I "manage" as a volunteer the wiring and systems for phone, PA, computers and power in a non-profit summer camp in Maine. This includes the outside plant. We have 24 buildings scattered on a 1 square mile property, with many 600-feet cable runs in trees and utility poles.

Last week-end we had a 800-foot cable run, replacing a bunch of old phone and PA speaker wires that were strung (not lashed) 10 to 20 years ago by my predecessors.

I'm trying to bring order to the chaos and apply some better practices, such as lashing cables to a messenger strand, routing cables away from power lines, using waterproof junction boxes, etc.

This being a non-profit, budget is tight. We can afford 1/8" strand, not 5/16". We can't afford specialized hardware and a lasher is out of question.

But I still needed to lash 800 ft of cable, and we could rent a bucket truck for only 2 days, so I had to come up with a solution.

Behold, my homemade lasher.

[img]https://photos.google.com/share/AF1...anBDdGZueXNXMHltLUlGTzkxSnNVdUNUeklrSWFB[/img]

I made it out of 40$ worth of 1 1/4" PVC pipe and fittings. It uses spools made with PVC pipe and discs machined on a lathe.

[img]https://photos.google.com/share/AF1...anBDdGZueXNXMHltLUlGTzkxSnNVdUNUeklrSWFB[/img]

The body was glued together and then sliced in half on a table saw. The two halves are snapped together over the cable bundle and held together using worm gear hose clamps.

The device was built hastily in a few hours. There was no time for testing. A standard 1200' reel of lashing wire was transferred to two homemade spools.

It was used extensively over during two days, including a miserable rainy day. It performed flawlessly with no need for repair or modification.

More pictures and details are available here: Google album

Look for tiny comments at the bottom of pictures.

Edit: I don't know why my pictures don't show up in the text.

I'm very impressed! Good job!

Thank you for volunteering at a non-profit.

Sam

You can upload the pictures to the Photos forum and link them from there. Bill did it recently with his Granny picture. It is uploaded to the Photos forum and he linked to it in a post in the Phone Booth.

Thanks for the tip, as the rabbi said.
Too late for editing my post again, so I'll just add pictures here.

Looks like it did the job needed and not near as heavy as a lasher.

That's pretty impressive. Don't be too surprised if anyone else makes one like that for his tool box, too.

Pretty darn impressive indeed!

Thanks!
For those who might be interested in the future, I have added a breakdown of parts and measurements on some of the pictures. While doing that, I have accidentally broken the 2nd link in my original post. Sorry for that.

The trade-off for this device, of course, is that you need to spin it around manually all the way along the wire. This means you need a bucket truck. It was surprisingly painless: move the lasher 2 feet, spin it 2 times, repeat. The worst part is repositioning the bucket truck so many times. ALso being stuck in the bucket for hours in the rain.

Some improvements are needed:
- find a better way to hold the two halves together; the pipe clamps are simple ans strong but a PITA to apply and remove at every transfer;
- add a tensioning mechanism, probably just some kind of washer under the spool lid.

https://gmptools.com/nf/71517.htm

I know somebody also made an even simpler and inexpensive manual lasher but I believe that was Cable Spinning that seems to be out of business.

-Hal

Interesting design. They do away with spinning the spool around the cable bundle, by using a custom cylindrical spool inserted at one end around the bundle.

I bet the Telephone Museum in Ellsworth (to which I'm now a newly appointed board member) probably has a lasher in its collection. Not sure if they loan out tools for this type of work, but I don't see why not. I hope to one day get more outside plant on display at the museum.

Maybe outside the museum?

Hmmm, I think it's coming back to me about the Cable Spinning manual lasher. I think I remember something like a packing tape gun. You load a spool of lashing wire onto it and wrap it around the cables as you keep tension on it.

-Hal

Hal, was it anything like this?

https://www.cestools.com/dcd-designs-model-q-700-hand-type-cable-lasher-61100-000/

Jim
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Speaking from a secure undisclosed location.

Funny you should mention these, my first idea was to tape a packing gun on a pipe. Then I discovered the Q lasher, which gave me the idea of making my own spools and dispenser, which evolved into my current model.

The problem with the hand lasher is you need two hands, so you can't hold the cable bundle, and it gets tiring on long runs, because the wire spool is heavy.

That's it!

-Hal

I had two more wiring week-ends and the lasher is still going strong!
The only problem was with the wire. In my original post I said "a standard 1200' reel of lashing wire was transferred to two homemade spools".
If this transfer is not done carefully, spooling nice and even rows of wire, the wire tends to jam.

The lasher is also magical: every time I take it out it starts raining cats and dogs.

"Some improvements are needed:
- find a better way to hold the two halves together; "

Two of my favorite things:

Google and Velcro.

I'm sure ONE of those will solve your assembly problem.