Lost art of cable lacing

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boji

Well-known member
Joined
Jan 6, 2010
Messages
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Location
Maryland, USA
Thought this was cool.  I picked up some nomex online and figured since I was going oldschool with everything else, might as well try my hand at cable lacing:

https://makezine.com/2009/07/28/lost-knowledge-cable-lacing/
 
Playing around, I tried out some fishing 'rod builder' thread, but it gets all messy looking the moment tension is lost. Guess hot glue would help, but that would be cheating. Also I'm going to bet this is partly why cable lace is wax impregnated. It's not just to prolong the life of the string.
My bro suggested I try some dental floss while waiting for the nomex. Thought that was a pearly idea.  ;D

9hMZwG4.jpg


Edit: Wish I could've  seen some old master electrician zipping through a length. 

Jeepers, the good stuff ain't cheep!
 
I rememeber when I started my apprenticeship at British Aircraft Corporation in 1969 being impressed by the lacing done by the many wiremen who worked there. I don't know if the technique is still used in aircraft these days. Lacing cord is still available from Farnell:

https://uk.farnell.com/w/c/cable-wire-cable-assemblies/cable-management/cable-ties/lacing-cord/prl/results?st=cable%20management

but I use cable ties instead:

https://uk.farnell.com/pro-power/bpe850-canister-pack/cable-tie-assorted-pk850/dp/1268994?st=cable%20management

Cheers

Ian

 
Hi Boji,

If you ever had the opportunity to visit an old time  Strowger telephone exchange (like those made by GEC in the UK), the cable lacing done there was a work of art and something to behold.  Often with up to a hundred twisted pair cables in a loom, the cables had to be perfectly placed with respect to each other and the gap between each knot had to be at a specific distance according to the diameter of the loom.  Each tail, as it was called had to come out as just the right angle. There is also a special knot that has to be pulled tight so that each loop of the loom was self sufficient and  I still have the groove scar in my fingers from pulling the waxed string knot tight.  The looms were made up on a type of peg board by very skilled women and sometime by apprentices like me. 

I have seen a QC manager inspect a loom and go down the knots with cutters because the distance between the knots was wrong.  He would use a ruler to measure them - boy he was hard!

Incidentally, the loom of blue cables shown on the web site you gave would fail QC, because if one knot failed, the whole loom could unravel.  From what I remember, figure C is the closest to the knot used.

Cheers

Mike
 
this post triggered me to do in-depth searching and research on lacing.  Some of the you tube videos out there are impressive, much faster then zip tie, trim zip tie, repeat. Might have to do some physical testing in the future.
 
Hey all

This art is not lost ! ask your butcher, he may help you with your rosbeef  ::)
There is another art of lacing but I won't talk about it here  ;D

Best
Zam
 
I use lacing twine inside boxes. I like it better than cable ties because you don't get poked by the fastening block or scratched by sharp plastic if you weren't careful about trimming.

I don't use it in the traditional way as illustrated in the British Navy manual. I just wrap it around the bundle a few times in the spot I need it and then tie. I don't do long strings. To do long strings neatly you need to know what the wire bundle will look like in the end. Often that's not possible when building/prototyping. The best way to do it is to set up a jig.
 
Strowger telephone exchange
Thanks, being in the states, never heard of Strowger. It's now on my 'obscuranta/curio' list, should I ever get the travel bug. :)
Edit: wait, Strowger is from Kansas City?
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=owAjCeHRgMA
Might have to do some physical testing
Be sure to post pic of your first attempt, Pucho ^.^



 
> being in the states, never heard of Strowger.

SXS switching was invented *in "the states"*. Strowger moved around, but his patent application says Kansas City, yes. Smack in the middle of "the states". Is a fun story of an undertaker and a hat-box. His early work used a telegraph key, the once-familiar rotary-dial came later.

Strowger-type switching was all among the independent telephone companies, Bell System initially ignored it. The UK did not begin to use customer-dialed switching widely until 20-30 years later.

> Strowger telephone exchange (like those made by GEC in the UK)... up to a hundred twisted pair cables in a loom

The classic Strowger was a 100-pair switch (cascaded to howevermany lines the district had). While there must be variations for tiny and huge exchanges, 100-pair is a good bet for Strowger/SxS switches.
 
Latter Strowger exchanges were quite sophisticated for mechanical machines: overnight they would run self diagnostics and if it found a fault with itself it would print out a service docket telling the engineer where the fault was.

Ahh, the click, click click of those uniselectors.

Cheers

Mike
 
I was taught this lacing when I did my City & Guilds electronic servicing course in about 1986.  I was lucky to have as my tutor an ex post office engineer who was a really good teacher.  He taught us how to bias valves & all sorts of stuff that was probably dropped from the curriculum not long after.

With regards to the lacing we had to use method C.  He wasn't happy with method B because the wires can still move around.  He said to us that the point was to support the wires/cables so they couldn't move around because most cable failures are caused by movement.
 
Every time I've done fancy lace jobs, I've ended up ripping it back apart in order to reduce coupling and hum.  It's no wonder why old Fender guitar amps looks like a rats nest with every wire having 1 inch of air gap around it.
 
boji said:
solder sucker that has received positive reviews.

Really? I'll be curious to see how this turns out. Universe and everyone in it this far has taught they do not work and that there is no reason for their existence.
 
ripping it back apart in order to reduce coupling and hum

Is that inside a tube preamp?  I’ve used this with proper separated signal levels , mic line speaker.  Also have seen neve 1064 and 1081 cable internal.  RCA preamp have used laced looms .   
I had problems from click bleed from cue lines next to mic lines.    A fender or Marshall trainwreck and other definitely require good layout and could be problems. 
 
Kingston said:
Really? I'll be curious to see how this turns out. Universe and everyone in it this far has taught they do not work and that there is no reason for their existence.
Generally I would agree but I got a really big one and it works well enough. The tip gets clogged pretty easy but with a little extra effort it can be kept clear. Also, there is a bit of technique to it. Obviously a de-soldering station is vastly superior.

https://www.mpja.com/Solder-Sucker-Antistatic-Full-Size/productinfo/15859+TL
 
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