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Cable Question

BigNuge

NAXJA Member
NAXJA Member
Location
Seacoast NH
I have a question for the electricians out there. I came upon a bunch of large cable following a job wrapping up at work. I have been trying to figure out what this stuff costs new (per foot) to buy. Trying to figure out what I should do with it.

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So, anyway...if anyone out there is an electrician by trade let me know what this stuff is worth (per foot). I’m having the hardest time getting it figured out online.


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I can’t read the jacket markings very well, I see “portable power cable” maybe?

Definitely AC power cable with the white jacket on the second conductor. The four green ground are cool. 75C max temp rating? Does it say 4/0 ground? Maybe 2000V max?

How much new, unused cable on a reel do you have?

You could make a badass welder cord but I wouldn’t expect a commercial contractor to pay anything for it and I wouldn’t expect a residential contractor to have a use for it. Cool though.
 
Another site, same price...
https://www.awcwire.com/part.aspx?partname=g-4/0-4c

Even though it has 8 wires (qty 4 conductors and qty 4 grounds) it's called "4 conductor cable" as explained here...
https://www.awcwire.com/productspec.aspx?id=portable-cord-type-ggc-g

From the above site:
What is Type G Cable?
The cable that is being used for portable power supply or in mining equipment that has a ground wire for every conductor within the cable is considered Type G cable. A 4 conductor type G cable would have 4 ground wires.
 
Lol, thanks for all the input guys. We bought this for a temp boiler installation (part of what I do for work). The wire was bought new for that job, and the job is now done. We own the wire, but have no use for it. We also got 120’ of 4 conductor #4 SOOW (I’m keeping that).

We cut this big stuff with a cordless bandsaw.

I never imagined an electrician would want this for a job, for all the reasons mentioned here. I have 80’ of it, no spool. The entire length looks brand new, not a nick in it. I have it laid out next to my barn now, easy inspection for anyone who wanted to inspect it closely. I’d offer it up see what comes of it. If there is no interest/doesn’t move I’ll buy a power wire stripper and get to work on it. Hundreds of pounds of clear copper here, I’d hold onto it till copper is back up.


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If you bought it, why did you ask what it's worth?
 
Must've been a high $$ job. I'd be pissed if I hired a T&M contractor and he over estimated ~$2K in extra cable that I paid for.

Maybe put it up on Craigslist and see what kind of interest there is.
 
It was $17k to connect a power feed to a (very large) mobile industrial boiler package, and a separate feed to a job trailer. The job is done, Equipment is gone, my company owns all the cable. The company has no need for it, so I got dibs.

That’s exactly what I’m going to do. I took the time to strip a 12” section of it today. Bundled all the copper. I’d estimate it at 5lbs.

80x5=400lbs of clear bright copper

$2.00/lb for clear bright today (prices are down)

$800 as scrap.

It would be a shame to scrap this stuff, it is in new condition. But I’ll do what I got to do...


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4/0 gauge cable. Four conductor that size would likely be for a 440V 3phase input. That cable marking indicates rating fro 750V, so 440 is likely. I don't know the pricing, but it ain't cheap. It's more a matter of someone being able to use it. Too bulky fro anything at home.


David Bricker / SYR
 
Ok, so I got a small scale and weighed it. It’s just over 3lbs for that 12” section.

I agree that this is not very useful for a common person/home use. Not sure if this is very marketable on CL or Marketplace. I’m going to think about it for a bit. If I don’t come up with a viable plan for selling it whole I’ll cut it up in 10’ lengths and store it until copper prices come back up.


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4/0 gauge cable. Four conductor that size would likely be for a 440V 3phase input. That cable marking indicates rating fro 750V, so 440 is likely. I don't know the pricing, but it ain't cheap. It's more a matter of someone being able to use it. Too bulky fro anything at home.


David Bricker / SYR


Oh yes, this was used for 200AMP 480 3 phase service to a large temporary industrial boiler package.


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I use similar cable to that for big variable frequency drive motors ranging up to 600 hp. The difference is that yours is 4 conductor (Y configuration) while mine are 3 conductor (delta config), and due to the VFD aspect mine is double shielded. I pay about $75/ft for the 350 class cable and quite a bit more for the 500 class cable.

The motors themselves weigh about 3500 lbs with a 4" shaft. Between a motor and the VFD drive, I spend around $140,000.

The neat thing about these setups are that they are Regen drives. Much like a electrical vehicle with regenerative braking, I can use them as a massive torque load and drop a half megawatt of power back into the power line instead of trying to figure out how to get rid of that much heat.
 
I wonder if the EV conversion crowd would drool over having this cable?
 
The ultimate headlight wiring harness upgrade!


David Bricker / SYR
 
Not gonna be much market for that that doesn't just buy it new unfortunately. Would make a hell of a welder extension cable of course, or cut it down and use individual conductors to make battery cables for audio guys. The decibel drag racing crowd would probably be pretty happy to get their hands on it.
 
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