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#143239 06/17/05 03:43 AM
Joined: Jul 2002
Posts: 8,443
Likes: 3
Trumpy Offline OP
Member
OK we've talked about MIMS and a few other cable types here.
Anyone else care to submit some cable types for discussion?.
If you have pictures all the better.
Please submit them to me or Paul or C-H for posting here.
Cheers,
Mike. [Linked Image]

#143240 06/18/05 12:08 PM
Joined: Sep 2002
Posts: 1,498
Likes: 1
C
C-H Offline
Member
Funny you should bring this up. I tried to buy some highly flexible cable a couple of weeks ago. (3 x 16 mm2) Miminum order was on the order of 300 m which was three times as much as I needed. They could get me 3 x 25 mm2. I called the next manufacturer only to get the same answer. Confounded, I called another one and got the same answer an third time.

I finally ordered with the first manufacturer. The cable arrived Tuesday and I noted, somewhat surprised, that it had been shipped from the second manufacturer I had called. Apparently the manufacturers cooperate to some extent and had been pointing to the very same cable drum somewhere in Germany.

Some manufacturers will make a cable entirely to your specifications if you buy 3 km / 10' feet or more.

I din't take any photos. Bugger!

#143241 06/20/05 08:13 PM
Joined: Jul 2002
Posts: 8,443
Likes: 3
Trumpy Offline OP
Member
One sort of cable system I still see a wee bit of over here, is the old cloth-covered rubber wires inside wood casing, it used to be used here for Service Lines into the main switchboard here.
Thankfully most of it has been removed these days, I accidently stood on a length of it when working up in a roof once.
Man did it go off with an explosion!!, the casing was only just holding the (now bare) wires apart inside and once disturbed, look out!. [Linked Image]
Worse still, the heat from the explosion ignited the wood splinters.
I really watched what I stood on up in roof voids after that.
C-H,
That would be a surprise!. [Linked Image]
We have a cut-to-length service here for most types/sizes of cable.
Sure, it does cost a bit more, but it saves wondering what you're going to do with what's left over, especially if it's a really odd type of cable. [Linked Image]

#143242 06/21/05 06:21 AM
Joined: Aug 2001
Posts: 7,520
P
Member
Quote
the old cloth-covered rubber wires inside wood casing,

A similar method was used here in the early days. Cables were run in grooves in the wood, then a cover fixed over the top. There might still be some of it in use in a very old property which hasn't been rewired, but I haven't seen any of it for years.

#143243 06/21/05 09:52 AM
Joined: Dec 2001
Posts: 2,498
T
Member
The earliest wiring methods I've seen here were: individual cloth and rubber covered wires in isolators (glass or porcelaine), twisted lamp cord style wire on isolators.
Later on they used tar impregnated cloth wire, either in Bergmann conduit (basically asphalted cardboard with a thin metal sheathing around) or just in plaster. That wiring method was used until the advent of PVC insulated wires in the 1950ies. Bergmann conduit survived until around 1960.

Some months ago I found a place where somebody had tried to "replicate" the old wiring... by twisting blue PVC-isolated conduit wire and stringing it up on a few nails down in the moist basement... good thing the house was scheduled for demolition just a few days later... (but just for the dodgy wiring, otherwise it was a real shame for the old rock-solid 1900 brick house!!!)

#143244 06/22/05 05:56 AM
Joined: Sep 2002
Posts: 1,498
Likes: 1
C
C-H Offline
Member
Mike,

here they will cut it to lenght if it is in stock. If they have to make it for you they won't. How much you need to buy depends on the price and how busy they are. I suppose it takes to long to set up the machines to make only a few metres of cable.

#143245 06/22/05 06:56 AM
Joined: Dec 2004
Posts: 161
G
Member
I lived in a tenement flat in Edinburgh as a student, that had cabling that looked like normal T&E except it had a lead jacket. But then the heating was an original victorian open coal kitchen range and the bath taps had 1881 and 1882 stamped on them.

Gideon.

#143246 06/22/05 10:46 AM
Joined: Jul 2004
Posts: 145
C
Member
I have come across the lead sheathed wiring before, the rubber insulation inside the sheath was in very good condition considering it was nearly 60 years old.

Also have found the IRV cable in oak or other hardwood capping as described by Trumpy and Paul, had it on the lighting circuits in our old house until 1990, when it shorted out above a light fixture and nearly set fire to the attic [Linked Image]

I left some of the capping in place, the grooves were just the right size for 1.5mm Twin and Earth [Linked Image]

#143247 06/23/05 04:48 AM
Joined: Jul 2002
Posts: 8,443
Likes: 3
Trumpy Offline OP
Member
Posted for Chipmunk:

Quote
I have a pic for the unusual cable types thread, of some
cable that I believe to be 3 core, 3/0.036. It's sheathed in
soft rubber, it doesn't seem to have deteriorated as these
cables often do. It shows the old red/white/blue colour coding
that was used here and I believe in NZ and Aus. No earth wire,
and very flexible compared to the modern equivalent.

This was in use on a 2-way lighting circuit until about 3 years ago.

[Linked Image]


[This message has been edited by Trumpy (edited 06-23-2005).]

#143248 06/23/05 05:07 AM
Joined: Jul 2002
Posts: 8,443
Likes: 3
Trumpy Offline OP
Member
Oddly enough Chipmunk,
We've just changed over to the Red/White/Blue 3 Phase colour code over here, it was Red/Yellow/Blue before that.
Regarding your comments on TRS (Rubber Sheathed) cables, rubber sheathed cables are quite quite hard-wearing as long as they aren't subjected to too higher temperatures.
It will however be interesting to see how well this PVC sheathed stuff looks after a few years up in a hot roof void. [Linked Image]

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