deskthority

Had some of these terminal model m cables lying around but they are ugly so i decided to try to re-coil them by wrapping them around a rod and heating them with a heat gun and letting them air dry

gallery: https://imgur.com/gallery/gkUuZ50

original cable was about 1m long:


straightened it was about 2.4m:


painstakingly wrapped around curtain rod and held by electrical tape:


it kinda worked but it was kinda loose and my curtain rod was starting to melt


copper pipe this time:


i got it hot enough that the electrical tape started melting and here is the result:




Overall i consider this a failure; the coil is still pretty loose and it seems that it does not want to hold its shape very well (if i stretch it it doesnt quite return to its original shape). I think this is either because of the material itself or because its so old/degraded; it behaved the same way before i re-coiled it.

If you have any advice or experiences definitely share

It could be that the material is just too far fucked, for lack of a better term.

I used to do a similar thing on my Model M cables, I'd stretch them out for a thorough cleaning on every side, then reform it.
To do that I'd run another cable up the coils (I used a really thick TRS audio cable) then I'd knot the ends. That way you don't have any melting tape, or melting curtain rods etc and you could get it much more hot. I think doing it multiple times really helps too. So heat it up, leave it on the rod / cable, let it cool, then heat it up again and repeat. If there's any life left in the material, that should properly reform the coil.

when I have done that I have left mine coiled, and just tightened existing coils. This has always produced much better results for me than trying to coil a straight cable.

Update: gave it 6 heat/cool cycles without taking it off the rod but the result is pretty much the same:

to be fair the thick Model M cables aren't that great at collapsing back together either, even the brand new ones from Unicomp kinda suck at that.
... at least it looks good now.

I was gonna say, looks pretty decent compared to what it was! I use a wooden dowel of the appropriate diameter, and a hairdryer set on low. Maybe those would help you next time.

You need to reverse the coil to get a proper retractable effet according to this:

I didn't read this thread because I hate coiled cables, but this has always been the go-to guide:

https://geekhack.org/index.php?topic=82 ... msg2174146

Darkshado wrote: 21 Aug 2020, 22:58 You need to reverse the coil to get a proper retractable effet according to this:

Thanks for the tip, I use to "bake" my IBM SDL coiled cables from time to time with mixed results, until now...


Reversing the cable (like shown in the video) after baking it in the oven I got a like-new coiled cable!

Darkshado wrote: 21 Aug 2020, 22:58 You need to reverse the coil to get a proper retractable effet according to this

Woah, golden tidbit right here!

Here it is reversed:


Nice and tight! Still pretty ugly though

Wife: What the hell is in the oven?!
Me:...