My first 35kV splice and terminations

I spent the last couple of weeks working with Junior (not the same Junior I've posted about before) on some 35kV splices and terminations. This Junior is Dr. Bob's son. It's pretty cool to get to work with both of them. Junior and I went to 5 years of trade school together, then 2 years of High Voltage Splicing class. The splices were the easiest I've ever done, since they were at the perfect height, and in a large, warm, dry, clean room. I could get used to this sort of work! Here, Junior is chamfering the end of the insulation.


"Hey Shawn!" "Huh?" Yeah, he got a good stupid look out of me. I'm applying the yellow stress-relief mastick to the connector area of this splice. The two completed splices are hanging below.

This would be a great picture of me working on the terminations, if I had only looked up.

35kV cable is a bit bigger than what I've worked with in the past. The terminations are essentially the same, though there is much more exposed insulation (called tracking distance) on a 35kV cable termination than on a 15kV cable termination.

I'm very happy working at NASA. All of the guys there are pretty cool, and we do have a lot of fun busting each other's balls. One of these days, I'll get to work on some lead cables. That will be a new experience for me because, unlike the lead cables I've worked with before, these cables get "wiped", which means working with molten lead to fill in the joint between the cable jacket and the termination.