About LA Wooden Spools

Why this exists

Los Angeles empties cable reels faster than anyone hauls them off. LADWP replaces dozens of miles of underground cable every year. Southern California Edison is undergrounding and re-conductoring lines across its territory. Middle-mile fibre is going into the ground across the county, with 421 miles in Los Angeles County alone. Data centres are going up in Vernon. Every foot of that cable arrives wound on a wooden reel, and when the drum is empty the reel becomes a problem in a yard in Sun Valley, Santa Fe Springs or Anaheim.

Cable makers' take-back programs work when a yard has a full truck of one brand with sound flanges. Most yards don't. They have a mixed stack of nailed and bolted reels in four sizes from three makers, and a crew that needs the space. Pallet yards don't size reels; classified listings leave the seller to haul. So we start with the truck.

How we work

1. Count your reels. You send the count by flange size, the ZIP, how the reels can be loaded and when the dock is open.
2. We route the truck. We work out the share of a 53 foot, 102 inch deck your stack takes, which lane passes you, and whether you ride along or set a run of your own. You get a pickup window by email.
3. Loaded and chocked. Small reels flat in stacks, big ones on edge in two staggered rows, every one chocked and strapped.
4. Sorted. Reels that belong to a cable maker go back to it. Sound one-way reels are sold to contractors, growers, makers and event planners. The rest are broken down for wood recycling.

What we're plain about

• Estimates are estimates. Deck counts come from published loading charts and reel tables. The driver's count on the day is the real one.
• Windows, not promises. A run has other stops. We give a span of hours and tell you if it moves.
• Value depends on the reel. A clean 36 inch reel has buyers; a rotten one costs money to recycle. We say which yours are.
• Other people's reels go home. A stencilled reel belongs to its owner, and we route it there.
• We stay in our area. Los Angeles, Orange, Riverside and San Bernardino counties. San Diego County is outside it.

Who we work with

Electrical contractors and yard managers clearing ten to sixty reels from a fence line. Utility, undergrounding and fibre crews with large reels at the end of a phase. Wire and cable distributors and data-centre electrical contractors who need a dock kept clear on a schedule. Industrial sites in the Inland Empire and the high desert where one small load isn't worth a truck of its own. And on the other side, buyers: makers building tables, planners dressing a venue, nurseries and farms, and contractors who wind their own cable.

How to reach us

The request form is the quickest way: it asks exactly what we need to plan a run or answer a buyer. For anything else, email info@lawoodenspools.com. We answer by email, with a pickup window or a price.

The look of this site

It is drawn from the paperwork of a Los Angeles freight run: Caltrans route shields for the lanes, a map-book grid for coverage, a driver's run sheet for the steps, a bill of lading for the form, and plan views of reels chocked on a deck for the truckload maths. Every drawing was made for this site.