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Re terminating ancient cables

Martyn
Hi Folks, 


So I may have a job in the offing where I will need to temporally re terminate these 3 cables, the one on the right is only 1m long so I’ll just replace it. 


The other two are rising mains from the 1940’s each feeding 20 flats, I believe them to be armoured PILC’s though happy to be corrected, the lead is being used as the earth. 


Has anyone re terminated similar and are there any pitfalls that may scupper me? 


The re termination will only be temporary whilst the new building network is being installed.89f8b92115c4d5d4e672a2d7771fc855-huge-a8ae4b2d-f17a-4e4e-a594-4469fa0801a0.jpg



Cheers 


Martyn
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    OMS:

    Those cables are almost certainly paper insulated lead covered with steel wire armouring. Originally they would almost certainly had hessian covering with an impregnated denso type paste. They look  they've dried through and lost the covering.


    Difficult to judge but they look as if they are terminated (badly) into an enclosure full of bitumen, or to a dry enclosure and the lead sheath has been formed over what is effectively a conduit coupler to act as a gland, and to allow clamping to the sheath for earthing purposes


    Personally, unless you have good experience jointing and terminating PILC, I would leave them well alone, even on a temporary basis.


    Probably easier to replace with a length of wavecon if acceptable to the DNO as a temporary BNO cable or use a length of SWA


    Regards


    OMS




    Hey OMS, long time no see! 


    Yes a closer look around does seem to reveal the remnants of hessian, cables rise through the building some 30m I would guess, no outer covering left anywhere that I have seen.


    The terminations above the head is a dry box although with a few ends from old supplies cut off. 


    I have not investigated the ‘glanding’ as the Main Neutral is loose, cant be moving anything about. 


    You will have correctly guessed PILC’s are not my daily bread, maybe 19 last time I dealt with one. 


    If I can get a second supply whilst retaining the existing that makes for a few easier options! 


    Cheers 


    Martyn











     

Reply
  • 0

    OMS:

    Those cables are almost certainly paper insulated lead covered with steel wire armouring. Originally they would almost certainly had hessian covering with an impregnated denso type paste. They look  they've dried through and lost the covering.


    Difficult to judge but they look as if they are terminated (badly) into an enclosure full of bitumen, or to a dry enclosure and the lead sheath has been formed over what is effectively a conduit coupler to act as a gland, and to allow clamping to the sheath for earthing purposes


    Personally, unless you have good experience jointing and terminating PILC, I would leave them well alone, even on a temporary basis.


    Probably easier to replace with a length of wavecon if acceptable to the DNO as a temporary BNO cable or use a length of SWA


    Regards


    OMS




    Hey OMS, long time no see! 


    Yes a closer look around does seem to reveal the remnants of hessian, cables rise through the building some 30m I would guess, no outer covering left anywhere that I have seen.


    The terminations above the head is a dry box although with a few ends from old supplies cut off. 


    I have not investigated the ‘glanding’ as the Main Neutral is loose, cant be moving anything about. 


    You will have correctly guessed PILC’s are not my daily bread, maybe 19 last time I dealt with one. 


    If I can get a second supply whilst retaining the existing that makes for a few easier options! 


    Cheers 


    Martyn











     

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