RE: Cable-Tying with Waxed Twine

["Chris Cahill" <chris () coreds net>]

> -----Original Message-----
> From: owner-nanog () merit edu [mailto:owner-nanog () merit edu] On Behalf
Of
> Steve Rubin
> Sent: Wednesday, January 24, 2007 4:50 PM
> To: nanog () merit edu
> Subject: Re: Cable-Tying with Waxed Twine
>
>
> Dan Mahoney, System Admin wrote:
> > Hey all,
> >
> > This seems a wee bit off topic, but definitely relates to network
> > operations (somewhere below layer 1) and I can't think of a better
> > place to ask.
> >
> > Upon leaving a router at telx and asking one of their techs to plug
> in
> > the equipment for me, I came back to find all my cat5 cables neatly
> > tied with some sort of waxed twine, using an interesting looping
knot
> > pattern that repeated every six inches or so using a single piece of
> > string.  For some reason, I found this trick really cool.
> >
> > I have tried googling for the method, (it's apparently standard,
I've
> > seen it in play elsewhere), and for the type of twine, but had
little
> > luck.  I was wondering if any of the gurus out there would care to
> > share what this knot-pattern is actually called, and/or if there's a
> > (illustrated) howto somewhere?
> >
> > -Dan "Tired of getting scratched up by jagged cable ties" Mahoney
>
> Best site I have seen so far:
> http://www.dairiki.org/hammond/cable-lacing-howto/

I have recently fallen in love with lacing. It is definitely a very
clean method of securing cables, and is an art form that seems to be
dying with old telco guys. 

There are a couple of different stitches, including the Chicago and
Kansas city stitch. The best cord to use is a 6 ply poly lacing cord
that can be purchased from western filament, inc. part#9PRT125W. I
believe that it is about $7.00 per half pound roll, with a $50 minimum
order. Check out chapter 5 of the following Qwest technical publication
for details on how to tie the knots. 

http://www.qwest.com/techpub/77350/77350.pdf 

On another off topic note, does anyone know the origin of including
mints with telco rack gear? I often see this in rack screw bags,
shelves, adaptors, etc.. 


-Chris