looks bad to me.
But I do love capitalism for sure. Good and Bad
 
This is an older thread, you may not receive a response, and could be reviving an old thread. Please consider creating a new thread.
Top