Knots and kinks in cables
 

The cable on my Flymo hedge trimmer (and to a lesser extent that on my
Flymo lawnmower) is forever tying itself in knots. No matter how often
I try to unkink and straighten it, it always curls into knots again.
Winding it around something doesn't help.

Any suggestions on overcoming this?

Thanks.

Knots and kinks in cables
 

Knots and kinks in cables
 

On Mon, 20 Apr 2009 20:24:09 +0100, John Moppett wrote:

The cable on my Flymo hedge trimmer (and to a lesser extent that on my
Flymo lawnmower) is forever tying itself in knots. No matter how often
I try to unkink and straighten it, it always curls into knots again.

The inside of a cable is rather like a rope. When you coil the cable up
you need to twist it slightly in your fingers so that it follows its
natural curve. If you are righthanded, hold the coil in your left and
feed on with the right, twisting it by rolling you forefinger across
your thumb, away from your body

Coiling cables is something that many people can't get right. The above
method works but when you just take an end and walk away with it you end
up with the twists still in the cable which means it won't lie properly
and the twists may well build up each time you coil it.

There are two solutions:

One lay the cable on the ground in a figure of 8 pattern and just keep
following the same base fig of 8. This is good for thick heavy things like
hosepipes. You can just pick up the free end and walk away with no kinks
twists or loops.

For lighter cables you can hand coil but each twist you put in is in the
opposite direction to the previous. So they cancel out when you walk away
with the end. The only danger is if you take the end through the coil
before walking away, you can end up with a whole line of knots. However
they are all tied in the same direction so you can just take an end
(doesn't matter which one) back through them all and carry on pulling and
they all magically disappear.

I don't think I can explain how to alternate the twists as you coil a
cable but these YouTube videos show it quite well:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yqbYyaUY5Sk
This is the way I do it, some of the other ways seem very cack handed to
me.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kLBUzmA4kTU
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lLwwB29uQRg

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eaEv9wm6gy0
This is an interesting variation I cam across looking for the above. Not
very neat or compact though, I can see all those open loops getting caught
round every tool in the shed...

I wrap cables for a living as a Broadcast Sound Engineer...

--
Dave Liquorice MIBS
Broadcast Sound Engineer
Alston, Cumbria, UK "It's all right leaving me."

Knots and kinks in cables
 

"John Moppett" wrote in message
...
wrote:
The cable on my Flymo hedge trimmer (and to a lesser extent that on my
Flymo lawnmower) is forever tying itself in knots. No matter how often
I try to unkink and straighten it, it always curls into knots again.
Winding it around something doesn't help.

Any suggestions on overcoming this?

Thanks.
The inside of a cable is rather like a rope. When you coil the cable up
you need to twist it slightly in your fingers
so that it follows its natural curve. If you are righthanded, hold the
coil in your left and feed on with the right, twisting
it by rolling you forefinger across your thumb, away from your body

And reverse the process when unwinding it, if it is still not strait uncurl
it from the end before using it.

Alan

Knots and kinks in cables
 

wrote in message
...
The cable on my Flymo hedge trimmer (and to a lesser extent that on my
Flymo lawnmower) is forever tying itself in knots. No matter how often
I try to unkink and straighten it, it always curls into knots again.
Winding it around something doesn't help.

Any suggestions on overcoming this?

Thanks.
Buy a petrol mower duh!!!!!!!!!!!!

Knots and kinks in cables
 

wrote in message
...
The cable on my Flymo hedge trimmer (and to a lesser extent that on my
Flymo lawnmower) is forever tying itself in knots. No matter how often
I try to unkink and straighten it, it always curls into knots again.
Winding it around something doesn't help.

Any suggestions on overcoming this?

Thanks for all the advice. I'll see if it will solve the problem
though the cable is quite stiff (not loose as in the video) so it may
not.

Knots and kinks in cables
 

On Tue, 21 Apr 2009 04:05:30 -0700 (PDT), wrote:

Thanks for all the advice. I'll see if it will solve the problem
though the cable is quite stiff (not loose as in the video) so it may
not.

Stiff PVC cable is natures way of telling you it's too cold to mow... It
is possible to coil a cable as shown even when it's very stiff, just needs
a bit more persuasion.

I forgot to mention that it would be best to lay the cable out straight,
flat and remove all the knots, kinks and twists the first time you try to
coil it. There is a knack that takes a little while to learn but it's well
worth it.

--
Cheers
Dave.