Do your extension cords look like a rat's nest? Rather buy new ones than try to untangle them? Watch this for a simple technique to fix them so they stay fixed.
I was taught to wind cords this way in the 70s when I was a Instrument Tech in Mississippi. My Supervisor fussed at me the first time he saw me wind a extension cord around my arm and imminently taught me to do it this way! I have shown many others how to do this through the years! Great video!!!
Just an added tip. When following his tip for winding a cord that has been wound the wrong way for a long time, when you lay it out straight, do it on the blacktop and on a warm day if you can. It helps to soften the the outer coating so that you can twist the cord a little easier. Some cords have a cheap hard plastic outer covering that just won't straighten no matter what you do.
Thirty years in construction and I've never had a problem getting neat, clean coils wrapping hand to elbow. Always a good idea to make sure you're unplugged from your outlet, first.
Great technique for coiling. The uncoiling part, however, not so much. Here is the tip that makes the whole thing work. Say you start coiling from the plug end. This will impart a specific coil twist to the cord. (The unspoken part on twisting is that all coil methods impart a twist, the method shown simply makes the twist work for you rather than against) Always uncoil the cord fully. When it comes time to coil back up, coil from the receptacle end. No more twisting is required! The twist is already in the cord, and you can maintain by always uncoiling from one end and coiling from the other. Only took me 30 years to figure that out!
I'm a pro sound engineer - we coil hundreds of LONG cables every day - and this is the only way to do it. :) nice video tip> one suggestion. If you have a badly kinked cable - you may not ever be able to get it to lay flat.. the wires inside might not ever straighten out ... But here is a technique to try. trail the cord out straight as shown in the video - then drag it around the yard ... a lot.. walk around trees and allow the cord to rub gently against things as you drag it around the yard. You might be able to work out some of the kinks by exercising the cable. this also works MUCH better when it's warm out - and you are in the sun. If that fails - put on work gloves and work the cable through your hands. as you press the cord as if you were wiping it down with generous pressure - thru your hand the cord will try to un wind... you will need to stop and work those loops all the way out to the other end of the cable - then go back to the start and do that again. it might take a long time .. Occasionally the kinks are just so bad - that the only smart thing to do is to throw out the extension cord ... Note - if the cord is kinked badly - the outter jacket is more likely to crack - and that will allow the inner wires to become frayed - and fail - or worse - Shock you . Wet grass and a bad extension cord can be dangerous. :0! Good luck with your cords and DO NOT EVER wrap around your elbow. !! !!
Glad to see someone else doing this. I have done this all my life. Coiling large cables and ropes, too heavy to hold, it can be done, say, on the deck of a ship, too. Plus, there is a technique called a "Ballentine Curl", that makes a stack of ships lines that looks like the symbol of three interlocking rings on a Ballentine ale bottle that is a very stable stowage. But the principle is the same for laying down the coils.
I learned a very similar technique in audio visual class at a community college in Las colinas Texas. It was, in fact, a game changer. And now I do the exact same thing with all electrical wires including extension cords, audio cables, pretty much anything that looks like a cable and it's a beaute.
I agree with John Cornfield below. The over under method is the preferred way to wrap microphone cables and once you learn it, you’ll use it on all your cables and ropes. The overhand method you are teaching is a good starting point though.
I have been wrapping my extension cords around my elbow for years and wasting time getting the tangles out when I use them the next time. I have watched several CZcams videos today to find the best way to wrap cords to avoid tangling. I like yours the best. Thank for a really helpful video. I did subscribe to your CZcams site because I am sure that you have a lot of helpful tips and tricks.
A very long time ago one of my Dad's friends showed me this trick. However shortly after I forgot how he showed my to do it. So for the next 40yrs it has frustrated me not only that I knew that there was a trick to it and I had been shown it, but could not remember the actual process!!! Thank you so much for this video!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
I learned this when I was working as a tree trimmer years ago. While winding up the ropes you had to give it a twist or you would get the same results as the twisted cord in his example.
I don't care what you say. I have worked with wires all my life. It is the spinning of the earth that tangles them. No matter what you do during use they will twist up. We use to call it training the cord getting it to obey you when curling it back up. I always found it amazing at time the perfect knots that got tied in the wires. For the cheap plastic outer jacket cords we got the reals that would wind them up. The best cords made of real rubber were much more cooperative. Time is money this takes to long. But thanks for the video any way.
I've been winding cords and ropes around my arm for 50 plus years and never had a problem. The cords still work and so do I! LOL!!! On the wall of my garage, I also have one of those 'basket thingies' with a hand crank. It holds 200 feet of cord. All you do is wind it back into the basket. Works great and takes less than five minutes to have your extension cords all wound up nice and neat with NO hassles.
This is excellent. I wind up my extension cords like i do my pressure cleaner hose. Basically like you do. A 5 gallon bucket is good to put that "MEMORY" into your hose or cord.. like this guy said, once you have EMPARTED that into whatever you are winding up, your building that MEMORY into it.
Great. Really useful tip.will use this infuture. Have to store for future reference. Watched it 10x already. Will watch tomorrow before breakfast to learn how to do it. Great
This is a great way to create a coil which looks nice. But there's a problem. This kind of coil requires you to untwist the cable as you unwind it from the coil (because you did all that twisting in a single direction while coiling it up. Did you notice that while you were coiling up the cable, the remaining cable on the ground got harder and harder to deal with because of all the twisting you were doing? The kind of coil you created is equivalent to how the cable would be coiled around rolling spool, and it's best unwound by unrolling the spool, not by lying the coil on the ground and picking up an end. If you pull on that end, you'll have a loopy, twisty mess, not very different from the mess you'd get had you chosen to wrap the cable around your elbow. A much better way of wrapping a cable uses what is called the "over/under" technique, which keeps the net twist of the cable near zero. Please check out this video for details. czcams.com/video/uy3axdxDdKs/video.html
I remember when I was a teenager in high school, a rock band came to our school out of the blue. We were in gym class so we helped them set up. We all got in different groups. Sone helped set up the drums, others the speakers. I remember one of the guys in the band told us "don't do this" as he was starting to wrap the speaker cords around his arm.
Good stuff. My father took a totally different approach that did away with the coil altogether. Pick a point near the middle and walk it out as you did, but half as far. Adjust where your middle is until the ends (away from you) are about even. Now walk that middle back to the two ends. You have something 1/4 the length with four wires at each point. Then take everything at one end and bring it back to to the other. Repeat until it is the length you want. Then wrap something around the center of that to keep it together. This eliminates twisting altogether.
I learned this technique when having to coil an air compressor type hose. If you don't twist as you go, you will never get it coiled. I also try to go with longer loops but that is just my preference.
I have four or five extensions that are a mess, I'll give this a try and take pictures for you. I have always used the around the elbow method but I believe years ago when extensions only had 2 wires this worked fine
I work in laying out miles of fiber optic cable. I appreciate and relate to your show. Hoses, pipes, cables or anything that goes in a reel have their own protocol to wind and unwind. Otherwise, you will have a big mess to solve.
Hahaha! You have explained it in a simple language. However one small suggestion, before starting the second loop I lock the first coil by using a biding wire or a piece of tape. This way when you takeout your cable next time you know that this is was the start and so you can use the other end to unwind. We also use this technique when pulling out our submersible pump. Only difference is that we lay down the cable in the form of '8'! Same principle. It becomes easier when we rerun the pump back into the well. Thanks.
Absolutely correct,a good friend of mine once told me that Leeds’s,cords,ropes and hoses all have a memory,and need to be rolled up that way,I’ve told many people how it works and and showed them,all you get is a weird look from them🤪
Find the middle of the cord... Tie a loop about ten inches long at that point....reach your hand through the loop hole and grab both cords and pull them back through....now put your hand through the new hole and pull the next two cords through.... repeat till you reach the plugs.....the nice thing about this method is you only have to undo loops to suit the amount of cord you need !
I learned the elbow technique when I was young, doing our boat ropes. I naturally used the same way for my electrical cords. They seem to be okay, but if this is a better way to sustain the internal wiring integrity, I’m all for it. I tried your recommendations but think I have more work to do. It’s about 90% rounded. One kink I need to figure out.
the elbow technique is okay when you do it not like a oval but like an eight. And what he tells is nonsens, better do it like this czcams.com/video/OY0opwzHGho/video.html
👍 thumbs up. The most important part is when you plug into the outlet, you have to know which side of the pile is up. Otherwise it will tangle as you pull it...
As others have noted you have it half right. Over under, meaning you pinch and twist one direction on the first coil and then twist the opposite direction and bring the coil up under the last one you did. This keeps it from getting twisted in one direction over time and when you go to use it it uncoils nice and untangled coil after coil.
The theory here, re the “wires inside” the cord is important to understand conceptually… And then his wrap theory is good. Personally, I would then add these points to “how to wrap” a “daisy chain” from the cord. For that, search for “cord daisy chain”… then you decide which method you like most.
There is another way. I used to do steam cleaning and had about 200 feet of high pressure hose. Similar to hydraulic line. It was impossible to twist. Instead of coiling it up to store it, I made a figure eight when wrapping it up, which required no twisting. Lengthy stiff hoses can be frustrating. When it came time to use it, I simply took a part of the figure eight loop and laid it on the ground and walked it out to whatever length I needed and there was no twisting or knots. I had no swivel joints, they always leak and are expensive. At 4000 psi and 160 F, there is no garden hose version. I got some stories I can tell you about that, especially the subzero temperatures.
That's a good tip and I've doing it for years. It also works like a charm for the various computer cables. I haven't got the room for my printer in my very tight computer space so I just unfurl the wires and plug them in as I need it to get printing done. Then I just wind them back up as you say for storage by the printer.
I do this into a 5-gal bucket (handles 100 foot cord.) Also store aluminum hoses in small aluminum trash can same way. A fisherman showed me how he used this method with his anchor chain. Works well for 71 year old 85# weakling.
Well, I did the elbow wrap method all my life. It's super quick and simple. On most job sites the boss wants speed from the beginning to the end of the day. At the end of the day, you want to be as quick as possible when wrapping up. Your tired as hell if you've done your job and truly earned your pay, and you just want to get it freaking done and go home. And unless the cord is your own personal tool, you really don't care if it's bad for the cord to roll it up this way. The boss with the bucks can easily buy another cord with out batting an eye. Especially if he has an expense account. As far as the cord being hard to unroll in the morning goes, there's a sure fire method to insure a smooth and fast transition from rolled to stretch. It's called paying attention to what you are doing. It takes way to long to use your method on a job site. 7 Unless of course you are calling the shots and running the show. In that case you will award yourself the extra time an effort it takes to use your slow poke method.
I have wound mine on my arm for 40+ years and have never had a problem with my cords shorting out. Guess I got lucky but I do believe this is a better way.
Yes you are getting the existing twists out BUT once the twists are out you do the over under wrap the next time you wrap. Over and under works on garden hoses, and multi wire cable and fiber as well. Using the the over under method will never put any kind of twist in the coil.
To my mind the easiest way is the way we store kite flying lines. Basically you wind the line onto a flat board with cut outs on both ends and one on a longer edge, that allows you to constantly make a figure of eight, crossing over each time. This actually avoids any twists.
You are right. The figure eight ist the solution. Since decades I do this (without a board) with electric cords, thin or thick ropes. For thin ropes (para cord or thinner) in length 2 to 3 yards I do this technique with thumb and the tiny (pinkie?) finger of my left hand using the right hand to lay the figure eight between these fingers. For electric cords or thicker ropes at a lenght of about 4 yards I use the elbow method combined with the figure eigth methode. For a electric cord in a length like used in the video I do this figure eight using both hands in a distance between the hands of about 1 yard, grabbing the loose part of the cord alternatly with left and right hand. Left hand grabs the cord so that the loose part comes out of the hand on the lower side, same with the right hand. The advantage of the figure eight method is that you can hold one end of the rope and throw the rest of the rope without creating loops or twists.
OOUO Stands for over one under one That seems the best method for coiling as it does not put any twists in the cable, rope or hose. A method i am trying out for cables is "halve the wind". Grab the cable at the ends and coil them togethet old school around your folded arm. Very quick, compact and the cable ends can be pluged together through the resulting midpoint loop to hold it in shape. Would not use this for shorter extensions.
Thanks for the tutorial!! I see I am doing everything wrong to wrap my power cords! No wonder they got tangled. I will apply your technique and let you know how it goes. Thanks again! 👍♥️
Vacuum cleaner cords too…I never put it back as it comes from the original purchase. I do as you did and let it hang loosely from the top hook on the cleaner
I was taught that when I was quite young, preteen. I had to learn two ways of rolling up cords. My Father was a lineman for over forty years. He showed me your way. My Grandfather was a welder in a paper mill. He want his rolled up the way he said millwright's rolled them. That was by taking both the ends an hold them together and pull the two lines through your hand until you get to point where the meet. You then start here and roll it up until you reach the ends. I had to remember whose cord or rope I was rolling up. They both would have knocked me in the head if I did the daisy chain thing.
Best tecnique ive ever seen: lay out full length. Bring one end even w/ other. Now cord is even, bend at center. Pick up bend, hold two runs in one hand, form a loop. Put free hand through loop, and grab two runs below first hand and pull both through first loop drawing up a second loop by pulling free ends to you. Now reach through new loop and grab runs again and pull through, until a thrid loop forms. Repeat over and over until cord is all loopped into a "chain". Be sure to always pull loops in same direction. Cords will never knot.... can be "unzipped" for just the length needed for use without unzipping entire cord. Known as a California Chain.
# 5:02 now,what you got is a coil. A close lightening strike can make a spark @ the ends. Twist the coil into a figure 8 and tie it of. Now the coil will not be so subjected to out side animations. It canciled itself out.
I'm learning to "kit" my eqp. As simple as pill bottle for head phone and jumpers. Also for spares. Then 5 gallon buckets for antenna cables and extension cables. Be sure to label all as our 4 the amendment is fadeing.
Has anybody wrapped their extension cord or rope in a figure 8? I've been doing this for many years, and it's been very easy to keep the cable or rope tangle-free. This way, for every twist to the right, there's a matching twist to the left, and there are no cumulative twists. I wrap the cable or rope using two hands. It may look weird, but it works well. It's fast, too.
Sure, definitely bad for cords to wrap them around your arm. I can't wait until he discovers the over, under method. It will blow his mind how much faster and neater it is to coil the cord, and how the continuous twisting motions he used to fight with are suddenly gone when not using the technique shown in this video🤣🤣👍
Coiling with your elbow works fine if each time you roll it with the opposite arm that you used before. I’ve been a carpenter for 50 years and have never had a problem with my cords. If you constantly use the same arm to roll it up with then they will twist.
I've struggled with winding cords, ropes, cable, etc. all my life, and I believe it's because I'm left-handed. In the video I notice that the cord is held in the left hand and wound with the right. Note also that the winding is done in a clockwise direction which I believe matches the way the internal wires are wound around each other. As a left-hander my tendency is to hold with my right hand and wind in a counter-clockwise direction with my left.
@@helder4u i was think that it make's no deference what hand i learnt this from my younger day i am a 53 yr old sparky used to get wrong off my boss for it i soon learnt how to do it now i am always shouting at people who mess my leads up if they mess them up i go mad u.k
it works great when starting with a brand new cord/hose/cable.etc. If it has been wrapped up and stored incorrectly you will have issues with it. Lay it out on ground on a nice warm day works best. Cold temperatures are not friendly to wrapping a cord up.
Wow! I am 70. Wish I learned this 50 years back!
Finally......
A you tube on how to coil an extension cord. A requirement for all apprentices.
I was taught to wind cords this way in the 70s when I was a Instrument Tech in Mississippi. My Supervisor fussed at me the first time he saw me wind a extension cord around my arm and imminently taught me to do it this way! I have shown many others how to do this through the years! Great video!!!
Just an added tip. When following his tip for winding a cord that has been wound the wrong way for a long time, when you lay it out straight, do it on the blacktop and on a warm day if you can. It helps to soften the the outer coating so that you can twist the cord a little easier. Some cords have a cheap hard plastic outer covering that just won't straighten no matter what you do.
Or use a heat gun … certainly works
Or just breathe hot air on it. Many seem to have an abundance of that.
That is also a good tip for garden hoses.
Or your wife's hairdryer works well
Thirty years in construction and I've never had a problem getting neat, clean coils wrapping hand to elbow. Always a good idea to make sure you're unplugged from your outlet, first.
I'd find it pretty hard to do 100 ft 12g cords hand to elbow..lol
Great technique for coiling. The uncoiling part, however, not so much. Here is the tip that makes the whole thing work. Say you start coiling from the plug end. This will impart a specific coil twist to the cord. (The unspoken part on twisting is that all coil methods impart a twist, the method shown simply makes the twist work for you rather than against) Always uncoil the cord fully. When it comes time to coil back up, coil from the receptacle end. No more twisting is required! The twist is already in the cord, and you can maintain by always uncoiling from one end and coiling from the other. Only took me 30 years to figure that out!
Thanks for that!
I hope you can make a video and share it in CZcams 😊
Ya. Please post. My small mind just felt smaller. I am a visual learner...just ask my wife
ha! ha! My thoughts exactly! Me, too. I need to *see* it :) @@robertingram2820
I'm a pro sound engineer - we coil hundreds of LONG cables every day - and this is the only way to do it. :) nice video tip> one suggestion. If you have a badly kinked cable - you may not ever be able to get it to lay flat.. the wires inside might not ever straighten out ... But here is a technique to try. trail the cord out straight as shown in the video - then drag it around the yard ... a lot.. walk around trees and allow the cord to rub gently against things as you drag it around the yard. You might be able to work out some of the kinks by exercising the cable. this also works MUCH better when it's warm out - and you are in the sun. If that fails - put on work gloves and work the cable through your hands. as you press the cord as if you were wiping it down with generous pressure - thru your hand the cord will try to un wind... you will need to stop and work those loops all the way out to the other end of the cable - then go back to the start and do that again. it might take a long time .. Occasionally the kinks are just so bad - that the only smart thing to do is to throw out the extension cord ... Note - if the cord is kinked badly - the outter jacket is more likely to crack - and that will allow the inner wires to become frayed - and fail - or worse - Shock you . Wet grass and a bad extension cord can be dangerous. :0! Good luck with your cords and DO NOT EVER wrap around your elbow. !! !!
My sentiments exactly!
Whoops!
Glad to see someone else doing this. I have done this all my life. Coiling large cables and ropes, too heavy to hold, it can be done, say, on the deck of a ship, too. Plus, there is a technique called a "Ballentine Curl", that makes a stack of ships lines that looks like the symbol of three interlocking rings on a Ballentine ale bottle that is a very stable stowage. But the principle is the same for laying down the coils.
I learned a very similar technique in audio visual class at a community college in Las colinas Texas. It was, in fact, a game changer.
And now I do the exact same thing with all electrical wires including extension cords, audio cables, pretty much anything that looks like a cable and it's a beaute.
I agree with John Cornfield below. The over under method is the preferred way to wrap microphone cables and once you learn it, you’ll use it on all your cables and ropes. The overhand method you are teaching is a good starting point though.
Thank you! Very nice of you to take the time to make this useful video.
So needed to see this. Thanks for sharing this technique.
Thank you. Simple and useful. Nice video.
I have been wrapping my extension cords around my elbow for years and wasting time getting the tangles out when I use them the next time. I have watched several CZcams videos today to find the best way to wrap cords to avoid tangling. I like yours the best. Thank for a really helpful video. I did subscribe to your CZcams site because I am sure that you have a lot of helpful tips and tricks.
Hi there great demo. I am 72 and my dad taught me this technique before I was 10yo and it works every time.
I was shown the exact same technique for ropes (sheets) when I did a basic sailing course. A very useful life-skill for all sorts of things.
A very long time ago one of my Dad's friends showed me this trick. However shortly after I forgot how he showed my to do it. So for the next 40yrs it has frustrated me not only that I knew that there was a trick to it and I had been shown it, but could not remember the actual process!!! Thank you so much for this video!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
I learned this when I was working as a tree trimmer years ago. While winding up the ropes you had to give it a twist or you would get the same results as the twisted cord in his example.
Thank you, I now understand the "why" you have been so very helpful to me. I am grateful and I appreciate you my friend. Thank you again. ❤
i worked with a contractor when i was 15 or so , i learned the right way to wind an extension cord real fast
I don't care what you say. I have worked with wires all my life. It is the spinning of the earth that tangles them. No matter what you do during use they will twist up. We use to call it training the cord getting it to obey you when curling it back up. I always found it amazing at time the perfect knots that got tied in the wires. For the cheap plastic outer jacket cords we got the reals that would wind them up. The best cords made of real rubber were much more cooperative. Time is money this takes to long. But thanks for the video any way.
I've been winding cords and ropes around my arm for 50 plus years and never had a problem. The cords still work and so do I! LOL!!! On the wall of my garage, I also have one of those 'basket thingies' with a hand crank. It holds 200 feet of cord. All you do is wind it back into the basket. Works great and takes less than five minutes to have your extension cords all wound up nice and neat with NO hassles.
This is excellent. I wind up my extension cords like i do my pressure cleaner hose.
Basically like you do.
A 5 gallon bucket is good to put that "MEMORY" into your hose or cord.. like this guy said, once you have EMPARTED that into whatever you are winding up, your building that MEMORY into it.
@Hello there, how are you doing this blessed day?
Great. Really useful tip.will use this infuture. Have to store for future reference. Watched it 10x already. Will watch tomorrow before breakfast to learn how to do it. Great
You have it going on! Somebody daisy chained my cord once - ruining it ! I've used this on my Music cords for a long time. Thanks!
Good job! I also find that leaving it in the hot sun (during 50 degree temps or higher) can help get some of the kinks and twists out when recoiling.
That is what I do. This technique is also good for long hoses.
This is a great way to create a coil which looks nice. But there's a problem. This kind of coil requires you to untwist the cable as you unwind it from the coil (because you did all that twisting in a single direction while coiling it up. Did you notice that while you were coiling up the cable, the remaining cable on the ground got harder and harder to deal with because of all the twisting you were doing? The kind of coil you created is equivalent to how the cable would be coiled around rolling spool, and it's best unwound by unrolling the spool, not by lying the coil on the ground and picking up an end. If you pull on that end, you'll have a loopy, twisty mess, not very different from the mess you'd get had you chosen to wrap the cable around your elbow.
A much better way of wrapping a cable uses what is called the "over/under" technique, which keeps the net twist of the cable near zero. Please check out this video for details.
czcams.com/video/uy3axdxDdKs/video.html
Over and under is the only way to manage cables, every other method is amateur hour!
Great comment! So so useful!
I use the over under method and my extension cords are in great shape.
It's the only way to do it.
I’ve done this for 40 years. In fact, any construction site I was on most people did this, so yes it does work.
I remember when I was a teenager in high school, a rock band came to our school out of the blue. We were in gym class so we helped them set up. We all got in different groups. Sone helped set up the drums, others the speakers. I remember one of the guys in the band told us "don't do this" as he was starting to wrap the speaker cords around his arm.
Definitely useful, I was looking for a tip on what to do to secure it after it's wound cleanly however!
Good stuff.
My father took a totally different approach that did away with the coil altogether. Pick a point near the middle and walk it out as you did, but half as far. Adjust where your middle is until the ends (away from you) are about even. Now walk that middle back to the two ends. You have something 1/4 the length with four wires at each point. Then take everything at one end and bring it back to to the other. Repeat until it is the length you want. Then wrap something around the center of that to keep it together. This eliminates twisting altogether.
4:00
man you teach me something that was a terrible for me at the moment to store my extension chords...... thanks!!!
Get an old garden hose winder and put all your cord on that. Works great!
Great tip/technique. Thanks!
Thanks for this mate I shall do this in the future and I will let my son know about it too!!
I learned this technique when having to coil an air compressor type hose. If you don't twist as you go, you will never get it coiled. I also try to go with longer loops but that is just my preference.
Gonna try this. Thanks much for the tip.
You made rocket science simple. Thanks!
I have four or five extensions that are a mess, I'll give this a try and take pictures for you. I have always used the around the elbow method but I believe years ago when extensions only had 2 wires this worked fine
I work in laying out miles of fiber optic cable. I appreciate and relate to your show. Hoses, pipes, cables or anything that goes in a reel have their own protocol to wind and unwind. Otherwise, you will have a big mess to solve.
try going over and under, it will protect your cables and unwind so much better
J you are correct , if you pull the cord under every other it will throw out completely untwisted . This guy is Almost right but not quite
What do you mean by « going over and under ». ?
Where can I see this in action ?
@@ColetteTremblay007 czcams.com/video/OY0opwzHGho/video.html
czcams.com/video/yjZSPozuBb0/video.html
If you need to make a video about how to coil an extension cord then this country is well and truly hosed. Good luck out there.
Hahaha!
You have explained it in a simple language. However one small suggestion, before starting the second loop I lock the first coil by using a biding wire or a piece of tape. This way when you takeout your cable next time you know that this is was the start and so you can use the other end to unwind.
We also use this technique when pulling out our submersible pump. Only difference is that we lay down the cable in the form of '8'! Same principle. It becomes easier when we rerun the pump back into the well.
Thanks.
I used it for my aquarium hose successfully, thanks!
Brilliant. Thanks for the tip
Absolutely correct,a good friend of mine once told me that Leeds’s,cords,ropes and hoses all have a memory,and need to be rolled up that way,I’ve told many people how it works and and showed them,all you get is a weird look from them🤪
Thankyou, I have been in my yard with extension cords and garden hoses galore ...elbow girl.
Thanks. I was doing it the wrong way for the past couple of decades.
Wow great job 👍👍👍👍👍👍
Interesting, you learn something new every day ....im the elbow guy .......lol ...ill try it ...thanks
Great demo - Thanks
Find the middle of the cord... Tie a loop about ten inches long at that point....reach your hand through the loop hole and grab both cords and pull them back through....now put your hand through the new hole and pull the next two cords through.... repeat till you reach the plugs.....the nice thing about this method is you only have to undo loops to suit the amount of cord you need !
I was told that's called a linemans knot. I use that for all of my long cords.
@@georgehauser5819 it is ! Some call it a daisy chain also
I learned the elbow technique when I was young, doing our boat ropes. I naturally used the same way for my electrical cords. They seem to be okay, but if this is a better way to sustain the internal wiring integrity, I’m all for it. I tried your recommendations but think I have more work to do. It’s about 90% rounded. One kink I need to figure out.
the elbow technique is okay when you do it not like a oval but like an eight. And what he tells is nonsens, better do it like this czcams.com/video/OY0opwzHGho/video.html
During broadcasting school you’d almost get tossed out the door for using the elbow method.
Thank you so much. I am going out to work on my garden hose.
👍 thumbs up. The most important part is when you plug into the outlet, you have to know which side of the pile is up. Otherwise it will tangle as you pull it...
I needed this ! Thank you !!
Thank you for thee useful tips
As others have noted you have it half right. Over under, meaning you pinch and twist one direction on the first coil and then twist the opposite direction and bring the coil up under the last one you did. This keeps it from getting twisted in one direction over time and when you go to use it it uncoils nice and untangled coil after coil.
I am not sure what you mean by over under. Wish there was a video to show me.
The theory here, re the “wires inside” the cord is important to understand conceptually… And then his wrap theory is good. Personally, I would then add these points to “how to wrap” a “daisy chain” from the cord. For that, search for “cord daisy chain”… then you decide which method you like most.
It looks a LOT better than the “Chain” method of storing cords too!
That tip is finer than frog hair ! 😃
😎👍😊
There is another way. I used to do steam cleaning and had about 200 feet of high pressure hose. Similar to hydraulic line. It was impossible to twist. Instead of coiling it up to store it, I made a figure eight when wrapping it up, which required no twisting. Lengthy stiff hoses can be frustrating. When it came time to use it, I simply took a part of the figure eight loop and laid it on the ground and walked it out to whatever length I needed and there was no twisting or knots. I had no swivel joints, they always leak and are expensive. At 4000 psi and 160 F, there is no garden hose version. I got some stories I can tell you about that, especially the subzero temperatures.
That's a good tip and I've doing it for years. It also works like a charm for the various computer cables. I haven't got the room for my printer in my very tight computer space so I just unfurl the wires and plug them in as I need it to get printing done. Then I just wind them back up as you say for storage by the printer.
I do this into a 5-gal bucket (handles 100 foot cord.) Also store aluminum hoses in small aluminum trash can same way. A fisherman showed me how he used this method with his anchor chain. Works well for 71 year old 85# weakling.
Brilliant, thank you Sir! I have something to go on now and will get to it, my long extension cord is a birds nest.
Well, I did the elbow wrap method all my life. It's super quick and simple. On most job sites the boss wants speed from the beginning to the end of the day. At the end of the day, you want to be as quick as possible when wrapping up. Your tired as hell if you've done your job and truly earned your pay, and you just want to get it freaking done and go home. And unless the cord is your own personal tool, you really don't care if it's bad for the cord to roll it up this way. The boss with the bucks can easily buy another cord with out batting an eye. Especially if he has an expense account. As far as the cord being hard to unroll in the morning goes, there's a sure fire method to insure a smooth and fast transition from rolled to stretch. It's called paying attention to what you are doing. It takes way to long to use your method on a job site. 7
Unless of course you are calling the shots and running the show. In that case you will award yourself the extra time an effort it takes to use your slow poke method.
Takes this guy along time to say good morning
I have wound mine on my arm for 40+ years and have never had a problem with my cords shorting out. Guess I got lucky but I do believe this is a better way.
I have wrapped my cords around my arm for years and have always had good luck.
Great ideas !!
Yes you are getting the existing twists out BUT once the twists are out you do the over under wrap the next time you wrap. Over and under works on garden hoses, and multi wire cable and fiber as well. Using the the over under method will never put any kind of twist in the coil.
@Hello there, how are you doing this blessed day?
Thank you! Wonderful!!!!
To my mind the easiest way is the way we store kite flying lines. Basically you wind the line onto a flat board with cut outs on both ends and one on a longer edge, that allows you to constantly make a figure of eight, crossing over each time. This actually avoids any twists.
You are right. The figure eight ist the solution. Since decades I do this (without a board) with electric cords, thin or thick ropes. For thin ropes (para cord or thinner) in length 2 to 3 yards I do this technique with thumb and the tiny (pinkie?) finger of my left hand using the right hand to lay the figure eight between these fingers. For electric cords or thicker ropes at a lenght of about 4 yards I use the elbow method combined with the figure eigth methode. For a electric cord in a length like used in the video I do this figure eight using both hands in a distance between the hands of about 1 yard, grabbing the loose part of the cord alternatly with left and right hand. Left hand grabs the cord so that the loose part comes out of the hand on the lower side, same with the right hand.
The advantage of the figure eight method is that you can hold one end of the rope and throw the rest of the rope without creating loops or twists.
OOUO
Stands for over one under one
That seems the best method for coiling as it does not put any twists in the cable, rope or hose.
A method i am trying out for cables is "halve the wind". Grab the cable at the ends and coil them togethet old school around your folded arm. Very quick, compact and the cable ends can be pluged together through the resulting midpoint loop to hold it in shape. Would not use this for shorter extensions.
Very good tip , times is money,nice
Thanks for the tutorial!! I see I am doing everything wrong to wrap my power cords! No wonder they got tangled. I will apply your technique and let you know how it goes. Thanks again! 👍♥️
Vacuum cleaner cords too…I never put it back as it comes from the original purchase. I do as you did and let it hang loosely from the top hook on the cleaner
Thank you !!
I was taught that when I was quite young, preteen. I had to learn two ways of rolling up cords. My Father was a lineman for over forty years. He showed me your way. My Grandfather was a welder in a paper mill. He want his rolled up the way he said millwright's rolled them. That was by taking both the ends an hold them together and pull the two lines through your hand until you get to point where the meet. You then start here and roll it up until you reach the ends. I had to remember whose cord or rope I was rolling up. They both would have knocked me in the head if I did the daisy chain thing.
Thank you
Epipany! Thanks.
The same things happens with kite string. Nice job with your explanation. OJT on the job training. Learn today remember always.
Best tecnique ive ever seen: lay out full length. Bring one end even w/ other. Now cord is even, bend at center. Pick up bend, hold two runs in one hand, form a loop. Put free hand through loop, and grab two runs below first hand and pull both through first loop drawing up a second loop by pulling free ends to you. Now reach through new loop and grab runs again and pull through, until a thrid loop forms. Repeat over and over until cord is all loopped into a "chain". Be sure to always pull loops in same direction. Cords will never knot.... can be "unzipped" for just the length needed for use without unzipping entire cord. Known as a California Chain.
That's my method, you only have to unwind what is needed.
Not sure, but I will try it. Thanks.
Good 👍 thanks 😊
Thank you! I'd send b4 and after shots but haven't figured out how to do it on this phone😊
Good job
# 5:02 now,what you got is a coil. A close lightening strike can make a spark @ the ends. Twist the coil into a figure 8 and tie it of. Now the coil will not be so subjected to out side animations. It canciled itself out.
I'm learning to "kit" my eqp. As simple as pill bottle for head phone and jumpers. Also for spares. Then 5 gallon buckets for antenna cables and extension cables. Be sure to label all as our 4 the amendment is fadeing.
THANK YOU
Ouch!! Now I know. Thank you
Has anybody wrapped their extension cord or rope in a figure 8? I've been doing this for many years, and it's been very easy to keep the cable or rope tangle-free. This way, for every twist to the right, there's a matching twist to the left, and there are no cumulative twists. I wrap the cable or rope using two hands. It may look weird, but it works well. It's fast, too.
Sure, definitely bad for cords to wrap them around your arm.
I can't wait until he discovers the over, under method.
It will blow his mind how much faster and neater it is to coil the cord, and how the continuous twisting motions he used to fight with are suddenly gone when not using the technique shown in this video🤣🤣👍
Coiling with your elbow works fine if each time you roll it with the opposite arm that you used before. I’ve been a carpenter for 50 years and have never had a problem with my cords. If you constantly use the same arm to roll it up with then they will twist.
Thanks for the good tip I got a garage full of those screwed up cords.sam
AWESOME. Thanks for sharing this information. 😮😂😂
Great video. But if I don’t have time to train my cables can I send them to cable training school?
I've struggled with winding cords, ropes, cable, etc. all my life, and I believe it's because I'm left-handed. In the video I notice that the cord is held in the left hand and wound with the right. Note also that the winding is done in a clockwise direction which I believe matches the way the internal wires are wound around each other. As a left-hander my tendency is to hold with my right hand and wind in a counter-clockwise direction with my left.
if you read my link below , you will find it works equally with any leading hand
@@helder4u i was think that it make's no deference what hand i learnt this from my younger day i am a 53 yr old sparky used to get wrong off my boss for it i soon learnt how to do it now i am always shouting at people who mess my leads up if they mess them up i go mad u.k
Thanks!
it works great when starting with a brand new cord/hose/cable.etc. If it has been wrapped up and stored incorrectly you will have issues with it. Lay it out on ground on a nice warm day works best. Cold temperatures are not friendly to wrapping a cord up.