Mastering Fusion Splicing: Insights and Best Practices with Jane Bailey CFOS

This episode explores the intricacies of fusion splicing and its vital role in fiber optics, featuring insights from expert Jane Bailey. Listeners learn about the advantages of fusion splicing, the importance of cleanliness, safety measures, and practical tips to improve their skills in the field. 

• Introduction to the importance of fiber optics
• Overview of fusion splicing and its advantages
• Comparison of fusion splicing and mechanical splicing costs
• Evolution of fusion splicing technology and its impact
• Core alignment versus cladding alignment explained
• Essential tips for effective fusion splicing
• Discussion of contamination issues and their resolutions
• Importance of safety in fiber optic work
• Challenges of inside vs. outside plant splicing
• Introduction to spider fiber and its benefits
• Insights into OTDR testing and ghosting phenomena

Chapters

• 0:00 Fiber Optics and Fusion Splicing
• 5:00 Evolution of Fiber Splicing Machines
• 15:04 Fusion Splicing Best Practices
• 21:25 Fiber Termination Tools and Techniques
• 28:28 Fusion Splicing Safety Considerations

Transcript

Speaker 1: 0:00

Welcome to let's Talk Cabling, the award-winning podcast where knowledge is power and the low-voltage industry connects. Hosted by Chuck Bowser, rcdd. We're here to empower installers, designers and industry pros with the tips, stories and best practices you need to stay ahead. From copper to fiber, standards to innovation, this is the show that keeps you plugged into success. So grab your tools, turn up the volume and let's talk cabling.

Speaker 3: 0:36

Hey, wiremonkeys, welcome to another episode of let's Talk Cabling. Today we're talking fiber optics with a fiber optics instructor. Welcome to the show where we tackle the tough questions submitted by installers, apprentices, technicians, project managers, estimators, it personnel, even customers. We're connecting at the human level so that we can connect the world. If you're watching this show on YouTube and you like this content, would you hit the subscribe button and the bell button to be notified when new content is being produced? If you're listening to us on one of the audio podcast platforms, would you mind leaving us a five-star rating? Those simple little steps helps us take on the algorithm so we can educate, encourage and enrich the lives of people in the ICT industry.

Speaker 3: 1:21

Wednesday night, 6 pm, eastern Standard Time. What are you doing? You know I do a live stream on TikTok, instagram, facebook and all those other places. Well, you get to ask your favorite RCDD and you know that's me Questions on installation, certification, design, project management. I even do career path questions. But I can hear you now, but, chuck, I'm driving my truck at 6 pm, I don't want to crash. I record them and you can find them at letstalkcablingcom. And finally, while this show is free and will always remain free. If you find value in this content, would you click on that QR code right there? You can buy me a cup of coffee, you can schedule a 15-minute one-on-one call with me after hours, of course, and that helps support the show.

Speaker 3: 2:04

So one of the most common areas of questions that I get in fiber is fusion splicing. A lot of people think that it's a magic art. It's not really. It's pretty simple. I mean, I can teach anybody how to do it. I taught one of the other instructors who never fusion spliced how to do fusion splicing in a matter of minutes and he was getting results at 0.01, 0.02. So it's not that hard. But I wanted to invite. I've been chasing a person to come on the show for oh, I don't know two years, two years, and I finally got her to agree to come on. Now you might be wondering why did I invite her? Because she's an instructor in fiber optics and all over LinkedIn. I just I admire the dickens out of her. Welcome to the show, jane Bailey. How are you doing?

Speaker 4: 2:51

Good to meet you, Chuck.

Speaker 3: 2:52

Thank you for having me. It's about time I got you on the show. I told you I'd get you. I told you I'd get you. You did so. Why don't you go ahead and give us the 30 secondsecond introduction who you are and why should the audience listen to what you have to say?

Speaker 4: 3:07

Well, I'm Jane Bailey. I've been involved with fiber optics since 1998. I started back with Expertec as a fusion splicer. I did a lot of DAVE-RAC testing at that time as well, and I spent about 24 years in the field as a fusion splacer and now I'm in a management role, so I develop other people to learn how to do the job. I'm an FOA certified instructor as well.

Speaker 3: 3:35

I got. Yeah, I want to ask you about that, because on your your LinkedIn profile and the link will be in the description below it says CFOS slash I. What does that mean?

Speaker 4: 3:45

So I'm a certified fiber optic specialist with my instructor certificate.

Speaker 3: 3:49

Okay, so how's that? How's a CFOS different from a CFOT?

Speaker 4: 3:56

Well, a CFOT has your. It's your basic core course and it's generally a three to five day depending on who's teaching it, and the specialist just kind of goes into things like whether it's data to the antenna system or fusion splicing testing. You're more specialized in that specific area, so it could be outside plant as well.

Speaker 3: 4:18

Gotcha. So the CFOS would be like the next step up after the CFOT. That's right. Yeah, that makes sense. That makes sense. So all right, let's get into this. What is fusion splicing and how does it differ from other fiber optic termination methods?

Speaker 4: 4:31

Well, fusion splicing is a permanent joint. It's going to give you a low loss on your cable, more so than you would with connectors, more so than mechanical splices. So even though a mechanical splice is considered a splice, it still has more of a loss similar to a connector. So fusion splicing is the way to go if you're looking for low loss in your system.

Speaker 3: 4:54

Especially with, like cable TV, where the losses are extremely tight budgets. That's right. And I get you know because I teach during the day. See, I'm really like a generalist when it comes to teaching. I teach a little bit of everything code, standards, copper, fiber, blah, blah, blah. But you know I lean to people like you and Lee Renfro for the fiber stuff because you guys are the. I consider you guys the experts. I'm just a good generalist, but I get questions all the time. You know fusion spl splicing, also fusion splice on connectors, and so the question is you've kind of already answered it you know fusion splicing is better because you have less loss, but have you ever done any any uh consideration or research on which is cheaper? Is it cheaper to fusion splice or is it cheaper to do a mechanical splice?

Speaker 4: 5:43

I would say it depends on how you're fusion splicing, but the fusion splicing will give you the lower losses. So that to me is a key critical point. Those mechanical connectors. They serve a purpose but they can be quite expensive. So I've seen in the past people putting those on where it takes them five or six or seven to get it correct and to get a low loss. So when you're paying $20 a connector or 17, it adds up to something at the end of the day.

Speaker 3: 6:12

Right right. And with fusion splicing your consumables are pretty minimal. I mean, you're going to have to have a cleaver, you're going to have to have the sleeve which usually comes with the thing, so the consumables are far less. On mechanical, you know mechanical connectors, mechanical splicing first came out. I don't know if you're I don't think you're old enough to remember this, but I am, because I've been in the industry since 1982. Gosh, I'm old. I remember when mechanical connectors first came out there was a problem with temperature ranges and expansion and contraction and stuff.

Speaker 4: 6:47

Now they've kind of gotten past it, but future splicing, yeah, and the extra refractive gel. Inside of them too. They were drying up. So especially if you're in buildings where they had hydronic heating or heating in the floors, you'd go in and those connectors they would dry up over time, which would cause system failure. So in a lot of cases they were pulling those connectors off and then just splicing on pigtails and that's to solve the issue.

Speaker 3: 7:08

Yeah, and the last thing you want to do as end users have the backbone go down in your network, because you know, I don't know the index.

Speaker 3: 7:17

Match you gel dried up? Explain that one to the customer right. So terminating fiber has evolved. I remember when I first learned how to terminate fiber, everything was a two-part epoxy with this big old polishing machine and you had to put it on the one disc and let it go for eight minutes, go to the next disc, wait for eight minutes and then it went to the handheld pucks and stuff. So how has fusion splicing evolved to meet the industry needs?

Speaker 4: 7:42

Oh, wow, I mean, it's involved, involved, incredibly. I used to say we're fusion splicers, now we're more strippers and cleaners. We are splicers because the machines have evolved. They'll do all of the lining up of the xy. Uh, they basically do everything for you. You just have to do a nice clean cleave, make sure your fiber is clean. So they've evolved. I mean, when I first started splicing I'm looking through a, I'm lining everything up on the X, y axis Plus your arc was wide open. I mean, think about that, that's a 740 fold arc. If your finger's in the wrong spot, it has the potential to blow a hole through it. So now the guys are protected where they have the windscreens on them and everything's got to be shut tight before it'll create that arc.

Speaker 3: 8:25

So I imagine you've probably got to experiment with a lot of different manufacturers of fusion splicers. Right, I have. Yeah, which is your favorite.

Speaker 4: 8:35

Well, a lot of people are going to hate me for saying this, but I actually am really prone to the FiberFox. I love their 6S and I love their Mini 12R.

Speaker 4: 8:45

I've had using it in the field. I actually had four or five, maybe six networks in a row without a single deficiency. So people said, well, no, that's your skill. And I said, well, maybe not, it might be the machine too. So we are using them here in Atlanta, canada, we purchased them for our slicers and, to be quite honest, we noticed the deficiencies change incredibly with them. But I'm also a fuji kura girl too. I love those.

Speaker 3: 9:11

So yeah, I'll see, I'll see. Uh, hey, I'll see. If I refox at the bixi conference here in a few weeks, I'll I'll make sure to relay that, that, uh, that you, you. You called them out and said that you, you like them the best I do, I love, I love their machines.

Speaker 4: 9:24

I really do, and they've been really good to the training school too. So that's even more helpful.

Speaker 3: 9:30

Yeah, yeah right, Because fusion splicers, while they're not expensive as a cable certifier, they're still not cheap.

Speaker 4: 9:38

They're still going to be between, and that depends too if you're going core alignment or cladding alignment. That's going to make a big difference, Great.

Speaker 3: 9:44

It depends too if you're going core alignment or cladding alignment? That's going to make a big difference, great lead-in. Great lead-in because you know, I get asked a lot too, because some people are looking to purchase a fusion splicer and they want to know well, should I go with core versus clad alignment? What's?

Speaker 4: 9:57

your thoughts. It depends on what you're doing. So I've seen in mining operations where they're not sending data. It might be just to make a switch go on, or it could be to run an elevator or something like that. You can get away with a cladding alignment machine, but if you're doing backbone or you're doing transport, fiber or long haul, I think you want to be using your core alignment. Now, that being said, I don't have a lot of experience with cladding alignment. I've used them on two projects. One was a windmill, a windmill farm with 97 towers, and the other one was fiber to the home. It was a rural build and it was the first one I did back in 2015, and I had a cladding alignment unit and it was fine for doing the mid-splicing and plus, I was in a harsh condition, so it's snowing, it's raining, it was windy and cold. So having a $7,000 machine outside in those elements versus a $20,000, it makes your day a little more comfortable to do the job for sure.

Speaker 3: 10:59

You're not always fusion splicing in a nice warm environment that's 75 degrees and lots of light.

Speaker 4: 11:06

Well, sometimes, yeah, but not all the time. I've noticed since we've done rural broadband, you do spend a lot more time out of the truck than we used to, but it's kind of nice too.

Speaker 3: 11:17

It has some advantages. I keep telling my wife that if I ever win the lottery, there'll be signs. And she goes what do you mean? I said there'll be a fiber-splicing truck sitting out in our driveway. You know what? It's? A good light. I don't splice fiber, I just want to have them because I think they're so cool. I just think they're so cool. So let me, I'm just going to run this through my head, through a thought process, and you tell me if I'm right or wrong and I'll probably insert a graphic here in the video. So there's three components to every fiber strand the core, which is the very center, and then think of another ring outside. That's the cladding, and then the aqua coating. So the cladding alignment it lines the cladding, but the cores may or may not be aligned. That's correct.

Speaker 4: 12:09

Okay. So the core alignment is looking at the cores to make sure they're in line, which is more important. Does that make sense? Yeah, and it's really important too. If you're especially when you're splicing into legacy fiber, maybe putting some new, modern, up-to-date fiber and you're going to legacy those cores, you want to make sure that they're as lined as possible. And I mean, a lot of people don't put the core into perspective. It's only know, 8.3 to 10 microns in size, and if you look at the thickness of a sheet of paper, that's 50 microns. So it's a very, very small area that we're playing with.

Speaker 3: 12:33

So if we're off, you're going to notice it for sure. Right, you'll start getting some issues there with your transmission performance, right? So the core alignment's going to be the better. If you're going to be transmitting data and stuff, what? What's the cost difference between a core and? I don't expect you to quote numbers, but I mean, is the core more expensive or is the cladding more expensive?

Speaker 4: 12:54

the core core will be more expensive. So, um, I'm thinking of one brand in particular. You're probably going to pay about 1515,000 for a core alignment. You'll pay about $7,500 for their cladding alignment Gotcha. So they do serve their purpose. There are times where you can use them. I see a lot in industrial environments where they're splicing multimode In a multimode environment. They're fantastic because you're dealing with a large core and you don't have to be quite as concerned with it being perfectly aligned where you do with the single mode.

Speaker 3: 13:26

Right, and for those who may not know, that the core sizes on multi-mode are typically going to be 50 micron or the old legacy 62.5. So they're a lot larger than single mode, so they do have a little bit more leeway too, right. So as a fusion splicer out in the field. So as a fusion splicer out in the field, are there some challenges and the differences between I mean, is there extra steps or more care you got to exercise over core versus cladding?

Speaker 4: 13:54

I think with the core you have to be a little more sensitive to dirt. With the cladding, because it's lining, I mean, you still obviously care about it not being dirty, but it's going to probably fuse it even if there's dirt there. So not going by the numbers on the machine, whether it's core or it's cladding, is going to be key. You want to be looking at the XY axis to ensure that you've got a proper fit course place.

Speaker 2: 14:20

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Speaker 3: 15:02

49 volts podcast on YouTube or wherever you listen. I tell people all the time when you're fusion, splicing that as you, as you put it in, after it lines the X and Y axis up. If it just doesn't look right or doesn't, it doesn't feel right, take it back out and start over again. It's better to to re. I mean it doesn't. You don't lose a lot of money by fusion, but he's cutting off and redoing again. But why not just restart from the very beginning? Just don't touch that end, because you've already.

Speaker 4: 15:24

Yeah, it's easier to just break it now than to rack it all up and then come back and take it down and put it back in your vehicle and redo it. So we do kind of push that with the splicers to try to, you know, be a one and done, don't go back for fixes. We want to avoid that if we can, because that if we can, Because you know that service call.

Speaker 3: 15:42

It always comes in on a Friday afternoon Three o'clock and it's three o'clock and it's snowing outside or raining or sleeting outside. It never comes in on a Wednesday morning when it's 80 degrees and the birds are chirping. Yeah, that's for sure. Oh, by the way, you got called off another project that you have a deadline, that you've got to get done and that deadline is not moving, yeah that's true.

Speaker 3: 16:06

Does that sound familiar? That's very true. All right, so you've got the actual field experience. You're an instructor. Give us some tips that people should look for while they're fusion splicing.

Speaker 4: 16:17

Okay. Well, I think I see a lot of people really focusing, you know, focusing as the fiber is coming in. So what I get the guys to look for is do you have a 90-degree end on there? Is there any chips or fractures or breaks or anything? If there is, just stop your machine, re-strip it, re-clean it, re-cleave it and put it back into the machine Once it's fused.

Speaker 4: 16:40

You're going to get a number and that number is just an estimate and I think a lot of people don't realize that. They say, hey, I got a 0.00. My experience is that a .00 is not always a good splice and the reason being is you're taking two imperfect pieces of glass and you're trying to say that you're making it perfect and we all know that that's impossible. Now, not to say 0.00 zeros aren't going to give you a good splice. They certainly can. But my experience has been that a dot zero one, a dot zero two generally, is going to give you a better splice. But that number is just an estimate and it's only estimating roughly 36 inches of cable either side of the splice. So it's not really that

Speaker 4: 17:18

legitimate. You need to go in. Take a look at the X Y axis. It takes an extra four or five seconds to do that and look at the core Is it fat, is it skinny, is there any imperfections in it? And oftentimes you'll see if you have a splice, a zero zero. If you look at the X axis, the splice is beautiful. But then you look at the Y and you see there's just a slight little imperfection in there. So that's where you'd want to break that and go on. And if you do follow those types of techniques, you'll find that you're a proficient splicer that doesn't generally end up with deficiencies, that's actually good.

Speaker 3: 17:52

I've never heard that before. I'm probably getting a fusion splicer within a few weeks. One of the manufacturers reached out to me and said do I want one to play with?

Speaker 4: 18:01

And you know what my response was right, Absolutely, manufacturers reached out to me and said do I want one to play with? And you know what my response was right.

Speaker 3: 18:06

Absolutely yes, and if they have to tell them about me, yes, yes. Well, I don't want to say who that manufacturer is yet because I don't have it in my hands yet. So once I have it in my hands then I'll say who it is. But because I love experimenting with this stuff. So what you're saying I never thought about this before. So if you get a, when you get that reading that 0.00, what you're saying is a good tip is go look at your X and Y axis again just to make sure. Absolutely yeah. Don't assume it's going to be a good connection.

Speaker 4: 18:32

Yeah, I actually was training with a fellow in a truck not that long ago and I suggested he looked. And it was my lucky day because when he looked at the Y axis there was an imperfection there and I said there you go. I just proved to you that zero zero didn't work and it was just fluke that it happened. And I was grateful that it happened because it actually made me look really good.

Speaker 3: 18:54

Nothing's better as an instructor when you tell the student, hey, this can happen, and they're kind of like, yeah, whatever, no, no, no. But then it happens and you can show them. See, I told you that's right one for the instructor. I love those kinds of teaching moments, I really do so. So you want to make sure you look at the, the, the um, the, the core, alignment, make sure everything's lined up, make sure you don't have any chips. How would contamination show up in a fusion splice?

Speaker 4: 19:25

Oftentimes the splicers now are quite intelligent. They will pick up on contamination and sometimes they just won't let you splice because it won't shoot the light through and it'll tell you it's contaminated. But when the fiber comes in it does try to blow any dust or debris or particulate off of the fiber and for the most part it will get it, but not always. So your machine will generally stop and tell you to take a look at the fiber. Usually it'll just tell you to re-clean it.

Speaker 3: 19:54

Because things can happen when you're standing on top of that ladder out in the field trying to see if a seed can blow inside of it. Because if you go straight from the cleave right straight to the fusion splicer you're lessening the chance of contamination being on it. Because you really shouldn't be touching the end of a fiber after you cleave it anyway, because you're going to put oils off your finger and sweat and all that stuff Cleave. Put it right in a fusion splicer right away. Don't cleave it and then make a phone call and call your boss. Hey boss, can I have February 15th of the 20th?

Speaker 4: 20:26

No, no, fusion, splice it put it in its heat shrink tube, then call your boss. Well, one of the big things that I notice as a mistake too is they'll see, guys, they'll strip the fiber, they'll clean it, they'll cleave it, they'll clean it and they'll put it into the splicer. But they need to eliminate that second clean because after it's cleaned you're down to brittle glass. That's 125 microns, not much bigger than a single strand of hair, so it's very delicate. So once it's cleaved it should go immediately into the machine, no questions asked. Try not to clean it. If you do have to clean it, the machine is telling you to clean it. You have to be very gentle and it's a 50-50 chance you're going to put that back in the machine where it's actually going to work for you.

Speaker 3: 21:09

So I'd say at that point just cut it and re-clean it. Yeah, I'd say just cut it and re-clean it. Oh, here's a question for you Do you prefer the heat shrink stripper or do you use just a regular hand strippers?

Speaker 4: 21:25

uh, for mass fusion, splicing ribbon, absolutely thermal, uh, so I'll use the heat stripper for that, uh, but single fusion, I don't know. I I like my hand tool, my, you know, single or triple tribal strippers. Uh, they're sufficient. I don't know that. The thermal stripper actually saves you a whole lot of time. And if they're running on batteries, I did use one in the past for the 900 micron fiber and I found I just chewed through batteries. I'd have to change the batteries two or three times a day. So I don't know if those have evolved over the last little while. Perhaps they have. Maybe they plug them in now, I don't know.

Speaker 3: 22:09

But I don't know. But uh, I don't know, I like having my hands on it. Yeah, when I teach fiber in my classes the hands-on fiber, because I do virtual and face-to-face classes and when I teach my face to face polish chuck.

Speaker 4: 22:15

Anymore. We can't use nail polish remover. They took the proper isotope out of that, so it doesn't work like it used to. At what At? Least in Canada, maybe America's better.

Speaker 3: 22:24

Well you know, nail polish remover is also the best thing to use for taking Sharpie off of connecting blocks.

Speaker 4: 22:31

Okay.

Speaker 3: 22:32

A lot of people don't know that I always just used alcohol.

Speaker 4: 22:35

That works too.

Speaker 3: 22:37

Yeah, but nail polish remover is easier. Yeah, you can get that pretty easy. By the way, if you're using isopropyl alcohol, it should be not the stuff that you buy from the Walgreens or the CVS. They're supposed to be 99% pure, 99% pure.

Speaker 4: 22:52

Yeah, they say 99.9. I think I've used as low as 99, and it seems to work well. And the other day, for the first time, I saw 99.8, and I said the other day, for the first time I saw 99.8, and I said, eh, there you go.

Speaker 3: 23:03

It's pretty cool. There you go, there you go, oh. But I wanted to kind of circle back just a tiny bit there talking about the thermal strippers. I think for somebody brand spanking as an instructor, this is where I was going with that. So my ADHD kicked in.

Speaker 3: 23:17

As an instructor, when I'm teaching people how to terminate fiber, there's two types of people sitting at my fiber termination desk right. There's those people who have no experience whatsoever and they're willing to listen to every piece of instruction I give them, and then there's the person who sits down. I've been doing this for seven years. Well, you know, the person who does the seven years is usually the person I've got to retrain, but the new person. The biggest holdup I find with them is stripping the fiber because their hands are shaking and they don't have them build up muscle memory up and know how much to squeeze the strip or stuff like that. So I think that kind of a person thermal strip is probably going to be the best. But I really don't think, production wise, you'll be as fast with thermal as a hand stripper. I really don't.

Speaker 4: 24:02

Yeah, I think the hand stripper definitely for production, from a production standpoint is good and economical, though I mean they're cheap. I think strippers are only $10 a pair now, so they've gone down in price considerably. Where are you getting?

Speaker 3: 24:15

yours from Cause I have not seen a pair of fiber strippers for 10 bucks. I'll send you the contact. Yeah, Send them to me, because I just bought some replacement strippers because I've been teaching with the same set of strippers for 12 years, so they've gone through. I don't know you do the math 15 students a class, three classes a week times 13 years, that's a lot of different hands for a pair of fiber strippers to go through. So I finally just replaced them and they were a little bit more than $10 a pop. I can tell you that.

Speaker 4: 24:47

Are you using the fancy Miller strippers?

Speaker 3: 24:51

Those ones aren't Miller's.

Speaker 4: 24:53

Yeah, see I started out on Miller and I would have sworn by them. But then I got introduced to a different type of stripper and I was working in a clean lab at the time and we were doing a lot of fiber. I grew to really like them. They kind of gave us them to demo them and I never looked back.

Speaker 3: 25:12

Nick call them out. Who are they?

Speaker 4: 25:15

I don't know. Everybody seems to make them now. They're those tri-hole strippers I see every manufacturer has them. Really Gotcha.

Speaker 3: 25:24

I typically run with the Millers and the no necks. Um, and the reason I go with the no necks is that's very old school. That's very old school it is. But again, going back to that person who's never stripped before, I let them go with the millers first. But the millers, if you don't have it at the right angle angle, you don't squeeze it until you build up that muscle. Remember, you break a lot of fiber. Yeah, and after the, after a new student who's never done fiber before has broken their fiber like five times. They're that you could. You can literally see them start shaking and start getting nervous. I said here try these, try these no nicks, because the no nicks are more precision. But I always tell them this is just to get you through the class. If you want to become proficient at stripping fiber, you want to master those millers right, you want to master another. No-knicks are slow.

Speaker 4: 26:11

They're slow compared to other they are. I have to be honest, I used those when I started out and when they got rid of those I never looked back. I mean, I I found I used to break a lot of fiber with them.

Speaker 3: 26:24

Well, every, every fiber person breaks fiber.

Speaker 4: 26:26

Oh, by the way, here here's my safety tip of the day Always dispose of your fiber in an approved scraps container Always, hey, one of my favorite people works at that company, john Bruno, and his training.

Speaker 3: 26:43

You know, I I I mentioned, I mentioned the two hour fiber course from John Bruno and FIS on a lot of podcasts. I just put out a a Tik TOK Instagram YouTube short. Today Somebody asked me what are some good tips to get in the ICT industry. So I gave him three tips and one of them was go online and get the free training FOAorg, the two-hour course by John Bruno, and John Bruno is a fantastic instructor.

Speaker 4: 27:09

He's a great guy, he knows a lot. He kind of mocked me a little bit and said what am I teaching you? I said honestly everything coming out of your mouth. I'm taking something from that, so it's good right.

Speaker 3: 27:19

Good instructors like that. A good instructor is always going to be learning from other people, even other instructors, even students.

Speaker 4: 27:25

I'm going to show up at Burnside one day.

Speaker 2: 27:27

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Speaker 3: 28:26

All right, so let's get into another conversation now. Single mode and multi-mode fusion splicing Okay, what's the difference?

Speaker 4: 28:34

There's not really any difference. It's the same process you're going to go through with either one. The only thing is you're going to have to change your program on your splicer in order to match what it is you're doing, whether it's 50 micron, 62.5, or single mode. So I think you'd have more challenges if you're splicing BIF fiber than you do with multimode or single mode. I really never found that there was much of a transition between them.

Speaker 3: 29:02

I really never found that there was a much of a transition between them. How hard is it changing the? Because I don't do fusion splicing enough to, because I got out of the field before fusion splices really became affordable and I only see them in classroom environments so I never, never, got to play with them in the field as a production setting. But how hard is it to know when and how to change the profiles in your fusion splicer?

Speaker 4: 29:20

Well, the evolution of the splicer has been great because when your fiber comes in, oftentimes it'll pick up, it'll say this is G657, this is G652. So if you go to fuse it and it doesn't work, then you can go into the programs, the splice programs, and say, okay, I want to do BIF, the G652, bending insensitive fiber and all of a sudden now your splice will work. And it would be the same thing for multimode. You'd have to go into that same program and change it to the 50 or to the 62.5. So knowing that stuff helps, I mean same as if you're getting into some of the legacy stuff and you're into the non-zero dispersion shifted fiber, you'll find sometimes it won't splice with the regular program so you'll have to go in and change that in order to make it work.

Speaker 3: 30:04

Well, Right, so inside plant and outside plant. Inside plant means you're fusion splicing inside the building. Outside plant means you're in a maintenance hole or you're on top of a ladder out in the field or something like that. Right? What are some tips for both inside plant and tips for outside plant?

Speaker 4: 30:23

Well, inside plant, believe it or not, I find holds more challenges than outside plant splicing. Oh really, and the reason for that? Especially if you're in a new construction zone where you've got the guy drywalling and scraping and you've got the metal guys cutting metal and you've got electricians hauling cables around you, they're creating a dusty work environment. But also, too, you might be in an IT room where you have fans blowing. You've got all the stack maybe beside you. It's drawing air in. It's creating a lot of dust. In particular and it took me a while as a young tech to figure that out I'd go into these really clean environments and I would have way more troubles than I would ever have in my truck. And that's what it was. It was the air exchanges were creating a hostile environment for the splicing.

Speaker 4: 31:09

But your truck, generally in the in the truck, in the outside plant I mean you have a controlled environment. You're controlling the heat, you're controlling air conditioning in the summertime, so your environment is what you make it. So if you keep that truck nice and clean I mean I've worked with guys over the years you had to put on booties to get into their truck. It was that clean, right? Oh, nice, I mean good for them.

Speaker 3: 31:31

Not my trucks.

Speaker 4: 31:32

Not my trucks. Well, I always said my dirty truck was a sign of my genius, so I used to run by that. That explains my desk.

Speaker 3: 31:39

There you go, I don't want to take the camera and show it here, because, cause I'd be thoroughly embarrassed. But I got a pile of stuff just kind of sitting here and my wife God love her Cause I have a tendency to leave things around the house, so if it's something that belongs here, she brings it in and puts it on top of this pile.

Speaker 4: 31:55

Well, another environment too is, say, industrial environments, maybe a mining. So if I was sitting in a mine splicing fiber, it's a hostile, dirty environment, you can't do anything about it. So we would erect a tent around us, we would use the water to just kind of spray down the floor. But when you set your feet down, you don't move them. You stay as still as you possibly can to do the job. So you have to kind of make those adjustments depending on where you're, where you're splicing so industrial environments too.

Speaker 4: 32:25

I've come out many times where my hands were black, just dirty, and I said wow, that wasn't even supposed to work. But it works because you're careful what you're touching.

Speaker 3: 32:33

Are there tents specifically for terminating splicing fiber?

Speaker 4: 32:37

Yeah, Pelsu makes a nice tent. It's got a white and yellow body on it so you get good lighting inside of it. I know some guys to save money they'll go into the fishing tents and I did do that with one company I worked for, but I found it a little bit hard because it was black inside for the ice fishing, so it made for a pretty dark environment to see the fibers. Well, I mean, I put lighting and stuff in there too, but I like Pell's Soup personally. That's what I would. That's my go-to Gotcha.

Speaker 3: 33:09

So I was doing a live stream a couple weeks back or it might have been in December, might have been before my break and I had somebody ask me about spider fiber and I was like what, what's spider fiber? I ain't never heard of spider fiber before. What is it?

Speaker 4: 33:27

I don't know how to describe it, but it's a fiber that when you if you pull, so if you go by your color code, you start at blue and then it ends at aqua. But if you take those and pull them apart it almost creates like a weave in between the fibers. So it's one almost like one solid piece and you can pull each individual fiber that you need and push it and it all goes back together for splicing. So it's kind of an interesting fiber here. We use it a lot in Canada, but it's in Western Canada. We don't see it here in the Maritimes and I didn't see any of it when I was working in Eastern Canada as well, but in Western Canada definitely it's a big one.

Speaker 3: 34:06

That's interesting. Why would it be used more in the Western side of Canada than the Eastern side?

Speaker 4: 34:09

Well, I think probably because of the manufacturer is AFL Fujikora. I think it's AFL's cable, I'm not 100% sure. I hope I didn't throw the wrong name out there. But they do supply a lot of the Western folks with the products, so I think that's probably why it's there.

Speaker 3: 34:26

Yeah of the Western folks with the products. So I think that's probably why it's there. Yeah, so on another podcast, another live stream question. I did a live stream on Wednesday and this guy asked me the question because I usually try to get into like 30 minutes and I was already like 31 minutes, 32 minutes into the live stream. I'm trying to get off because my wife was fixing dinner out in the kitchen. I could literally smell the meat level. I was like, oh, trying to keep my mouth from moistening. And the guy asked me a question about fiber optic testing, otdr testing, specifically ghosting. And of course I got to admit I let my stomach get the better of me and I gave him like the really quick, dirty answer right, so can you tell us what is ghosting on an OTR and what causes it?

Speaker 4: 35:11

So ghosting you typically see on the fiber when there's a reflection back, scattering in the light. So it looks like there's two events there, when in fact it's an event that's just being echoed or repeated. So it's an echo, it's usually because of contamination. Usually it could be because of maybe too much alcohol residue. It could be a whole host of things, but generally it's a dirt-related issue.

Speaker 3: 35:37

Generally, and I would be remiss if I go through this whole fiber episode and not talk about safety. Safety Terminating fiber is a dangerous talk about safety. Safety Terminating fiber is a dangerous activity, it sure is so. It's gooba diving and parachuting and riding motorcycles. But if you take the proper steps it can be a safe activity, right. So what are some safety considerations for fusion splicing?

Speaker 4: 36:05

Well, honey, safety considerations with fusion splicing is, first of all, if you're working with live fiber which we do do on occasion making sure you're not looking into the end of that fiber. It's UV light, you're not going to see it, but it'll just cause blindness. It's not going to hurt though. It'll be quick and painless. Um, and I think also to the fiber shards, is a big one, making sure you're you're maintaining those uh, either putting them in a shards container or having a garbage can. Now, one thing I do caution, uh slicers about is if you're going to put it into a garbage can and you're lifting that garbage can over your head to put it into a, let's say, a dumpster, just make sure that stuff's not going to come back out in your face in the wind and it could cause you a lot of problems.

Speaker 4: 36:49

Because the problem with the glass it's very difficult for them to find. I've had glass in my hand. They were able to find it with an ultrasound and I had to be fully awake for that and I would go ouch and she would know to look in that area. And then the same thing when the doctor did the surgery, when he cut the hand open, there was no pain medication. I had to be awake for that and as he's digging around in my hand and there's blood everywhere because you bleed in your hand quite a bit I had to be awake to say, oh, that hurts, oh that hurts, oh that hurts, and that was how he found it. So it's very small, they can't see it and, especially when you're you're bleeding, they're definitely not going to find it. So you want to avoid those things happening. So those are the kind of the key ones is your fiber shards, but I think also to making sure the acrylate and the cable that you're ventilating, because that's a big one, yes, and a lot of people aren't aware of that.

Speaker 3: 37:41

And here's one I'll tell people that a lot of people don't really think about is be aware of your surroundings, and what I mean by that is because you might be splicing a fiber in a telecom room in an existing office space and because of some of the chemicals that you might be using might cause somebody who's in the area to have an asthmatic reaction.

Speaker 4: 38:00

That's possible yeah.

Speaker 3: 38:01

Yeah, because it's. My wife is a reactive asthmatic and there's certain scents that just will literally cause her to have to go to an asthmatic Also.

Speaker 4: 38:10

Well, I actually go anaphylactic from the glue because I've had overexposure from the years. So when we're in the classroom and people are using the glue I am very careful that they don't touch my tools and I'll put on my latex gloves because they're not thinking about my allergy. But I don't want to do the EpiPen and epinephrine shots. It sucks.

Speaker 3: 38:29

Yeah, no, I get that. I'm allergic to shellfish and I got to be careful when I go to restaurants and stuff for that very reason and stuff. Well, thank you for coming on the show. It's about dang time. It's about dang time and I appreciate the wealth of knowledge that that you've given us here in the episode today, and also I love seeing your posts on LinkedIn and stuff like that. So thank you for coming on, jane.

Speaker 4: 38:50

Yeah, thanks for having me, chuck.

Speaker 1: 38:52

Thanks for listening to let's Talk Cabling, the award-winning podcast where knowledge is power and the low-voltage industry connects. If you enjoyed today's episode, don't forget to subscribe, leave a review and share it with your crew. Got questions or ideas for the show? Chuck wants to hear from you. Stay connected, stay informed and always aim for excellence. Until next time, keep those cables clean, your standards high and your future bright. Let's talk cabling empowering the industry, one connection at a time.