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The Lost Art of Lacing Cable (2018)

thebroadcastbridge.com

131–140 of 156 posts

Re: The Lost Art of Lacing Cable (2018)

#131
post #64

Speaking as an automotive engine mechanic, sometimes we use lacing in long-haul tractor trailers. Wiring for sensor modules along the air-slide fifth wheel, near the attic, or especially around the air brake dryer are always laced. The reason for this is zip ties will quickly fail after freeze-thaw cycles. professional drivers in wisconsin or Minnesota cannot get stuck due to an electrical failure on the side of a re…

Why wouldn't zip ties be made of the same material as for lacing? (sorry if that's a stupid question)

Re: The Lost Art of Lacing Cable (2018)

#132
post #119

Anyone know why the "WRONG" example in this diagram is bad? https://i1.wp.com/cdn.makezine.com/uploads/2009/07/cablelaci...

I think it's a knotting thing, the A knots will slip as you try to hold it fast - the knot will move down the page initially. The way the cord presses the earlier piece down in B means the knot won't move [so easily] as you hold it under tension.

Don't they both press down though? One presses down on the loop ends (A), the other presses down on the strand between loops (B). The more I try to figure out why B would be better, the more it feels like pressing down on the loops would be better (ensuring more of the loop is in contact with the thing being wrapped).

e.g. https://www.dropbox.com/s/ghu5f8m1nsu7kve/wrapping.jpg

Exaggerated, sure, but still feels odd.

Re: The Lost Art of Lacing Cable (2018)

#133
post #78

Aside: I work in med-tech. One of the largest complaints of doctors and nurses, especially in the ICU, is the cables and tubes. There are just SO MANY cables and tubes in a working ICU. Nurses and docs are constantly stepping on them, pulling them out, choking off blood/saline/urine/air in some tube, knocking power off of another, etc. Most of the machines can't do wireless, as some of the machines will 'jam' that pa…

MR tech here. Newer MR safe power injectors and patient monitoring systems are wireless, which is very handy. They can be controlled from outside the room. I don’t know how they work, but I’ve assumed that they are avoiding particular frequencies. The downside is the batteries, which seem particularly short lived.

I gotta ask, why are you on HN? I know I'm a bit of a rare bird here, so it's always interesting to see what brought others like me to HN.

Re: The Lost Art of Lacing Cable (2018)

#134
post #64

Speaking as an automotive engine mechanic, sometimes we use lacing in long-haul tractor trailers. Wiring for sensor modules along the air-slide fifth wheel, near the attic, or especially around the air brake dryer are always laced. The reason for this is zip ties will quickly fail after freeze-thaw cycles. professional drivers in wisconsin or Minnesota cannot get stuck due to an electrical failure on the side of a re…

Why wouldn't zip ties be made of the same material as for lacing? (sorry if that's a stupid question)

The lacing isn't plastic, it's (as the article mentions) typically waxed linen or some other type of fiber/rope. Zip ties have to be made of a more solid material like plastic, since you need to mold in all those tiny teeth that cause the zip tie to ratchet closed. It's neat that a lot of these plastics are apparently tasty for rodents and other pests to eat though; I wonder if you could add a bitterant to combat this. But zipties will still have other issues caused by the plastic material: brittleness from UV exposure, and cracks due to freeze/thaw cycles and thermal expansion. There's other (non-plastic) alternatives to cable ties though, for example metal hose clamps. Although that might be too harsh on the cables, not to mention being conductive. It seems lacing is by far the gentlest option on the cables, and longer lasting than zip ties, at the cost of requiring more time to set up correctly.

Re: The Lost Art of Lacing Cable (2018)

#135

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Wait, dumpster is trademarked? I've never heard of this before, but according to [0] it is definitely a generic trademark. Although this may be a great example of why VELCRO(R) is fighting a losing battle. At this point, it may be too late to change the average consumer's habits, as VELCRO(R) is in almost the same situation. Perhaps if they had started this campaign when the patent expired and generic alternatives ap…

Sure. Famous inventor, George Roby Dempster. The Dempster Dumpmaster was the truck built to go with the Dempster Dumpster, using a hydraulic fork system that picks up the Dumpster and empties it into the truck. Dempster invented that, and sold garbage trucks and compatible containers. Once the patents expired, it's was a de-facto standard. A "dumpster" is thus historically a container that can be emptied by a standar…

> Long containers that are towed onto a tilt-bed truck are something else, usually debris boxes. But they now tend to be called "roll-on dumpsters".

Isn't that also called a skip? The wiki page for trash skips says that the term is more of a British/Australian/New Zealand english thing[1], but I've definitely heard people call them skips in the US.

[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Skip_(container)

Re: The Lost Art of Lacing Cable (2018)

#136

Earlier quoted context omitted.

something especially tasty for rodents Soy-based wiring insulation: https://www.thedrive.com/news/20878/rodents-are-feasting-on-...

LOUD Auto playing video far down on site even with Ublock.

Sorry, should have just written the words and let people find their own link. Or be a less sucky curator.

Re: The Lost Art of Lacing Cable (2018)

#137
post #132

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I think it's a knotting thing, the A knots will slip as you try to hold it fast - the knot will move down the page initially. The way the cord presses the earlier piece down in B means the knot won't move [so easily] as you hold it under tension.

Don't they both press down though? One presses down on the loop ends (A), the other presses down on the strand between loops (B). The more I try to figure out why B would be better, the more it feels like pressing down on the loops would be better (ensuring more of the loop is in contact with the thing being wrapped). e.g. https://www.dropbox.com/s/ghu5f8m1nsu7kve/wrapping.jpg Exaggerated, sure, but still feels odd.

No, the A knot has the down-the-cable runs overlapping the around-the-cable loops. Which means if one of the down-the-cable runs lets go, it loses tension on the next. In B, since the around-the-cable loops are overlapping the down-the-cable, if tension is lost at one end there is less tension lost at the next step. The friction in A when the end is loose is much less than the friction in B, due to the entry point in B being under pressure of the loop around the cable.

Re: The Lost Art of Lacing Cable (2018)

#138
post #127
post #92

Wow never thought I'd see this on HN! I paid $20k to go to tech school for aviation maintenance. After doing that for 3 years I figured it just wasn't for me and I decided to go to university for computer science. But before my last day of being an aircraft mechanic, I "accidentally" brought home a roll of high temp (non-waxed) lacing tape because I was already in the habit of using string to tie cables together (com…

People looking at that may think "it's a spool of specialist string. Maybe $20, but that's probably more like $90. https://www.wirecare.com/category/cable-organization/lacing-...

Yep, hence why I made sure to get the data sticker in the photo for the really curious. Also why I do "spot" tying instead of running the string all the way down the bundle, since that uses more string.

It's certified for high temp areas around exhaust,etc and hence non waxed (wax helps hold a knot). I normally worked on stuff outside of the fuselage which is where the more common waxed string is used. But obviously around engine areas, only certain string was certified. We also had to use high temp sting inside the leading edges of the wings (which is where a majority of all the wire is) since the bleed air ducts run through there too and cause higher temps (though not sure how high)

Re: The Lost Art of Lacing Cable (2018)

#139
post #132

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Don't they both press down though? One presses down on the loop ends (A), the other presses down on the strand between loops (B). The more I try to figure out why B would be better, the more it feels like pressing down on the loops would be better (ensuring more of the loop is in contact with the thing being wrapped). e.g. https://www.dropbox.com/s/ghu5f8m1nsu7kve/wrapping.jpg Exaggerated, sure, but still feels odd.

No, the A knot has the down-the-cable runs overlapping the around-the-cable loops. Which means if one of the down-the-cable runs lets go, it loses tension on the next. In B, since the around-the-cable loops are overlapping the down-the-cable, if tension is lost at one end there is less tension lost at the next step. The friction in A when the end is loose is much less than the friction in B, due to the entry point in…

[deleted]

Re: The Lost Art of Lacing Cable (2018)

#140
post #132

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Don't they both press down though? One presses down on the loop ends (A), the other presses down on the strand between loops (B). The more I try to figure out why B would be better, the more it feels like pressing down on the loops would be better (ensuring more of the loop is in contact with the thing being wrapped). e.g. https://www.dropbox.com/s/ghu5f8m1nsu7kve/wrapping.jpg Exaggerated, sure, but still feels odd.

No, the A knot has the down-the-cable runs overlapping the around-the-cable loops. Which means if one of the down-the-cable runs lets go, it loses tension on the next. In B, since the around-the-cable loops are overlapping the down-the-cable, if tension is lost at one end there is less tension lost at the next step. The friction in A when the end is loose is much less than the friction in B, due to the entry point in…

Aaaah, yea, that does make sense. The loop pinches both ends, so a loose end doesn't matter as much. Sorta requires the knot to be pressed against something, but that's probably frequent enough in practice / can be designed for (e.g. a knot that's bigger than the gap between things it's wrapping).

Thanks!

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