Cablebone (excess Cable Organiser)

There are very few things in life that get right under my skin, triping over cables is one of them. I think I may have seen a product like this somewhere - not sure, inspriation being the mother of invention and these are fairly easy to make.

Thing:771HCQ

Step 1: Parts

With the cut-offs left over from the laptop case project I cut out little bone shapes. The mat is 1/8", after a little testing I found that the bones had to be a little stiffer. I glued two together. They dont have to match up perfectly.

Step 2: Drill a Hole to Secure the Cable

Drill and cut in from the end.

One little caveat is that when you wind the cable on you need one end free or you'll wind in a load of twists to the cable, but once its done its stellar at keeping those pesky cables out from under my feet.

Comments

[compudude86]

this is gonna generate some serious EMI

[radiorental]

what is 'serious' emi, is it less funny than comical emi? or just more grown up? What makes you think this will generate any emi, comical or serious?

[bkampl]

electromagnetic interference. further reference: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Coil

[LinuxH4x0r]

I think the inspiration was popular science magazine

[bloodniece]

We used to cut up old cardboard boxes and fashion something, albeit a bit more crude, for storing xmas tree lights. Cords would wrap around the cardboard "bone" and be placed in 5-gal buckets stacked ready for next season. Great for storing extension cords too.

[Brobru]

Just commenting so I can refer back later. Love the idea!

[Wonderground]

Brilliant, I say market it.

[2FishInATank]

This is a great idea for storing cables, fantastic! Though I'm guessing it wouldn't be a such good plan to actually use the cables while they're on the bone due to the capacitance created by the current flow..... Corrections welcomed!

[radiorental]

I dont think there's any inductive effect for your average household application. I've used the headphones as pictured with no adverse effect on the audio. I cant think of an ordinary houseld application with dc that may result in loss of performance through using a cable bone. I've never seen a warning on any cable that states not to wrap the wire up.

[dig412]

With the thin cables, rubber coating, and non-metallic core theres going to be barely any inductance at all

[radiohead]

I remember noticing (many years back) that a quick power drop (1-2 seconds) caused all the computers on a shared circuit to reboot, except for 1. That 1 computer was connected to the circuit with an exceptionally long extension cord, which was wrapped around itself in a similar fashion, as on the bone. At the time, I remember thinking that the cord must have created enough inductance to keep the one machine powered up for the additional 'second' that it took for the power to come back on. I'm sure that I witnessed this more than once, as well. Anyhow, I found it curious.

[radiorental]

more likely the long coil smoothed a spike that tripped out the psu's in the other PCs

[Johntron]

Cool. I've used empty spools of thread for smaller wires before. This will help with the AC power cords. Thanks.

[Coffee bean]

It works with fun foam and duck tape also.

[Coffee bean]

Just what I need.

[veggiemom]

Great idea! I also hate wires all jumbled up.

[The.Plague.Keepers]

I made something like this out of Lego, it's a bit bigger but it's a bit more me.

[code_slacker]

Will it generate electro-magnet field...!? That will cause inteference to the device...

[radiorental]

Its 1/8th thick rubber mat. You need something flexible to spread and bite the cable in at either end. Gluing two bits of carpet back to back could make for some interesting designs if you didnt have rubber.

[Shmulkey]

What's the material? It's not clear from the description.