Reproducing Fabric-Covered Cable

[Winky Dink]

Braided fabric covering for multiconductor cable in early radios is so often brittle, friable, or unraveling. Some years ago I asked for suggestions for replacing cable like this:



It was suggested that shoelaces could be used…hold on a second…the picture above IS the reproduction. Hah! I even fooled myself. This is the original cable:



I actually wanted to try the shoelace trick for a long time. I used "flat tubular athletic" laces, and did this:



The new shoelace looked too, well…new, so I gave it a heavy lacquer coating and, before it was fully dry, rolled it between my palms. That flattened the nap and imparted an aged appearance. The laces are available in 6-foot lengths and also come in brown and other colors. The limitation is that I could only find two sizes--7/16-inch and 5/16 inch. The other problem is that now my shoes tend to fall off when I'm walking down stairs.

It's a cheap technique, and it might also be useful to put a fabric covering over vinyl zip cord to fabricate a vintage power cord. I would recommend this technique for anyone who has too much time on their hands.

[Jerryhawthorne]

Winky Dink that is a great idea. I had a cable line between the separate power supply and receiver on my 1929 Monarch console that had been replaced with a new cable with nice new wires showing (no covering). It didn't look right so I asked my wife who does neat sewing what she could cover it with. She wrapped it with bias tape in a nice color and hand sewed it closed. It didn't require removal of all the wires and came out nice. Just another idea although yours is great starting from scratch. AES sells new wire covered multiconductors but did not have the size wire I needed for the filament supply.
Jerry

[bandersen]

That looks great! I have a few sets that could benefit from this technique. Thanks for sharing.

[Reece]

Those are good looking and relatively easy ways to cover those cables. Here's a minor offering I did with a regular tubular shoelace. I restored my grandmother's ca. 1936 Emerson fan and made a twisted pair of very flexible wire to form the headwire. That got covered with the shoelace, and a cable tie inside each grommet keeps the shoelace in place and keeps the cable from being pulled out.

[Winky Dink]

Nice. A discerning observer might notice that, "Gee, those old electric cables look a bit like stuffed shoelaces." But I'll keep your secret.

[Reece]

And maybe back around 1900 when 'lectric got wired into the homestead, grannies asked, "What're them twisted shoelaces doing going into thet lamp?"

[Winky Dink]

Putting some finishing touches on the Radiola 28. Used five feet of shoelace stuffed with eight wires. The cloth wires are spliced to vinyl wires inside the shoelace. The ends are sealed with epoxy to prevent fraying. The other end goes to the DC power supply. It makes nice vintage-looking DC power cable. It exits the cabinet through a hole that was drilled in the bottom of the battery compartment for the original AC-conversion power cable. Shown here next to the original cable from the AC power supply..