Every cable job produces offcuts – lengths too short to be worth anything on a full reel and too long to throw away. Whether to put them on a small reel is a question that gets answered inconsistently on site, and there is a reasonable rule for it.
What the reel is actually buying
Not storage of the cable – that is what a bag or a bin does. What a reel buys is the ability to pay the cable out again without it tangling, and that is the whole value.
So the question is whether the offcut is long enough to be worth paying out. Below a few metres, it goes in a bin. Above roughly twenty, it goes on a reel. In between, it depends entirely on what it will be used for.
The tangling threshold
Short flexible cable coiled by hand tangles on payout, and untangling it costs more time than the cable is worth. That is the argument for reeling. Stiff cable of the same length does not tangle as readily and is more forgiving.
Which means the threshold is different for different cable types, and the crew usually knows which. Worth asking them rather than setting a rule from the office.
What reel size
Small flanges, because the value is in keeping the cable tidy rather than in capacity. A reel sized for the actual offcut length takes less space in a van and in the store.
The bore is the dimension that matters, as always, because the reel has to go on something to pay out. Fit it to the stand or the dispenser you actually have.
Reusing reels from finished jobs
The obvious answer and usually the right one. Empty reels from completed work are free, available and already the right bore. Check the hub before loading them and keep the small ones for offcuts rather than mixing sizes.
Reuse more broadly – inspection, cleaning, when to retire – is covered in can plastic cable reels be reused.
What is not worth reeling
Very short lengths, mixed cable types on one reel, and anything destined for scrap. A reel of mixed offcuts is worse than a bin of them, because nobody will sort it out and it will not pay out cleanly anyway.
Marking
Write the length and the type on the flange before the reel goes into store, in marker. An unmarked reel of unknown cable gets opened, found to be wrong, and put back – and the cable comes out tangled. Marking takes fifteen seconds.
Where they live, and when to give up
Reeled offcuts need somewhere designated or they become a pile. A rack of small reels, sorted by cable type, is the difference between offcuts being used and offcuts being stored until they are thrown away.
And a rule for when to stop: if a reel of offcuts has not been touched in a year, the cable is not going to be used. Strip it, recycle the reel and send the copper where it should go.
What we can do
We supply recyclable plastic cable reels in small sizes suited to offcuts, and we will tell you honestly whether reeling is worth it for your lengths. Tell us the cable type and typical offcut length – if a bin is the better answer, we will say so.