skuke wrote:

On Mon, 13 Mar 2006 03:15:22 GMT, Pete C. wrote:


My old housemate spliced fiber cables. The device he often used was about
the size of a large briefcase.

The arc-fusion splicers are pretty damn impressive, the ones I've used
were about 1' cubes. You still need a clean, well lit and climate
controlled work space around it though.

Yeah, that's what he called it; fusion splicer. The first one he had was
about $10k and the size of a large-ish suitcase. The second one, a newer
model, was the same price, but briefcase sized and had more bells and
whistles. I don't remember any cube shaped ones.

I think it was a Fujikura or something like that. Nice little flip up
LCD monitor showing the image from the microscopic camera and the splice
analysis data. Tiny little oven for applying the heat shrink
reinforcements to the splice area. Really neat little unit.


I don't know about the climate control work area though. He used to make
jumpers on my pool table in the garage. Come to think of it, it wasn't
clean or well lit either! He did make bank on those things though. He sit
there and crank out a half dozen(?) every hour and sold them for WELL over
$100.00 each.

Yep, was a time (may still be) when a contractor with a modest
investment in equipment and training could make good money doing fiber
work. Even more money if you had an OTDR.

Pete C.