WHY do the OEMs continue to send us 12 FOOT POWER CORDS with rack gear that is going to be plugged in 12 inches away into a power strip??? And they aren't just standard power cords. No. No. No. They are hardwired into transformer packs so the only option for really adjusting the cord length is to cut off the end, trim the cord down to length, and then put the end back on, which results in having a bunch of crappy looking electrical tape wrapped cords. So you have take the other route and loop them , tape the loops right, udo the loop twice and retape the looped cord because you gauged it wrong the first 2 times...

Grrr....

I had a bunch of gear and I wanted it rack mounted but I am cheap and did not want to buy a rack, so I made one out of some 2x4 I had laying around. Mounter some power strips on it and a couple of grab handles. It isn't going to be moved to gigs or anything. It will just sit in the studio. Today I did wiring. I still have to run midi cables to the thru box, but for the most part, after much cursing, cable stays and duct tape, it's done as good as it's going to get done.




And to that end, does anybody have any 12 inch or 18 inch line cords you would donate? This is all I need!! A 12" and an 18" version of this!

Cool stuff Eddie. What makes me crazy is all the wall warts.

Other than making up your own power chords, which is a PITB, there is no good answer. Tie rap stuff as good as you can.

Thangs are getting so crowded at my house I really need to move back to a larger house. I need a one bedroom house with a ten car garage...lol

Take care,

Billy

you can buy power cords all day long at places like Goodwill, for practically nothing. Then you can cut and splice them back together at whatever length you need. A little electrical tape or shrink tubing from Harbor freight makes the splice look reasonably good.

But since your rack is made of scrap 2x4's, I think you should use duct tape to complete the redneck motif. LOL

this would be a great country song

I have literally 3 dozen extra cords that are 3 feet and longer. Some as long as 12 feet. The rant was that I don't want to have to mess with that. I'll get them from Amazon. For more than what an 8 ft cord would cost. A 4 pack of 12" cables is 13 bucks. Which them means I have 2 extra that I will never need.

Just to keep the redneck motif, I didn't sand the 2x4s....

Go buy the plug ends from Lowes and cut them to length and put the new ends on them. Beats loops and splices with electrical wrap.

I'll probably just buy what I need from Amazon. 13 bucks for 4 of them is less that what materials would cost me. And I don't have to burn my fingers off soldering.

Great idea Herb. Probably what I'd do.

and I applaud you for that! Your recordings don't care about no steengkeeng sand job!

I'd probably hold off on the applause. I'm just too lazy to sand it.

So, looking at that custom rack (which I absolutely approve of!) I am at a loss for why you give a crap about cable length, color, style, etc. As long as they will carry the current just plug in what you have and spend the $13 on quarter pounders!

I like the way you think, J3

Oh man. 13 bucks worth of QPs! NOW you tell me!!!

This is the anal retentive and OCD me at work. I walk around in stretchy yoga pants and t-shirts all the time but my shoes have to be laced so the bow is EXACTLY in the middle of the shoe. The audio interface under one of my video monitors must be EXACTLY parallel to the monitor. Pens on my desk all face the same way. Paper money in my pockets must all face the same way.

So loose cable must all be tacked down with retention clips and they have to be as short as possible. Even in the car with all those cables to power GPS and phones I have claw type spring loaded hair clips keeping them as neat as possible.

But it's okay. I know I'm weird and came to terms with it long ago.

I ended up ordering from Amazon because I also needed a pack of 6" patch bay cables to go from the rack mount EQ to the rack mount mixer to plug all that little stuff in that rack into. It's a Roland JU-06 synth, a Korg drum machine, another old drum machine, a Proteus module and the vocoder. And the MIDI through box sits on top. That MIDI wiring is going to be a whole "thing" as I decide where to route the innies and outies to/from. 1 in from the M-Audio controller out, the other from the Focusrite out, and then a path from M-audio to the Focusrite in so I can play the controller into Real Band during recording and then back out during playback.

Just have to sit down with a piece of paper and draw it up. And then run it. Neatly, of course.

Jeezz Eddie...I have a large bottle of Prozac I could share with you and also some lorazepam. That with a shot of whiskey and you will never have to line up your pens again....lol The shoe lace thing will go away on it's own just by eating enough QPs...lol


DISCLAMER: For all the unformed this is a joke. Take enough lorazepam and whiskey and it will put you to sleep....permanently. Pharmacology 101 !!


Billy

You need SKETCHERS... slip-on shoes with fake elastic laces that are always perfect. And no bow... just the laces, for OCD people who need to look down and see laces even if they aren't necessary.

I'm going to investigate those today!!! As soon as I hit submit, in fact!

And I thought this thread was about power chords, just spelled wrong as it sometimes is here. Never mind.

Just paint the 2x4 black and no one will know the difference. Or varnish to get a top quality custom look.

Waaa Laaa...

follow me for more professional tips like this.

The irony here Herb is that the 2 pieces that need the power cords will be the 2 pieces in the rack that get used the least.

I searched everywhere for your "Home Hints By Herb" web page but couldn't find it.

Did you get another trainee dog when the last one was done and went on to it's job?