Posted by David Sherman on Saturday, July 28, 2007 at 02:40:28 :
In Reply to: My suggestion is... posted by Hank on Friday, July 27, 2007 at 23:27:46 :
I agree, it's easy to make a good harness yourself and that way you can get every wire and connector exactly the way you want it.
When I'm making any kind of wiring harness that I want to be neat and permanent, usually inside some piece of electronic equipment, I lace the cables the way I learned from taking apart old WWII electronic gear when I was a kid. You get waxed lacing cotton, sort of a flat thread, but regular extra heavy upholstery thread will also do if waxed, and loop it around the cable bundles, pulling it tight. There's an "easy" knot and a "tighter" knot that you can do with each loop. With waxed cotton, the "easy" loop stays in place just fine, but the tighter version won't unravel if the lacing gets cut somewhere. Lacing is easier and neater than trying to wrap tape around the wires, and will last longer. It's easy to handle the ends of each bundle, and the spots where bundles branch off. You can space the loops as closely or as far apart as you want, but 1" spacing is usually about right. If a wire comes out a little too long, you can carry it down the main bundle for a little ways and then loop it back into its side bundle. Even some of the WWII chassis I took apart had spots where the cable ladies had done this. Some people nowadays get essentially the same effect by using a whole lot of tie-wraps, but I think this is unsightly and expensive.
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