Suggestions on taming the wire RATS nest

engtaz

I am looking for ideas people have on getting control of all the wiring.

Thanks
engtaz

Sansui

Are you speaking "functionality" (is that word?) or in relation to looks (like with an open backed equipment rack)? I don't know what your setup looks like so here goes anyway.

If it's for looks, I've seen flexiable tubing (black) with a lengthwise cut on it so wires can "snap" into it. You could make all your wires long enough to go from the floor up to each level and use this tubing to hide them in (branching out at each level for equipment hook up). I'd cut notches at each level for the branch outs.

If you're speaking of "functionality" then, if possible, cut down the excess wire you have at your components. If you have, let's say, 6" more wire than was needed to hook up all speakers on a 5.1 set up then you have 36" (3' worth) of extra wire that really wasn't needed. More wire equals bigger rat's nest.

You could use those Velcro wire running strips (fuzz on one side and "hooks" on the other side). As the wires leave your equipment to go elsewhere you could use these strips to group them together. One group could be your speaker wires, another could be for the wires going from your preouts to an amp, etc. They're kind of expensive but depending on the length you might need, they cut easily with a pair of sissors so you could make two usable pieces out of one strip.

engtaz

Looks. good ideas

brijenjas

How about some techflex expandable tubing, for bundling. It comes in several different sizes.
Clean up the ends with shrink wrap.
http://www.techflex.com/prod_PTN.asp

jwhitakr

To clean up the wiring behind my TV stand, I went with the "budget" approach (a.k.a. the poor mans approach). I used black zip ties that I had left over from cleaning up the wiring in my computer to bundle the speaker wires together. I also used the same black zip ties to bundle the power cords together.

So, from the AVR the speaker wires are just bundled together and look like one big wire when viewed from the front. The same is true for the power wire. For excess cables (coax for the cable TV, optical from the DVD player to the AVR, etc.) I just used extra black electrical tape to tape the excess length to the back of the TV. Again, this is just so that they are out of sight when you are viewing the TV from the front.

It's not the cleanest, nor the prettiest, but it suffices for my purposes and I was able to reuse existing materials that I already had laying around.

Let us know what you end up going with...I'll be interested to see how it works out for you.

Deadof_knight

Zip ties done up so that the cables all fit and run in smooth loops together. I do this on machine installs all the time space the ties equally and it looks very uniform. I run all power cords together then speaker cables then rca and digital lines. The help support each other and lower strain on the equipment as a whole.......

Sansui

Deadof_knight wrote: »

Zip ties done up so that the cables all fit and run in smooth loops together. I do this on machine installs all the time space the ties equally and it looks very uniform. I run all power cords together then speaker cables then rca and digital lines. The help support each other and lower strain on the equipment as a whole.......

The reason I mentioned the velcro strips instead of Tywraps is because if he changes his wiring configuration for any idea he has to be real careful not to nick or cut into one of the cables in his bundle(s) to remove them. Also, they're not reusable.

Deadof_knight

Oh well that a good point the velcro strap they have out for computer cables I think even walmart has them now

NeilGabriel

I had my wife pick up some flexible tubing from hardware store...like vacuum tube or maybe washer drain tube....however the tubes were too narrow to run much through them as the plugs would not go through after first couple wires...so I need to cut the slits in them and then try snapping them on. Yet one more reason just to get a good boombox! My bluejean cables came with a nice velcro stip around them....I put it somwhere.

Serendipity

I use split tubing, wire loom, zip ties, cable organizers, and cable clips. Makes the job much easier. Also, I try to nail coaxial cable to the wall (since the cable company always forgets to do that) and use shorter cables to eliminate wire tangles. Custom-made cables help a lot with this matter.