LX Tape V Re Usable Cable Ties

[Bryson]

Fair point! Although its doing that that I will forget to do...

 

 

Well, you only have to do it once...

[Shaggy]

Tape is quicker to undo than a cable tie, less likely to go manky than a velcro thing and quicker to do up than either. I'd wager when you are doing a theatre get out any possible cost savings on tape would be eaten up by expensive crew. It also makes you look like you can't afford tape. Tape is the standard, and velcro is almost as bad as having cables on reels.

[Davethsparky]

It also makes you look like you can't afford tape. Tape is the standard, and velcro is almost as bad as having cables on reels.

 

I don't think this is quite true. Very few professionals are going to judge your ability to do your job by the way you hold cable coils together.

All cables we sell have a velcro tie attached to them and we have never had any complaints that we haven't put the of tape on there that can leave a nice sticky mess. More often than not the customers come back to us to purchase the velcro ties from us to put on their other cables. And we are selling a surprising number through our ebay shop at the moment.

 

As for cable reels, they are also very good in the right situation. We have reels with 50 and 100 metre runs of twin XLR cables which we use for putting PA's round large fields amongst other things. We have found that this saves a lot of time and effort for some jobs compared to loose cables.

[david.elsbury]

I prefer tape. Easy, doesn't run the risk of having a velcro tie attached at the end of a cable by a female XLR (bad for sound use for example- you don't want tat hanging off the back of a mic).... and most importantly, quick- the quicker the out is done, the quicker you can get to a smoko and your tea.

[Rob_Beech]

Even with cheap nasty LX tape, if you find it leaves residue on the cables, you're not doing enough gigs.

[Guest lightnix]

Back in the dim and distant, when I was at college; we used to cut inner tubes from knackered old lorry / tractor tyres into strips about half an inch wide, then loop them through themselves around pieces of half inch by half inch pieces of wood, about 4-5 inches long.

 

These were then wrapped over cable around bars, with the wood being pushed through the loop to hold it in place.

 

Cheap, reusable and envirnomentally friendly. Very easy to use, especially when adding / removing cable to / from a run. We used to have a big dustbin full of them on hand for load-ins :)

 

Not sure if you still get tyres with inner tubes today, tho' :blink:

[djtom29]

Some more good replies here guys! As I say I was surprised when he said it leaves residue on the cables, as ever since I got my first XLR I’ve used LX Tape and that’s a good 5 years. For example I have say 3 gigs with my own cables each month, a couple of hires of equipment to people, so in total maybe 6 or 7 times a month my own kit is used, since most of the jobs I do all the kit is hired from one company. Although I make sure that at least once every 2 weeks I re coil all my cables, just out of habit, I’ve found that cables being re coiled like this every so often coil nicer than cables left in storage for longer periods of time.

 

Some of my neutric XLR's have Velcro straps on them, but to be honest I prefer LX tape for the reasons said above, its quicker, easier, and more practical since it can be used on pretty much any cable with ease. And has so many other uses (Labelling desks, cabling up fly bars, and just loads of other uses as you all know.)

[indyld]

Before I became tied to a venue I had a pet hate: it was reusable cable ties used to hold cable coils together; because you can always rely on them to jam when you need that cable that there is only one of in a hurry! Secondly I had hand cramps by the time I'd finished cabling a stage from pressing on the little release tabs. One wrap of lx tape has always worked for me.

 

Seconded.

 

I work with a company that will insist on sending out resusable cable ties on all their cable, a lot of their crew think it's fantastic. I personally hate them. It takes at least 3 times as long to "deal" with a cable on the load in or out, either trying to press the tab and release, putting the tie wrap back on the cable end ready to be used again and other faffing about. Tape takes seconds to both undo and do up again.

 

Cable ties seem like a good idea right up until about the 10th cable, after that your fingers suffer and you get frustrated that every cable seems to be holding you up. By about 100, you are bleeding and probably close to tears...

 

Oh, and I can also remember similar systems to Nick's rubber and toggle journey down memory lane.

[Guest lightnix]

Oh, and I can also remember similar systems to Nick's rubber and toggle journey down memory lane.

It sounds as though you're not a fan of them :unsure:

 

One of my formar clients decided to save on the costs of LX tape by buying a half-width version. Protests that we just wound up using twice as much, in order to provide a wrap strong enough to hold a tripe, fell on deaf ears :D

 

Ironically, their gaffa tape was of the highest quality I've ever used.

[andy_s]

Oh, and I can also remember similar systems to Nick's rubber and toggle journey down memory lane.

It sounds as though you're not a fan of them :D

 

memory lane?

1983.

my last term at drama school.

sent off to help as "work experience" in a large egg shaped tent on Blackheath on a show called "Return to the Forbidden Planet".

first time I saw truss and wind-up towers.

first time I saw bits of inner tube and wood used in this way.

 

I thought they were a great idea for securing cables to bars, but personally I'd still go for PVC tape for storage.

[Grahame]

The fact that insulating tape is still as widely used as it is shows that all the other alternative systems are lacking in some way:

• In general, you need ONE roll of tape to do a get-out or fit-up; not a pocketful of bungee toggles/re-usable cable ties or whatever.
  
• Bungee toggles are painful when they whack you on the back of the hand, or fly off and hit you in the eye.
  
• There is always at least one cable missing its velcro strap.
  
• I've come across lots of cables with a velcro strap that are also taped up.
  
• There is always a situation where the strap, cable tie or toggle isn't big enough to go around the item you're trying to attach the cables to.
  

In short, there are NO situations where you are not going to have a roll of tape in your pocket 'just in case' you need it. So why not do without the other stuff and just go with the tape in the first place?

Simples! :up: (need a meercat smiley!)

 

 

actually, I prefer herbal teas

[PoppaDom]

We pretty much exclusively use reusable cable ties for rigging and velcro ties for cable management outside of the rig at the venue where I work.

 

It has several advantages for us and the way the venue works.

 

We never have tape mess or "technician foot", which due to the way our spaces work and the grid being over the auditorium makes the place a lot cleaner.

If you run another cable where one already has been run you can just tack it into the existing cable run.

The cables/bar do not have sticky residue.

You can always find a cable tie if you need to add a cable (pre existing in the rig) whereas all too often the lack of tape in the pocket could be a problem.

 

I have to admit I am unsure as to the cost advantages/disadvantage of this system and I am almost sure it works out no less or more expensive then buying rolls and rolls of tape.

Time wise I believe it is no slower than using tape and most of the people who regularly work for us can undo a reusable cable tie with one hand and still have the cable in the other.

 

I reckon we probably have more than 10,000 of the blighters in the building on one cable or another in one of the 3 spaces.

 

Dom

[Guest lightnix]

So why not do without the other stuff and just go with the tape in the first place?

Because of the envionmental impact? :D

[jacet]

So why not do without the other stuff and just go with the tape in the first place?

Because of the envionmental impact? :D

Hmm, I think describing the calculation in your link as "admittedly very rough" is being a bit kind...

I'm willing to bet money on the fact that a re-usable cable tie will take more time to decompose than a few wraps of tape. How long does a cable tie (realistically) stay on a cable? Fair enough if it's your own gear probably a while but if it's being hired out or if crew are doing the work for you they probably aren't going to be that fussed about re-using them, instead opting for a new tie or tape.

At least that's what I thought...

[heinz57]

I don't like using tape,

 

If the cable is going to be used again very soon, like the next or even the same day, its just wasting tape. I much perfer re useable ties or valcro.

 

I think the only time I perfer to use tape is on the bigger cables, like a length of socapex or a 3phase cable. In this case tape would be better because it would keep the coil more 'secure' I reckon.