On 1 Nov 2016 04:11:03 GMT, "DoN. Nichols"
wrote:

On 2016-10-31, Larry Jaques wrote:
On Mon, 31 Oct 2016 16:36:30 -0400, "Michael A. Terrell"
wrote:

[ ... ]

All of a sudden, a cash sale was OK. Then I discovered that they
only stocked Black White & Brown THHN in 14 AWG. I needed to replace a
damaged wiring harness of over 200 conductors, so it was real fun with
only three colors.

I can only imagine.

Did you wear out a number-style label maker? I hated old Mercenary's
Bends (IIRC) repairs because of the numbered wires. Man, that was a
crispy old memory. Crap like this:
http://www.linkbelt.com/lit/images/p...ive_Wiring.jpg


Our military used the same method long ago.

I remember when I worked at a place which was making flight
simulators for the Navy, the cable harnesses had gazillions of 22 ga
white wires which were run through a machine which hot-stamped a number
every few inches -- and each wire had a different number, which matched
numbers in wire lists and on schematics. (Typical connectors were 104
pin rectangular ones with crimp-on pins.) The harness in the cockpit
was mostly the same 22 ga wires, in a bundle about 8" diameter.

Funny you should say that. I didn't make the cut at the F-14
Simulator shop on NAS Miramar because I didn't have bubble memory
experience, having just graduated from Coleman's Computer Electronics
Technology course. I'm very glad I didn't make it. g


And I remember cringing as a kid, when I saw the phone repairman with
the big fat bundle of tiny wires all splayed out.

But the phone company has a good system for keeping track of the
wires. 25 pair per sub-bundle, with each pair being made of a
particular pair of colors, and beyond that, a pair of colored thread
bundles wrapped around that, to distinguish bundles, following the same
color pattern.

The fun ones were more recent ones which had all the wires
embedded in clear silicone grease -- really messy to handle.

It has to be fun driving after that, too. Silicone is messy and
nasty. That was one of the things I hated about the car wash guys
using ArmorAll on the _steering_wheels_ before I test drove the
repaired cars at the body shop. I asked them if they were trying to
drum up new business for the shop.

--
If government were a product,
selling it would be illegal.
--P.J. O'Rourke