Direct burial of well wire?

[MillWeld]

I am extending underground power to a saw shed to operate a handheld blower to blow sawdust off of a sawmill. I have 12 ga 3-wire removed from a well years ago which I will use. Should I bury this directly an avoid cost of putting it in pvc conduit? It's 110 feet long. It obvioulsy can take water immersion - what about soil immersion?
Bob

 

[Army grunt]

I just did that a few years ago(to my saw mill also)I ran it in some old water pipe i had to save it from getting damaged. Just a thought. What type of mill do you have mine is a Linn, I scratch built the carrage an track also built the shed to cover it with lifting beam.
Army Grunt
My mill pictures by falcon6667 - Photobucket

 

[Bigfoot62]

I am extending underground power to a saw shed to operate a handheld blower to blow sawdust off of a sawmill. I have 12 ga 3-wire removed from a well years ago which I will use. Should I bury this directly an avoid cost of putting it in pvc conduit? It's 110 feet long. It obvioulsy can take water immersion - what about soil immersion?
Bob

I can't say about your area, but here, direct burial is a waste of time and money. Without conduit, direct burial cable is just a chew-toy for pocket gophers. To get below them, you would have to bury the cable at least 3' deep.

I would put it in conduit.

 

[MotorSeven]

Here I would do direct bury. I have no power at my mill, so I just use a leaf blower...works great.

 

[big bubba]

if you bury it definitely go well below the freeze depth as the freeze/thaw movement in the soil could damage the wire.
pvc conduit is cheap. also, if large enough, could allow you to snake in a new line if needed. i'd go w/conduit for such a short length. good luck

 

[Farmerford]

Army Grunt:

That was a big project. And the workmanship is first class.

Are you satisfied with the Powerhorse engine? Isn't it the Honda close the Norther Tool carries/

Think I saw a 25th Infantry Division patch in your photos. I had a close up tour of the Ho Bo Woods and other sites around Cu Chi as their guest in 1970.

 

[MillWeld]

I think I will put it in PVC before burial.

ArmyGrunt, nice photos - my mill is a Cooks MP32. Do you visit www.ForestryForum.com? It's another great forum for a lot of people like you & me with sawmills.
Bob

 

[handirifle]

Out here it's against code, if that matters, to place cased wire (romex, etc) inside conduit. It has the be single strand, solid wire. I'm not sure why, but that's their rules.

 

[Army grunt]

>>>>>>>Farmerford<<<<<<<
The power horse didn't have a e-start so I built the one you see on my rig. Its got plenty of power. rember its a 160 linn saw hear. I cut slow , but very happy with it.Tks. for your kind words.
About "the hobo woods"I was there in 66 an trust me it was one of the really bad places we would go for "search & destroy" operations. Ranke right up there with "Iron Triangle"An parrots beak. Our bace camp(we built in nov 66)was in Dau-tang thats just south of The black virgin mt. an south of the 25ths bace camp We the 3rd br. of the 4th Id were assigned to the 25th for about 6 months in the south.My job was infantry team leader, then squad leader after my sq. leader was hit on 1-27-67.
Army Grunt

 

[Cap-n-Cray]

Direct bury wire must be buried 24 inches below grade to meet code. PVC depth is 18 inches. I am not sure about running direct bury wire in PVC. Pipe circuit capacity may come into play.

I would be more worried about voltage drop at 110 feet. How many amp circuit?

I am working on a client's problem right now. Someone ran the pump wire from the house to the well with direct bury wire at 6 inches. The wire came out of the house directly into the ground. Someone decided the wire needed to be protected at the house where it was exposed, so they cut the wire about 6 feet from the house and put it in 1 inch PVC. At the end of the PVC they spliced the wire with an approved method for direct burial, but did not heat shrink the connector. Then buried everything at 6 inches.

While I was working on some other projects a guy showed up and told me that I might want to look at the wire as he heard someone talking about it. I think he was worried someone was going to get hurt. He was right, with 220V 30A in the ground not insulated it was an accident waiting to happen. :confused2:

The property owner had screwed in one of those dog yard hooks into the ground about 2 feet away from the wire. Unsealed spice, rain water, at 6 inches, and 220V could have meant a dead dog or worse.

It is important to do it right. :thumbsup: