Plywood reels and spools

The small reel on most electrical jobs

Plywood reels carry the smaller cable on a job: building wire, control cable, thermostat and alarm wire, and short lengths of larger conductors. They come off the truck with the wire, sit in the electrician's gang box or van, and are empty within days. That is why they pile up in contractors' shops across Philadelphia and its suburbs, and why they are among the easiest reels to sell one at a time.

How plywood reels are built

The flanges are solid discs cut from plywood sheet, not boards nailed crosswise. Between them sits the drum, which on the smallest spools is a laminated fibreboard tube, a heavy cardboard-like core, and on larger plywood reels a ring of wooden staves. Southwire's reel information describes both: its G series spools use a fibreboard tube drum with plywood flanges, while its N series plywood reels use staves. The flanges are held to the drum by nails, staples or glue, and on the larger reels by a few bolts. The arbor hole is smaller than on big wood reels: Southwire lists 2 inches for its G spools and 3⅛ inches for its N reels.

Published sizes

• Southwire G-.898 spool: 11¾ x 10 x 5 inches, about 2¾ pounds, 2-inch arbor hole.
• Southwire G-2.333 spool: 15¾ x 13¼ x 5 inches, 2-inch hole.
• Southwire N-1 reel: 15¾ x 7 x 8 inches, 3⅛-inch hole.
• Southwire N-5 reel: 23¾ x 17 x 12 inches, 20 pounds.
• Southwire N-7P reel: 23¾ x 22 x 12 inches, 30 pounds.
• Prysmian's 29.5 PLY reel: 29½ x 18 x 12 inches, 40 pounds.

The 12-inch, 18-inch and 24-inch size pages list more.

What wears out

Plywood is strong across its face but weak at the edges. Dropped spools chip at the rim, and a spool that has been wet will start to delaminate: the outer veneer lifts and the layers separate. Fibreboard tubes crush if something heavy is stacked on the spool, and soften if they sit in water. A spool with a lifting flange or a soft tube is recycling only; one with a chipped rim but solid layers is still reusable for light wire, hose and workshop use.

Who wants them

Plywood spools are the reel most often asked for by makers and growers. The smooth, flat flange makes a good small tabletop or stool seat with little sanding. The light weight and small arbor hole suit hose, polywire for electric fencing, drip line and rope. Contractors who cut short lengths of building wire for their own crews also reuse them. See small wooden spools for the size-led entry that overlaps with this one, and farm and garden spools for growers' uses.

Selling plywood spools

Count them by size and send the list. Stack them on their flanges in a dry place, not on the ground; a spool that sits in a puddle for a week is a recycling spool. A box of twenty clean spools is a worthwhile pickup, and in an area where we are already working, a handful is too. Pull off old paper labels if they are loose, but do not worry about printing on the flange face.

Plywood or nailed?

The two builds are not interchangeable. Plywood gives a smooth face and a light reel; nailed boards give a tougher, heavier reel that takes rough handling better and can be repaired. The plywood vs nailed guide compares them for each use.

Plywood reels for building wire

Most plywood reels in contractors' shops held building wire, the single conductors pulled through conduit in commercial work. Distributors cut lengths of it to order and wind them onto plywood reels for the job, so the reels arrive in many sizes and traverses even from one supplier. An electrician pulling several conductors at once sets up a row of these reels on a cart or a reel tree and pulls them together. That is why they come back in groups of three, four or more of the same size, which is useful when selling them, because buyers who wind their own wire want matching reels too.

Drying out a damp spool

A plywood spool that has been rained on once is not always lost. Stand it on edge somewhere dry and airy, away from direct heat, and let it dry slowly over a week or two. If the layers stay flat and tight once dry, the spool is still usable for light work. If the veneer has lifted, bubbled or split along the edge, it will keep peeling, and the spool is recycling. Fibreboard drums are less forgiving: once a tube has softened and dried, it has lost much of its strength, and it should not be trusted with a load.

Edge sealing and delamination

Plywood flanges fail first at the edges, where layers separate after soaking. A bead of exterior paint or sealant along the rim slows that.

Marine ply, birch ply and construction ply

Most spools use construction-grade softwood ply, but some premium cable arrives on birch or exterior-glued sheets, prized by furniture builders for their pale, even faces.

Questions

Are plywood spools returnable?

Rarely. Small plywood spools are almost always one-way. Check for a maker's stencil or tag anyway.

Can a spool with a crushed tube be fixed?

Not practically. The tube carries the load; once it is crushed, the spool is for recycling or for use as a stand only.