Sunday, September 16, 2012

CURING AN ANNOYANCE.


Whenever I reach for a power cord, I’m faced with this mess.  A tangle of 3 or 4 different  power cords in the bottom of a bucket. With the huge “yard” I have, the one-hundred foot cords are the worst. It takes half your work time to untangle the dang things. I had a temporary worker fold one of my long cords into neat little loops. I hated to use it because I knew I’d never get it back that way.

I have a new guy doing yard work for me and I knew he would need one of the long cords. I went on-line and found a video showing how its done. The hardest part was untangling the mess and laying my light weight cord out on the driveway into thirds.

The next step was marking the cord with black electrical tape to mark the thirds for the next time I folded it.

Then you grab the cord at one end, make a loose knot and begin to loop and insert cord into loops all the way to the end. I couldn’t have done it without seeing the video, so here is the link. And, my loops are not as small and even as the demonstater on the video made his.
http://home-tools.wonderhowto.com/how-to/store-your-extension-cord-without-tangling-274714/
Now, I have a problem. When I went back on-line to find the link I used, I couldn’t locate it. There were many, many sites that give directions on folding cords. The  video  above is even simpler. You don’t have to fold your cord into thirds and mark it. The beauty of folding it in thirds is that you have your plugs at opposite ends and can partially unfold your cord, use it half unfolded, and reloop it without starting over from scratch. This video makes the same claim, but the one I watched explained why folding it from thirds is best. Either way, you can simplify your life by learning how to properly store a cord.

Once I got into the swing of things, I did three fifty foot cords, another 100- foot multiple plug end cord, and my black heavy-duty 100-foot cord.

My loops got better as I worked but the satisfaction from having accomplished a job long gone wanting was terrific.
I know men do this all the time, but you women out there on your own, this is a valuable skill in reducing annoyance. Go for it.

Next, I’m going to tackle this tangle of rope.

3 comments:

OverTheTopCargoTrailer said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
OverTheTopCargoTrailer said...

Mary

Why not just make your cords a little shorter by putting a plug inline, they are only $7 each. Then you can have only 25' cords. Generally its not a good idea to use long cords on motor loads "AS" you tend to burn out the motor - say etc... because you get more then 3% voltage drop, which is very bad for motor loads.

http://overthetopcargotrailer.blogspot.com/

OverTheTopCargoTrailer said...

Hey Mary

We don't need to look to far for our money going up in smoke, here goes another $200 million

http://www.nytimes.com/2012/09/17/world/asia/green-on-blue-attacks-in-afghanistan-continue.html?_r=1&hp&pagewanted=all