Monday, March 09, 2015
A Better Way to Coil Electrical Cords
Tools of the Trade: Ron Paulk is best known for his customized box truck and tool trailer, and for designing successively more sophisticated portable work stations, but not everything he does is on such a grand scale. In the video below he shows how to coil electrical cords (and air hoses) in a manner that makes them last longer and lay flat when you roll them out.
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4 comments:
I might be taking the ‘over under’ method of coiling for granted, but this is technique is nothing new. I first remember learning how to coil like that in middle school, and have since exclusively used the method on anything but rope. One of the flaws in this video is that the demonstrator fails to note the weaknesses of this coil, specifically the tendency to knot at every other coil if you feed an end through the coil before uncoiling. Another flaw is that the demonstrator also fails to mention the cordage that it would be unwise to use this coil on (as mentioned before, rope may be a bad option). I’m all for the distribution of this method, but like anything you should list advantages and disadvantages so that the user can weigh their options for the situation at hand. I’m frankly surprised that anyone who seems to have been demonstrating shop techniques went through his career and only recently learned this method of coiling. It’s considered so basic here that it isn’t even taught in stagecraft I.
I love Ron Paulk!! I saw an article about coiling and got excited because that is an area where I could use some work, but then when I saw Mr. Paulk Homes I got even more excited. Ron Paulk, creater of all things Paull (the paulk work bench all 80 models, miter stand, everything bench, tool trailer, mobile woodshed and much more) never disappoints me. He is an amazingly innovative thinker that and I hope to include all of his ideas into my future mobile tool containers (whatever that might be). This particular video just goes to show how important youtube personalities are. A lot of what I have learned about carpentry was taught to me on you tube and improved by experience. There are people who teach experts how to be even better craftsman and people who teach beginners how to use a router. Ron Paulk does both, he can have a video of him beautifully crafting cabinets that not many people can do, then a video on how to coil. Ron Paulk really is a fantastic builder, teacher and inspiration.
The most important thing that I learned in media stagecraft last year was how to properly coil a cable, which is great because I’m pretty anal when it comes to cable and cable management. For tech for Wolves I taught the sound board op how to coil cable properly so that I could ask her to do stuff during moments when nothing was happening on stage and I wouldn’t have to worry about having to untangle things next time I waned to use a cable. Unfortunately, I find that every once in a while this method fails and somehow the entire cable turns into a giant knot, which is really annoying. I’m not sure what exactly happens, but sometimes if it’s just a loop thing at can an easy fix (although most of the time it’s more complicated than that). I liked how he put those bungee things on the ends of the cables. They seem like a much better solution than tie line, although I don’t see a reason for us not to use tie line considering the abundance of it in theatre. I really liked his first coiling technique, although it’s not as good in the long run, for its speed and elegance. It’s a pretty good idea, although I don’t think anything is better than the backwards forwards technique.
Coiling cable is a serious deal for most theater professionals. I remember it being paramount that we learn it the first day of several of our stagecraft minis the first year of school. I think that there are several good ways of doing it as long as it is always easy to use again and is not damaging the cords shelf life. I think the over under method has the best results when done right, but at the time when it is done wrong you could be detangling a long cord for hours as opposed to helping out elsewhere backstage. I have also seen some great arguments about whether or not to permanently leave a piece of tie line on one end of the cord to tie it up after you finish coiling. I cannot remember any of the arguments against it but I have always found it to be useful in the past.
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