so how many times have you been pulling cable on site and
this disaster happens the cable falls off the end of the reel and gets tangled in the
reel holder well today we're going to look at some fantastic products the x-boards from Runpotec
that can solve lots of the problems associated with traditional cable reels
we've been using the xboard here for almost a year and e believe it will make electrician's life
easier don't we gordon certainly do they come in two sizes we've got the x-board 300 (XB300) here for
your smaller cable reels and as we'll see later on the X-board 500 (XB500) that can deal with enormous
reels of cables and weight capacity good thing about these products you also work with the
Runposticks which are here so we'll see how they can integrate with it again to make handling
cables easier so let's dive in and have a look at some of the great features so let's start with
everybody's favorite 2.5 twin of earth putting the rumpostick in there that goes in the mandrel in
the middle just stops the cable reel coming off if the floor was a little bit uneven or a bit bouncy
it's a little bit more security unwind the plastic which is satisfying in itself before obviously the
conductor can be wound off yeah so then let's just get up the speed here pull as much cable
off as quickly as possible go down gordon slow down disaster well is it a disaster actually
because can we just pick up from where we've left off there and carry on reeling well we'll
find out when we but it looks as if that's going to jam doesn't it but it doesn't does it no it's
that the large flange at the bottom there's no else for that cable to go to maintain the bigger
diameter than the reel itself so it isn't going to snag look at that that's a first in it that is
off with ease so let's look at that other problem oh no the end of the reels come off
it's been damp or someone's torn it off and it just winds off yeah that's going nowhere even
if it fell off again we know that the process would be identical it would wind off still so
that's easy okay so here's a drum of arctic grade cable slightly smaller reels in the middle there
caught you out then so you can't use it no just remove that mandrel from there and drop it on
and then we're good to go with this uh smaller smaller sized middle of the cable reel okay that
looks easy as well it does does really wind off really cool oh another problem though it's going
to get caught underneath the drum well let's have a look let's again just carry on reeling
off you'd think it would get stuck but it doesn't it's quite mesmerizing any
of the fact that it doesn't get stuck and it continues to wind itself off
we saw there how it handled the cable with ease but it can also manage weight really well as well
certainly can go so the xb300 can handle an amazing 300 kilos of cable
and we've also got the xb500 that we're going to move up to now gary xb500 nice part number then
how much weight do you think that can well if it's the xb500 i'm going to jump in with that will be
500 kilograms no that's just the diameter cable it can actually handle an amazing 800 kilos of
cable so we thought we'd best put that to the chance of the some of the heaviest objects we
could find around the workshop we haven't got any big cables in so we have to swap in some people
and we can see how easily it handled both the chair and two people being spun around with no
effort at all no and that's you know so these are made of plastic but it's incredibly tough plastic
and also has these small feet on the bottom so you don't damage the floor as well great
features however there is some more features that are hidden within the xb500 should we take a look
at those so here's the export 500 we're going to try it with some tough sheath cable here we know
the amount of cable it can take and the weight of it this is an easy task for the export 500 to spin
that one off however it could fall over is there anything we can do yeah so we can add that again
add the rumper stick into the middle so again if the floor's a bit bouncy we're getting a bit
a bit fast pulling the cable off and things start bouncing around then yeah the runpostick stops the
cable completely moving off center but the other advantage is we can also add another cable reel
to the top so we can double stack them and pull two off at the same time i like that and with
the rubber sticking they've got the security of them not falling over yeah i think you'd probably
put your heavier reel at the bottom but let us know if you've tried this and see how you got on
so here's the secret side of the xboard 500 under here it's like a swiss army knife of possibilities
right okay so you've got these two center sections that you're going to lift up and then them outer
ones so they fold out as well yeah they do so that again increases the diameter which but we're not
thinking cable this time we're thinking possibly some other things we could use the x-board for in
the shape of our favorite product the flexicon now the problem with this is when you're unraveling it
it can be a pet snake and we've charmed it before but this is going to hold it in place to allow me
to unwind it yeah so again you can lock the top section of the x board in place and then just
yeah find the end of your reflexicon and then good to go we can start we can start unreeling okay
so that will just wind straight off now it's never easy to unwind it anyhow but
yeah that is isn't it okay so yeah off it comes i love that yeah another problem solved so now let's
have a look again at some possible some smaller flexi con so we don't need the fold out wings
we'll just back in with the the regular section so again you get them though isn't it you
as soon as you cut those restraining bands it just springs off like a coiled spring yeah like
a slinky going down a staircase yeah it's often everywhere you don't want it to be so you've uncut
the straps on the side and this will just wind straight off well yeah securely held in place and
yeah fantastic way to um unravel flexible conduit i do like that a lot yeah considerably easier
so then let's think about another problem so i'm just putting the top back on but i'm
leaving that central central expanded mandrel in place for that other problem we end up with
a lot remember when the old category six cable and someone's destroyed the box yeah rip the
side open trying to get the cable or it's got damp and this is just again what's yeah solve
the problem there again yeah easy and then when we're all done it all just folds away
put the lid back on and we're ready to easily carry the x-board off
we believe there is no competition between the x-board and this traditional
yeah get over how many times you actually have to put it back together when pulling in cables
we can't floor this it was brilliant when we used it it is yeah and all those features
and incredibly lightweight as well but yet handles an enormous amount of weight but
always ethics we're interested in your feedback what's your cable reels what's your go-to cable
reels are you currently using the x-boards and you think they're as fantastic as we do
please leave all your comments below and we'll try and get back to as many as we
can