I am curious to hear as I can count the times on 1 hand that I have worked on copper primary.
You and your pole partner are assigened the task of transfering 3-#6 bare cu. 4Ft. up to a new arm,with a center phase king pin.The adjacent poles are set in concret side walk,cross arms are fairly new,steel pins and insulators look good from the ground,no sleeves,kinks,pits,or old connectors. All three are same color,oxidezed green.Is there a trick you use to tell if its eneeled, lost its tensel strength? I`ll accept any comment you got.
I am curious to hear as I can count the times on 1 hand that I have worked on copper primary.
Not a lot of #6 primary but a bunch of #4 on 4.8 delta and 23 wye if it looked like enough slack to make the shift go slow and easy any doubt get reclosing on one shot and then still go slow and easy real concerned do it dead of course then the boss would like to play work order shuffle until he found somebody willing to roll the dice
Look at the sag. If it's 6' or more on a 200' span, it's annealled. Other than that, you need a wire micrometer. As it gets soft and stretches, it'll get smaller in diameter. Watch out transferring the wire, the sleeves don't change size like the wire does and have been known to let go.
Most all of our laterals were at one time #4 copper, very little #6, I have in the past felt like I needed to cut some slack in the primary and if moving up a considerable amount or out such as an angle pole I would mack it out and sleeve in a piece of wire throwing slack in it, around the coast or where there is salt spray or salt corrosion it is a different story, it can break at any connection point ie kearneys, stirrups etc etc. Under normal conditions and working out of a bucket truck I have moved it regularly behind fuses with little or no problems, when we had to do it off of the pole or baker board we killed it. Good luck.
Ummmmmmmm its a purdy safe bet to assume #6 cu has been up there for a very long time.It only hazta be overheated once to become annealed so For all practical purposes its best to assume all of it has lost some of its tensile strength.
We still string #6 copper for new primary construction. Just installed some on a new 6 pole tapline extension a couple of weeks ago. 375' spans.
As for being able to tell if it's annealed, it's hard to tell. If your gloving it, and the spans are short and it's not tight, it feels a little like soft drawn. Real hard to tell on longer spans or when sagged tight.
On the coast, sometimes it has more of a rust color when annealed, instead of the usual green. Kind of the same as a old hand tie when you take it off. Guess it depends how long or how bad it's annealed.
Like Bluestreak said, slow & easy. If not behind fuses, get recloser on 1 shot. No sleeves or connectors is a good sign. Be Safe.
Last edited by 1245hand; 04-18-2012 at 10:14 PM.
A good test for "Colored" #6 or #4 Copper primary, to determine if it's annealed, Green or Brown, is to take your skinin knife, and "Scratch it a bit". With your rubber gloves on of Course.... If Pieces come off...don't dare put a grip on it. It's your call from there....
Still alot of #6 and 4 out there in America. AND...it's "Old" Sh$t. Be Careful....
I'm on a comity, responding to a veteran Linemans concern.He has brought this to managements attention.I've been in line-work for forty plus years. My safety quote for this operation is "small wire gets no respect, and that's when it'll get you"I've run a heavy crew for the last twenty five years,have received many awards for safety record.My goal now is to go global with safety.I thank you for your response. I'll stay in touch. "I got your back"
Respectfully;Captbly