Submariner Cable & Large Duct Slitter (RCS-50)

Ships direct from the manufacturer. Please allow up to 10 business days, though it often ships sooner.

The biggest cable on a job, a submarine power cable, a 600-pair telephone trunk, or a large fiber duct, has a jacket thick enough that a knife won't get through it and a standard slitter won't grip it. The Jonard Tools RCS-50 is the ratcheting slitter built for that cable: fixed jaws grip a cable or duct 1-1/2 in (38 mm) or more in diameter, the ratchet drives the blade into the jacket a click at a time, and the blade depth adjusts from 1/8 to 3/8 in (3.2 to 9.5 mm) to cut through the thickest HDPE and heavy-duty jackets and stop. It makes the lateral ring cut and the longitudinal slit a mid-span entry or an end strip needs, in stainless steel with plated steel and aluminum hardware for a tool that lives in wet vaults and on cable ships. It comes in a rugged H-20 carrying case.

Features

• Slits and rings the heaviest cable and duct. Lateral and longitudinal cuts on submarine cables, large fiber ducts, and large-count telephone cables at least 1-1/2 in (38 mm) in diameter.
• Blade depth from 1/8 to 3/8 in. Adjustable from 3.2 to 9.5 mm, for thick-jacketed cables and ducts that no other slitter reaches through.
• Fixed jaws and ratchet. The jaws hold the cable or duct and the ratchet drives the blade in under control, through HDPE and other heavy-duty jacket materials.
• Stainless steel construction. With plated steel and aluminum hardware, for durability and corrosion resistance.
• H-20 rugged carrying case included.

Where It Fits

It suits submarine and offshore cable crews opening large power cable jackets at terminations and repair joints, telecom outside plant teams working 600-pair and larger copper trunks at splice points and vaults, fiber construction crews cutting windows in large HDPE duct for a pull or a splice, utility and industrial electricians stripping large power cable with jackets measured in fractions of an inch, and anyone whose cable is too big for the RCS-30, which stops at a 5 mm blade depth and starts at 25 mm, and who needs the next tool up.

Good to Know

Set the blade depth to the jacket before the first cut: measure the jacket at the cut end or on a scrap, set the depth a touch under it, and add depth a click at a time until the blade just breaks through, since the aim is to cut the jacket and nothing underneath; on a power cable, what's underneath is the shield and the insulation, and on a duct it's the cable inside. The minimum depth is 1/8 in, so the tool is for thick jackets only; a thinner jacket is a job for the RCS-30. For a mid-span window in a duct, make the two ring cuts first, then the two lengthwise slits between them, and lift the panel out; for a mid-span entry on cable, ring, slit, and peel the jacket in sections, watching for the shield or the armor as the panel lifts. Let the ratchet do the work rather than forcing the handles, which is what breaks a blade or wanders into the core, and keep the tool square to the cable on the slit so the cut runs straight rather than spiraling. A submarine cable or a large power cable may have steel wire armor under the jacket; this tool cuts the jacket, and the armor is cut separately with the right cutter after the jacket is off. Cut HDPE and heavy jacket edges are sharp and the panels are heavy; gloves on the peel, and mind your feet. Rinse salt off the tool after marine work, and keep the case closed around it; stainless resists corrosion but the blade edge still wants to be dry.

Specifications

Documentation