[David Dunlop]

Today’s little adventure was to redo the cotton cording on the battery terminal ends of both Connectors Cables. I started with the negative cable as that cording had already started to unravel.

The first step was to determine the original length of the cording. This worked out well as a good shadow line had survived on both copper terminals. The length was found to be one inch. I then marked the start point for the cording on the cotton loom with a wrap of masking tape.

I did not realize the significance of the observation when I redid the negative cable cording, but a noticeable portion of the factory cotton twine appeared stuffed into the gap between the end of the cable covering and the end of the copper terminal fitting. I just assumed that had been a simple place to put the unravelling twine to keep it out of the way.

As I unwound the original twine, I came across a knot and then worked my way back down the loom to the tape. It was interesting to see how the cotton cording twine had cut into the cotton loom on the cable over time, and also how nicely the new cotton twine fit right into those grooves as I redid the cording. I did wonder, however, how I was going to deal with the gap between the covering and the terminal fitting. One often finds a wrap of the old cloth electrical tape covering such gaps but no sign of any at all in this application. So I went with what I had on hand and cut a length of twine, which I wound tightly into the gap to fill it in level as best I could, tied it off and trimmed it. I then proceeded to do the cording. The last time I had done this I was annoyed by the large spool of twine bouncing around the work desk while using it, so this time I rigged a temporary spool holder off to the side, which worked a treat! The final transition from cable to fitting was not as smooth as I had hoped but liveable. The big problem to me was the cotton twine was far too white.

Since the twine was going to get an acrylic top coat when finished, I thought I would use a bit of stale tea and brush it on to the twine to colour it up a bit. Two light coats gave it a nice light beige colour I was happy with and also helped tighten up the twine a bit as it dried. It then got a good top coat of satin Urethane finish to seal it in place.

Things got interesting when I started working on the positive cable. I found the end of the twine tucked under the battery terminal end of the twine, freed it up and started unwinding it. It unwound right passed the gap and continued on towards the marker masking tape I had placed at the starting point for this cording. When I got to the tape, at the last band of twine, it jumped back to the gap again and stopped at a knot. I was able to lift the knot just enough to cut the twine behind it and unravel the section that had been wrapped into the gap. In the second photo you can see the two pieces of original twine. The negative piece is on top and the positive one below it.

So now I realize how they dealt with the cable gap when cording these cables. They started by carefully infilling the gap tightly with twine. When they got to the top, they tied the infill off and then brought the twine down the loom to the required start point for the cording and started the wrapping process back down the cable to the battery fitting. In the process, all the twine leading to the gap, and in the gap, disappears. Armed with that newfound knowledge, I carefully duplicated the process when cording the positive cable and was quite pleased with the transition point and final look. That cording also got the tea stain treatment (coffee would probably work just as well) and the top coast of satin acrylic.

Both cables should be fully cured by tomorrow so I can reassemble the CONNECTORS, Twin, No. 17 and plug the Main 52-Set back in. I have actually missed listening to it over the last week or so.

By the way, in the last photo, no matter how I tried, the camera wanted to make the new cording look ‘camera white’. In real life, it is very much a nice cream colour.


David