Cable management suggestions

  • Thread starter Thread starter frederic
  • Start date Start date
Then I can finally get all these "ideas" in motion.

Velvet Elvis [/B]

Last year my wife gave me a clutch for my street toy, and some tools. I didn't mind :)
 
Yeah... I just bought her a minivan a few months back... so no money to buy anything other than what we need to work on the house (and the studio ;P)

Since the room for the studio already has its outer walls up (remember the pics?) I'm going to get them drywalled and taped and start the inner wall construction.

Velvet Elvis
 
Yeah... I just bought her a minivan a few months back... so no money to buy anything other than what we need to work on the house (and the studio ;P)

My wife and I have allergies to minivans, probably because we don't have children. We have too many cars though.

Since the room for the studio already has its outer walls up (remember the pics?) I'm going to get them drywalled and taped and start the inner wall construction.

Yep, remember the pictures... you can always tuck cabling in the walls through studs.
 
Ahh... this is a nice minivan :) 2004 Toyota Sienna :)

with their nicest JBL stereo system...

Not bad for 'factory'... its even got a subwoofer in the back.

(I have three kids... had to sell my SUV to buy the minivan)

Velvet Elvis
 
(I have three kids... had to sell my SUV to buy the minivan)
Velvet Elvis [/B]

This is *my* minivan/suv. Ignore the hood being up, I was replacing a wiper motor at the time the picture was taken:
 

Attachments

  • f350.webp
    f350.webp
    43 KB · Views: 148
sheesh frederic... got enough crap in your garage and driveway!?!?

Nice hood support for the truck... I suppose you borrowed that from your studio :)

I drive a 93 accord with 149,000 miles on it :)

It needs to make it to 300,000 miles.

Velvet Elvis
 
Velvet Elvis said:
sheesh frederic... got enough crap in your garage and driveway!?!?

Nice hood support for the truck... I suppose you borrowed that from your studio :)

I drive a 93 accord with 149,000 miles on it :)
It needs to make it to 300,000 miles.

Velvet Elvis

The hood support was temporary, because to replace the wiper motor, I have to take the cowling off. Which means I have to take the hood off. Which means I had to take off the hood supports, hinges, and other items. The wood was cut so that when the hood was loosened in the back, it wouldn't land on the cowling and bend it in a nasty way. :D

The "crap" in the driveway, under the blue tarp, is a huge pile of plywood, 2x4's, and other stuff thats all gone. Its now in the studio as part of the structure.

The door in the garage was a wooden storm door that a storm decided to take and chuck across the lawn. I'm suprised the glass didn't break, actually, since its old fashioned leaded glass with that nice pretty "wave" to it.

Oh, and the truck has 258K on it :)
 
Anyway, all that crap in the garage is what I have to clean out, in order to use the garage as a garage - a mechanical engineering "wing" to the house :)
 
BTW, assuming you're the voyuer, did you see the 4' power strips I installed? I have them horizontally, on 2" centers, and marked off for the other three, 15 outlets per, 5 total, thats what, 75 outlets for my racks?

Coincidentally, they are wall wart compatible :)
 
No it wasn't me... but I'll pop over there now and take a look.

Velvet
 
Michael - "And I'm not sure I'd want to cut PVC on a GOOD table saw; what does all that plastic sawdust do to the saw's innerds?" - Bandsaw, metal blade 18 TPI, shop vac hooked to the exhaust. Clamp tall pieces of angle parallel on both sides of the blade for guides, try NOT to rotate the material while ripping.

Remove the side cover of the saw afterwards and vacuum/blow out with compressed air. Sand the edges of the cuts smooth, get latches/piano hinge, rivets, ...

Frederic - the cheesy strips were short enough to mount down low - damn wall warts put out so much hum I had to get them as far away from everything as possible. Also, didn't want power on BOTH sides of the rack (audio down one side, power down the other, MIDI mostly across the middle and down) Found out the cheapy 7 outlet sideways strips will hold 4 "warts" apiece - rack never moves or I'd have made retainers for the warts.

All strips are hardwired into common mega-surge suppressor (not visible under the mess) and to two ordinary wall switches in front. Bent some 16 ga. steel into guards for the switches, they mount same holes as the switch - can't accidentally kick the power on or off. One switch for power amps, one for everything else. They are labeled "On First" and "Off First" for those "Dim Cap" days... Steve
 
Hey Michael, make a long wood "L" bracket. A little longer or equal to the PVC. 2 pcs OSB will work if your chases are 8' or shorter. Use this as a floating cutting bracket. Doesn't matter if the bottom piece gets cut with the PVC. Clamp or fasten the PVC to the vertical portion of the "L". with a screw at each end. OR whatever. Be creative with clamps. Use the whole assembly to ride the fence. This keeps it from "rolling" so you get a straight cut. You CAN cut pvc with a fine (60 or 80 tooth) carbide on a table saw. So what if it gets in the saw. Blow it out.!
It ain't going to stick. Just cut slow. The bottom piece of wood acts as a chip breaker. So what if you get some small chips. Just route the edge on a router table with the same bracket. Or sand it. I've done it. We used quarter-round ripped PVC for radiused corners on veneered store fixtures. Even as reversed flutting in large 20' columns. Held in place by machined wood strips. Lots of stuff you can do with ripped PVC. Outside corners, inside corners, decorative dentil moulding, inverse roman odge stuff on large custom painted crown mouldings. They do it all the time in big mills. Just a few ideas to show you it ain't no big deal to rip. Wear safety glasses though. If the diameter is larger than your blade extention, just make the first cut. Then flip it over. Sometimes, jigs take MUCH longer than the finished product. But it is the outcome that matters. I've seen some jigs that took a week to build to make a 1 hour machining operation. It just depends on what your trying to accomplish, and how you have to do it to make it come out correctly. Anyway, my .02 Or, what Steve said too. Just be glad your not making a 6 ft dia golf ball WITH dimples. Ha!
 
Last edited:
Thanks for the tips. I was thinking the PVC may have a tendency to... melt. Sort of. as you cut it.
 
Michael Jones said:
Thanks for the tips. I was thinking the PVC may have a tendency to... melt. Sort of. as you cut it.

It melts just a little bit, but the melted edges don't fly off, just the dust. This is why I use a dull, old blade. If it gets a little plastic on it I don't care and keep going :)

And when done cutting, if you want a really smooth edge, use a sheet rock rasp down both edges and its nice and smooth, assuming you cut straight, which is hard by yourself on a 10' piece of PVC even with fences. Have someone "catch" the halves on the other side, makes for really nice cuts.
 
Sorry frederic, hardly melts. Actually, I use a blade that is designed to cut plex, which works terrific, but a sharp carbide is fine for PVC. Dullness creates friction. And ANY dull blade is, lets say less than safe. The plex blade has a different rake on the carbide, and alternating beveled teeth. Thats why a regular blade chips PVC and plex. Plex really melts if you use a regular blade because it is so hard. When you cut plastics, it doesn't cut like wood, the blade actually scrapes the chip away. Thats friction. So if the blade rake is too sharp an angle, it doesn't scrape correctly. Thats why standard drill bits grab, chip and melt plastics too. Bits designed for plex are much different.
And about the router. I have a custom plex fence for it that allows a router to be a jointer. I adjust it for a 1/32" cut. That way I can surface the edges of plex for solvent welding. Same with PVC. Anyway, just trying to help. My expertise is woodworking. Yours, among other things, is electrical. But I still try and help with electrical. Kno wha' 'm sayn?
Like 120v......PVC tubing...Bahhumbug. Try inch and a half thick Lexan.
Cheers
fitZ:)
 
Hey RICK!

Quote:
Hey Michael, make a long wood "L" bracket. A little longer or equal to the PVC. 2 pcs OSB will work if your chases are 8' or shorter. Use this as a floating cutting bracket. Doesn't matter if the bottom piece gets cut with the PVC. Clamp or fasten the PVC to the vertical portion of the... yada yada yada
Endquote

OK man. It's been a long day for a Saturday and I'm tired. I tried following what you were talking there but... damn you lost me at about the "Hey Michael" point. You got pictures of what you're talking about?

(Yeah, yeah, I bet a bunch of you guys didn't have a clue about what he was yabbering about, but I was the only one man enough to ask!!)
 
Hello Mike, are you about to rip some good ole pvc?:D Ok, let me clarify a couple of things. First off, this is a long jig for holding the PVC so it does NOT rotate as you rip. THATS ALL. If you are ripping 200 pieces, like we did at work, this may not be worth the trouble for one piece. Especially if you have diameters where you can cut the whole diameter in one pass on a tablesaw. Make sense? It was only a tip, to show how to cut it STRAIGHT, with no roll. But you cut the jig as well. Once the jig is cut at the tangent point, that piece of support wood is no longer there, but still will support it if you have the side of the PVC tube, clamped to the vertical portion of the jig. Make sense?
USUALLY, we would use "flip lock" clamps, but you could use a couple of small "C" clamps, or just a screw, one at each end of the tube. But MAKE SURE THE CLAMPS WILL CLEAR THE BLADE. Again, depends on the diameter of the tube. Clamp, or screw, right where the PVC touch's the vertical portion of the jig(tangent point). However, the radius of the tubing was USUALLY higher than the fence, which allowed the clamps to clear it when feeding the assmbly through the blade. Otherwise, you have to clamp a piece of flat lumber to the saw to act as a fence, when cutting small diameter stuff. Remember, we were cutting a shitload of this stuff. Or cutting specific ARCS out of it. AND, remember the saw kerf removes an 1/8" of material, so if you needed EXACT halves, like we did sometimes, you waste the other half. Otherwise you only loose a 1/16" each side of the centerline. To do one piece, well I probably should have kept my mouth shut and agreed with STEVE. But you know me. Bla bla bla.:rolleyes: I just HAVE to open my big mouth. Ha! But, it's still a tip no less. My disclaimer was QUALITY of cut.
One other thing too. When you cut small diameter stuff, it looses much of its stiffness. Even 3"

What diameter and length are you dealing with? I've done up to 14" diam, 16 long' with a 3/8" wall. I've also done as small as 1"diam. Large diameters require extra measures. But your probably dealing with 3 or 4", correct. I can't imagine going to this trouble to make a trough only 1 1/2" or thereabouts. But just so I don't bla bla about something that your not even doing, tell me, ok?
I mean, I assume you are ripping the pvc....right? But tell me exactly what your dealing with.
I'll be back if need be. Oh, speaking of tired, oh yea, me too. "Honey do's will wear ya out" Mine was building a fireplace mantle/surround today. Funny how you can spin yer wheels all day and be so tired at the end of it, and not accomplish a damn thing.:rolleyes: Anyway, get back to me and we'll pin it down.

As far as the "L",imagine a ripping jig, the length of a PVC tube. Cut 2 pcs of some material like 1/2" ply, or OSB about a half inch wider than the diameter of the PVC. Nail or screw one piece to the other along one edge to form an "L" , same as "angle iron" or an aluminum extrusion. Now, lay the tubing on the jig right up tight at the inside corner, where both pieces of the jig are touching the "tangents" of the PVC. Does that make sense? Most of the PVC tubing is 10', but the ply is only 8'. So you may end up having to use boards instead if you need it longer than 8'. Also, most of the PVC I worked with came warped. Makes it difficult sometimes. Hence the jig. We would lay the tubing with the "crown" of the warp up against the jig, and pull the ends back and clamp them. No one said this stuff would be easy. Sometimes it is. But try and straighten 12 or 14" warped stuff, and its a real pain in the ass. Soooooo, maybe refer to Steves answer. But then it may roll. Depends on how straight you want it, dig?

But as an aside, exactly why do you want to use a trough? Most of my cableing tiedowns are done with a long piece or pieces of 1/2" metal electrical conduit on standoffs and conduit clamps. I just tie off the cables to it with velcro or cable ties. NO TROUGHS. Except in the floor, and they will be wood floor cavities. But you would have to see my console assembly to understand it.
BTW, see my link to Doug Moffits website? They make a hanging cable/wire management bracket that works pretty good. Like a big plastic "j" hook, from extruded PVC, and cut into 2" wide pieces. You just fasten them to what ever. A desk, fixture, console, wall..you know.

And if the 120v thing threw ya, sorry, I was referring to frederics response on another thread. To him, 120v stuff was small change. I was making an analogy. A bad one.

Whew!, man, I should have bit my tongue.
 
Damn, Rick! That was close to a thousand words so I guess I did get a picture. Thanks, that does make sense. I'm not getting ready to rip any PVC but just wanted it in the back of my mind for future reference. I just couldn't see how this flat piece of plywood cut into an "L" shape was supposed to work. Of course, it wasn't like that at all. Thanks again for the effort. Ya know, with all the ideas, tips, knowledge and just all around interesting stuff on this site if it EVER goes away it is going to be one black day!!!
 
Back
Top