DerbyDad03 wrote:

On Feb 28, 7:07 pm, Ronald Raygun
wrote:
DerbyDad03 wrote:
I put the plug end through one of the holes in the side of the reel,
and left about 6 feet hanging out. I then wrapped the rest of the cord
around the reel in the normal fashion. Once the cord is fully coiled
on the reel, I wrapped the 6 feet that was hanging loose around the
reel.

What this allows me to do is unwrap the 6 foot length that has the
plug, plug it it into an outlet and lay the reel on the ground. I can
now un-reel only as much of the receptacle end as I need.

The reason for the 6 feet is that all of my garage receptacles and and
the receptacle under my raised deck are 4 - 5 feet off of the ground.
If I started wrapping the plug end tight against the reel, I'd have to
unwrap the full cord in order to plug it in.

Why not do it the other way round? Poke the socket end through the
reel's side holes, without an extra 6 feet. Then just wrap the whole
rest of it round the reel, ending with the plug. To use, place the reel
near the equipment you want to power, and un-reel as much as you need to
reach the socket in the garage (or plug it straight in in the garage and
start unreeling towards the equipment).

That way it's just like the shop-bought reels which come with a socket or
four built into the hub of the reel.

"To use, place the reel near the equipment you want to power"

Think about that. Let's say I want to use hand held power tool, which
is more often than not what I use an extension cord for. With the cord
reel "near" the tool, I'm limited to the length of the tool's cord
which now has the cord reel hanging off the end of it. My way, the
tool is plug into a freely movable extension cord which I can toss,
pull, flip anywhere I want. Why would I want a cord reel, possibly
with a bunch of extension cord still on it, hanging off the end of my
tool cord? Seems pretty limiting to me.

That's a fair point, the cords on tools are often far too short, and
the last thing you want is to be holding the weight of the reel as
well as the tool itself, especially if you're up a ladder.

Do I take it that your reel is open and you unwrap from it and wrap
onto it without rotating the actual reel? Because if the process
involves rolling and unrolling (as opposed to wrapping and unwrapping),
then the 6 foot pokey out bit will be flailing around as you do so,
and it would be impossible to do as you described, i.e. to plug it
in and then unreel the socket end. You would need instead to keep
the plug end free to flail (so that it doesn't acquire as much twist
as the unrolling operation will impart to it). Either that or you
could fit a partition disc into the reel so that you roll up the
plug and socket ends either side of it, and to have an arrangement
to keep the (short) plug end clipped in place while the (long)
socket end is being rolled up or unrolled.