reproduction cloth cords

[Babybearjs]

I have been buying replacement cloth cords from oldphoneworks for the past few years. I have several W.E. 400 series keysets that need new line cords. the problem is, they have to be 16 conductors or better. The 440A I have can use a RJ45 cord on it as it is for pickup only. the rest of the phones need more wires for the hold circuit, lights and buzzer.  can anyone suggest an idea to fix this problem. I was thinking about getting a paralell printer cable and using that, but want the cloth to match the phone... some of the phone did come with the vinyl cords and that would be my last resort.. I noticed on oldphoneworks website that they seem to only have 8 colored wires available. are they working on expanding the line or is there just no call for multiconductor cloth covered cordage?? how do you all feel about this question??

[AE_Collector]

Would a cloth covering over a multi conductor plastic jacketed cord be okay? That might be a way to get them to make larger conductor cords if they don't currently make them.

Terry

[Phonesrfun]

Maybe the very early 400 series keysets had fabric conductors inside a fabric jacket, but others I have seen used a fabric jacket with neoprene insulated conductors inside.  Even that one was pretty fat, and had a single lamp ground wire instead of individual lamp grounds for each lamp.

Besides being very fat, a 16-conductor cord with fabric insulated conductors with a a fabric jacket would likely be very, very expensive to have made up, if OPW would even attempt it at all.

Terry had a good suggestion.  Find some 16-conductor flexible wire (I don't know a source), and see if OPW can weave a second fabric jacket over it as a one-off deal. 

[AE_Collector]

I have seen cable that ws probably 12 conductors, stranded and of approximately 22 gauge conductors. So someone would make what is needed although the colors of the conductors woud not likely be correct.

Terry

[Phonesrfun]

I would think 12 conductor would work fine if he is not planning to use all the lines on a particular phone.

[AE_Collector]

I would think 12 conductor would work fine if he is not planning to use all the lines on a particular phone.

Likely correct so it would come down to have lose to correct he wants it to look and function. I'm not certain if we are talking about 1A1 / 1A2 phones or 3 line / 3 hold type phones.

I know we are talking WECo phones but what I know about is comporable AE sets. With the AE 87 (3L / 3H) phone I think the early cords were 10 conductors only since 6 conductors will supply the three lines and the phones didn't do illumination. So all that was left to cover was the buzzer / push button circuit. One the other hand the early type 86 (10A2 phone) had something like 16 pairs in the cord. Five lines times 3 pairs per line card plus a spare pair for what ever else. You are bale to dump all but one of the lamp ground leads AND all but one of the A1 leads so a total of 4 pairs can be saved there and still make 5 lines work properly.

And of course as you mentioned Bill, if 5 lines aren;t needed there is lots of room to reduce the number of conductors.

Terry

[GG]

What I would do is look for a smashed 564 or 565HK (5-line 1A2 phone) in black or brown, and use the line cord from that.  It won't be cloth but it will be color-matched.  Second choice would be a newer set with a silver-satin colored 25-pair cord, though those usually terminate on little strips of spade-lugs that were designed to make them easier to replace on the 565HK phones but won't fit into the keystrips on the 400-series set. 

Personally I wouldn't use two 8-conductor cords because I have a bias against having more than one line cord or equivalent coming out of a phone (e.g. AC/DC transformer cords, other stuff like that, which was done on a lot of modern self-contained multi-line phones).   One line cord, one handset cord, and if present, a cord for a "watch receiver" or "mother-in-law receiver." 

[Wallphone]

Maybe you can use something like the nylon braiding that I have (See pics) and make your own cords. Just to show how flexible it is I inserted a 1/2" dowel rod in the last picture.
Doug Pav

[Babybearjs]

Thanks guys! the main reason I posted the question was because of what some of my phones came with when I bought them... the one I wanted to get remade is a cloth covered cord with the vinyl conductors. The problem I'm haveing is that the individual wires on the ends are so badly faded from over the years that it makes it impossible to wire in correctly, plus the wiring scheme HAS changed over the years.... the color code has changed and so.... to update it to todays standard, you would need to use the new cabling and cover it in cloth... I guess taking a 25 pair cable and running it through the weaver would be the proper way to update the cordage. I found the paperwork on TCI library about GTE's cabling options... anywhere from 5 to 50 pair cabling.... the chart was really extensive... they made cables for more then just phones.... military, etc.  now comes the question.... who makes these cable combinations now?  and can they be easily acessed? I'm thinking of taking a old Printer Cable and using that for my phones.... I'd just have to spade out one end and change the other end to either spades, or amphoneal.... but, the question is.... is the color scheme the same as a regular telephone cord???

[AE_Collector]

I'd just have to spade out one end and change the other end to either spades, or amphoneal.... but, the question is.... is the color scheme the same as a regular telephone cord???

Not at all likely! There probably wasn't a standard color code to set cords between manufacturers either. AE 87/187 cords didn't have standard color code like modern telephone cable does.

Terry

[GG]

BabybearJS: cutting up a printer cable isn't recommended: the cable will turn out to be shielded in some way, the conductors are of a different size and may not be color coded in any way, and trying to make up your own AMP connectors requires an expensive tool or a less-expensive tool and much tedium. 

[AE_Collector]

And a tool /plugs correct for the type of wire. There are solder on Amphenols/Amp as well as two different types of crimp on Amphenols/Amp plugs. Amp & Amphenol are two different manufacturers.

Terry