[GreenKeys] The most annoying part of Teletype restoration.

[Richard Knoppow]

    Two at once, dental floss does not work for lacing. You 
really need lacing cord. It was made in both round and flat 
versions. For larger cables the flat kind works best.
    Some kinds of fishing line work OK. This is the same stuff 
used for restringing dial cords.
    I find it interesting that Collins used single ties made of 
lacing cord. A sort of early version of cable ties. Lacing cable 
was done when it was common to build the cable separately. This 
can be done of a frame or a board with nails in it to locate the 
wires. When the wires are in place they are laced together with 
the cable. One can find instructions in some old books. The 
direction of the tying is important, the cord needs to be 
threaded to that a strain will tighten the cable rather than 
loosen it.
    Laced cable can look very neat but its a PITA to work on 
since getting an individual wire out can be very difficult and 
re-lacing a cable in place can be nearly impossible. Cable ties 
are much more practical. Cable ties can look very neat if done 
carefully. One suggestion is to either use a tool for tightening 
the tie and cutting off the stub or learn how to stretch the stub 
a little when cutting it so that the end of the stuff is flush or 
actually pulls into the slot just a little. That eliminates 
having sharp edges on each tie. Working on someone else's 
sloppily done cable ties can be both painful and bloody.
  Cable conduit of various sorts is another good way to run 
cables. The slitted tubing mentioned earlier in this thread is 
good. Square conduit with snap on tops is available for wiring in 
racks and large chassis. Looks very neat but is easy to access if 
you have to change or move a wire.
    BTW, on a tour of a Bell System plant many years ago I 
noticed that a lot of the wiring was just haywire run in trays. 
The older wiring was laced cables that looked like they grew that 
way. I was told the haywire was not only less work but had less 
cross-talk than the cables. Sometimes neater is not better.
    Collins had a special knot used on their string cable ties. I 
don't remember how its tied but I think its described somewhere 
in the stuff on the Collins Collector's site.

On 12/18/2020 11:52 AM, E. wrote:
> Well, I can’t say my way is authentic, but it’s at least halfway practical ;p .  I use tiny but a bit fatter zip ties every inch or so on a bundle of wires… not too loose but not too tight.  Wires end up supporting each other without cutting into the lines.  Easy to cut off too, if not too tight, for rewiring.
>
>
>> On Dec 18, 2020, at 2:48 am, Clay Archer <carcher at parkcity.net> wrote:
>>
>> I would lace it up with waxed string.  That was a common way of dressing wires, especially on military electronic equipment.    This would let you see the multi-colored wires where it would be hidden with the spiral tubing.  If done correctly it looks really cool.
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-- 
Richard Knoppow
1oldlens1 at ix.netcom.com
WB6KBL