How do auto splices work? - Splicing powerlines

[@mxslick50]

On the lightning arrestor: The two solid cylinders are the MOV materials (Metal Oxide Varistors, whose resistance is constantly very high until the breakdown voltage is reached, they then go low resistance to shunt current to ground.) The metal rings with the d-shaped opening are the parts that form the spark gap. (They help to protect the MOVs by discharging part of the current and increasing the primary voltage allowed with a given MOV breakdown voltage.) The spring is to tightly compress the stack of rings and MOVs inside the ceramic arrestor body. Since I don't see any external arc damage on the ceramic, and the spring appears to be severely corroded, I'm willing to bet moisture got into it, saturating the MOV materials and allowing a sustained high current arc inside, until it exploded.

[@danmiller2177]

Your absolutely right!!!!! 😂😂😂😂😂😂😂 That's what exactly what happened!!!

[@thetruenorthstrongandfree4038]

Thanks for all of your videos. ❤ Can you make some videos on more rare things like: - covering more about the island house you guys back fed through a 69 kV PT transformer - maybe you can make a maintenance check video on it? I have many questions, like if it’s phase to phase (or to some form of ground), what the overcurrent protection on that looks like. :-) - industrial customers with equipment that is directly powered by medium voltage - Open delta or open wye services - SWER services - Hexaphase services (if applicable) - Rectifier stations - How data customers beyond Telus or Rogers etc. share fibre optic space - who owns the pole or who gives who permission?

[@heatherkohlwey8379]

I think I sent you some pics of the old lightning arrestors I found while cleaning my basement a while ago. I've watched all of your videos and it seems the only time you aren't dealing with rain, snow, wind, pitch black or all of the above is when you're making a video in the man cave.😊 Thanks for showing that sleeve again. It's simple, handy, and works. Please stay safe, and God bless.

[@ethanlamoureux5306]

Not only do you not need tools to make a splice with these, but they also have the advantage of not requiring any additional cable length, as many crimp splices require an overlap but these splices simply butt the ends together while the body of the splice takes both the mechanical strain and the current.

[@hobbesip1]

I happened to look up the other day as I parked on my street and notice one of these finger-traps on one of the hots in the triplex that feeds myself, two neighbors and some streetlights. It's near an old tree branch and it looks to be fairly old, but still is holding strong. It's neat to see an explanation like this on a repair device right outside my window.

[@PRR1954]

"neat to see an explanation like this on a repair device right outside my window." I have splices on two Hots and a Neutral in the woods 300 feet down the drive. Storm, lights went out, came back for my neighbor but not for me. (Before 'smart' meter monitoring.) I figured new line. No, the linemen found the break in the rainy dark and fixed it, quick!

[@linehandibew6205]

If I need to remove a sleeve I use my Milwaukee pipe cutter. Just need to leave you rigging Back far enough in order to slide the sleeve body back on the wire so the wedges can fall out. They had us removing autos and installing compression sleeves on our system. Easier to cut them and keep your tails instead of having to cut the sleeve on either side and installing a Dutchman

[@photocontrol]

Great internal look at how the automatic splices work!

[@FixitFrank]

Looks like water got inside going by the rust. That could flash boil and blow the bottom apart like that. Those MOV slugs are beasts.

[@lokiva8540]

I've managed a lot of systems with high voltage DC, and high power RF, with sometimes greater and less visible safety hazards than secondary electric distribution. Catastrophic lightning damage is easy to see, compared to some failures, albeit if lightning melts cable pairs internal to phone lines scattered over a couple miles, and melts wiring off fusholders as protection inside pass-thru shielded isolation housings, finding all the damage can be hard, noting that level of hits vaporizes brass housings around protective devices and burns plastics. One of the trickier failures to find I've seen involved a ceramic insulator body and sleeve set forming bright colored crystal paths like worm holes, but only inside the glazed outer body, not visible until disassembly. That caused periodic shorts for no obvious reason on humid days only, and took months to isolate for disassembly and inspection. I've also see telco insulators form ohmmeter measurable DCR shorts, that went away when disassembled for inspection, that did NOT show a visible carbon track, but had to hav had one until disturbed. At the other extreme, NASA in Florida has some extreme lightning protection arrays, using sets of 30 foot long, 4-6 inch diameter slotted copper pipe buried in sand, with chemical salts for improved conductivity. They've taken hits severe enough to melt that amount of sand and in effect glaze huge buried electrodes and make them insulators. That's a level of hit that burns and explodes substation gear, despite protectors.

[@slolevis6177]

Out her in BC, hydro decided to stop using them ,maybe 10-15 years ago after some of them let go and the conductor hit the ground is a couple of cases still energized. They then started a replacement program in some of the highest failure rate areas, Vancouver island,lower mainland,Haida Gwaii. There may have been other areas as well. They determined the failure was due to corrosion and the springs rusting out. As I was working for the Construction division at that time we changed out hundreds of these mostly on feeders. We use 2 for 1 compression sleeves that were long enough to crimp on either side of the auto we cut out. Some of the sleeves were fairly long the 266 and 336 sleeves were close to a meter in length if I remember correctly. We changed out feeder sleeves mostly energized. Not the fastest was to do it but the least disruptive

[@Jehty_]

Why does the spring rusting out cause a failure of the splice? If I understand correctly how they work, then the spring doesn't serve any purpose once the wire is spliced.

[@slolevis6177]

From the few I opened up that failed by releasing the wire they were all extremely corroded. A mix of rist and oxidized aluminium crumble. I rarely saw a sleeve fail it this way. Usually the wire breaks outside the sleeve within a few inches. I need to add that on Vancouver Island where I worked we have a rather large amount of rain and snow at higher elevations coupled with endless trees. The majority of storm damage work we preformed is due to wind causing breaking branches, trees falling and massive amounts of water than can at times saturate the ground and trees can blow over rootball and all.

[@slolevis6177]

Bc hydro took a very low risk policy and decided to try to replace ALL the automatics. The program kind of fizzled out and it seen now that they get replaced if the wire is being replaced/ upsized or during storm damage when the wire is torn down.

[@pete4082]

@1:53 it looks like someone over tightened and cracked the ceramic years ago; the rough area of the fracture is where the clamp ear is bent inward. You can see the rust line within the ceramic at that same stress point. I'm assuming these are sold with torque specs?

[@rocks-if6uh]

Hey i hope you had a great Christmas and a quiet new year.

[@Bobsdecline]

Episode 12 ➡➡ kzbin.info/www/bejne/j6iqZJqmm8eVa7M&t

[@wirenut003]

Quick fix on the wire splice, an interesting part for repairing a broken wire. Happy New Year to All

[@jeffreykornspan9053]

Aaron, I like how you keep and display all the blown up pieces of equipment. Another subject., My county lost a firefighter on a house fire two days ago. I heard from a Chief friend of mine that the 46 year old firefighter went into the fire and down a flight of steps and was electrocuted. My thoughts of course are "why wasn't the meter pulled?' His station was on a mutual aide house fire in a neighboring county here in Maryland. There is an investigation coming, so we shall see. It's so unfortunate that this has happened and common sense is wait for the utility to pull the meter. More to come and thanks for your video. jk

[@craig5222]

Dang man what county in MD?

[@jeffreykornspan9053]

@@craig5222 The fire was in Prince Georges county and the firefighter was from Station 15 in Montgomery county. Howard County was also a Mutual on site. There was a preliminary report released today that he was aiding with a ladder, but we shall see when they release the final. He was taken to the Morgue in Baltimore with Fire Rescue trucks and personal. More to come in the future.

[@craig5222]

@ ten four. That sucks man my condolences. Honestly I was shocked to see someone from MD comment here on Bobs Decline lol. Cheers from Wicomico

[@bretthibbs6083]

I remember way back in the early 90's I woke up due a wicked thunderstorm in Florida and there was a very close lightning strike and I was out in my yard the next day and found a piece of wire that was used on a pole for a powerline and we did have a 7200 volt powerline that ran through our yard or between my house and the house behind me I'm not sure where it came from and it was about about 2 or 3 feet long at most and also I was about 40 yards from a sailboat that got struck by lightning in Florida and it pretty much blew the antennas off the mast and blew the electronics up inside the boat so I wasn't surprised to see what it had done to the lightning arrestor

[@hburke7799]

thanks, I've wondered how these were used! PS, the powerlines here are so hacked together there's about 3 per span on average... wild stuff

[@russellthompson3486]

Nice. The splice is kinda like the paper Chinese finger trap/trick. The harder you pull your fingers apart the tighter the trap grips ?? I don’t know I’m just guessing

[@Bobsdecline]

Pretty much!!

[@AliAl-Faesly]

Really neat, thanks for sharing

[@jonathanguess4052]

Hi my friend I just want to take time to tell you I love your videos

[@nateroth1302]

I didn't know Milwaukee makes automatic sleeves. You always get the cool stuff.

[@justinglenn69]

In years ago the cruise ship would have been berthed at N-Shed around the corner from where you were.

[@Scott-s9u3n]

Some years ago, an ice storm went through this part of Kentucky, bringing down power lines everywhere. There must be dozens of these splices within a five mile radius of my neighborhood. They myst be reliable.... Kentucky has some severe weather of all types, and they seem to do what they're designed to do...

[@LanceMcCarthy]

I'm guessing the gasses inside the arrestor expanded so fast and there was a crack/weakness in the cermaic

[@topherd1011]

I have a question as just a regular ol country boy here in the SE US …. But… what if a transmission line has like 30 of these holding it together in like a 4KM stretch? This particular line has been broken over and over and over.. still safe with all the patches? God I hope so it’s right over us 😂

[@mikemazzantini6397]

Each utility has their own standards as to how many splices between poles or sometimes how close to each other they can be.

[@johnclyne6350]

Hey! Aaron, you're supposed to spit on the end of the wire before you insert it into the pickle. Everyone knows that!

[@MrBen527]

I had one of those arrestors explode near me while outside with my garage open. It was loud and pieces went everywhere, just missing myself.

[@johnclyne6350]

@@MrBen527 Yes, they blow out the bottom as seen in the video. The new poly insulators are too new to see how they handle a dead short inside.

[@MrBen527]

@johnclyne6350 Mine exploded completely, the whole assembly. A couple of pieces flew right past me and into my garage.

[@johnclyne6350]

@@MrBen527 You must have been near where the lightening strike was? The top part is connected to a tap wire connected to the high voltage line. Inside are little brass plates separated by 2” tall ceramic discs. They stack them inside. Brass plate, then ceramic disc. Brass plate, then ceramic disc. All the way down the barrel until they get to the last piece of porcelain. Where the ground is connected. They MUST be connected to a wire without connectors to a driven ground. That way the extra high energy of the lightening strike goes straight to earth (ground). Where it radiates out & hopefully dissipates. Only lightening at around a million volts can bridge the gaps in the arrestor. In a brief period of time all the power goes into the lightening arrestor. Hence why when after a lightening strike the lights momentarily dim. Electricity takes all paths to ground. Lightening arrestors are designed to take that brief momentary surge of electricity & hopefully send it away from power company equipment & customers houses. Hence why they detonate like a bomb.

[@MrBen527]

There was no lightning or storm that day. I recall talking with the lineman, and he said they fail like it did sometimes.

[@NoName-OG1]

Sticking it in - can’t get it back out - there’s got to be a “your mom” joke in there somewhere.

[@stevee7774]

Definitely. Either that or a “That’s what she said….”

[@NoName-OG1]

@ that IS what she said - over and over again.

[@raymondseeger4832]

Neat! Do these end up staying for the life of the line then? Or does it go onto a maintenance backlog to track and eventually replace that section of line, maybe during the less stormy seasons?

[@obd6HsN]

These are classed as a permanent repair.

[@grabasandwich]

Those look like a giant version of the ones used in telco to extend the steel support on an aerial drop. Edit: strand link was the name

[@unwired1281]

👍👊‼️

[@imeprezime1285]

I guess, sometimes, the tension must be incredible

[@johnwalker890]

Good deal Aaron........

[@CajunReaper95]

Ima take a guess that the arrestor probably had some internal stress within the ceramic and blew apart once the fuse went causing the destruction you see again it’s just a guess.

[@kkampy4052]

I would guess the arrestor took a direct hit.

[@steveblake8766]

7th thumbs up

[@JamesTK]

Why use these when you can just scotch lock the lines together

[@kkampy4052]

Like chinese fingercuffs.

[@AtOddsAlways]

I'm willing to bet the arrester took a positive lightning stroke. Their current is normally scores greater than the lower amperage and much more common negative strokes.

[@gusfc1842]

Chinese finger trap

[@Bobsdecline]

Yes exactly!

[@allensanders5535]

dude unless Milwaukee is giving you them hand tools for free there are better and cheaper hand tools out there, you can't beat there power tools but there are better hand tools with lifetime warranties.

[@mikemazzantini6397]

If you're talking about lineman tools, in my opinion Milwaukee makes some of the best and will probably put some of the older brands out of business. Also if it's your job, a good tool pays for itself many times over.

[@wirenut003]

@@mikemazzantini6397 Tell that to Klein