SELL SURPLUS MC AND AC ARMORED CABLE

Metal-clad cable is a factory assembly: THHN or THWN conductors inside a spiral interlocked aluminum armor, made for the places where running conduit would take longer than pulling a listed assembly. It is a 600V product, built with two to four conductors with or without a grounding conductor, and #14 through #2 covers most of what is stocked and installed. AC cable, still called BX, is the close relative with a bonded aluminum ground strip and a paper wrap separating the conductors from the armor.

Surplus is a coil problem. MC is ordered in coils and on reels, a fit-out changes direction or device count, and half a coil goes back in the gang box. Service changes swap 12/2 for 10/2, redesigns drop a branch circuit, and shops that move to a different wiring method end up with sealed coils they will not use. None of that material is damaged. It is simply the wrong length or the wrong configuration for the next job.

What we buy

• MC cable — interlocked aluminum armor, THHN/THWN conductors, 600V, 2, 3 or 4 conductor with or without ground, #14 through #2.
• AC cable (BX) — bonded aluminum ground strip and paper wrap, 600V, most often 2 and 3 conductor.
• Redundant-ground and hospital assemblies — MC built with an additional green grounding conductor for patient care areas.
• Isolated-ground MC — where the conductor count, colours and print are still readable.
• Armor variants — standard interlocked strip armor and the smooth or corrugated armor used where abrasion resistance is specified.
• Coils and reels — part coils from about 25 ft upward, full 250 ft coils and 1,000 ft reels, banded or boxed.

How to read an MC cable coil

Armored cable is hard to identify from a distance, because the armor hides the conductors. The coil tag and the print on the conductors at an exposed end do the work. Open one end far enough to see the conductor count and colours, then photograph the tag.

Condition and length

Armor takes abuse in a way that conductor never does. A coil that was dragged across a slab, run over by a cart or bent tighter than its radius will have flattened or separated interlocking, and that damage is permanent. Coils stored dry and upright in a gang box or on a shelf are the easy ones.

• Full coils with the factory band, tag and wrapper in place
• Part coils with a legible tag and armor that still interlocks cleanly
• Sealed 1,000 ft reels of 12/2, 12/3, 10/2 and 10/3
• Hospital and redundant-ground assemblies in usable lengths
• AC cable coils with the paper wrap intact and no crushed sections

We decline coils with unwound or crushed armor, cable that has been installed and pulled back, coils with no identifiable conductor count, and lengths short enough that no one will pull them again. Mixed pallets are welcome, since the good coils can be separated from the rest during review.

What to photograph

1. The coil or reel as a whole, with the band or wrapper visible.
2. The manufacturer tag, showing type, conductor count and footage.
3. An opened end, fanned out, so the conductors and ground are countable.
4. Any armor damage, photographed close rather than described.
5. The storage shelf or container, so we know how the material has been handled.

MC and AC surplus in Washington, DC and Maryland

District surplus comes from interior work: office and retail fit-outs, restaurant kitchens, rowhouse renovations and basement build-outs where branch circuits were re-routed after framing. Coils get cut for a run that later changed, and the remainder rides around in a van until someone clears it out.

In Maryland the volume is larger and more institutional. Schools and hospitals in Montgomery and Howard counties, apartment buildings across Prince George’s County and Baltimore, and warehouse or laboratory fit-outs all generate coil ends by the pallet. Contractors who standardize on one assembly also dump the odd counts — 4/C, isolated ground, oversized grounds — when a spec changes between phases.