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| Make Twisted Wire |
Make Twisted Wire
 05-31-2008 09:06 PM
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| Difficulty: | Easy | ||||||
| Estimated Time: | 10 minutes | ||||||
| Skills Required: | Basic knowledge of power tools | ||||||
| Parts Required: | The wires you want to twist | ||||||
| Tools Required: | Power Drill | ||||||
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Today we are going to make some twisted cables. While I talk about servo cables today, this method really works for just about any cable bundle you want to use.
I have some servo extension cables that I will be needing for my robot. Now, they are the regular, boring kind: Attachment 295 So, lets spruce them up a little, shall we? First, you need to gently pry apart the cables that make up the bundle, if they are 'glued' together. Attachment 296 Next, put one end of the wire bundle into the chuck of a portable drill. Lightly tighten it up, but don't crush it! Just enough force to keep it in. Attachment 297 Hold the other end in your hand (or in a vise if you are twisting a long bunch of wire). Attachment 298 Run the power drill until you start seeing the cable kink up. As you twist, make sure that you keep tension on wire, keep pulling it away from the drill. The amount of tension you apply is really up to you. Bare wire can wistand a lot more tension then wire that already has terminations on it (especially when you are holding the terminations themselves like in the picture). I generally stop twisting when I see kinks starting to form in the wire. Attachment 299 After you start seeing the kinks, stop the drill. Keep the tension on the wire for a little bit, say thirty seconds or so. Then you can take the wire out of the drill and enjoy your new twisted cables! Attachment 300 Sometimes, with these homebrew twisted cables, you might need to twist them up a couple of turns when installing them into your creations. If not properly tensioned, they have a tendancy to come a little loose during storage. |
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| Tags: | None | ||||||
| Replies to Tutorial: Make Twisted Wire |
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#1
05-31-2008
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Re: Make Twisted Wire
Bravo Sienna! Excellent work on this one.
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I can handle complexity. It's the simple things that confound me. Do everything in moderation, ESPECIALLY, moderation.. Sometimes the only way to win, is not to play.. -- Stephen Falken |
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#2
06-02-2008
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Re: Make Twisted Wire
very cool work Sienna! I never thought of using a drill to do this. I've always used my good 'ol fingers, which took way longer and they always turned out like crap
 This so helps out
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#3
06-05-2008
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Re: Make Twisted Wire
One way to keep the wires from untwisting is to rub the shaft of a screwdriver up and down the length of the wires a few times while they are still under tension. It really helps the wires to take their new shape.
-Fergs |
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#4
06-05-2008
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Re: Make Twisted Wire
You foiled my plans to make an "Aww girly hair braiding skills applied to robotics" comment by doing it the efficient way with a drill. Bah!
 Great writeup, had never thought of doing it that way and doing it by hand hurts after awhile.
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Andrew Alter Trossen Robotics Hardware Support & Technical Writer Join the Robotic Combat Revolution @ Mech Warfare! |
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#5
06-12-2008
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Re: Make Twisted Wire
Great tutorial Sienna! I used to make twisted pairs at work with that method... How d'you shoot the picture with the termination in one hand, drill in the other? Now that's skill!
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#6
06-12-2008
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Re: Make Twisted Wire
I put the camera on a tripod, and put the remote shutter release between my teeth, and tried really hard!!!
Nah, the drill is just sitting on the carpet :P And actually, the inspiration for this came from one of my former jobs. I saw them doing this to 25ft bundles of wire, and said "duh! So thats how they do it!" |
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#7
08-13-2008
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Re: Make Twisted Wire
very nice,i work at a company that makes hand held equipment and on the production line they started using a drill to make twisted wire,i make high end in house testers for checking boards after solder wave,and since i make production line testers,i design one little like that on using a dc motor with a wire grip and encoder with timer circuit so the you can set the time of the wires to twist on the other end depending on the length needed it is adjustable
at home when making robots i use a drill
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