"john reeves" wrote in message
...
This is about those extension power leads ( usually orange coloured from B
& Q etc). Quite often sold for use with electric lawn mowers.

These cables seem to have 'a mind of their own' every time you reel them
up and unreel them.

It's like a 'memory effect' they have, ( as if they are not flexible
enough ) and want to keep moving in a direction that they must have been
stored in previously.

This probably sounds like a minor thing. But the total time wasted and
frustration trying to unravel the thing mounts up time after time.

I've tried that trick sailors use in giving it a small twist every time
you reel it around your arm, but its just a bit too stiff to do that
successfully. Has anyone else found a good way to deal with this? It has
crossed my mind that this cable is just too old and has lost what
flexibility it did have once.


We use a device similar to this:
http://www.metals4u.co.uk/detail.asp...36&prd_id=4342
although ours has two swivel handles, one that is in the centre of one side
and the other at the end of the other side. You simply push the plug into
three holes on the flat section, hold the centre handle and start winding
with the other. No twists, no tangles and the cable has lasted for years.
--
Tinkerer