How To Properly Tie Cables
Sunday, November 20, 2011This is a great tip.
This has got to be somewhere else online, but I've never seen it. For all I know, this is my own method that I just sort of tweaked after years and years of having a messy drawer full of cables. That being said, perhaps I am totally wrong and, in fact, everybody knows this.
Either way, it's a great tip.
So here's the deal: We all have tons of cables, and managing them while they are in use on our desks is difficult enough (although I solve that problem by generally avoiding cables on my desk to begin with). Forget about keeping them neatly in some drawer. You can try cable ties, but they're annoying. Velcro is acceptable, but not great. Plus, what about when you're out and about? When you have your in-ear headphones that you want to stash somewhere? How are you supposed to wrap those?
Turns out, there's a great, and simple, way to do this. Feel free to read through the written directions, or just simply watch the handy video I made. Or do both. I don't care.
1
Fold your cable in half, but extend the smaller of the two ends by about 3-4 inches. For instance, if you're wrapping headphones you would want to extend the end with the audio jack beyond the headphone end. If it's a micro USB cable, the end with the smaller port get's extended.
2
Now, fold the part that has been folded in half, in half again. So, you're just folding the cable in half, over and over again, but leaving that extended part out of this folding. Do this until the bundle could just about fit in your fist with little hanging out.
3
Now use the extra slack from the portion you left hanging out to wrap around the folded portion, and then duck the end of the part you did the wrapping with into the closest loop that said wrapping just created. Pull to tighten, and when you're done it should look something like this:
UPDATE: As many have pointed out in the comments, for longer cables I would suggest watching this.
Reader Comments (7)
Nope nope nope nope nope. Bends the cable too much in the outer loop.
You should watch http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SrX9B_JRSWI
This works for all lengths of cable. If your cables have kinks in them from being improperly tied you can soak them in boiling water for 10 seconds to remove the kinks.
As for keeping the cables together, you can pass one of the lose ends through the coil around the outside and back through the coil a few times to keep things together. Or use a velcro tie.
Yeah, I'd highly recommend not doing this. Very bad for the cables.
The only one method to tie a cable is shown in the video, Richard posted the link to.
Alright. I hear that. If kept like this for extended periods of time they may get a little bit bent out of shape, but I'd hardly say its really so bad for them.
On that note, I find it best for headphones to quickly and neatly tie them and throw them in a bag or pocket.
Seriously, do not do this if you want cables that work. The link Richard S posted is the correct method, and works for computer cables just as well as it does for long mic and lighting cables.
BAD IDEA! Richard's Over/Under is really the only way to coil something with internal copper. Rope you *could* coil like this, but there are much neater, more efficient ways of coiling and storing rope. DO NOT DO THIS if you want your cables to last any length of time.