Dealing With 1000 Ft Spools Of Spt-1 Wire

[tonyski]

Greetings all. While my friends here in Decatur, GA don't understand how I can be thinking about Christmas lights when it is 97 degrees outside, I knew my LOR Forum friends would understand.

In the past, I've used 250 ft spools of spt-1 wire without any problems. While I haven't finalized my upcoming purchase, some of the prices on 1000 ft bundles look pretty good.

My question for the group is, how do you deal with the 1000 ft bundles since they don't have a center spool? I'm hoping the all the experience out there can prevent me from having a tangled mess.

I have purchased 1000 ft boxes of cat 5 cable before and they feed through a hole in the box as it unwinds from the center but I'm not sure how to do that without a similar box.

Thanks as always,

Tony

[bisquit476]

I don't know where you are purchasing your wire from, but all the 1000ft bundles of wire I have bought have been on a spool, if they weren't, I wouldn't buy them, but that's just my opinion.

[flogger7]

I don't know where you are purchasing your wire from, but all the 1000ft bundles of wire I have bought have been on a spool, if they weren't, I wouldn't buy them, but that's just my opinion.

Agreed. I buy fom skycraft surplus on a spool. $.11 per foot on more than 1000 feet.

[dgrant]

I was just on the Skycraft site but they aren't showing anything for SPT-1, 1000 ft. Wish it was there and for that price as I would be tempted to order a spool. I have one 1000ft spool now as I think that's all I need, but, when it gets to the time to connect everything for the first time, I don't wish to get caught short. I sure don't want to get stuck with Lowes or HomeDepot for $0.33/ft.

[heystew]

the 1000' rolls i've purchased (from novelty lights i believe) did not have a spool. We left them in the box and pulled from the middle and they behaved pretty well. A spool would have been nice, but don't remember having any issues.

[tonyski]

Thanks all,

My skycraft purchases have always been 250' spools

To be honest, my searches last night and this morning have not found any 1000 ft on spools, only bundles with no center core or spool at all.

I did find one post in the forum from Anthony_In_Houston. He described what he uses and I contacted him for more info. He sent a few pictures of his great idea. I can't imagine that he'd mind if I share them so here goes. I think his solution is genius!

"From Anthony_in_Houston"

Hi Tony

Thanks for asking

You will need

Lazy Susan bearing nothing fancy I found one at Home Depot for 4.95

Two cheap plastic water hose holders as pictured but they will need to be the ones that will have a hole (key hole slot) for the screws that will allow you to remove the holder.

Two square as pictured or round boards for the table mine were 16 inches square and was ½ inch particle board. This can be anything you have laying around.

Center mount the bearing on the two boards

Find the center of the board and place one garden hose holder on the center line on one side and mount it permanently.

Mount the second garden hose holder but leave the screws loose enough so you can slide the holder off and on.

I also drilled a hole through both boards and placed a bolt through it to lock everything in place.

When mounting the bulk wire I left the plastic wrap around the wire, place the wire over the permanent holder first and then work the loose holder into the wire. It is very easy and then slip it over the screws.

I have used it with about 10 rolls of wire and it works great.

Anthony

Please post where you've purchased 1000' on spools and their price

Tony

[heystew]

I've purchased from novelty lights @ $165/roll

http://www.noveltylights.com/SPT-1-Green-Wire-1000-Zip-Wire.html

note check shipping prices while doing your comparison, some sites charge a lot for shipping these.

btw.. great solution using the hose reals and lazy suzan spinner

[-klb-]

I've used 500 foot rolls of SPT2 without the spool, and hated nearly every minute of it. I really don't like dealing with the twists in the wire if you pull out of the middle, but that seems to be one of the best results before I started making my own spools..

I started with a pair of 3 inch PVC toilet flanges, and bored them out on the lathe a bit until they would slide on 3 inch PVC. Then I cut out a couple of disks out of plywood that form the sidewalls of the spool, and bolted to the sides to the flange bolt holes. Now I can slide one into a section of 3 inch PVC, and drive 3 sheet metal screws through the PVC flange into the pipe to secure it. Lower the bundle onto it, and if necessary slide any combination of couplers and adapters over the pipe to fill out the space and keep the wire centered. Now lower the other flange over, and snug it up against the bundle. Use 3 more sheet metal screws through the PVC flange to hold it in place. Now you can put it on your spool caddy and go forward.

[sebastian james hawes]

I always get my spt1 and 2 from skycraft surplus. They are great to deal with and always have the greatest price and service. I have bought thousands of feet from them and all have always been on spools no matter if they are 200 ft of white or 1000 ft of green. would not order it from any one else.

Also i go to school in orlando and live in citrus county. I am always going by and picking things up if anyone lives by me and needs any wire picked up would be no problem.

[Shubb]

After using 1000' rolls I would never go back to 250'. Too much waste per roll. And after finding a vendor that sells

3500' and 5000' rolls I will stick with the largest I can find. True, it is a bit heavy to deal with that much wire, but not having to keep adding a new roll and not having much wasted is a plus.

They came on a wooden roll and I just made a small rack out of 1/2 gal. pipe rack to unspool it on.

Scott

[roach.dan@gmail.com]

Where do you get the 3500'?

[travis p]

i got my wire from cdi it comes on a spool in a box.i get spools from the big box store i work for thay are plastic store lights and wire on them real well.if you go to your local big box home improvement store and ask the electrical dept head he ll probly be glad for you to get all you need my store throws away what i don t get.

Edited July 8, 2012 by t purser

[Shubb]

Hey Dan,

Sorry you missed the party.

I got it from Allied Wire and Cable. Their in Wisconsin.

I got 2500' and 3500' rolls delivered for .11/ foot 2 years ago. SPT-1 18/2 black

Their prices and quantities change, but he did mention they would cut a roll from 3500 to 1000 if I wanted.

If you get a current quote, please let me know what the price is. I'm curious if I got a discount for buying in bulk.

Scott

[JoeKinne]

When in need of spools, I always recommend that you swing by your local Electrical Contractor, they throw reals away by the hundreds every year. I get a couple extra reels and reroll any that I need to.

[jim6918]

If the wire you buy comes on spools you are in luck, but if it doesn't, don't panic like I did the first time. Simply open the box and carefully locate the end thats in the middle of the roll. Pull out several feet and reclose and retape the box back up. You can cut a square hole in the center of the box that will make pulling easier. These instructioons were printed on the box of one of the 1000' rolls I bought from somebody. Works perfectly, just like Romex boxes.

[Shubb]

If you pull from the center of the box does the wire stay coiled up?

I guess I've been lucky and all my rolls (nearly 20) have all been on a spool.

[jim6918]

If you pull from the center of the box does the wire stay coiled up?

I guess I've been lucky and all my rolls (nearly 20) have all been on a spool.

Not sure what you mean by coiled. There is some natural coil to the wire since it was wound up, but I have never had any tangles or kinks using this method. I place the box as far away from my work area as I can and the wire just naturally unwinds, or I take a few turns of the wrist to get it completely unwound. The first time I tried to use a roll of wire not on a spool I undid all the strapping and unwound from the oustide and had a huge mess within minutes. Never again with this method. Clearly a spoll is nice since there are so many options, but I don't recall seeing how the wire is shipped ever mentioned in the description before I made the purchase.

[Gary Blair]

I just drop the roll over an orange highway cone (if that is what they are called?) and pull the wire off with very little kinking.

[WilliamS]

the 1000' rolls i've purchased (from novelty lights i believe) did not have a spool. We left them in the box and pulled from the middle and they behaved pretty well. A spool would have been nice, but don't remember having any issues.

Same here from last year. Pulled from middle of box, no issues at all.

[Shubb]

Not sure what you mean by coiled. There is some natural coil to the wire since it was wound up, but I have never had any tangles or kinks using this method.

I take the rolls and let them spin on a rack with a pipe through the center and stretch the wire out on the sidewalk. Most of my wire runs are 6 or 8 each 40' to 100' long. They lay flat and straight and then I zip tie them together.

I had a roll that I dropped and broke the spool. It stayed together but didn't spin.

So I set it on the ground and unwound it for each of the runs. The wire looked like a corkscrew. Even letting them warm up in the sun didn't help much. Fortunatly it was toward the end of the roll and I only had about 500' to deal with.