Sometimes the damage is to great for the relationship to recover, but I wish you both every happiness.
extension cord winding
- Thread starter bracconiere
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well, i'm hoping with some...
she'll be just like new!
Okay, but no twisting. <insert link to Twist and Shout here>
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of course not, the thing still needs to be conductive! but i am hoping with some TLC it gets limber again....
I have a couple of these and they’re great-
https://www.lowes.com/pd/CRAFTSMAN-...SJTW-Cable-Outdoor-Power-Cord-Reel/5012503247
https://www.lowes.com/pd/CRAFTSMAN-...SJTW-Cable-Outdoor-Power-Cord-Reel/5012503247
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more the sorta thing i was thinking i'd get as feedback.....not learning cursive writing, as it turned out....
as an electrician, proper reels are almost always better than loose cable, unless you want semi permanent or something to connect a corded powertool(though even there, reel with a shorter cord works best). don't buy anything under 5$/€ per meter, can't be worth the money.
Open pondering here - if over/under is best for cable life, where does a reel fit in? It seems a reel gives the cord training just as old school coiling does. Or am I missing some physics?
I had an old mechanic tell me how to do this:
Get a 5 gallon bucket with a lid. Cut a 2" hole in the lid, and a 2" hole in the side of the bucket near the bottom. Thread the male end of the cord through the hole in the lid, into the bucket and out the hole in the side, about 3-4' outside the bucket. Snap the lid on and feed the rest of the cord through the hole in the lid.
I have had as much as 150 feet of of extension cord in it and never had a tangle or other problem
Get a 5 gallon bucket with a lid. Cut a 2" hole in the lid, and a 2" hole in the side of the bucket near the bottom. Thread the male end of the cord through the hole in the lid, into the bucket and out the hole in the side, about 3-4' outside the bucket. Snap the lid on and feed the rest of the cord through the hole in the lid.
I have had as much as 150 feet of of extension cord in it and never had a tangle or other problem
Zambezi Special
Well-Known Member
I do/did that for my longer cables, except I just kept the lid of when using.
Then someone sat on the bucket...
I keep forgetting to buy a new one
You are missing a bit of physics, its all about conservation of angular momentum in the end. Most manual coiling is done with the coil close to 90° to the line of the cable on the floor, while rolling is done in line with the cable.
With a coil action, the longitudinal rotation that results from the coiling process either gets bigger and causes the twisting of the cable, or it has to be countered by rotating in the opposite direction every alternate coil (the over/under process). If the cable is short enough, or you are sufficiently patient, you can counter the rotation by letting the as-yet uncoiled length twist in the opposite direction too. On long cables, this is f***ing annoying to do manually.
With a reel, any rotation is expended around the axle of the reel and therefore does not build up. You can actually coil a cable by hand without twisting if you roll it up into the coil along the line of the cable by rotating the coil in your hands around the invisible center.
There may be videos on Youtube about this.
that works if it's reasonably loose and cool inside, if you leave too much inside and it starts to behave like a tightly packed coil it might melt/catch fire.
Thanks. I thought there was a good reason.
I should have mentioned that it is loosely packed inside, and I have never used it for anything that drew very much current--hedge trimmers and such. Someone else's experience could be different.
I use the double line version of this for extension cords. It keeps them tidy and you can sling them up on a hook, or even just toss them on a table or in a tote, and they uncoil great every time, no knots.
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