Thread: rolling up electrical leads

Thanks everyone for your replies. Looks like there are a few promising methods but the failing of them all might be the others that get their grubby little hands on them

Cheers
Michael

Originally Posted by kekemo

Ok... voice of experience... no joke... I'm a commercial cleaner.... my own business... 20 years... on my 2nd extention cord...TRUE Use daily/5 days a week

My late husband who ran the business for over 30 years taught me a very simple & easy trick to winding up extentions cords...

If you use the yellow extentions cords that have the red strip on them...you will see this work as you wind up cord...

1st you always start the coil from the "male" end of the cord... ( part that plugs into wall) always always always....
(ok Im right handed)
Holding the mail plug in left hand slide your right hand along cord as if your measuring out lengths of rope... at the extent of you arm span... grab hold of cord as you bring it back into left hand to hold it .... give a slight 1/2 twist ...( it staighten the loop... you will see it) the red line remains in the center of the cord and hangs flat ... ok you just keep repeating that... slide your hand along again grab cord as you bring it back to your left hand again 1/2 slight twist... usually the arm span is 1 meter... like a swing in motion... repeat until fully re-wound.... every time you wind the cord... you will use the same number of re-coil swings.... each coil you bring in you give that 1/2 twist...
Now... the important part of the trick is next time you use the cord....plug cord into wall.... then lay the side that the female socket is to the top.... so the extention feeds freely from the coil... hard to read... easy to do ... get someone to read this out as you try....

You can actually see how straight the red line is kept... just a slight twist... it really works in front of your eyes...
OK... of course you do this from when cord it new.... now if the cord is older and some coils have started to curl.... lay cord out in sun for a few hours the roll up using that technique... remembering you may have to twist a little more to help re-correct damage done...( but safer to throw aways as you weaken the electrical wire & then you create heat spots in wire... its then too dangerous... throw out...)

Hope this helps you...
I have a bright yellow & red warning on my extention cords... as a cleaner our equipment is often left on jobs that are done on a regular basis.... my notes say..." anyone is welcome to use the vacuun cleans when ever they need to.... But DO NOT TOUCH EXTENTION CORD>>> Believe me I will know! ... the note works.....

cheers... try it... 20 years & two extentions cords and only had to get new one as old one got some cut/slice marks from running over with vacuum... it truly works... Kerry

Greenwood & Districts Cleaning Service... KEKEMO... Mandurah..WA...

Kekemo

That is an excellent explanation of how I do it. You took the words right out of my mouth that I couldn't express properly in the written language. Only someone that uses extension leads for a living can appreciate the frustrations of having some one roll up one of your leads the wrong way and end up with a complete rats nest.

I use the over-under method that roadies use to roll up audio leads. It prevents the half-twist that you put in the lead when you roll it up 'normally' which eventually causes the outer insulation to separate from the inner wires and you get that curly noodle look.

Hard to describe but basically the same as described above except that for every other loop, you put your hand on the other side of the lead and pull it up so that the tail of that loop is between the last loop and the new one.

The problem with this method is that if a person who is unfamiliar with it tries to uncoil the lead and they do it wrong, you end up with a knot in the lead for every second loop. The advantage is that it saves you having to install that half twist and run it out to the end of the lead when you do the normal single twist loop described by Kekemo.

Like this:

http://www.expertvillage.com/video/3...ables-roll.htm

The other bonus of kekemo's technique is that if you hold onto either end of the cord (not the plug) you can under/side-arm throw the coil and get it to unroll and land straight over a distance. I've been using it for donkey's years in live music and photographic (schools, deb balls etc) situations where we're in big rooms and lay cables covering fair distances.

If you're using the same cords all the time you learn how to hoik them accurately without the sudden, damaging, snap at the end if you've had too many weet-bix in the morning.

I never get a tangle from this method.place the two ends side by side find the centre of this "u" and coil from this centre to the two plus end .wrap end around bundle and you got it. no tangles.billym

What silentc said.

Professional cablers are taught to use this method (under-over; folded 8, or whatever you like to call it) to make cables less likely to knot, to prevent permanent twists and avoid kinks and interior damage. Only problem, as he said, is the mess of many knots that results when you might pull one of the ends through the middle of the coils when you unwind it, instead of pulling it away from the coils so that it unfolds as it unwinds - so you need to make sure each end stays on its own side.