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New use for Cable Ties [message #89263] Sun, 02 September 2007 08:04
Nil is currently offline  Nil
Messages: 245
Registered: March 2007
Senior Member
You know the kind I'm talking about - also called zip ties; the
kind that have the serrated surface on one side of the strip
that fits into the little locking head-end. Anyway, the other
night this band I recorded recently invites me to one of their
practice sessions to hear some of their new tunes. Anyway,
they're into about the 3rd or 4th song and the drummer's snare
stops "snaring" - one of the straps that holds the snares had
broken. It also had snapped pretty much right in the center, at
a point that rendered it too short to be able to pull it out &
readjust the length to get both ends of either piece to grab in
the clamp. One of the guitarists yells out "Shoelace!" (which
also works, but you've got to be able to wrap a couple of loops
of it around the clamp for it to be strong enough & not stretch
out or break).

Enter the lowly cable tie - this place still had some
miscellaneous small piles of junk that the prior tenant had
left laying about, and I was actually thinking about seeing if
I could find a piece of heavy-gauge multistrand wire that could
be substituted, and I notice that the first pile I walk over to
had a bunch of snipped-off cable tie ends that were just about
long enough to work - so I grabbed a couple & brought them over
to the drummer & said "These should work, especially if you can
thread two of 'em through there but I don't know if one would be
strong enough." (they were the smaller ones that are perhaps
about 1/8" across). He decided to try one at first, and lo &
behold, even just one of those smaller ties was plenty strong
enough! The snares held through the rest of their practice,
which consisted of another ten or so tunes that night, and the
tie showed no signs of breaking or stretching out.

Later it occurred to me that once I had fixed a drummers kick
drum pedal with one of the even smaller versions of these same
type of cable ties, as well - a screw had snapped at the point
where the tread plate pivots on the heel plate, so one side was
fastened & the other side was kinda flopping around loose.
Unthread the broken-off portion in the heel plate, insert cable
tie, zip up tight & voila'!

Anyone got any other cool improvised fixes they'd like to pass
along?

Neil
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