Thread: New Lathe

Bunnings is a 200km round trip so depends on whether I have to go there or not. The reason I expected the cable to be expensive is because of the price I have seen at hardware stores for 100m rolls of 2.5mm.

Dean

I think my length of 6mm was around 25 meters of round orange 5 core and it cost me $350 back then about 15 years ago.
6mm will allow 60 amps in air and 40amps under ground per phase, so you could go smaller for only 20amps.

Dave

Originally Posted by Dave J

I think my length of 6mm was around 25 meters of round orange 5 core and it cost me $350 back then about 15 years ago.
6mm will allow 60 amps in air and 40amps under ground per phase, so you could go smaller for only 20amps.

Dave

Not forgetting that this is single phase cable I am talking about.

Dean

I think the amps will still be the same with that size wire.

Dave

Also the stove circuit in houses is 32amps with 4mm wire. Some of the more power hungry stoves would need bigger, but ours was rewired with 4mm from the eleco 10 or so years back.

Dave

Three phase cable has 4 cables to spread the amps over. My run is going to be 50m. The average stove would not be that far. Back in post 12, I mentioned that an online calculator gave me an ok on 16amps and a 20amp startup for 4mm wire. Anything less than 4mm was not acceptable. 6mm was better. I would love to be able to use smaller cable as I have most of a roll of 2.5mm cable somewhere. This is only rated at 16amps in a standard house circuit and with a run of 50m would be even less.

Dean

I did some more playing around with the online calculator and found that with a 16amp current and 4mm cable I was able to have a 40amp startup current. With 6mm this was 60amps. I will also need to use conduit as well for the suspended section of cable unless I use the orange sheathed type. There is a serious shortage of this on EBay.

Dean

Have you looked into building wire instead of TPS generally you can find it a fair bit cheaper, harder to run through conduit though.

Garry.

Originally Posted by Oldneweng

I did some more playing around with the online calculator and found that with a 16amp current and 4mm cable I was able to have a 40amp startup current. With 6mm this was 60amps. I will also need to use conduit as well for the suspended section of cable unless I use the orange sheathed type. There is a serious shortage of this on EBay.

Dean

Do you have any where eleco's buy there gear around you? This would be the place to buy conduit and it's pretty cheap, they may even be able to give you a good deal on cable.
Some times orange cable pops up on ebay with people selling part rolls or lengths, but as usual it's never there when you need it.

Dave

Originally Posted by Garry 3

Have you looked into building wire instead of TPS generally you can find it a fair bit cheaper, harder to run through conduit though.

Garry.

If you are talking about what I think you are, that is what I am buying. Flat white PVC insulated cable as used in fixed wall circuits etc.

Anyway a check on ebay says $174.50 for 50m of 6mm flat cable delivered. I got a price from a local dealer of $368.50 for a 100m roll.

The local dealer was an electrical supply place (M & M Electrical). This is the only place in this town. (55km) Rexel and L&H 100km in other direction. I don't know if there would be any advantage price wise there or not.

Early this year a large quantity of conduit was tossed out from work. I stopped to talk to the lady doing the sorting. She told me what she was doing, I had a look and could not think of any good need. Anything that was not close to a full length got tossed. mostly up to 25mm and maybe a bit of larger stuff. Guess you would have had trouble getting your arms around the bundle. Gone to landfill now.

There is a roll of what looks about 6mm 3 core orange sheath at work which has only about one or two layers left on it and is fairly faded. I asked the sparky about it as it has been sitting for a long time. Just have to wait and see.

Dean

Hi Dean,
I'm pretty sure 6mm + 4mm earth does not fit in 20mm conduit, you need 25 or you need to strip the sheath off the cable. I think Bunnings (i know you a long way from one but to give you an idea) sells 25mm flex for about $1 p/m so it is cheap.

Originally Posted by Ueee

Hi Dean,
I'm pretty sure 6mm + 4mm earth does not fit in 20mm conduit, you need 25 or you need to strip the sheath off the cable. I think Bunnings (i know you a long way from one but to give you an idea) sells 25mm flex for about $1 p/m so it is cheap.

I kinda thought that might be the case. I will have a look if I am in Mount Gambier some time. We have South Australia's first Masters store opening soon there as well. Next thing is how to attach the conduit to a cable.

I have an extension from an outside GPO across to my implement (junk) shed made of orange sheath cable about 2.5mm. It was originally made from 2 normal extension cords connected together and taped to keep water out. I have a steel pipe attached to the post the GPO is mounted to, then a broken mast from my 16ft mosquito catamaran (it came with the boat as well as a complete mast) which is about 17ft tall from memory and is mounted on a fence post next to the track. Then a gum tree branch about 20ft high then the shed. A stainless cable is stretched along all this. I had a loss of power which I finally tracked to a chewed up extension cord where it sits on the gum branch. Damn cockatoos.

Next I installed the bigger cable, passing it thru flex conduit where it crosses the branch. Have not had cockatoos chew it since. I did discover that an RCD switch still works when the GPO is in off position. Kept tripping the breaker for the shed circuit which this line is also on. Finally looked out in implement shed, as I knew there was nothing in use there. It rarely gets used. Mostly just lights. We had an extension lead on a spool with 4 sockets and a switch plugged in. The cord was chewed up. Totally masticated and sloppy which made the culprits easy to pick. We had put the cows in the area to gnaw on the grass. One thing a cow is good at is getting into trouble. The extension cord was not live at the time.

Anyway, the saga continues. The cables are held together with cable ties but these perish and now a fairly long length of the power cable is dangling below the stainless. I used the mast and the gum tree branch because of their height so the cables are way off the ground when they pass over the track because of the chance of trucks etc with loads passing underneath. Any suggestions on how to attach them and also attach the conduit to a cable for my lathe circuit?

Dean

Dean

Stainless steel cable ties wont perish with UV.

CABLE TIE STAINLESS STEEL 200MM | Cable ties | John R. Turk

Cost not list online, give one of your local electrial suppliers, Bunning etc a call.

Regards
JohnQ

Originally Posted by JohnQ

Dean

Stainless steel cable ties wont perish with UV.

CABLE TIE STAINLESS STEEL 200MM | Cable ties | John R. Turk

Cost not list online, give one of your local electrial suppliers, Bunning etc a call.

Regards
JohnQ

Surprisingly cheap on ebay. 10x STAINLESS STEEL CABLE TIES THERMAL HEAT WRAP 360mm | eBay