Anyone wire rope literate?

[06Daytona]

I went to my wife's casino to pick up 8 chairs to pull apart for the metal brackets and bases. I ended up coming home with 8 chairs, 3 heavy duty shelving units, a bunch of scrap metal and 6 partial spools of wire rope. I don't know anything about it but the spools are marked 8 24x10.5x12 and 7 20x10.5x12. I think it's left over from the elevator guys and I was thinking of making a bunch of tow cables with it. I have to go back tomorrow to pick up another dozen spools and a big empty spool for a table.

[Cuda Cody]

That stuff is usually expensive!  You scored.

[EDL94]

What diameter is the rope? I work on large cranes and those numbers do not make sense. 8 24 would be 8 strands of 24 wires so 192 wires total. The 10.5 must be metric not sure if its mm = 0.41 inches. I don't have a clue what the 12 would mean. Most common wire ropes are 6 36 in the larger sizes not sure what type they use in elevators. Post a picture.

[06Daytona]

It's 1/2 inch or metric. Some of it looks to have a solid center strand and others look like hemp or fiber. I have another spool that looks about 3/8 as well. I've been googling the numbers on the spools and haven't been able to find anything about the last two numbers either and it seems that most 8 strand is 19 or 24. I'll get pictures tomorrow when I pick up the rest of the spools.

[EDL94]

Fiber core 1/2" is commonly used in elevators and has a safe working load of 4280 lbs.

[06Daytona]

10.5 x 12 is the spool size. I measured an empty spool this morning when I was feeding garage cat. The spool is 10.5 inches from inside to inside of the end caps with a 12 inch diameter of the spool. I'll get pictures once I have the truck loaded up.