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wire management in shop

rockitdoc

Well Known Member
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How are you guys keeping your wire organized in the shop? I have looked for spools and racks, but am coming up short.
 
For the wire that is not on a spool, I use gallon sized freezer zip lock plastic bags. Mark on the outside of the bag the wire size. Then all the bags get thrown into a cardboard box.

For wire that is on a spool (22 gauge red, black, and white) I just leave it on the spool and pull off what I need.
 
While the idea of having the wire all neatly organized on some sort of rack is a nice idea I'm not sure for me, the way I'm doing the wiring, that would work that well. In lots of instances I put the connector or crimp one end of the wire and then I pull the wire along the route I'm planning for it to take. Then when I get to the end point I add a little bit of extra and cut it. Now I could measure the length in some way and then walk over to my nicely organized wire rack, measure the needed length of wire and then cut it. I think my approach is faster, but I'll admit my wire which mostly on spools is just a pile of spools. For the remaining wire I have a box with all of the miscellaneous other pieces. Some of the short pieces I have are in zip lock bags.
 
For the wire that is not on a spool, I use gallon sized freezer zip lock plastic bags. Mark on the outside of the bag the wire size. Then all the bags get thrown into a cardboard box.

...
Same, but I use a plastic box. When I see the photos of Steinair's shop I dreamt of doing it like them with easy to access spools, but it's severe overkill for one aircraft and panel.
 
For the wire that is not on a spool, I use gallon sized freezer zip lock plastic bags. Mark on the outside of the bag the wire size.

Stole and modified that idea.

I bought a HFA cart, screwed 2 scrap cedar fence slats to the sides, drilled holes and ran a dowel through it. Wire supplied on a roll goes through it, loose wire goes in the ziplock bag. Power strip ziptied to the side for the heat gun and soldering iron. Heat shrink tubing and misc tools go in the drawer, scrap/junk I can't throw away (I'll need that SOMEDAY!!) goes on the bottom as stabilizing weight.


Easy to move to one side of the plane or the other, just unplug the powerstrip and roll it around.
 

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How are you guys keeping your wire organized in the shop? I have looked for spools and racks, but am coming up short.

I made spools with flanges of cardboard. Lots of shipping boxes arrive. Assembled with hot glue.
 
I had used a cart with spools and coils piled in. It worked great for bringing wiring supplies to the work. I just recently bought a wire spool rack from Amazon and bolted it to the cart. Still getting organized but it's a big improvement.
 

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Wire

Hmmm. Career in Telecom. Handle is "Wirejock". I wonder?
I will rig almost anything to make it easier. Usually a chunk of conduit clamped to something. :D
 
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