storing test wires - Page 1
Forum section: electronics / general

author: jheissjr
author_rank: Contributor
timestamp: October 06, 2025, 02:31:05 am
content: Wires for the bench are used daily for testing and troubleshooting here. I can't think of a good way to store them. Is there a trick so they don't turn into a nest? How do you store them?

author: brucehoult
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: October 06, 2025, 04:13:54 am
content: Interesting question. The only thing I do is leave them in convenient-width ribbons for particular tasks. For example I have a 5-wire cable for programming microcontrollers using SPI, with red and black for power, orange for clock, and yellow and brown for MOSI and MISO because that's the best I could find adjacent to each other in the 40-wire ribbons I bought.That at less reduces the mess by a factor of five -- or 8 or 16 or whatever if you have a use for ribbons of those widths.

author: coppercone2
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: October 06, 2025, 05:46:30 am
content: You need a special box. Most people can't do it, because if you have a efficiency complex, the box costs more then the contents.So throw it in the drawer so it gets tangled up in a bunch of crap, breaks, and then wastes hours of your time in trouble shooting (and hopefully burns a chip out)Flambeau boxes are good, if you take all the dividers out, you can get a fairly long box with maybe 6 long compartments. I keep little bits of thin pipe and wires/little roundstock in them.Or you can throw tumble weeds of wires into wall mount bins. Oddly popular in industry. It's the wrong shape, has no dust protection and is way over sized, but for some reason they can stomach buying them lol. I sure love those wall mount vine gardens. Nothing better then some long cylindrical object laying inside of a small wall mount bin at a 45 degree angle with about 45% of its mass hanging. You cans get a whopping 3% volume efficiency with them too!

author: Jeroen3
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: October 06, 2025, 07:46:44 am
content: It's the law of wire, they will get tangled when nobody is looking.But, if you keep each type in a separate bin it won't matter that much if they get tangled.

author: gamalot
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: October 06, 2025, 09:25:22 am
content: I'll print one.

author: jpanhalt
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: October 06, 2025, 10:47:02 am
content: Here's what I use. Segregated by male-male, female-female, and male-female plus assorted grabbers and alligator leads.

author: paul cotter
author_rank: Regular Contributor
timestamp: October 06, 2025, 03:09:04 pm
content: I hang my test leads on a series of hooks. Most are longer than the OP's and are flexible multi-strand so they hang quite well.

author: AVGresponding
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: October 06, 2025, 04:39:11 pm
content: Quote from: jpanhalt on October 06, 2025, 10:47:02 amNo compartment for female-male..?

author: 5U4GB
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: October 06, 2025, 06:58:47 pm
content: Quote from: Jeroen3 on October 06, 2025, 07:46:44 amYou forgot the extra box for the category "pieces of wire too short to be of use".

author: Oilngas
author_rank: Contributor
timestamp: October 07, 2025, 03:01:07 am
content: I use the tops of styrofoam egg cartons.