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When to bundle bundles?

Steve Crewdog

Well Known Member
Patron
Got a bunch of wires traveling from the upper left to the main buss on the lower right, divided into subsytems. They're secured pretty well to where they're not moving. The anal retentive side of me says I need to bundle everything together, the "you might need to repair this someday" side says they're secure, they're ok, leave them alone, if you bundle them together that's one more thing you'll have to undo.


Thoughts?
 

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Doesn't matter. Even if it's clean enough to eat dinner, tomorrow you will need to add a wire.
I get flamed but I like industrial Velcro. Makes it easy to change.

BTW, I am adding a wire!
 
That’s pretty neat compared to many airplanes I have seen Stve. If it were mine, I’d probably do a little bit more lacing on that fan of power wires over on the right - some of the loops on the far end are pretty free and can flop around a bit. Otherwise, its just how ADHD you want to be. I generally tell folks to fan their hand through the wire bundles, and if wires can move around and randomly hit structure or edges, they might want to tie things down better. But…. You’re not going to the moon!
 
That’s pretty neat compared to many airplanes I have seen Stve. If it were mine, I’d probably do a little bit more lacing on that fan of power wires over on the right - some of the loops on the far end are pretty free and can flop around a bit. Otherwise, its just how ADHD you want to be. I generally tell folks to fan their hand through the wire bundles, and if wires can move around and randomly hit structure or edges, they might want to tie things down better. But…. You’re not going to the moon!

Thank you, Flight, and Good eye, I haven't gotten to that side yet. To be honest I'm a bit nervous about trimming them down to fit neater, I know that as soon as I trim one I'll mess up the redo and have a too-short wire, or eventually I'm going to have a bad connection and have to redo the spade and won't have any wire left to do so. Not sure how I'd put a service loop in there so I'm looking at it, debating, waiting to get my never up.


Brandon: This is actually the umpteenth time I've redone the harness, the more I've done the better I've gotten, and I can tell where I did wiring at the start vs ones I did later as I got more proficient. Hard part is telling myself "That's good enough. LEAVE IT ALONE!!!" and moving on to another part of the project. (Better is the enemy of Best.) You might want to check this article out about GearTies, I stopped using zipties for the build because I was terrified I was going to nick a wire taking them off.

Gear Ties: A Temporary Way To Secure Wiring Harnesses as You Build​

 
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I ended up having to re-terminate a gaggle of wires because they weren't routed well during the initial wire routing. Here's what I learned--the hard way: while you're in process, use nylon cable clamps like you can get from Lowe's aircraft supply to secure wires into highways. When you're done pulling the last wire (if that's a thing), remove the nylon cable clamps and replace them with cushioned Adel clamps of the equivalent size. You can also use Velcro cable wraps to temporarily bundle cables during the wiring process. Again, when you're done, lace the wires together properly to prevent flopping around. There's more than one way to skin a cat, but that's a cheap and easy way to do it that eliminates rework.
 
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