Funny you should say this... what I didn't take a picture of was the way the extension cords were ran along the ceiling and beams and florescent lights... all attached via cable ties. And not a single one of the ends was clipped off to make it at least look "nice." I always have a dike tool with me when using cable ties.
There's no justification for anything like this clusterfuck. For what they spent in that BS arrangement, they could have probably bought a decent used shoebox dimmer pack.
The Fire Marshall in my area would not allow that.
And he would show up every 6 months. For something like that could shut the operation/business down, until corrected. Lots more power than an Electrical Inspector. And he would show up for a re-inspection on the date promised.
There's nothing wrong with it besides the mismatch of colors. Let's be realistic, the total load is well below what the wires are rated for. Does it look good? NO. Could it be made to look better? PROBABLY. Is it a disaster waiting to happen? NO. Extension cords and power strips are made exactly for this.
If the surge strip is UL listed, it has a 15 amp thermal breaker in the red switch. You won't start a fire. Depending on where those orange cords go, RFI, electrocution, or random digital errors.
If the surge strip is UL listed, it has a 15 amp thermal breaker in the red switch. You won't start a fire. Depending on where those orange cords go, RFI, electrocution, or random digital errors.
Except that the brittle brass foil rails do not make proper contact with the plugs, and the resistance often leads to a fire. The UL label is often fake.
I always have a dike tool with me when using cable ties.
If you are using cable ties in any type of quantity, do yourself a favor and invest in one of these. Might save the next guy some sliced up knuckles too!
I always have a dike tool with me when using cable ties.
If you are using cable ties in any type of quantity, do yourself a favor and invest in one of these. Might save the next guy some sliced up knuckles too!
That's a unitasker gimick tool. All you need is wire snips.
15 years in telco and electrical work all across Canada and the eastern seaboard; I've never seen a spec dictate the tools to be used; and I've never seen one of those gimmick Ty-wrap tools used by anyone with actual skill... I'm sure they have a use, as mentioned above, probably very useful in panel or assembly work, but it must be a pretty limited application.
I've laced miles and miles of cable, cut out thousands of improper Ty-wraps and have the scars on my arms to prove it... Dykes or side cutters are NOT the proper tool to use, either - they leave a little tail at the head of the Ty-wrap... Flush cutters or a razor knife work much better.
The quality man I worked for at Nortel had a pair of panty hose with him at all times... He'd run it across the head of the Ty-wraps - if they caught or snagged, that was a safety 'major' - 3 majors on a job, and you got a week off to think about it.
I don't buy it but we can agree to disagree. It might help save a little time if your doing an insane amount of them but requirement? No way!
If you are doing professional electrical work on high-tech industrial projects, you can find the requirement in the specifications for the project.
The other requirement you can find is for torque screwdrivers.
Old time Electricians that came up under a master Electrician had calibrated wrists. God how do you think we ever built or wired anything? Given what I see and read today we did better without the tools because we had trained people vs tools with incompetent workers trying to use them.
Old time Electricians that came up under a master Electrician had calibrated wrists. God how do you think we ever built or wired anything? Given what I see and read today we did better without the tools because we had trained people vs tools with incompetent workers trying to use them.
That was then, this is now.
I'll agree, though, it all comes down to competent supervision.
Old time Electricians that came up under a master Electrician had calibrated wrists. God how do you think we ever built or wired anything? Given what I see and read today we did better without the tools because we had trained people vs tools with incompetent workers trying to use them.
That was then, this is now.
I'll agree, though, it all comes down to competent supervision.
You also need workers intelligent and engaged enough to supervise.
Wonder if John Galt ever laced the bundles before the wimp cable ties were invented?
I have laced communication cables (too many to count) but don't recall ever lacing power cables. I remember learning cable lacing still with organic fiber twine (a special treatment gave it a deep red color) but by the time I did actual installations it was already all waxed polyester.
As for the ty-wrap tools, even the cheap knock-off ones save some effort and produce a more uniform result. I would probably not go and fetch it from the toolbox for just one or two quick cable ties (depending on just how far away the toolbox happens to be) but I'd certainly do it for a dozen or more.
Wonder if John Galt ever laced the bundles before the wimp cable ties were invented?
I have laced communication cables (too many to count) but don't recall ever lacing power cables. I remember learning cable lacing still with organic fiber twine (a special treatment gave it a deep red color) but by the time I did actual installations it was already all waxed polyester.
As for the ty-wrap tools, even the cheap knock-off ones save some effort and produce a more uniform result. I would probably not go and fetch it from the toolbox for just one or two quick cable ties (depending on just how far away the toolbox happens to be) but I'd certainly do it for a dozen or more.
How did you hold them together? The lacing was a little heavier duty but still tied the cables together. Control panels and MCC's were full of laced bundles.
I don't recall ever lacing either AC power cable or the main DC bus cables (to the battery backup rooms). As far as I can recall those cables always ran loosely placed in enclosed raceways (usually with removable lids). The only tying of the AC cables was the strain relief at the end.
In datacenter wiring I have placed AC power cables in overhead power troughs (again loosely placed without tying). The only time they got tied down (with ty-wraps, not lacing) was when the power cables ran across an overhead cable ladder. Even then the power cables were not bundled up but tied individually to ladder rungs (side by side).
I'm not saying that lacing of power cables never happened, just that I'm not familiar with it (having never done it myself). I would think that it is more desirable to allow power cables to dissipate heat then to neatly bundle them together (which would allow heat to build up inside the bundle).
What did you use before tyraps? I'm not talking abut power wiring but control wiring, control circuit wiring etc. Surely you didn't have a spaghetti bowl of wires going all directions. Maybe I should ask how old are you. Perhaps tyraps existed when you came along.
I'm not talking abut power wiring but control wiring, control circuit wiring etc.
The topic of this thread was power cables. I'm sure industrial control systems at that time did lace the wiring but that is not something I ever did.
As for my age, old enough to have done cable splices with hammer and blow torch PILC (paper insulated lead-shielded cable) telco dry-core cable. The hammer was used to shape a shell from a sheet of lead (fitting it to the size of the splice) and the blow torch was used to solder it around the cable ends.
I learned the fine art of cable lacing from Ma Bell. They had a real hard-on for that kind of shit at the phone company. When they decided cosmic frames would be the panacea to the old MDF, ty-wraps has come out. Those could only be used on poly jacketed cables, so the individual pairs were still laced all through the backside.
I agree about the ty-wrap tool - it's a gimmick. Panduit was literally giving them away years ago and I still have one somewhere.
The quality man I worked for at Nortel had a pair of panty hose with him at all times... He'd run it across the head of the Ty-wraps - if they caught or snagged, that was a safety 'major' - 3 majors on a job, and you got a week off to think about it.
If that's a safety "major", my fingernails could be deadly some days.
·