The few times I've installed any fiber, I've measured carefully, added some extra, and ordered the connectors and a pulling eye installed from my supplier. We're typically talking about a 6 fiber multimode cable.

I know the cost and complexity of installing your own terminations has gone done over the years. Is it worthwhile to do you own, for a few terminations now and then? I would have to factor in the purchase of some fiber tools and a tester. Is the fiber and individual components that much less expensive than when purchased installed? I suppose I wold be looking at a 1,000 foot or more spool of fiber sitting around between jobs.

Thanks.
Jim

I would haphazard to say it's along the same lines as:

Pre-made patch cords vs off the shelf
Pre-made patch panels vs terminating yourself
Pre-made 25pr cables vs using a butterfly tool

Testing vs Certifying are a completely different animal $$$. Of course you can always Rent-a-Fluke.

These observations are from that as a worker bee rather than the person shelling out the bucks.

Other than fiber patch cords we just ordered the reels of fiber...probably 5-10 jobs a year.

Use to always do our own terminations. Now, I prefer to order pre-terminated.

I guess it really depends upon the job, but I have to say that whenever possible, I specify pre--terminated cables. Like you said, carefully measured, plenty of slack on both ends, etc. The other thing I do is to get pulling eyes on BOTH ends of the cable, especially if it's being pulled into conduit underground. You never know what you'll encounter in those situations, especially if it's old conduit. It's worth the extra money for the peace of mind of knowing that you have some flexibility, for example if you need to pull in both directions from a center point.

Still, we keep the tooling and connectors on-hand for field repairs and occasional jobs where pre-terminated cable isn't an option.

For crimp on connectors I liked Unicam - a lot! Of course nothing beats fusion splicing, but it's a lot more expensive. I don't know prices anymore, but how many factory installed heads would you have to buy before picking up a Unicam kit and a bag of connectors becomes cost effective?

Sam

I find that I can get the fiber pre-terminated cheaper than buying all of the parts. Of course, we only do the Unicam terminations and they tend to be pricey.

Thanks for the responses.
I'm going to keep ordering pre-terminated cable, for now. I'm not doing enough of it to make it pay for the tools, supplies, training and inventory.

Ed, Good point about pulling eyes on both ends, for underground conduits. I like that idea.

Jim

I used to prefer pre-terminated cable, ordered usually from Fiber Instrument Sales, then we started getting into more and larger jobs. Along comes the fusion splicer, OTDR, optical loss test set, VFL and several name-brand mechanical termination kits. CommScope is my choice for reasonably-priced, easy-to-use, mechanical connectors that do not need specialized tools to install.

Pre-term here as well. But I do a good bit of Leviton Fast cam connectors. Fast and work well.