Re-forming Cloth Covered Coiled Handset Cord With Rubber Insulated Conductors

[gands-antiques]

I have a brown cloth covered coiled handset cord that has a couple of sections that have lost the coil and are straightened out. 

I have coiled the cord around a wood dowel rod, baked it in the oven at 150 degrees for 1 hour and then I put it in the freezer over night.  I removed it form the freezer and let it normalize and when I remove it from the dowel it does not retain the correct coil.  I repeated this process twice but it will not hold the coil set.

I have used this process successfully with a lot of coiled rubber handset cords but it isn't working with this one.

Any suggestions would be appreciated.


Thanks,
Gary

[Stan S]

Gary
Try this.


Stan S.

[gands-antiques]

Thanks Stan. I'll give it a try.

Gary

[cloyd]

Perhaps the wires are broken inside and unable to help retain the shape.  Does the cord have continuity?
Tina

[unbeldi]

This was just recently, in the last week or so, discussed.
By my experience winding cloth cords onto a dowel, when dry, has very little effect.
You have to wet them thoroughly, preferably with hot water and let them soak a little bit and let the rubber inside warm up.
When wet on the dowel, I take this as an opportunity to brush the cord with a tooth brush and soap, or simply spray it with Woolite.

In my opinion, the achieved result is not terribly durable, because it is not the cover that keeps the coil, as in PVC cords, but the conductor insulation.  Using a stiffening compound is a good idea as a final treatment.

Here is an example:
http://www.classicrotaryphones.com/forum/index.php?topic=16135.0

[gands-antiques]

Thanks Tina....no broken wires.  All of the conductors check good continuity.

Thanks Carl...I didn't think of soaking the cord in hot water and then spraying it with Woolite.
I will give this a try before I try the spray on material Stan suggested.


Thanks a lot,
Gary   

[Dennis Markham]

A couple of years ago I was able to improve a cloth coiled cord on a model 302.  The thread can be seen here:

http://www.classicrotaryphones.com/forum/index.php?topic=13074.15

Included in that thread is a link to a photo album I put together showing some photos of the methods I used to re-set the coils.  I used warm water and Woolite, as Unbeldi suggested here.  The photo album can be seen here:

https://picasaweb.google.com/vintagerotaryphones/19391951WesternElectricModel302OxidizedSilver

Two years later it has held it's shape however it's just sitting on a shelf and not being used.  The coils are not tight but still holding the shape and looks very good.

~Dennis

[gands-antiques]

Carl / Dennis

Thanks for the information.....

Does the Wooliite help with setting / stiffening the cord or is it just for cleaning it?  It sounds like the water and Woolite solution was left on the cord and even sprayed on after the soaking process and the cord was dried and then baked.

It doesn't sound like you all are chilling the cords in a freezer like I have been doing so maybe that step isn't beneficial?

Thanks,
Gary     

[Dennis Markham]

Gary, for me the Woolite was just a way to gentle clean the fibers.  I did not use the freezer method.  I tried that a couple of times with a vinyl covered cord and didn't see any benefit to doing it.

~Dennis

[unbeldi]

Carl / Dennis

Thanks for the information.....

Does the Wooliite help with setting / stiffening the cord or is it just for cleaning it?  It sounds like the water and Woolite solution was left on the cord and even sprayed on after the soaking process and the cord was dried and then baked.

It doesn't sound like you all are chilling the cords in a freezer like I have been doing so maybe that step isn't beneficial?

Thanks,
Gary   

No, I don't think it stiffens the cord at all.  In fact I keep rinsing after that.  I think the Woolite is a little gentler than most soaps. Supposedly it is good for pure silk carpets, for which I had bought it originally.
On cords, I have only used it on the ivory silk cords and on the colors red, blue, and green, without using a brush.
On the later ivory cotton cords, I have simply used Dawn Powerclean dish washing liquid and a brush.
I think this all very non-scientific and unsystematic.
On some cords, I feel that it can't really get any worse, so might as well try something.
Surprisingly, the results have been... well, surprising, as in the before-and-after picture I posted earlier.

[andre_janew]

Is this stiffening compound you guys use anything like spray starch?

[gands-antiques]

Yesterday, I soaked the cord in warm water, air dried it and then baked it at 200 degrees for 45 minutes.  After it cooled off, I removed the cord from the dowel and there was still no improvement at all.   

I wrapped the cord back on the dowel, saturated it with two coats of Heavy Duty Faultless Spray Starch and then I let it air dry over night  When I removed the cord from the dowel this morning there was still no improvement.

I researched the stiffener spray stuff Stan suggested and it sounds like with multiple coats it will pretty much freeze the cord into the coiled form but I don't think it will still have the necessary flexibility. I don't know if there is a happy medium. 

I baked it again today at 200 degrees for one hour and when it cooled I put it in the the freezer.  If it isn't better when I remove it from the freezer tomorrow I will either go get some of the spray stiffener stuff Stan suggested or I may just trash it. 

I've spent a lot of time trying save this $20 cord but it isn't so much the time issue as much as I really wanted to find a successful process for the cloth cords.

* I can successfully re-form the black cords all day long with a bake cycle and a trip to the freezer but this   cloth cord has been a different story.

The saga continues....

[rdelius]

Have you tried to wind the cord on the dowel backwards?

[gands-antiques]

Have you tried to wind the cord on the dowel backwards?

Thanks rdelius,

I haven't tried winding it backwards, but I'll give it a try.  I just rewound it backwards and I'll run it through the warm water soak and bake cycles again and we'll see what happens.

Thanks,
Gary

[unbeldi]

Thanks rdelius,

I haven't tried winding it backwards, but I'll give it a try.  I just rewound it backwards and I'll run it through the warm water soak and bake cycles again and we'll see what happens.

Thanks,
Gary

Winding it backwards won't work as the spring is not obtained from a thermoplastic jacket.
I would leave the cord on the dowel and let it dry by itself slowly after treatment with hot, not just warm water.  Keep it tightly coiled for a week or two. Give the rubber insulation time to relax in the new geometry.  What came unwound in decades, does not return in a day.

The coil in my example was left on the dowel for something like 2 or 3 weeks, IIRC.