Teflon braided sleeving isn’t the stuff you’d use to snazz up A/V cables or organize computer wires – it is, in short, what the proverbial Big Dogs use to create a protective, friction-reducing shield around wiring in military vehicles, aircraft, and other high-intensity environments. Temps up to 550°F? Teflon’s the heat shield for the job. Abrasion? Don’t make me laugh (try scraping up something that repels pretty much everything). And chemicals, solvents and fuels? Teflon® sleeving was tested in the presence of 16 of the toughest common industrial substances, and it barely batted an eyelash.

With something so rugged, you’d think that it might be a handful to work with, but thanks to Teflon’s notoriously slick characteristics, it slides gently though your hands as you maneuver it along cable assembles, unlike some other more run-of-the-mill braids that can have a slight sandpaper effect after a while. It’s the classic “tough-guy-turns-out-to-be-a-softy” scenario – and if you ask me, that’s one situation you would want any mission-critical cable to be in.

But despite its softness and lack of sharp edges, split wraparound sleeving can, like wire loom, be quite a pain in the tokus to install. It’s no hard to do, per se, just time-consuming… especially when long lengths are involved. That’s why Bentley-Harris is making an ingenious little device known as the Woven Wraparound Installation Tool.

Let me just say that inserting cables into split wrap by hand versus using a gadget like this is like trying to clear 6 inches of snow off your driveway with a toy beach shovel instead of using a snow blower. You can do things the slow and hard way, or zip through the job (literally) with a wraparound installation tool. Your choice.

The wraparound sleeving tool does a couple of things at once. First, it keeps your cables gathered together for insertion, so that you don’t have to wrestle with them individually. Then, it “zips” them into the sleeving all at once. No inching your way along – just wrap the tool around your cables, insert the tool into the end of the sleeving, zoom it through, and you’re done. I’m serious – I’ve used tools like this on several occasions, and they’re great… you can’t go wrong. Paying around $5 for one of these is way more than worth it when you consider the time and frustration you’ll save.

Remember the Banana Peel gag that used to be the standby in old movies? You know, a character goes strolling along the sidewalk, whistling happily, hands in pockets, and then his heel suddenly comes down on a slippery old banana peel, and he’s flat on his back before he knows what hit him. A classic. Well, it turns out that the Banana Peel Effect didn’t end with Charlie Chaplin or the Three Stooges – it’s still happening on film sets and sound stages, but instead of an actual banana peel, cables are now the culprit.

Film sets and broadcast studios are overrun with cables, many of which wind their way right across the floor in high-traffic areas. There are power cords, boom-mic cables, camera and monitor wiring – you get the idea. It’s not uncommon for wiring to be gathered together into bundles (or “cable snakes”) and covered in braided sleeving. Braided sleeving is, as a rule, a great product, but much of it is plastic-based, and that means it can easily slide around on smooth flooring. Enter a preoccupied sound engineer, camera person, or on-a-mission assistant, and someone’s bound to step in the wrong place and take the spill of their life.

That’s why slip-resistant braided sleeving is such a lifesaver for film crews. It protects critical cables from under-foot damage, but also gives the people on set much less reason to slip and fall. Non-skid braided sleeving works so well because while half of its filaments are standard PET (plastic), the rest are made of a high-friction polymer that actually grabs onto floor surfaces when stepped on, instead of skidding under the weight and momentum of the person trampling it. To make a long story very short, step on it, and it doesn’t move – and neither do you, for that matter (at least not in any unplanned way).

It’s sounds like a product worth getting to know better, right? If I were you, I’d definitely take it to the movies.

All that said, side-entry braided sleeving has recently become a lot more, well, usable, thanks to the invention of Grip Wrap. Grip Wrap braided sleeving may look like other wraparound sleevings out there, but has one ingenious little difference: do you remember that hook-and-loop edging we just talked about? It’s built into the edge of Grip Wrap, too, but this time, it’s only the hook part. That all-hook edging is actually able to bond right to the outer surface of the sleeving, at absolutely any point. No more being a slave to hook and loop strips that have to match up with each other in order to work – now, you just wrap your sleeving until it’s as tight as you want, and then press the hook edge against the rest of the covered cable bundle. That’s it.

Not only do you get a bulk-free custom fit, you can also break cables out anywhere along the way, or just make things tighter or looser as needed. I don’t know about you, but if I can get a bunch of things done with a single product instead of multiple versions of it, I’m going to take the single product. And this would be it.

Enter HellermannTyton and their braided sleeving brainchild, otherwise known as Helagaine. It makes me wonder if the stuff was named by someone from NoCal, because with this stuff, you get hella gains over what you might with a less brilliant product. Okay, that was pretty bad, but what did you think of when you read that name? Thought so.

Anyway, here’s the deal: Helagaine braided sleeving combines the best attributes of both metal and plastic-based braids into one sweet sleeving that has the flexibility and almost glove-like fit of a plastic expandable braid, but the sleekly badass appearance and EMI-repellant powers of a stainless steel or copper sleeving. It’s great for radio equipment, heavy machinery and military vehicles whose cables need a little extra something in the way of protection, but can’t settle for a sloppy fit. Or, you could just use it to snazz up some hoses or wiring for your boat or custom car.

Raw talent, I guess, and practice – lots of it. But get this: I just found out that acting isn’t the only challenge when shooting a major motion picture in front of a green screen. It turns out that making all of those lighting, power and boom mic cables disappear into the background is something of an issue as well. What’s a movie stagehand to do? Would you believe that a little cable sleeving can solve the problem?

There’s a very cool product by the name of Studio Key sleeve on the market, and for all its simplicity, I think it’s downright brilliant. It’s pretty much just fabric tubing that fastens around cables, but here’s the interesting part: it’s reversible, with ”green-screen green” on one side, and “blue-screen blue” on the other. So if special-effects filmmaking is your game, Studio Key just might be your new best friend: it’s super easy to apply, incredibly durable (it actually protects wiring in addition to covering it), and has the ability to multitask between green and blue screens built right in. Give it a try – your editors and special effects crew will love you for it.

Anyway – I am going somewhere with this, I promise. All of this stream of conciousness stuff that led me to think about unusual product hybrids ultimately brought to mind Shrinkflex Fabric Heat Shrink Tubing. Shrinkflex is a new type of cable protection product that recently came our way, and while it’s tempting to call it just “braided sleeving” or “heat shrink tubing,” you can’t, because it’s both! Sounds strangely cool, doesn’t it? It is.

Shrinkflex 2:1 (the “2:1″ describes its shrink ratio, and means that the product is able to shrink down to half of its original diameter) is actually woven just like braided sleeving, but incorporated into the blend of yarns is polyolfin, which is a cross-linked polymer that shrinks when exposed to heat. When you combine these features, you end up with a product that has the good looks and flexibility of braided sleeving, but the “like a glove” fit that you can only get from heat shrink tubing.

So why would one want to use Shrinkflex? It provides great protection for cables, wires and hoses found in harsh environments that dish out high heat, vibration, and abrasive conditions. It stands up to liquids and chemicals like oil, antifreeze, gasoline, Diesel, brake and hydraulic fluids, battery acid and water, and can be used at a continuous maximum temperarture of 257°F.

Do you see that stuff? It’s like a beautiful candy cane wrap for your cables. I know that there are a lot of cables out there that need protection no matter what season it is, but there’s no question that this stuff was made for the most wonderful time of the year. I’m not about to suggest this as a great gift idea, but if you’re the kind of person who loves to spruce things up outdoors with lights and other electrical decorations, this could be right up your alley.

Outdoor lights and motorized Santas can’t get by without extension cords, which have to withstand the wear and tear of weather, rough outdoor surfaces, and ever-threatening pedestrian traffic. All of these stresses can cause the extension cords’ outer insulation to wear down and eventually crack – something that you really don’t want to happen. An overlay of festive red, green and gold braided sleeving is just the ticket to prevent abrasion and prolong the life of your extension cords, and will add a really nice visual touch to your outdoor Christmas display as well.

No matter who you are, where you live, or how big or small your circle of family and friends is, chances are very good that you know someone whose life has been changed because of breast cancer. Maybe you’ve lost a loved one to it. Maybe you’ve watched someone close to you battle though it and emerge a survivor. Maybe you’re living with it yourself. But one thing’s for sure – once you have a brush with the disease, you never forget it.

Since yesterday, October 1st, you’ve probably begun seeing a lot pink ribbons and references to Breast Cancer online and in the media. That’s because October is National Breast Cancer Awareness Month, and this year, 2009, CableOrganizer.com has decided to jump in and do something to support this admirable, and universal, cause.

And so, today, I’m not going to focus on one cool product, but 9 very worthwhile ones that are not only fun and useful, but whose purchase goes toward supporting breast cancer research, as well as meeting the needs of women who are fighting the disease. If you or someone you know is a fan of the color pink, please visit our Breast Cancer Pink Page, which is full of rosy-hued products that have been chosen to help raise funds in honor of National Breast Cancer Awareness Month. From now through October 31, 2009, we’re donating $1 from each purchase of these products to The Donna Foundation, a Florida-based non-profit organization dedicated to furthering breast cancer research and providing assistance to breast cancer patients.

So if you’re already looking into accessorizing your iPod or organizing some cables around the house, please be sure to check out the items on our Pink Page first – by purchasing one of these products, you’ll not only be getting something you need, but will also be helping to prevent and cure breast cancer in the process.

Guess you should have had some Chromalox Thermwire® Wrap! Sound interesting? It is, especially if your plumbing is located in the Northern climes, where plunging temperatures have a way of stopping water in its tracks – especially when it’s in your pipes. Thermwire® is a pipe wrap that not only insulates your water lines, but also keeps them warm with two built-in heating wires. Rated for both residential and commercial properties, Thermwire® is a lifesaver for homeowners, landlords, and business owners alike, because it elimnates the need to run frantically to the rescue with hair dryer in hand. The water shall flow, whatever the weather.

And about the “whatever the weather” thing I just mentioned – Thermwire® wrap is self-regulating, so temperature fluctuations aren’t a problem. When the ambient air temperature increases, Thermwire® eases up on things. When the air temp takes a dive, Thermwire works a little harder. The important thing is, you don’t have to worry about adjustments.

Thermwire® pipe sleeving works on both metal and plastic pipes, and is UL-listed and CSA Approved.