Use a Barrel Knot When You're Out Of Zip Ties

It happens to everyone. You thought you had a stash of zip ties (cable ties, tie wraps, whatever) in your tool bag and you just found out your all out. Sometimes you have to secure cables in a plenum environment but you don't have the plenum rated zip ties. The barrel knot will fill in nicely and you can use wire or string to tie it.

The barrel knot is the old school zip tie. This was taught to me by a Marine who had learned it by reading a WWII era field manual on cabling.

Step 1: Choose the material for the knot

You want to use something strong with a relatively small diameter. The wire inside a cat5e or cat6 cable will work great. You'll want to straighten it out as much as possible.

Here I am using 24 gauge cross connect wire. You can buy a roll of it here

Comments

[Arnoldofingo]

Okay. Great... I see a length of wire. What's it's total length? Is it a cut section to be incorporated into the wrap or, just the first section >>> the lead of the wrap wire around the bundling?
Thanks

[johnpoole]

anyone other then myself remember 12 twine and a double chicago stitch..

[MR2Di4]

Yup, cable lacing is almost a lost art, but is actually seeing a resurgence amongst many companies. I learned how from an senior telephone tech and use it whenever the opportunity presents itself...

[jeffconnelly]

Would either of you be interested in making an 'ible on it? I'm fascinated by ropework/knots, as are many other makers. A quick google search only turned up this page :-/

[thoraxe]

Very nice, this seems like it can be used with regular twine as well.

[spacesaver]

This is very similar to the way wire bundles in aircraft used to be fastened together. While restoring a WWII aircraft my boss at the time did all the wiring like this; for gearheads it truly was close to artwork.

[CaseyCase]

A "packer's knot" works very well for this as well.

[PKM]

This, to me, looks related to the art of whipping- tying a thin thread around the end of a thick rope to stop it fraying or unbundling.  You can find more techniques of this type by Googling for "whipping rope".  Certainly useful to know that this one works with wire, though.