A friend of mine sent this around.

From: Arnold XXXXXXXXX arnold.xxxxxxx@xxx
To: Engineering Staff engineeringstaff@xxx
Subject: cable management
Date: Fri, 30 Mar 2007 08:55:11 -0400

Hi All,
Thought I would share a tip I just thought of…
In pursuing the contract here at yyy, I got a mitt full of fibre yesterday..lots of pretty single and multi-mode 6’-10’ cables. Annoyingly, I realised these would end up a tangled mess as there are no twisties to be had (the metal wires in the “garbagebag” variety are not something you want around exposed circuit boards, obviously!) and tie-wraps are too permanent to use on delicate fibre in a lab environment. Sooo, in typical “Band-aid engineering” fashion, I walked out to the garden shed at home last night and snagged the roll of green “tomato tape” that LeeValley sells (basically a low-grade velcro in tape form). I have already discovered it is the cat’s meow for cable management; cut to length, easy to (re)open/close. Not nearly as strong as velcro in the perpendicular/peel direction(very low peel cohesion), but at least half the strength as typical velcro in the lateral loading direction. Wrapped around itself twice, it even holds the 100’ lawnmower extension cord bundled to keep it tidy while hanging on a hook (note: not hung by the tape itself though).
More than strong enough for wire bundling and perfect for fibre cable management! Keeps the stuff in nice tidy coils on the bench and more importantly is non-conductive and reusable and bright green! : - )

Hope others find this tip handy.

Arnold

Thanks Arnold, I have used it for temporary cable management while getting the real management in place. It is remarkably useful stuff.