21 Jun
2004
21 Jun
'04
12:09 a.m.
>> > My father was one of the most respected
engineering wiremen of the
>> > 1960's. He was highly sought after for making harnesses by many
>> > companies. The art of hand lacing a harness is basically lost.
>>
>> No it is not, although not many people use it. It is still
>> used in the AT&T and some MCI telephone world. In fact, the
>> very first AT&T Worldnet dialup equipment was hand laced
>> (by me). I ran into many not-so-old timers that still would
>> lace up cables by hand perfectly.
>>
Good to hear there are others who have/do hand lace. Just a few questions
out of curiosity...
Were these true harnesses or were they cable assemblies. The difference
being that a true harness is completely assembled prior to installation
[usually on a board] where a cabble assembly is the use of lacing (or other
methods) to "dress" simple cables [Simple in the respect that they are
usually point to point [2 connectors] or have few branches]?
Did you use spot stitch, running stitches, or locking stitches? I can still
do a decent spot or running stitch, but struggle with getting a decent [even
spacing, high tension, low torsion] stitch.
If these were board build harnsesses were they "rigid"? I remember being
young [a kid actually] and being amazed when a harness [made with 22 or 24
gauge stranded teflon wire] could be lifed off the board, held vertical
[often well over 6 feet long] from the bottom and completely retain its
shape without any droop in the extended side branches....
David