Control cable buyer in Winston-Salem, NC
Winston-Salem’s process plants were built around relay logic and rewired around PLCs. The control cable from both eras is still in the ceilings, and some of it is still on the shelf.
- Forsyth County
- Multi-conductor
- Process plant legacy
Control cable in Winston-Salem
Control cable is the least glamorous material in a plant and the hardest to describe from memory. It is 16 or 18 AWG, sometimes 14, in pairs or triads or a straight count of conductors, shielded or unshielded, numbered or colour-coded, with a jacket that may be PVC, and it may be tray-rated or not. Two lots that look identical on a pallet can be entirely different products, and the difference is written on the jacket in print small enough that nobody photographs it.
In Winston-Salem the material has a particular history. Plants that began with relay panels and motor starters were later retrofitted with programmable control, and the retrofit usually added cable rather than replacing it. So a single tray can hold original 120 V control, later 24 V DC signal cable, shielded analogue pairs, and a run of thermocouple extension that someone installed because the original was picking up noise.
The process plants in Forsyth County sit in a few distinct bands: the long-established industrial corridor north of downtown, the business parks out towards the airport and Union Cross, and the older tobacco-adjacent buildings that have been subdivided for smaller manufacturers. Each produces control cable of a different vintage, and the vintage shows in the conductor numbering. An 18 AWG numbered pair from a 1970s panel looks nothing like the shielded analogue cable installed beside it.
The subdivided buildings are the interesting ones. A tenant takes half a floor, adds a panel and a dozen instruments, and leaves the previous tenant’s cable in place because removal was not in the lease. Over ten years a single room accumulates four generations of control wiring, most of it still terminated at one end and cut at the other.
Why this material gets reviewed properly
Numbering and shielding are the description
A control cable is identified by conductor count, gauge, shielding and numbering method, in that order of importance. Printed numbers on each conductor are a different product from coloured pairs, and a braided overall shield is different from foil. We ask for a photograph of the cut end with the conductors fanned out, because that single image answers most of the questions.
Short lengths are normal and still useful
Control cable is bought in 25, 50 and 100 ft lengths as often as in 500 ft reels, because a loop between a panel and a field device is not long. A box of ten 20 ft cut lengths of shielded 18 AWG pair is genuinely useful to the right buyer. It is not a reel, and we will not describe it as one, but it is not scrap either.
Legacy cable can carry a surprise
Older control cable sometimes contains asbestos in the jacket or the wrap, particularly in plants of a certain age. We ask about the building’s age before anything is cut, and where there is any doubt the material is sampled rather than handled. This is not a reason to avoid the work, but it is a reason to ask the question early.
Related wire types
Questions on this material
Can you identify control cable if the reel tag is long gone?
Usually. The jacket print carries the gauge and often the conductor count and temperature rating, and the cut end shows the shield and the numbering. What cannot be recovered from the cable itself is the length, which has to be measured or estimated. Send photographs of the print and the fanned conductors and we can tell you what it is.
Do you buy control cable that is still terminated in panels?
Not while it is live, and not while the panel is in service. Once a panel is de-energised and the owner has confirmed it, the cable can be disconnected and removed, and we will review it as removed material. Cutting control cable out of a live cabinet is the kind of shortcut that ends a project badly.
What is the difference between control cable and instrumentation cable?
Instrumentation cable is usually built for signal duty: shielded pairs or triads, tighter impedance control, sometimes an overall drain wire for grounding at one end. Control cable carries switching and status signals and is often unshielded. In practice plants use the terms loosely, which is why we check the construction rather than the label on the box.
Is a mixed box of control cable worth collecting?
If the total is meaningful, yes. Mixed control cable is priced as a group rather than by the piece, and the grouping is what makes it worth a trip. Where the box holds six short unlabelled pieces, we will usually say to keep it until more accumulates rather than spend the freight on it.
Send control cable details
Pickup is in Winston-Salem. Include condition, footage and how the material is stored.
Or email saleselectricalbuyers@gmail.com
- No fee and no obligation to sell.
- Written lot terms before anything moves.
- Pickup scheduled around your access rules.