what is the worst cable you have stripped?

[shanky887614]

stripped some about 5 X 5pair version of this



swa is fine, the stuff we stripped though was like the one about but it took longer to get rid of the screen because it was tapped as well than the strip and terminate the gland


can't find a picture of the cable as they were existing so i don't know exactly what they were (control wiring)


it had a blue sheath though

 

[rmc86uk]

Some shocking SWA. Outer sheath stuck the armour, inner sheath stuck to the cores, absolute nightmare!....

Sounds like the stuff we have to use. They think it's cheaper to buy but forget how long and awkward to strip costs them more money in end.

 

[PEG]

Worst cable i ever had to strip was an under-sea cable over at cable-junction,had to use a large great white and that only got keen after i beat it with me paddle.....didn't end well actually....

 

[SPARTYKUS]

PILC (paper insulated lead covered) with tape armours. Covered in pitch, oily cores or as bad if they are dry and the papers unravel. Time consuming and messy. Do it live to make it more interesting.

Nightmare!

out of interest, whats the procedure doing it live...? I've watched a chap do it, just can't get my head round it!!!

 

[mechelec]

Rubber gloves with leather outers and face visor for starters. Depth set hacksaw for tape armours. Remove hessian/ pitch servings fit neutral bond on lead then using plastic hackknife remove lead sheath between bond. Remove outer papers and hope you have 4 cores ie you have not just opened an HV cable lol. Using insulated wedges separate cores, tape and cut. Tape ends and all safe.

This is is not to be used as an instruction as how to do it but is a general overview.

 

[Engineer54]

PILC (paper insulated lead covered) with tape armours. Covered in pitch, oily cores or as bad if they are dry and the papers unravel. Time consuming and messy. Do it live to make it more interesting.

Yep, i can see that type of cable being a bloody nightmare too. Never stripped or terminated one, but have watched as an apprentice, a take-off joint being made to one those cables, which were the original factory estate cables. Our company produced it's own power, it had a fair sized power station on site, that fed back onto the grid during factory off peak times...

 

[DanielB]

Rubber gloves with leather outers and face visor for starters. Depth set hacksaw for tape armours. Remove hessian/ pitch servings fit neutral bond on lead then using plastic hackknife remove lead sheath between bond. Remove outer papers and hope you have 4 cores ie you have not just opened an HV cable lol. Using insulated wedges separate cores, tape and cut. Tape ends and all safe.

This is is not to be used as an instruction as how to do it but is a general overview.

I know of somebody who stripped open a PILCSTA cable it turned out to be an 11KV HV cable he didn't realise it had three cores and put his test lamps across 2 cores he had a very lucky escape and only sustained minor injuries he was very lucky. It's not very nice when you strip open an LV cable running at 2 phases and neutral lol

 

[7029 dave]

Hi-tuff cable or cheap t&e a bloody mare to strip.

 

[jeremy]

TR2153 Highways cable. Had to score the outer sheath, trying to follow the course between cores so as not to nick the insulation, heat it with a blow torch to soften the plastic, then try and rip. 10mm 3 core was hard work, 95mm was a proper workout!

 

[mechelec]

I know of somebody who stripped open a PILCSTA cable it turned out to be an 11KV HV cable he didn't realise it had three cores and put his test lamps across 2 cores he had a very lucky escape and only sustained minor injuries he was very lucky. It's not very nice when you strip open an LV cable running at 2 phases and neutral lol

I know someone who opened an 11kv by mistake as well. Didn't seem right he said, hairs on the back of his arms stood on end when he got the lead off !!! Time to exit joint hole pretty quick at that point.

 

[Engineer54]

I know of somebody who stripped open a PILCSTA cable it turned out to be an 11KV HV cable he didn't realise it had three cores and put his test lamps across 2 cores he had a very lucky escape and only sustained minor injuries he was very lucky. It's not very nice when you strip open an LV cable running at 2 phases and neutral lol

There is no way anyone could get down to stripping the cores on a MV 11KV cable without it Biting!! Besides how anyone can mistake a MV cable for LV cable is beyond me. Even if externally it looked no different, as soon as you reached the conductors you would be in no doubt whatsoever, like the copper screening tapes wrapped around each of the conductors, are sort of a dead giveaway!!

So if i were you, i'd take that story with a very large pinch of salt, because it never happened!!

 

[Knobhead]

MV tape armoured didn’t have screening. They relied on lots of insulation so stress relief wasn’t a concern.
If you got that far in to a live MV cable the belting tapes would give the game away.

 

[Engineer54]

MV tape armoured didn’t have screening. They relied on lots of insulation so stress relief wasn’t a concern.
If you got that far in to a live MV cable the belting tapes would give the game away.

Obviously not all, as i have seen on more than a few occassions, a semi conductive paper layer under conductors thin copper tape sceening on such cables.

I'm far more conversant with modern XLPE plastic cables, i can't count how many different variations i've seen in the make-up of those cables too....

 

[Knobhead]

I can only go on what I was told by the EMEB collage. Some of us had the joys of keeping 70 year old systems going. Not all shiny and new.
By rights all the tape armoured cable should have been removed from our system before I even started my time. It wasn’t.
Some PILCSTA did have a carbon paper on the core insulation, carbon paper didn’t need stress relief when terminated. Foil screening does and it’s a pain in the arse. Last time I looked antimonial lead wire was £58+VAT for a 25Gm roll.

I’m writing an article for somewhere else about MV cable stress relief.

 

[Knobhead]

They were double tape armoured. Its got to be the worse cable ever. As you say, shredded fingers even with gloves on would be normal. They are vindictive and evil!

As for DWA cable.
Davies of Derby made a double cone stalk gland for them, absolute sods to make off.
I found with DWA a jubilee clip made life easier while making off. All our DWA’s had tarred jute outer serving. To make the job look good I would use copper wire to form a whipping to hold the jute together.

From the OED:
Whipping
Noun:
1 [noun] (removed otherwise Marvo will ban me.)
2 [mass noun] Cord or twine used to bind or cover a rope.

 

[elliot123]

Watched the LEB do a live joint the other day for a job we're doin didn't even have to cut the cable stripped the sheath took the lead off and had like a connector that had teeth put the new cable into it then placed the connector on to the core then tightened till the bolt snapped off joint done