- Thread starter Ryan
- Start date
RPH
Well-known member
Nice, very nice work. Had an electrician at work that would lace up the high frequency output cables on the induction equipment. Shows care and concern to me by the one doing the task. As a field guy I appreciated that quite a bit.
gahrajmahal
Well-known member
How do you calculate the initial length of waxed linen? Is there any way to add length once you have started the lace job and come up short? I’d hate to have to cut it loose and start over. I do hate having to cut a bunch of nylon zip lock ties when I miss a wire or have one wrapped around something unintended.
OP
I never cut the cord until I’m done with the loom… I work off the reel.
gahrajmahal
Well-known member
Thanks Ryan, I guess I’ll have to try it to see if I can do it that way.
Grant Gunderson
Well-known member
I find cable lacing is super easy and quick, once you realize its just tying clove hitches over and and over. Here is a link to a tutorial that I did in my rebuilding Monarch 10EE lathe thread.
rlitman
Well-known member
Yep, you tie down the free end and move the spool. I've got what amounts to a flat crochet hook that was made for Ma Bell that helps pull the line through tight spots. The hook is probably 60 or more years old, but the cable lacing technique certainly predates any semblance of an aerospace industry, as Bell was using it long before Edison used it for his DC electric distribution.
Speaking of DC, I've got a customer in the telecomm industry that has a 48V DC plant that's chock full of beautiful lace work that I unfortunately cannot show here.
I remember thinking now nice that looked. I'm generally the lazy type to go with zip ties (though I'm totally **** about clipping them flush so they're not sharp), but I feel there are times when lacing is just far superior, and your use where vibration and heat come into play would likely destroy zip ties in a few years is a great one for lace work.
Walkers
Well-known member
Wow! That is really nice!
TheRealZeus
Well-known member
Great article. I have run my fair share of spools… copper, and nylon. 
Just the tutorial guide made my numb hands hurt.
Great history almost all forgotten.. In the last picture, the black tiles are cable lays.. abandon cutout cables, under new installations. Electrical trench warfare at it’s finest.
️ The transmitter site was opened with a ceremony.. JFK was the speaker. The Site was called the Edward R Murrow building. Truely a great work experience, and terrific, knowledgeable people.
Just the tutorial guide made my numb hands hurt.Great history almost all forgotten.. In the last picture, the black tiles are cable lays.. abandon cutout cables, under new installations. Electrical trench warfare at it’s finest.
️ The transmitter site was opened with a ceremony.. JFK was the speaker. The Site was called the Edward R Murrow building. Truely a great work experience, and terrific, knowledgeable people.Attachments
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WoodsTruck
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- Joined
- Jan 12, 2013
- Messages
- 1,018
When building looms in place, I tend to use the bread bag wire ties to keep bundles together and it allows me to hang them to things. I can add or subtract wires by untwisting and retwisting, instead of cutting and replacing a zip-tie. Once it is all done and dressed I can put a loom sleeve on it.
Grant Gunderson
Well-known member
Thanks. I find both options have there time and place. Lacing allows for much tighter bundles, but it’s also good in high Ozone environments such as electrical motors that would destroy zip ties.
I like to use the hooks out of my Moody Tools Spring tool set.
It’s funny other than lacing I don’t think I have used that spring tool set since I was doing camera repair work 20 years ago!
cvairwerks
Well-known member
Lacing cord is available in a wide range of colors and strengths, waxed or not, round or flat, as well as different materials. For aerospace work, the continuous run method was dropped probably 40 years ago. It's all single point work now.
https://www.researchgate.net/figure...m-in-weapons-bay-of-F-35-JSF-6_fig1_252100261
https://www.researchgate.net/figure...m-in-weapons-bay-of-F-35-JSF-6_fig1_252100261
Miss the Pontiacs
Well-known member
I used to lace cable and might do it again if the opportunity presented itself for a project. But even when I first started working tywraps were taking over. I still have a couple of spools of waxed string, but use them now for fishing walls or vacuuming conduit runs.
grounded-b
Well-known member
Lacing with waxed cord is still done at telephone exchange buildings. Mostly to secure the 48VDC power cables to the ladder trays.
rlitman
Well-known member
Agreed, but just one thing. Brushes create ozone continuously by arcing. Your 3-phase motor shouldn't be creating ozone except perhaps when the contactor changes state.
Grant Gunderson
Well-known member
True, but this way if the next owner in 80 years lets the brushes go as far as the last guy did, they wont have to worry about the lacing...
then again I doubt the Zip ties would make it 20 years. Lets face it the real reason I did the lacing is, it just looks cool.Klokwerk
Well-known member
I'm going to have to try this out! Cable management is always a tough job. At least this will make it look good.
Looking at my 2002 wire harness too.....
Looking at my 2002 wire harness too.....
kaymccampbell
Well-known member
Nice work. My only experience with it is when tying a roast.
Adaylate
Well-known member
Hadn't thought about lacing for awhile but feel like I must have done a mile of it when doing railroad signal wiring in the 60's and had the callous to prove it!
Very nice.
Here's NASA's take on lacing & the like. Starts on pg. 34. It's very similar to the FAA's version.
... And the FAA lacing poop. Starts way down on pg. 9-88. (The pdf weighs in at just over 302 MB.)
This is manual is number one of a 2 volume set and contains loads of other juicy content.
The FAA has an abundance of other freely† available material on their website. (Many of them begin with 'AC', which is short for 'Advisory Circular'.)
†Well, not really all that 'free'; in reality we've already paid for it all.
This is manual is number one of a 2 volume set and contains loads of other juicy content.
The FAA has an abundance of other freely† available material on their website. (Many of them begin with 'AC', which is short for 'Advisory Circular'.)
†Well, not really all that 'free'; in reality we've already paid for it all.
Never heard of it!
Jay Leno has shown the wiring behind the instrument cluster on one of his old Lamborghni Espadas, and it looked nothing like this! More like a spaghetti accident.
I saw a neat article a few months back about how an auto parts supplier with a facility in Ukraine was moving its production into a giant, Soviet-era bomb shelter. The photo included a pic that I think is from that company's Syrian facility, and it shows you what a mess modern wiring harnesses can be:
I can't make the article link work today, but here it is:
Jay Leno has shown the wiring behind the instrument cluster on one of his old Lamborghni Espadas, and it looked nothing like this! More like a spaghetti accident.
I saw a neat article a few months back about how an auto parts supplier with a facility in Ukraine was moving its production into a giant, Soviet-era bomb shelter. The photo included a pic that I think is from that company's Syrian facility, and it shows you what a mess modern wiring harnesses can be:
I can't make the article link work today, but here it is:
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Vette60
Well-known member
LOL. That's what I was thinking as well.
honcho
Well-known member
Lacing was dying out in military telecommunications in the 80s and 90s. Old-timers took pride in their installations but things like factory terminated fiber optic cables along with massive adoption of commercial off the shelf equipment, particularly in fixed facilities, hastened the demise of lacing. Dacron polyester was the standard lacing material in the facilities I worked in.
Grant Gunderson
Well-known member
I recently switched to using this twine.
It’s specifically made for the task and works way better than what I was using prior.
I also like to re-lace the tails from the tie off knots back through the lacing as it keeps them secure and it just looks better.
It’s specifically made for the task and works way better than what I was using prior.
I also like to re-lace the tails from the tie off knots back through the lacing as it keeps them secure and it just looks better.
Speleo
Well-known member
U.S. Army telecommunications school 1974, we had a weeklong or longer course in cable lacing, for Central Office installation. Instructor would look at your work, lacing 6 or 8 or 10 cables in a tray. He would take an Exacto knife and cut the lacing, laying the knot open. any crossed twine, hidden under of cable, would be counted as a fail. We learned attention to detail, and a fine craft, using "Chicago knots" and such.
Cooter Brown
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- Joined
- Feb 6, 2017
- Messages
- 316
My grandfather started at Western Electric in 1922, my father in 1955. Dad eventually transferred to Southern Bell. Both were attached to Bell Labs at one point during their careers.
They could both lace beautifully. I still have a couple of spools of the waxed cord. Dad called it "10 cord" or "12 cord", the 12 cord being thicker.
This is a pic of Grandad during WWII, at Florence Army Air base in South Carolina. He was working for Western on comm projects at bases all over the country. Dad was on New Guinea.
Grandad's the one scratching his chin:
A closeup of some lace work on the equipment:
Thanks for bringing back a few memories.
They could both lace beautifully. I still have a couple of spools of the waxed cord. Dad called it "10 cord" or "12 cord", the 12 cord being thicker.
This is a pic of Grandad during WWII, at Florence Army Air base in South Carolina. He was working for Western on comm projects at bases all over the country. Dad was on New Guinea.
Grandad's the one scratching his chin:
A closeup of some lace work on the equipment:
Thanks for bringing back a few memories.
eejack
Well-known member
We still use lacing in DC voltage racks in utility work and on relay racks. There is something soothing about doing lace. It really cannot be hurried and it can become quite pleasant to look at versus tywraps.
Occasionally I will lace something unexpected, like a standard power panel or a control cabinet just to show the kids what an old timer can do.
And it really makes you plan out your work. You want your wires to break out nicely, without crossing out of the bundle, which takes forethought. All around a nice way to make a living.
...it does make my fingers hurt doing it all day though.
Occasionally I will lace something unexpected, like a standard power panel or a control cabinet just to show the kids what an old timer can do.
And it really makes you plan out your work. You want your wires to break out nicely, without crossing out of the bundle, which takes forethought. All around a nice way to make a living.
...it does make my fingers hurt doing it all day though.
cvairwerks
Well-known member
10 or 12 cord refers to the number of threads used to make up the cord, and indirectly, the strength of the cord.
My Old Tools
Well-known member
I worked 40 years for a major defense contractor that built military recon aircraft. I have seen more miles of laced cables than I care to count. it's a learned art to do it well and quickly.
Mr. Roboto
Well-known member
I too work for a defense contractor. This art is still alive and well on the older designed systems that we build.
Seems to need technique not covered in the diagrams in the original post.
There's a place for lacing but I don't want anything to do with it.
Bad Habit
Well-known member
cvairwerks
Well-known member
It's not hard to learn lacing, other than learning to tie a clove hitch in the middle of a cable run, sometimes not even being able to see your fingers. Takes about 20 minutes to teach the basics, and from there a few hours of doing it, to where you know when and where to tie.
GirchyGirchy
Well-known member
A zip-tie cutter's the only way to go. Quick and clean.