Outdoor cable, two questions?

[Chuckles1066]

Hi all,

I'm going to run some new cable down to our garage. The existing cable was in a conduit and buried but we've had the garden dug up and landscaped and I know that the cable has been cut.

So I'll redo the lot just to be safe.

Firstly, I was looking at some cable at Wickes.......armoured cable suitable for outdoors, I presume that's the stuff I need seeing as I'm going to clip it to the wall?

Secondly, what am I going to need to cut and strip the cable? It looks a bit manly and I can't imagine my 10 year old bog standard cable stripper tool is going to have much success.

Thanks in advance!

 

[GaryMo]

A junior hacksaw is used to score and snap the armouring away though you will need prior knowledge of how to make of a SWA gland before attempting it blind.

I've not watched this myself but it should give you some idea

 

[Chuckles1066]

SWA gland?

Speak English. It's a bit of cable that I want to cut to expose the cores.

 

[EFLImpudence]

Steel Wire Armoured cable as in Wickes.

Gland - for terminating said SWA as in video.

 

[Iggifer]

dont forget cleats

 

[Chuckles1066]

Now I know why my local sparky can command £100 per hour labour for rewiring a socket

Thank you for interpreting.

Sooooo.......in 2012 with all this technology around us, I use a hacksaw to eat into the outer rubbery bit whilst at the same time scoring the metally bits underneath.

I then strip away the outer rubbery bit and do some twisty stuff that gets rid of the the metally bits?

Thanks for the advice........I might just wait for the electrical business to enter the 21st century......I might have a long wait, they seem to be stuck in about 1920 at the minute

 

[securespark]

Speak English. It's a bit of cable that I want to cut to expose the cores.

Never mind "Speak English".

Do you want to do the job properly or not?

I guess that's why you came here, after all.

PS. You need to notify.

 

[securespark]

Please delete.

 

[RF Lighting]

Thanks for the advice........I might just wait for the electrical business to enter the 21st century......I might have a long wait, they seem to be stuck in about 1920 at the minute

Sorry, what on earth are you on about?

 

[GaryMo]

SWA gland?

Speak English. It's a bit of cable that I want to cut to expose the cores.

Good luck then as from what I've read from you so far I think you're going to need it.

 

[Adam_151]

Thanks for the advice........I might just wait for the electrical business to enter the 21st century......I might have a long wait, they seem to be stuck in about 1920 at the minute

As late as that?... I've just cut a thread on a bit of conduit in my workshop using tallow as a cutting fluid.... if my history is right then the use of tallow to lubricate metal parts came from the french revolution and the guillotine...

 

[RF Lighting]

I'm so old fashioned I still use a hand operated hammer to put in nails. According to wikipedia, they've been in use since 2,600,000 BC

 

[JohnW2]

.....I might just wait for the electrical business to enter the 21st century......I might have a long wait, they seem to be stuck in about 1920 at the minute

Just to bypass some of the sarcastic responses you're getting, if you really want to feel you're in the 21st century, there are plenty of people prepared to take your money in return for "SWA Sytripping Tools" of one sort or another - most of which are essentially variants on the theme of a standard pipe cutter. However, I think you'll find that few people use these for small/moderate sizes of SWA on the simple basis that there's nothing wrong with the time-tested method that nearly everyone uses.

I am still using some of my grandfather's hand tools which date from around the 1920s, and many still work fine - which I'm sure is more than one will be able to say of most 2012 'fancy tools' in 90-100 years time!

Kind Regards, John

 

[Adam_151]

Me sarcastic?.... don't you what you're on about

 

[SimonH2]

SWA gland?

Speak English. It's a bit of cable that I want to cut to expose the cores.

He's speaking English, that is the terminology used.

And glanding is (for most applications) the only correct/acceptable way of terminating SWA cable.

Sooooo.......in 2012 with all this technology around us, I use a hacksaw to eat into the outer rubbery bit whilst at the same time scoring the metally bits underneath.

Yes. It's done that way because ... well it works and the tooling is cheap and normally in any electrician's toolbox. Would you prefer that it needed some very expensive machine so that only well off (and expensive) sparkies could fit it for you ?

I then strip away the outer rubbery bit and do some twisty stuff that gets rid of the the metally bits?

Yes. Again, that's what's been proven to work well and needs no specialist (= expensive) tooling.

The "outer rubbery bit" is called the sheath. The "metally bits" are collectively called the wire armouring. And since they are made of steel (galvanised for corrosion resistance), the cable gets called Steel Wire Armoured - isn't that logical.

BTW - some people use the saw to go right through the wires. That is bad as it's very easy to go too deep and damage the inner sheath or even the core insulation - which later leads to breakdowns when the damp gets in.

Thanks for the advice........I might just wait for the electrical business to enter the 21st century......I might have a long wait, they seem to be stuck in about 1920 at the minute

I think "tried and tested" might be the words you are looking for. The laws of physics haven't changed since Edison and Westinghouse had their DC/AC war. The fundamentals of cable design were more or less laid down then, and apart from a few ideas and material developments, well as I said, the laws of physics haven't changed.


BTW - there are cables that do required specialist equipment for termination. MICC (Mineral Insulated Copper Clad, often called Pyro which is a trade name from one manufacturer) is one in reasonably common usage. When you get to some of the specialist high voltage cables used in the distribution network, well some of those use some interesting techniques and modern materials.