We buy welding cable.

Size, strand and what the print says

Welding cable is sized in AWG, from 6 up to 4/0 and beyond, with 1/0 and 2/0 the working sizes on most machines. The conductor is rope-laid, made of hundreds of fine strands so the cable bends without work-hardening. That stranding is why it strips and terminates differently from building wire, and why it is worth more per pound than coarse-stranded conductor.

The jacket print gives the size, the voltage rating, the temperature rating and often the strand count. Insulation is EPDM rubber, neoprene or a thermoplastic elastomer, and the good ones stay flexible in cold weather. Cable marked for welding leads is usually rated 600 V, which is why the same product turns up as temporary power on jobsites. It also means the print is the only reliable way to size a coil once the tag is gone.

Where Houston welding cable comes from

Fabrication yards are the main source. A yard running six bays goes through leads steadily, and when a set is retired it is usually still functional but no longer trusted for code work. Those leads come in fifty and hundred foot lengths with lugs on one end and a stripped tail on the other.

Shipyards and marine contractors add heavier material, often 3/0 and 4/0, and the field welding crews that work turnaround and pipeline jobs add coils that have been on a truck for a season. Rental houses rotate out leads when the jackets fail inspection, and that material is usually clean copper under a tired jacket.

• Retired yard leads, 1/0 and 2/0, fifty to a hundred feet
• Shipyard and marine cable in 3/0 and 4/0
• Field crew coils from pipeline and turnaround work
• Ground cable and work leads with lugs fitted
• Temporary power cable used off a welding machine

Lugs and connectors come off before the cable is re-used. They confirm the size and the service, and they do not change the grade.

A lead that has been dragged

Jacket wear is normal and expected. A lead that has lived on a bay floor shows abrasion on one side, flattening where it was run over, and sometimes a burn or two from spatter. None of that disqualifies it. What matters is whether the wear reaches the copper, because a jacket worn through in several places means moisture has been in the strands.

Look at the ends as well. A tail that has been cut back repeatedly is shorter than the tag says, and a cable with green or black corrosion under the jacket has been wet. Coils that sat outside through a summer are the usual case for that, and Houston gives a cable plenty of summer to sit through.

Coiling is the other half of the question. A lead wound on a hook comes off with memory in it, and a coil banded loosely will open in the truck. Welding cable is stiff enough that a loose coil is a handling problem rather than a defect, but it does slow a collection down, so band it before the truck arrives.

• Abrasion that has not reached the copper
• No flattening that has crushed the stranding
• Ends bright, not green or black under the jacket
• Jacket still flexible when bent over a hand
• Length measured, not taken from an old tag

Cable with a jacket worn through in several places is bought on copper content, and it is graded that way at inspection.

Sending a welding cable lot

Give the sizes, the approximate length of each lead, whether the cable is on a coil or a reel, and where it has been stored. Two photographs of the jacket print and one of a cut end are enough for an initial review, and they settle the size and the strand count.

If the lot is a yard retirement, say how many leads there are and whether they are matched sets. A matched pair of 2/0 leads is easier to move than two odd lengths, and it is worth describing that way rather than as a pile of cable in the corner. Say also whether the leads are still connected to a machine, and whether that machine is staying on the floor.