I'm sick of low hanging wire under our train board. I've used tape but this isn't great and comes down eventually.
I'm in the process of redoing all the wiring under our layout. Making things neat, and color coded. Most of the wiring is for building interior lights. Most of our wire is 26 Gauge.
Are there any small sized clamps for 26 or smaller gauge wire? I couldn't find any doing some online searching. Most clamps are for coax or electrical wire...larger then 26 GA.
Sticky back or screw mounted would be nice, but I just couldn't find any that are small enough for the smaller sized wire.
Our layout board is plywood, which I think is 1/2" thick. I can check on the thickness to be sure if needed.
So what do you use to keep the wire mounted to the underside of your train boards?
Matt from Anaheim, CA and Bayfield, COClick Here for my model train photo website
What I use on my modules is the plastic clamp with a single nail in it for telephone wire. A bag of a hundred or so for a couple bucks at Home Depot. Some guys in the club use screw in rings that you can get at any hardware store.
Pete
I pray every day I break even, Cause I can really use the money!
I started with nothing and still have most of it left!
My T-50 stapler has an attachment that uses a telephone wire staple. However, I use the above mentioned clamps as well as running the wires through holes in the framework to keep the wires from sagging. The nice thing about them is that you can slip an individual wire in or out if necessary. You could also replace the nail with a screw if you thought you needed more flexability. They are cheap enough so that you can use them fairly close together to prevent sagging. (Driving the nails into the plywood can be a challenge when you are upside down.)
A simple, homemade method would be to take a short piece of plywood, drill a hole in each end. Attach it to the bottom of the layout with two screws. Loosen it to slip wires underneath and retighten to hold the wires in place.
Just some thoughts.
Good luck,
Richard
They also make zip ties with a screw hole to mount wires under the table, check your local hardware stores. Just dont pull it tight so you can put more wires in or replace them. Jim.
Hi Mat,
We use self locking Nylon Cable Straps for bundles that come in all sizes from any electrical shop and anchor them looped loose under the layout with tacker cable clips. The clips can also handle the odd couple of wires.
Place them where any angles or bends are required and at about every 9" to 12" in-between. Once and only when it's all neatly sorted they are pulled tight and the tails trimed back.
If you make a$1****$2up you can always very carefully snip the offending strap, by sticking a small scewdriver in and using sidecutters.
As for cable, we use a diferent Gauge system over here, 26 sounds a bhit thin I'd go for stuff starting about the size of or a bit smaller than USB cable that can handle greater ampage when yuo come to upgrade.
Be in touch.
pick.
I use a stand-off stapler to put a staple in the wood parallel to the wire run. I then use a cable strap (sometimes called tie wraps or zip-ties) looped under the staple and around the wires.
Cable straps cost about 2 cents each at the dollar store.
Dave
Lackawanna Route of the Phoebe Snow
For the areas having a large quantity of wires - I use the EMT metal Conduit Clamps!
They come in various sizes (1/2" - 3/4" - 1") for the conduit.
I attach them to the underside of the layout with Drywall Screws.
I can easily slide a wire in the end of the clamp - even though it is screwed tightly to the layout.
I also attach them to the benchwork joists and they can be turned sideways to allow the wires to be removed if needed (like when soldering drop wires to them).
This ability to turn the clamp and remove the BUS wire makes it easy to solder a drop wire to it without having to lay under the wires when soldering.
I can just sit on my rolling chair and solder my drop wires - so I never get hit with HOT solder!
This has worked well for me for the last 10 years!
BOB H - Clarion, PA
Underneith my around the walls layout I used eye screws every couple of feet. I used the ground wire from 14-2 romex and ran it through the eye screws and secured it to the screws at the ends. This is called a messenger cable on the prototype. I then looped ty-raps to the messenger and ran my accessory wires through the ty-raps to their desired locations. when all the wires were run I pulled the ty-raps closed to secure the wires. Nice neat cabeling. This is seperate from the DCC buss.
retsignalmtr Underneith my around the walls layout I used eye screws every couple of feet. I used the ground wire from 14-2 romex and ran it through the eye screws and secured it to the screws at the ends. This is called a messenger cable on the prototype. I then looped ty-raps to the messenger and ran my accessory wires through the ty-raps to their desired locations. when all the wires were run I pulled the ty-raps closed to secure the wires. Nice neat cabeling. This is seperate from the DCC buss.
Around the layout, I generally bore holes in the framework. But there are a few spots on/near my "main distribution board" where I use cable ties.
I use the ones that you can release, in case I need to add or remove wiring. They're a little more expensive, but you make up for that by not ever having to cut it off and replace it if you tighten it up too much.
I use big screw-in cup hooks. Typically, I bundle the wires and tie them off every now and then with a cable tie. Then I just loop them into the hooks. With hooks, it's easy to take the wires out again without having to remove and re-thread everything through a solid-loop eye-hook.
One of these days, I'm going to go down to the appliance store and pick up a few cardboard boxes that refrigerators came in. I'll cut them to shape and then staple them to the underside of the layout, thus completely hiding all the wires. I won't do this until I'm sure that everything is wired and working, and I'm more or less finished wiring that part of the layout. In case I have to, of course, I can just unstaple the cardboard and remove it, or in the worst case cut it off and go get some more.
It takes an iron man to play with a toy iron horse.
MisterBeasley I use big screw-in cup hooks. Typically, I bundle the wires and tie them off every now and then with a cable tie. Then I just loop them into the hooks. With hooks, it's easy to take the wires out again without having to remove and re-thread everything through a solid-loop eye-hook.
Lots of good suggestions, really appreciate all the info thus far. Thanks
I use sticky-back wire tie mounts and wire ties. The mounts come in bags of 100 at the big box stores. I find they don;t stick well to the bare wood underneath the layout, but they also have a hole in the middle for a screw. The adhesive works well enough to hold them in palce while I drive a screw in. Most of my layout is in sections of 4', with a cross support in the middle, makig each section a 2' 'bay'. I drill through the cross supports to feed wires through, and put 1 or 2 wire ties per bay to hold up each bundle of wires.
Don't bundle anythign and everything. I use DCC, and in some sections there are 4 bus runs, these get bundled seperately. Then there is the control wiring, Loconet cables in my case, using Digitrax. This gets its own set of ties holding it up, don't bundle the control line with the power bus.
--Randy
Modeling the Reading Railroad in the 1950's
Visit my web site at www.readingeastpenn.com for construction updates, DCC Info, and more.
I use both sticky back pads and screw eyes along with zip ties to secure my wiring. The sticky pads have a slot in them to pass the zip tie through. The screw eyes are small ones with a closed loop and a threaded shank. I pass the zip tie through the eye and wrap it around the wire. I can get the pads and zip ties quite cheaply at a Dollar Store. The screw eyes come from the hardware store. You can buy them in bulk. I have found that the pads don't stick well to bare wood but do stick well to any smooth surface like a painted surface. I paint the underside of my layout white so that the wires and other stuff are easier to see and I can write on the white paint with a marker.
..... Bob
Beam me up, Scotty, there's no intelligent life down here. (Captain Kirk)
I reject your reality and substitute my own. (Adam Savage)
Resistance is not futile--it is voltage divided by current.
Great ideas.
I'll be visiting my local hardware store to see what might work.
Too bad my in progress hardware store model isn't real :
I have a special case, not applicable to most situations.
My benchwork is L-girder style, but built of steel studs rather than wood. The U shaped studs are natural wire runs. All I do to keep the wires inside is snap short lengths of steel stud cap on the main girders and joists every 18 inches or so.
Wires can enter or leave the cable run either through the wide-open side or through the cutouts on the 'closed' side.
Chuck (Modeling Central Japan in September, 1964)
I use plastic cable clamps and drywall screws:
Nick
Take a Ride on the Reading with the: Reading Company Technical & Historical Society http://www.readingrailroad.org/
This is what I use. Cable Hangers made from old coat hangers.
Easy to make, cheap, and keeps the bundled cables away from direct contact with the woodwork so it's easier to work with/get at.
Particular construction also allows you to hang more cable without having to pull it through all the loops. Or remove without having to pull it out.
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