How to make professional wire runs

[blueflyer]

I have seen people's wire runs behind their panel and they look absolutely beautiful (like the photo below).



I have tried to wire up (mock ups with wood "panel") my future panel 3 different times now, and they start out wonderfully for the first few wires. But, by the time I get all the wire in there, I have lost control of the wires, they are no longer smooth and straight, but look more like a loose conglomeration of runs. Frankly, they turn out embarrassing. I want to make my behind the panel wire runs look as good as the pros.

I have searched the archives with no luck in tips, tricks, or videos on a "how to" make professional wire runs. Any tips/tricks would be appreciated.

[Ironflight]

1) Make sure to smooth each wire before you install it, as you uncoil it - no kins or bumps.

2) Buy a ton of really cheap (Harbor Freight), small zip-ties and use them as temporary bundling retainers as you add wires.

3) Plan in advance where everything is going to have to go, leave nice bend radii, and as you add each wire, make sure you feed them into the bundle in parallel.

4) If wires have to exit the bundle, think about how it should leave - don't let it weave through several wires first.

Like any part of a build, it is all about not getting rushed, not accepting compromises, thinking and planning ahead, and having a mental picture of what the finished product should look like.

[Paul K]

Mine are not as clean as what your photo shows but it really helps to start all your wires at the panel and run them away towards the end use, and it helps to assemble your bundles with trmporary zip ties. I used the brightest colors I could find so I knew they were temporary.

I ran into a few issues, such as forgetting a wire or two after the bundles were completed and then trying to "fish another wire in". I also added stuff after the fact and some wires were just not long enough to go where I wanted them without cutting corners! At some point, there is the lone wire that has to go it's own way!

Paul Dye has some older post where he addresses this issue and they are worth reading.

Good luck and take your time. I found it better to have a good job even if I waisted a lot of wire redoing things.

(WOW, Paul Dye must have hit the post button as I was typing!)

[BillL]

I am envious of those with the pretty wiring skills. I tried to do mine that way but with all the connections, and doing a component at a time to ensure proper connections, a LOT OF IN PROCESS REWORK took place.

Get a thousand (really -a thousand) little zip ties, you will use most of them. Placing all your components, then thinking about each wire bundle path, will help, but (warning!) your head might explode trying to know all of this at once in order to make the complicated look simple.

I have concluded there is no way to run all the wires, terminate, then go back and make them in bundles and smooth. NO WAY. If I do this again, I will definitely build a wooden buck with all the turns so wires can be pulled around a fixed radius.

I liked a post where the builder had a wooden buck with the panel, sub panel, firewall all there to make the bundles. He even took it to Iraq/Afghanistan (?). I think that is what it would take to make this work. At least to keep MY head from exploding. I took a year to do this part, and it still does not all look like the OP picture.

In the end, I used lacing cord as banging around that zip tie tool and looking at the results of lacing - it just looks better. I even bought, UV tolerant, high temperature, T&B ties with the stainless tang for the finished work, but mostly use the lacing.

Good luck, happy wiring.

PS - I was a cable installer for Western Electric when I was young (1971). In the 7 story building each floor ( the whole floor) had about 5-6 feet thick layer of cables going hither and yon. After training to run them straight and bundle as you went, seeing the real thing was a big shock. Imagine how many 26ga wires are in that 6 foot thick mess. The visible ends below ceiling grade were always beautiful. We used waxed flax string, as tie wraps were just being introduced. We had to use the tension/cutting tire wrap tool to avoid cutting cable sheathing. I will never forget the color code, blue, orange, green, brown, slate, with W R B Y tracers.

[Mike S]

A wire comb helps a lot, simple as a notched board to fancy factory made tools.

Here is a pretty extreme example https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-cFToZt_KzI

I find it is a lot easier to run all the wire long, bundle it up, then cut to length and terminate the other end last. You will need to label each wire, or color code or just tone them out one by one doing it this way, but it is a good way to get nice looking bundles.

Gotta admit that I have never done a bundle as massive as shown in the first post photo, but the concept is the same, just the scale changes.

[wirejock]

Originally Posted by Ironflight

1) Make sure to smooth each wire before you install it, as you uncoil it - no kins or bumps.

As Paul mentioned. UNCOIL wire. If you simply pull it from a coil, it will gain a full twist for every coil. The result will be tons of kinks and untwisting.

[az_gila]

Separate harness cables can be made on a plywood sheet with nails or screws as guides for the wire segments -

[humptybump]

My second panel was better than my first :-)

I found alternative to a bazilion zip ties - Velcro ties. I was much less concerned with cutting and replacing lots of ties. The Velcro ties allowed me to make corrections easily - even long ones.


I got them from Amazon

[dpansier]

In addition to the methods listed above I found a wire spoon to be a very handy device to add a wire or wires after having laced everything up nice and neat.

Stein has them and well worth the cost.

http://steinair.com/storedetail.cfm?productid=303

[John Courte]

+1 on the wire spoon. HUGE help.