Bolted wood reels

Big reels held together with steel

Once a wooden reel gets past about five feet across, nails alone will not keep it square under a heavy cable. Bolted wood reels solve that with steel. Long tie rods run from one flange to the other, through or around the drum, and are tightened with nuts and large washers on the outside faces. The rods clamp the flanges against the drum so the reel stays rigid when it is lifted, rolled and paid out. On the heaviest reels, a steel arbor plate is bolted over the centre hole on each flange so the shaft of a reel stand bears on steel instead of wood.

Where they come from

In this market, bolted reels arrive with medium- and high-voltage power cable, heavy feeders for large buildings, and big submarine or utility conductors. Underground cable replacement and substation work across PECO's service area, the data-centre construction in Falls Township and the large logistics builds in South Philadelphia are the kinds of projects that leave them behind. They usually turn up a few at a time rather than in dozens, and almost always in a laydown yard rather than a building.

Identifying a bolted reel

• Large hex nuts and washers in a ring on each flange face, usually four to eight of them.
• Threaded rod ends standing proud of the nuts.
• A square or round steel plate over the centre, bolted through the flange, with the arbor hole in the plate.
• Flanges built from thick boards in two layers, sometimes with extra battens.
• Size: from about 60 inches upward, and the largest wooden reels in the catalogue.

If the flanges are steel rather than wood, the reel belongs in the steel reels entry instead.

Weight and handling

Bolted reels are heavy even when empty. Cable makers' published examples give a sense of it: Okonite lists 639 pounds for an 84 x 54 x 48 wood reel and 758 pounds for a 96 x 48 x 48, and Prysmian lists 830 pounds for its 85-inch wood reel and 1,150 pounds for its 96-inch. They need a forklift rated for the load with forks long enough to pass under the drum, or a reel trailer, and they should be chocked whenever they stand on their rims. Nobody should try to roll one by hand on a slope.

Who owns a bolted reel

Most bolted wooden reels are shipped one-way, like smaller wood reels. A minority are stencilled by the cable maker and expected back, and because they are expensive to build, makers are more likely to want them returned than small reels. Check the flange faces for a maker's name, the word RETURNABLE, a reel number or a deposit tag before assuming a bolted reel is yours to sell. When in doubt, photograph both flange faces and send them.

When they sell

Sound bolted reels are wanted by companies that rewind heavy cable and by contractors who store long lengths of feeder. Matching pairs or sets are worth much more than single reels. The tie rods must be present and tight, the arbor plates intact and bolted, the flange boards free of splits, and the drum solid. A set of four sound 72-inch bolted reels in one yard is a good pickup.

When they recycle

Bolted reels that have lost a flange board, have bent tie rods, or have sat outside long enough for the drum to rot are taken apart. They yield a lot of steel: the rods, nuts, washers and arbor plates go for scrap, and the heavy boards go for wood recovery. Some of those boards are long and sound enough to be reused as timber.

Bolted reels in the laydown yard

On big projects, cable reels are staged in a laydown yard and moved to the pull site one at a time with a reel trailer or a crane. After the pull, the empty bolted reel goes back to the yard. By the end of a project, a yard might hold a row of them, mixed with steel reels from the same maker and smaller nailed reels from other cable. That row is the typical bolted-reel pickup: sort steel and stencilled reels out first, then load the sound one-way bolted reels, then the damaged ones. A laydown yard on firm gravel with a site forklift is the easiest case. A yard on soft ground after a wet spring may need timbers laid down before a forklift can reach the reels.

Checking the tie rods

Tie rods are the first thing to check. Each rod should be straight, with its nuts tight against the washers on both flanges. A bent rod usually means the reel was dropped or struck. Missing nuts mean the flange can move. Rust is normal and not a problem unless a rod has thinned noticeably.

Hardware worth saving

Threaded rod, washers, nuts and arbor plates from a bolted reel are reusable steel, even when the timber is spent. Breakers keep them by size, wire-brush rust off the threads and use them for repairs on sound reels, fence posts, workshop jigs and garden structures. Galvanised hardware lasts longest; plain steel that has rusted thin goes to scrap. When a bolted reel is collected for recycling, the hardware comes off first, and only clean timber goes to the wood recycler.

Torque and tightening

Timber shrinks as it dries, loosening nuts. Re-tightening each rod a quarter-turn, crosswise like wheel lugs, restores rigidity.

Questions

Can I take the tie rods off to make the reel lighter?

No. Without the rods the flanges can fall away from the drum. Leave a bolted reel assembled until it is loaded.

Is a reel with a steel arbor plate always returnable?

No. The plate is about strength, not ownership. Look for stencils or tags to decide ownership.