About Chicago Wooden Spools

The problem we work on

Cable, wire and rope arrive on reels, and the reels outlive the job. A contractor finishing a feeder pull, a distributor cutting cable to length, a plant receiving wire at its dock: each ends up with a stack of empties and no obvious place to send them. Some belong to a maker who wants them back. Some are perfectly good and worth money to someone. Some are rotten and need recycling. Sorting that out, reel by reel, is tedious, so stacks sit in yards for months and good wood goes bad.

The four-exit idea

We treat every empty reel the same way: read it, then send it down one of four exits.

1. Buyback for sound one-way reels, which we buy and pick up.
2. Maker take-back for returnable reels, which we list by owner so they go home on the maker's own truck.
3. Recycling for reels past reuse, which leave on the same truck as the ones we buy.
4. Resupply for checked reels, which go to rewinders, contractors, plants and people making tables and gardens.

One request covers all four. The customer sends a count and a photo; the quote says which reels go where; the pickup clears the lot; the ticket records it.

What we are careful about

• Other people's reels. We do not buy reels that belong to a maker, a utility or a rental company. We tell you who to call instead.
• Plain quotes. If a lot is mostly broken and clearing it costs money, the quote says so before the truck comes.
• Safe handling. Big reels are heavy and roll. Pickups are planned around the equipment and ground at each site.
• Straight answers. The guides explain how reels work, including the routes that do not involve us.

Why Chicagoland

Few regions empty more reels. ComEd is carrying out a multi-year grid plan across northern Illinois; data-centre campuses keep rising around Elk Grove Village; the CTA is extending the Red Line to 130th Street; broadband crews are laying fibre with Connect Illinois money; solar farms are going up under Illinois Shines. Wire and cable distributors in Glenview, Bolingbrook and the O'Hare corridor supply all of it, and the industrial parks in Elk Grove, Northbrook and the Calumet receive wire, rod and rope every week. Every one of those flows ends with an empty reel somewhere.

How a quote is put together

A quote starts from the count, the flange sizes and a photo. From those we can tell roughly how many reels are one-way and sound, how many look like a maker's, and how many are past saving. The figure for the sound reels depends on size, condition and how quickly they can be loaded; the cost of the broken ones depends on how many there are. Access matters too: a forklift and a dock make a big lot quick, while a garage corner of small spools is hand work. The quote spells all of this out line by line.

What happens to the wood

Sound reels go back into service with rewinders, contractors and plants, or become tables, planters and displays. Broken reels are taken apart: nails, bolts, plates and bands come out for metal recycling, and the wood goes to a processor. Nothing is dumped.

The drawings

Every picture on this site is a drawing made for it: the routing diagram, the reel elevations, the defects, the staging layout and the corridor map. They show how reels are built and handled. They are not photographs of a yard, a truck or a crew.

What we do not do

We do not buy cable or scrap metal, rent out reels, or sell maker-owned returnables. We do not haul general construction debris, pallets, crates or drums. And we do not quote sight unseen for very large or awkward reels: those get a look at photos, or a site visit, first. Hazardous materials, chemical-soaked wood and reels from contaminated sites are outside what we handle.

Where we work

Chicago's neighbourhoods and industrial corridors, the O'Hare corridor, the North Shore, the west suburbs, the I-55 and I-80 warehouse belt, and Lake County, Indiana. Pickups run by corridor so small lots can share a truck with large ones. See every area.

Who we work with

Electrical contractors, utility and grid crews, wire and cable distributors, data-centre and fibre builders, solar and storage contractors, plants, transit contractors and rigging shops on the selling side; rewinders, contractors, farms, landscapers, makers and households on the buying side. Industries we clear reels for.

Getting in touch

The quickest route is the request form, which reaches us with everything needed to quote. For anything else, write to info@chicagowoodenspools.com.

Empty reels picked up, paid for or recycled across Chicagoland.