Sell your empty cable reels

Who buys empty reels around Los Angeles

A reel that has done one trip from a cable plant still has plenty of life left in it if the wood is sound. The people who want them fall into a few groups, and knowing them explains what makes a reel sellable.

• Contractors who buy cable in bulk and cut it to length themselves need empty reels to wind it onto. They want sound flanges, a round arbor hole and a drum that turns true on a reel stand.
• Growers, nurseries and ranches use reels as benches, tables, cable and hose storage, and shade frames, especially the larger 42 to 72 inch sizes.
• Makers and furniture builders turn 24 to 42 inch spools into tables, stools and displays. They pay attention to the look of the wood as much as its strength.
• Event planners and venues want matched sets of clean spools for weddings, markets and gardens.

That is the whole market for a sound reel. Everything we buy goes to one of them, mostly in Southern California, often on the same lanes it came from.

What makes a reel sellable

Four things decide it. The flange must be flat and whole, without splits running to the edge. The staves, the boards around the drum, must be intact and tight. The arbor hole in the centre must be round, not worn oval by a reel stand or chewed by a forklift tine. And the wood must be sound: no rot at the bottom of the flange from standing on wet ground, no plywood swollen from rain.

Bolted reels hold together better and are worth more than nailed reels of the same size, if they are not returnable to their maker. Matching sets are worth more than mixed piles. Reels stored under cover are worth more than reels left out through a summer. The full grading is on resale or recycling.

How a sale works

1. Send us the count by flange size, a few photos and your address.
2. We say which look sellable and make an offer for those, subject to seeing them.
3. The truck comes on a run along your lane. The driver checks each reel as it is loaded.
4. Sound reels are paid for as agreed; any that turn out damaged go to recycling with the rest.

If a reel is stencilled with a maker's name, we look up whether that maker runs a return program before we make an offer. Service Wire, for example, takes back its own nailed reels of 30 to 72 inches in full truckloads. A reel like that should go home, and we will tell you so.