# Coil of 12 TW



## Phil DeBlanc (May 29, 2010)

Probably need to go with the long explanation here for the youngsters.

Probably the first plastic insulation on wire that replaced rubber insulated wire wat TW (thermoplastic water resistant). In the early 50s most wire was shipped in coils, 500 feet and wrapped with the crinkled paper tape pictured. Corrugated cardboard packaging was still fairly new in 1950, and finding its way to market. Corrugates was also expensive, and since wire packaging was already a settled matter wire would continue to be wrapped the way it was.

With insulation included this wire is very close to 3/16" diameter. 

These are a couple of several coils I stumbled on in an old woodworking factory in 2002 and decided to save.

Just to really confuse young guys, green insulated wire was not necessarily a ground conductor in the 50s, and green wire often carried voltage in industrial plants.


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## farlsincharge (Dec 31, 2010)

What is the temp rating?


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## Phil DeBlanc (May 29, 2010)

farlsincharge said:


> what is the temp rating?


60°c


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## Shockdoc (Mar 4, 2010)

I came across both those colors of that wire feeding outdoor lights. I came across a box of Cerro TW #12 pull from center quite a few years back.


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## ilikepez (Mar 24, 2011)

Isn't that the stuff that releases a weird black goo as it gets degrades? I remember reading about that but I can't find the source.


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## Wirenuting (Sep 12, 2010)

ilikepez said:


> Isn't that the stuff that releases a weird black goo as it gets degrades? I remember reading about that but I can't find the source.


It sure does. And when it's been slicked up with ok'd easy pull, it turns to a powdery dust as you pull it out. 
The hospital I was in for 9 years had this and it sucked all the grease in down in the kitchen. 
All the panels were trimmed out really nice. The old timers used hemp twine and 1/2 hitches to tie it all up.


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## Phil DeBlanc (May 29, 2010)

Wirenuting said:


> It sure does. And when it's been slicked up with ok'd easy pull, it turns to a powdery dust as you pull it out.
> The hospital I was in for 9 years had this and it sucked all the grease in down in the kitchen.
> All the panels were trimmed out really nice. The old timers used hemp twine and 1/2 hitches to tie it all up.


*WATCH the Old Timers comments Whippersnapper!*

It ain't hemp, it's waxed jute, and the later versions are synthetic flat tape. Lashed looms up properly and you have a whole new set of callouses. BTW, you begin with a clove hitch, run half hitches to each breakout and throw a clove hitch at the breakout. The real trick is making the splices in the lashing either look like they belong or not noticeable.


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## Phil DeBlanc (May 29, 2010)

ilikepez said:


> Isn't that the stuff that releases a weird black goo as it gets degrades? I remember reading about that but I can't find the source.


You've got TW confused with the rubber compounds, RW, R, RHW, RHH, and a few others that don't immediately come to mind. Most of the rubbers were coated with a ground mica compound held on with wax.

TW & THW didn't have a sufficient heat rating to run past fluorescent ballasts in fixtures so until THHN came along fixture wiring went with RHH or RHHW, both miserable crap to work with. Neither stripped worth a damn.

Rubber insulated wire in large diameter also often had a woven cloth wrapping over the rubber. Over time, particularly in Loricated conduits these wires came close to gluing their insulation to the inside of the conduit. If oil or grease, particularly food grease was present rubber deteriorated faster.

When doing a pullout for replacement it was pretty normal to leave quantities of rubber insulation behind in the conduit. Fortunately conduit brushes and pigs had already been invented.


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