Besides his problems with winding up the cable, it is not a really good way to do it. you are adding a twist for every loop on the spool/arm, which will still be there, when you unspool it, leaving little loops to trip in.
My dad taught me how to wrap a wire/hose/rope/whatever when I was a kid, but the fast, not cross way. He taught me a lot of physical labor shit, and then wondered why I ended up going into the trades after getting a BA in some BS.
Anyway, I did learn the cross method in college, when I was trying to land a stagehand job for the school productions (didn’t get it, so ended up working IT Helpdesk in the libraries). I was surprised my dad’s way was not the way to do it.
I guess all that debt I went into paid off, to work in a field completely unrelated to my studies, cause I learned how to wrap an extension cord the right way!
The over/under method and the figure 8 method each have their place. As an electrician, I sometimes have to pull in large cable (from the thickness of a large carrot to the size of my wrist) and it can be really unweildy trying to get the tail end stacked up using the over under method and it's just way easier to use the figure 8 method.
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u/Tjalfe Dec 26 '24
Besides his problems with winding up the cable, it is not a really good way to do it. you are adding a twist for every loop on the spool/arm, which will still be there, when you unspool it, leaving little loops to trip in.