OT: Cables and Cords Galore!

jrazz wrote on 2/21/2009, 5:15 PM
If you want to skip the back story, skip down to the triple break.

For the past several months I have not been as active as I have been in the past on this forum. Some of you may have noticed, some may not. For some, it may have been a welcomed change :)

Well, my wife and I preparing for our first child and I have been busier than usual with work and I even hired on a second editor/filmer. We have been happy where we are. We actually saved up a substantial amount to build on a laundry room, a pantry and a master bathroom and we were planning on building on up stairs. However our plans were thwarted when we found out our house (and our neighborhood) was made into a historic distric about 3 and a half years ago (our house was just built in 1926- that's not old!). The costs of these additions would have been double due to the historic contingency. So, we decided to look at purchasing another home (we paid off our current home in a little under 3 years) and if push came to shove, we could sell this one and pay what we were going to pay for the additions and pay it off out right- even in this economy. So, I have also been working on that house on the weekends and evenings and sometimes during the day. And without further boring you with the details...



I am moving my home office and after packing up all of my cables and cords and power strips and battery backups and... well, I have a ton of wires! What do you all do to tame your cable problem?

I have a boomerang shaped desk that is a glass top that supports three monitors, a tablet, two PC's and a duplicator. I have a wireless usb print server that allows me to house my printers on a seperate rack elsewhere to cut down on clutter. The way it will be set up, the back of the desk will be out in the open for all to see. I was thinking of getting some PVC and painting it silver (the same color as my supports for the desk) and supsending these from a support and running the wires that way, but I would have to make them big enough to slide the heads through or cut a slit out of each pipe that spans the length to stick the wires in and have the wires come down a leg... maybe I'm just thinking to hard on this and Wal-Mart or some .com has a simpler solution that will fix my problem. Suggestions welcome! And as always, I am thankful to be a part of this community.

j razz

Comments

ushere wrote on 2/21/2009, 5:34 PM
go bluetooth ;-)

i think it's a problem we've all faced at some time or other - and one without a 'one size fits all' solution.

for straight backed consoles / desks i usually fit a 'dummy' back panel and simple hide the spaghetti behind it. (of course, in studio's we'd also have enough room back there to walk!)

for all other shapes i usually use channelling - but i've never worked with a glass worktop. i don't suppose there's anything stopping you gluing channelling along the back edge? you could also probably cut out 'v's to contour the channelling around....

leslie
jrazz wrote on 2/21/2009, 5:48 PM
Bluetooth eh? :)

Here are some pictures of what I have- I was suprised that OfficeMax still has it available.

j razz
richard-courtney wrote on 2/21/2009, 5:50 PM
Hi jrazz, good to hear from you and news of your your first one!!!

Glass tops look good with a mirror channel. Your local glass shop can cut mirrored
glass in strips and they have 90 degree corner doo-hinkeys.

They can also cut "U" shaped openings to pass cables through.
fldave wrote on 2/21/2009, 6:04 PM
Save your money for your new child (congrats) and go to Home Depot and get some water pipe insulating tubes. They are slit lengthwise, cut to length, then slide the cords inside the tube. Get a large size tube for lots of cords.

My TV/stereo/DVD/BluRay/Cable box still looks bad, but I'm working on it.
Dave_B wrote on 2/21/2009, 10:21 PM
jrazz,

When it wasn't new construction or there wasn't a hollow wall, I used raceway systems similar to those at the link below when installing network cabling. I can't vouch for that particular vendor or product, but most unlatch along the length so connectors and plugs aren't a problem, some are large enough for several thick cables, and most are available in neutral colors or paintable. They are like gutters though, it's the little fittings that can add up.

http://cableorganizer.com/cable-raceway/

But I must say, at home, I gave up on this exercise a long time ago. Every time I used up a bag of cable ties getting everything just right, something changed and I had to redo it. I finally said the heck with it, got a long narrow bookcase just slightly higher than the desk, put it a little in front of the desk and let everything fall through the gap wherever it wanted to. Less heartburn.

Dave

ps - Best Wishes for the little one (of course, you'll need another one now so they'll have someone to play with :-)
JJKizak wrote on 2/22/2009, 6:18 AM
Try Mcmaster.com for plastic cable trays in different capacities. The covers pop off so you can reroute and trace wires through a multitude of crap. I am a satisfied user.
JJK
jrazz wrote on 2/23/2009, 6:26 AM
Guys, thanks for the well wishes and suggestions. I will look into these suggestions this week and once I get something in place, I will report back. thanks again.

j razz