Resurrection of a CFEI 100 KVA Induction Furnace

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awemawson:
Thanks chaps - Norman I know that ferry (and missing it) only too well, call outs to computer problems at Albany Prison always seemed to end with me sleeping in the car having missed the last ferry :(

So this afternoon I decided to tackle terminating the 10 metre length of 35 mm CSA four core SWA by fitting a waterproof gland and making it off on the 125 amp socket that I'd mounted earlier.

This cable is particularly stiff, the cores having been compressed into pie slices and the copper being hard drawn bending it is great fun. So much so that I decided that I had no chance of leaving the socket on the wall, I'd have to dismount it and make off the cable on the ground.

Although it is big, it's construction is just like smaller SWA in that the cores get gripped between a conical part and a tapered ring to physically grip the cable and also provide earth continuity. Somehow I lost the taper ring - searched high and low, was about to use the ring from the second gland only to find it exactly where I was working - I reckon that the Pixies are teasing me :clap:

Now I've picked up a couple of useful SWA tips recently watching YouTube. When trimming the cable shroud, first push it in reverse onto the cable, then just trim where it bulges - so simple! Then when the gland and cable are loosely put together run a fixing nut onto the thread and use it to tap the taper assembly firmly together before tightening the conical bits to get a well packed tight cable.

You can tell you are working on big cables when you have to use Stilsons to grip the nuts as you have no spanners big enough :bugeye:

Getting the cable cores into the 125 amp socket was hard work as they just wouldn't bend, but eventually they all got into the right holes (I hope!) and were made off.

Then to re-mount the socket - due to the rigidity of the cable I had to use long bolts to slowly pull it into place then once there I replaced them one by one with the correct length. While this was happening I had loosely suspended the cable from the Z purlin that it would be attached to by CC12 cleats to get it roughly in place and take the considerable weight.

OK socket mounted, then I worked across the Z purlin fitted the CC12 cleats with 8 mm bolts and temporarily laid the cable behind the RSJ that it will be cleated to hopefully tomorrow.

The cable end currently dangles close to where I bored that 45 degree hole in the concrete. I will bring the other (18 metre) cable in through the hole (once the trench is dug) and they will be joined with a cast resin junction of the type intended to be buried.

hermetic:
Good work Andrew, but hardly light duties!! I remember with horror my apprentice days of running 400a submains underground, in winter, and trying to unlay the cable off a drum and down the side of the trench to get the twists out of it. The boss insisted we could do this job, even though we had no drum stands and large cable gear! I remember being one of three apprentices who were lifted bodily off the deck and chucked across the trench when we lost control of the loops we were trying to unroll towards the switch room, Bend it? We couldnt! We used to fit the switchgear wherever we could get the cable to run to! Them most certainly were not THE days!
Phil

vintageandclassicrepairs:
Hi All,
Good to hear you are back at work Andrew, Mind Yourself !!!
The physio gave me some good tips today and a different knee support has relieved some of the pain
After 35+ years of working as a spark, I can appreciate the difficulty terminating the 35Sq having done it many times. One bad one was having to re terminate a 4 x 120sq lying on my back in a cable duct underneath a panel !! the failure happened near the end of a 12 hour shift and with commissioning engineers back on site first thing in the Am we had to work on through the night to do the repair
I'm paying the price for all that stupidity now :(

John

edward:
Excellent stuff as usual Andrew.

I am pleased to see that someone other than me uses those 'Safe-T-Crocs' work shoes :)

awemawson:
Edward, I get through three pairs a year at least !

This morning I finished off cleating the cable to the RSJ up in the gods. It's amazing how inventive you can be using the ubiquitous baler twine to haul things into position while you are trying to get a cleat, a bolt and a hole all lined up at the top of a ladder at the same time as an Anaconda is fighting you :lol:

Oh - and I topped up the Chiller tank with about three gallons of anti-freeze solution - it had been drained off when I 'unplumbed' for painting.

So now activity is dependant on getting that short trench dug - I put out feelers locally as there was a chap looking for outside work - it's only nine yards long by a spade wide and deep so nothing for a youth (!) - but not heard back yet.

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