overhead/bungee system (slight return)

[El Chucko]

Alot of discussion has been given to overhead reel-less systems, and the bungee cord and pulleys required, but what about the wire? Other than ordering reel wire from a fencing vendor, what could be obtained from a hardware store or electrical supply house (or ordered online)?

The club already has one overhead set-up from Triplette, but we are trying to build more ourselves.

As far as the wire itself goes, we have had difficult finding anything appropriate. Any suggestions?

Thanks again.

[Robert Smith]

Can't tell you precisely what to look for, but I can tell you a couple of things to avoid. Top of the list is small pulleys! They put a LOT of strain on the cable as it goes around the corners. We started with real reel replacement cable - Uhlmann stuff, I think, but not noticeably different on the outside from Favero's. Within six months, the outer casing was cracking all over, and consequently whenever a cable took a hard pull, we were getting breaks. A cheap alternative was sound in a cable described as antenna control cable - the stuff that used to be run up TV masts with a remote indoors to control the direction of the antenna. It was much cheaper than reel cable, but them small pulleys killed it; it was a fairly thickly stranded copper, and the individual strands would do the ductile thing, stretch and not contract, so much that they'd force their way out of their inner sheathing and mate with each other. A real bugger to diagnose.

The current cable is a five-core, high strand count non-copper cable. Similar to ethernet cable, but only five conductors and a heavier gauge, I'd guess in the high 20's but I could be wrong. We've replaced most of our tiny pulleys, and I suspect we could now use the copper stuff once more, and get at least a year's use out of each strip. As the guy said when we bought it, he could sell us cable that would last twice as long, but it would cost way more than twice as much.

If memory serves, the spool cost around $100 CDN ($80 US) and held enough for around 8 pistes, floor bungee style. That's around ... 200 yards, I think.

[Joe biebel]

We have been using stranded telephone wire for several years without a single break. There are two types that I know you can use. The first is a flat four conductor wire. Yes flat! They go through the pulleys quite nicely. You simply "double up" on one of the wires. We chose the "ground" wire. The six conductor round telephone cable is even better, both mechanically, and from a resistance standpoint. The small amount of resistance in the system (about 2-3 ohms for the "flat" and half that for the round on a fifty foot length) is insignificant. Remeber this type of system replaces the reel and the connecting cord. The eally nice thing about this item is the cost. Both types can be found at places like hardware stores and Radio Shack for an amazingly cheap price compared to "reel" cables.

Since we designed and built our overhead system from scratch, we were not sure if there were any weaknesses in the system. We started using the telephone cable because of cost, and in so doing, found it to be more than adequate to the task. Should one of these cables break of someone goes beyond the limits of the system reach it will be no "biggy" to replace.

[rsy]

We have been using stranded telephone wire for several years without a single break.

We used them at our club for several years as well (the round type), but when the club moved to new quarters we deceided to upgrade to Uhlmann cable. It lasted a little over a year before we began getting the cracks Robert Smith mentions, and we are using large diameter pulleys. We have just switched to the PBT kevlar fiber coated cable ($2.49/m) and we will see how long that lasts.

-r

[El Chucko]

I have been looking at wire suppliers online, and have seen a few possibilities. What gauge should I be looking for? Is a PVC jacket flexible enough? Is a rubber jacket strong enough?

Has anyone tried "rotor wire"? It sounds like the antenna control cable someone mentioned previously, maybe.

[Robert Smith]

Yep, that would be the stuff. Knew there was a name for it! At 50c per metre, it's dirt cheap. *IF* your pulleys are large enough, it will probably last forever. We started out with very small pulleys - 2 cm or maybe a little less - because we weren't sure what harm we might do to the gym floor with larger ones. Now we're using 4.5 cm and 9 cm pulleys from http://www.amt-usa.com/ with foam taped to the outsides of the larger to stop them clanking across the floor. Oh, for an overhead system that could be hidden away when not in use. Better still, cheap and wireless. I can dream, can't I?

[KShan5[PrFC]]

My club does a nice job....at well everything, but pertaining to this discussion, we have a nice set up for suspended reels.

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