ECN Forum Forums Photo Discussion Forums Photos for General Discussion Access and Management Attitudes

I'm all for neat installations...But in a location where you need to make changes often, having everything zip-tied down neatly can actually be a hinderance when a change is required.

Our rooms don't look anywhere near as bad as that third picture, but they don't look as neat as the first, either. The upside is that we can make changes and route new cables quickly without having to cut 500 zip-ties, route the cable, then put in 500 new ones.

I have a motto... As long as both ends of teh run are labelled, the run is done safely, and doesn't look like outright spaghetti, it's okay.

-Z (not an electrician, but loves reading this forum anyway)

That's what velcro ties are for.

Definitely thumbs up for the velcro ty-wraps. What is even worse than having to cut and replace regular ty-wraps is the sharp edges that are usually left when someone cuts off the tail of them. I have gotten about 200 too many cuts on the forearms from those edges. The velcro ones are also nic because they won't let you tighten them down past the point of no return and deforming the jacket on oh-so delicate comm cabling, they will break if someone tries to crank down on them.
The room is nice but I agree that as soon as someone adds something and just adds to the ty-wraps it could start looking sloppy.
Also these pictures were definitely taken from 2 different generations of comm closets. That last room probably looked just as neat and orderly as the 1st room but after too many cooks in the kitchen over the years it became the clusterf#@% it is today. Looks like another clean up job to me.

Funny how if something horrible is put in as a subject, everybody believes it. Something nice, on the other hand, is met with skepticism.

The top 2 pictures are taken in a 7 year old room of a very successful software company. It's the same facility where my picture was taken next to another "dummy".
That room has had many changes in that time.
This is how it is kept, and expected to be kept (sans lamps of course ).
Some of the other rooms have the velcro bundling wraps.
They actually handle used lamps as HazMat. A truck comes to pick them up periodically.
Some of their other "unbelieveable" things?

Ample storage Areas
Continuing education for employees...Tuition paid and employee paid while attending.
Catered food for any type of meeting or conference.
Blueprints are red lined at any time modifications are made. AutoCAD updated anually. Complete sets are available for use at any time
Ergonomic everything in offices.
Fresh flowers daily.
Starbucks Coffee in break areas.
They request immediate billing, and pay immediately.
In 4 years, I've never heard a raised voice or a harsh word in the whole place.
The list goes on and on.
Either that or I'm making it all up, and Photoshopped the whole thing just so I could "trick" you, as I have nothing better to do with my time.

Lower room, although somewhat older, has been under the control of 1 guy since it was put in ?? ago. The whole place is run that way. I'll start another thread with some of their electrical work (which has also had only 1 contractor "care" for it)
A nice touch is the 4" roof drain visible in the 3rd pic. To its credit, it made it through last winter's deluge of rain without soaking the place,



[This message has been edited by electure (edited 07-20-2005).]

Re: the used lamps being treated as hazmat, I used to work at a university where they did that. The truck would come every 2 weeks to pick up the tubes/HID lamps from all over the campus. Then compact them right where it was and leave mercury running out the back .

As for the scepticism, I just wish more places were like that so people would tend to believe it more often. Telephone company buildings are often a good place to see good wiring practices, of course they never had the 'oh it works so it must be ok' attitude that prevails in many places