Post #1819003

2024-10-01 06:14 UTC

This is your regular PSA to learn the “over-under method” of rolling cables! Coiling a cable the ‘normal’ way, whether just in your hands, around your elbow, or somewhere else, imparts a 1/2 axial twist to the cable each time. That’s the main thing that causes your extension cables to develop kinks and degrade! If you use the over-under method, the 1/2 twist is counteracted by a -1/2 twist every second loop, so the cable is kept flat and unstressed. This can hugely increase the lifetime of your electrical cables, to upwards of 20 years of heavy use, without kinks or twists. (GIF credit hosatech.com) :boost_requested:

Replies (29)

@s0@cathode.church 2024-10-01 06:34

Here’s some videos to help you learn! First up, the way I naturally do it — left-overhanded. It’s the smoothest to watch, because, y’know, it’s my job.

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@mike@social.chinwag.org 2024-10-01 06:19

@s0@cathode.church remember this technique with the helpful roadie mnemonic; "OVER worked, UNDER paid ..."

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@trib@aus.social 2024-10-01 06:21

@s0@cathode.church your garden hoses will also thank you for this approach.

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@anime_reference@wetdry.world 2024-10-01 06:23

@s0@cathode.church this is even more useful for hoses probably garden hoses, but definitely heavy commecrial grade rubber ones

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@TransitBiker@urbanists.social 2024-10-01 06:53

@s0@cathode.church very cool. I should also remind people that wrapping your headphone cable around your device and slapping it in your bag or pocket is a big no-no. Just bunch the cable up on its own or use a snack sized Ziploc bag. I did this for years as a New York City tour guide & the one headphone pair I have left that still works (they eventually stop working because of getting water in them) is from 2006.

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@vogelchr@chaos.social 2024-10-01 07:23

@s0@cathode.church and as a free added bonus: if you try to unravel the cable by passing the wrong side through the middle … you’ll get one knot for every two turns. This is to remind you to only ever pull on the correct side of your cable! 🪢

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@futzle@old.mermaid.town 2024-10-01 07:54

@s0@cathode.church I feel like this could use a public-awareness song a la Slip Slop Slap. Leave it with me.

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@fluke@hachyderm.io 2024-10-01 08:04

@s0@cathode.church until you get an absolute nutter like me try to unroll it and end up with kinks and knots in it from tangling it

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@piegames@flausch.social 2024-10-01 08:05

@s0@cathode.church a bit tangential, but have any advice for better coiling up rope (twisted rope taken doubly)? I feel like there is additional things to be aware of, but trying to think about the maths behind it just twists my brain …

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@cos@aus.social 2024-10-01 08:10

@s0@cathode.church I remember years ago reading someone talking about interviewing people for networking jobs, and somewhere during the interview they’d casually hand the person an Ethernet cable and see if they naturally rolled it up properly, like this.

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@Pheebe@tech.lgbt 2024-10-01 08:37

@s0@cathode.church and as a huge bonus, cables unroll without tangling. For those not familiar, it means you can throw the cable holding onto the end or pull on the end of the cable without unwinding and you don't (usually) get tangles.

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@s0@cathode.church 2024-10-01 09:16

@stevewfolds@mastodon.world slower, but has a certain zen elegance to it, I concede.

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@dj3ei@mastodon.radio 2024-10-01 10:05

Excellent advice by @s0@cathode.church how to coil stiff cable! See 🧵 resp. https://cathode.church/@s0/113230694766080041 . For years, I've been adding one loop to the left side of the coil and the next loop to the right side. This also produces no twists - if unwound in exactly the same fashion. This is much better!

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@lritter@mastodon.gamedev.place 2024-10-01 11:08

@s0@cathode.church this is fantastic and i will from now on forget about it immediately

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@dashlion@mastodon.au 2024-10-01 12:13

@s0@cathode.church ooh, is it weird that I'm excited to learn this 🤣

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@notecharlie@social.bigcavemaps.com 2024-10-01 13:11

@s0@cathode.church it is not possible for me to retoot this enough. Cables, ropes, just do this with everything stored in coils.

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@me@social.sandervankasteel.nl 2024-10-01 17:34

@s0@cathode.church As an ex-sound engineer, this THE BEST way to roll cables!

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@coastgnu@norden.social 2024-10-01 18:10

@s0@cathode.church This is one of the first things you have to learn at a shipyard. Working every day and all day long with electric extension cables, gas hoses, welding equipment cables all over 50 yrds, you are totally lost if you don't know how to left-right roll your stuff!

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@inari@squeaky.social 2024-10-01 18:55

@s0@cathode.church I worked in television for over ten years, and we always wrapped using the figure eight method, which does exactly this as well. Granted not everyone has the storage space to keep wires coiled in a figure eight, you can still fold the coil over in the middle and it will achieve the same thing - so long as you tie off both loops. Fibre techs do figure eight loops as well, when they're doing large pulls. Neither way is wrong, both achieve the same goal. One may be easier for some.

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@asciijungle@norden.social 2024-10-01 21:22

@s0@cathode.church I had to get a #hamradio license to learn this!

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@themgineer@themgineer.gay 2024-10-01 22:38

@s0@cathode.church I once worked on a production and got chewed out by the gaffer for over-undering the power cables to his lights. I’m still confused about that to this day.

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@mirabilos@toot.mirbsd.org 2024-10-01 22:40

@s0@cathode.church … this video (not a GIF, it’s a video) is too heavily 3D and too fast for me. I think I need that explained in more detail…

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@zanchey@aus.social 2024-10-01 22:52

@s0@cathode.church my knots book shows this and notes "The perfect coil yields twisted rope - the twisted coil yields perfect rope"

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@mookie@mookiesplace.com 2024-10-01 23:59

@s0@cathode.church @eco_amandine@mastodon.cr I love this method.

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@rhett@rogersfam.co 2024-10-02 03:10

@s0@cathode.church been doing that since I became a sound tech in high school. 👌🏻

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@mike@thecanadian.social 2024-10-02 06:18

@s0@cathode.church A low voltage cabling guy showed me this year's ago although with a less scientific explanation. He said cables just want to he recoiled in the same way they were originally coiled. I've been doing this ever since.

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@Ralph058@techhub.social 2024-10-02 06:23

@s0@cathode.church There's a butterfly-wind you can do with your hand and elbow that allows you to do this really, really fast. I learned this some 55 years ago and used it for about ten years while I worked in the broadcast industry. Don't ask me to do it today.

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@jwcph@helvede.net 2024-10-02 07:07

@s0@cathode.church Having handled a lot of cable in both music & AV production I concur; good tip, definitely - although it should be noted that you can totally coil up a cable without twisting it; just imagine how it would move if you were rolling it onto a drum & emulate that. Also, here's a tip that works well for me for getting those "packaging kinks" out of new power cables etc. 👉 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G2UDnQILG_s (as you can clearly see the cable is coiled but not twisted) 😊

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@Snapai@dragon.style 2024-10-02 12:08

@s0@cathode.church My favorite part of this is you can throw the bundle while keeping hold of one end, and it unfurls perfectly.

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