#6 sol copper primary is bad

[onemoretime]

Why isn't this stuff replaced? One day I went to pull slack on #6 sol copper primary and noticed the wire was parted in the middle of the insulator ,and the tie's were carrying the weight and the load, could have been a mess with people on sidewalk. Watch out

[adamr_41]

I had a similar situation a couple of years back.. I was taking slack from the neutral and the weight of the hoist and 2 grips broke the #6 at the tie wire the next span up. I was just glad that it wasnt the primary.

[Pootnaigle]

wont never ferget i once hadda pick up some #6 that had burnt down and slid back thru the tie wires for several spans. I had nearly 20 feet of excess after I got it up to sag. back in them days we used a crimp sleeve and i was a tad nervous as to whether or not it would hold the 2 ends together when I removed the hoist. I spect it musta got a tad warm n stretched sum n all that extra legnth hadda decrease the diamater........... but the sleeve held thru 2 purdy good hurricanes n is still rite where I left it.

[AEPline]

A few years back, I had a primary phase break on me. Luckily I already had a grip on it. I was able to hold on and put the other end of the hoist on. I will not work on it without reclosers being on manual.

[Edge]

gotta agree with you cats... total junk.... shit'll stretch a mile before it breaks... or break if ya look at it to hard...

hate cwc too... any time you work either ya might as well take ya a collar rope a couple grips and some extra wire... if ya got 'em it prolly won't break... if ya don't

it will...

Edge

[tramp67]

It's kind of nice though being able to sag primary with a set of slack blocks. You really need to pay attention to sizes when you're using automatics on the stuff, I've seen my share of #6 and #8 sleeves being on the wrong size wire, especially where someone's added a piece of copper in a 6A or 8A wire.

[Trbl639]

If I had a penny for everytime old #6 had broken on me when picking it up, I'd be a rich man!!

can remember working a re-conduct, going from 1phase (#6 solid) to 2 of 3 phase #4ACSR....was working ina dbl bucket and I was in the ignorant bucket..the other guy moved the phase out to the scab arm, and jacked some slack out cause it was an angle.......I asked if he brushed the #6 before he sleeved it....was in a Paper Mill area, and you needed to brush every connection good.........anyway, he was hanging a dolly, and said, "it won't be there long enough to burn down!"

A few minutes later, I looked over at the nico sleeve, and it was turning colors!!!! Luckily we got a couple grips and hoist on it, and a mac, before it burned down!!

He was a young Jman, but I think he learned a lesson!!!!

Two days later, same job...I was off, but he and another guy were doing the same thing...he got too much slack and the crap broke at a dbl dead end, next pole down the line!!!!!!

Ya gotta watch it!!!!!

[loodvig]

You guys better get used to working with it because there's still many, many of miles of it still out there!

[T-Man]

lood, you didn't say the half of it. #6 cu was the bread and butter of the distribution system.
And yea when you go to pull it back up, and you know you are working in a "high incidence of lightening area" take a good look at it because it will be damaged and come apart. The old 6A and 8A used to give us fits that way too.
Hey it's why we are here, to mend it when it breaks, and know how it acts when we work with it. These little tricks are what make you a thinking and safe Line Mechanic.

[Special ED]

Gotta love the old #6 and #4 sol primary and secondary.. You look at the crap funny and it will hit the ground.. Round these parts its all over downtown and out in the rual areas that havent been reconnductored yet.. All sorts of ways to splice it from the copper autos which suck unless you have plenty of tension on it then theres the best which is nico sleeves..

All over the place theres diffent types of splices.. Theres spans held up with h-taps or squeeze ons midspan holding both sides together, western union splices, and some of the older splices that you had to twist with tongs.. I forget their name but I tell you what if they were twisted right they dont come off.. The laziest attempt at splices or ressaging I've seen is the lineman takes his klines and puts them over the wire behind the joint in them and twistswhich puts two sharp bends in the wire and raises it up.. We call em LG&E splices..