** I searched to see if this was posted in the past but didn't find anything. So forgive me if this is an old topicor it is unfit for posting. ** So traditional is where we are, but I know we are all guilty of using the plastic saviors called Zip (zippy) ties at point or time. So does anyone know when these were invented? Can we get lucky and say NASA had developed these in 1952? Everytime I see those things on my car I wonder where or when they came from. Anyone know? DuckusCrapus
I have no idea who invented them/where they came from but I do know this................Zip Ties rule!!! I used to have a S-10 pickup that was mainly held together with them. When I moved my daughters crib from one house to another and my idiot ex lost most of the hardware I reassembled it with zip ties. As long as you have Zip Ties, duct tape and a set of sockets you can do pretty much anything.
Ahhh....thank you very much. Here is a link to the companies site if anyone else is interested. http://www.tnb.com/ps/pubint/index.cgi?a=heritage DuckusCrapus
Try Google, ten minutes worth of digging next time. Patented in September 1971 by Eberhardt...in the form we recognize today. Ford used them to bundle groups of vacuum hoses on early SMOG systems in the late sixties but were made out of brass then. -Bigchief.
An old-timer here at work used "wire wraps". We still have some here at work. He said everything was tied together with the string like material instead of "zipped" together with plastic stips. He didn't say what year that was, but based ont the fact he worked the Nevada Test Site in it's hayday, the implication was that it was in the early 50's he was doing that. So, if you're looking to get traditional with "wire wrapping" then prepare for finger exercises and practicing your knots.
Thomass & Betts still make the best crimpers for wire ends. (Sta-kons) And I have always called the "zip ties" Ty-wraps. During the sixties, all elevator controller wiring was tied with string. And very neat, too.
If anyone has some pictures of this, I would really like to see this. Was thinking of doing my wiring like this. Sorta' hardcore, but looks cool when it's done!
I trained on wax string looms way back when I was in avionics (fairly common on lears etc) - BIG emphasis on neatness and a lotta work to get it right. Cable ties are a whole lot easier but dont look anywhere near as cool. Maybe one of the sky guys can help.
hey we did a post a while back asking the "traditional" method for the alternative to zip ties the best answer we got was wax string so thats what we did on my modified. Zip ties only where people wont ever see them.
The wax string is the way to go. The standard knot is a clove hitch topped off with a square knot. Still, ty-raps are great. Like saltflataddict said, I try and keep em to a minimum and out of sight as much as possible.
Power companies used waxed string to tie together wire harnesses in the relay room . . . and there were a helluva lot of wires. When Zip Ties came in, waxed string fell out of favor with most. The first ones I came by were white nylon. Some had a small spring steel tab and later ones were all nylon. Note the white Zips tying the wire harness to the firewall ledge in the pic of the Rocket motor in my 50 ford coupe. Pic taken circa 1962. It'll really help if you get one of the Zip tools that stretch the tie before it's cut. If you just cut em with a pair of side cutters - dikes - you'll leave a sharp edge. It'll cut you to pieces if you're working on the car and rest your forearm on a Zip Tied wire harness.
After you stretch them tight nick the corner edge of the "tongue sticking out" and give it a wiggle it will break off clean and leave nothing sharp out.
At work I use some from Japan that have little tabs on them that let you release and reuse them. Dave
I never even thought about how appropriate a zip-tie would look in a period ride until now. The tying technique sounds pretty neat and thanks to my many years in the Boy Scouts I can do that too.
I live near the plant that makes Mack trucks, the workers there call them chicken bands and so does everyone else that works on cars.
Of course that the correct way to do it, but I've had marginal success at touching the dyke-cut sharp edges with a soldering iron to melt them down flush with the "knot". This makes them only 64.3% as sharp as the freshly cut ones.
Zip ties, velcro, mylar, and several other whiz bang inventions we take for granted nowadays were all reverse engineered from the UFO that crashed in Roswell in 1947.