> When I'm working at the bench, once in a while I dream a bit 
> about getting all the cables out of the way. (Mostly I'm 
> talking about the cables that I tend to move around: the 
> cable to the soldering iron, scope probes, multimeter probes, 
> mini-drill, hot-glue pistol etc.) 
> 
> Something like routing them all through some springs or so 
> hanging from the ceiling. The tricky thing here is that the 
> force these "springs" apply to the cables has to be constant 
> (that is, independent of the extension of the "spring"), and 
> should be adjustable. I'm not sure such a thing exists.
> 
> Gerhard


Negator springs are a way to get a constant force.  They're the flat metal
rolled up into a coil type (usually).  Most obvious spot is clocks, that's
the main spring.  Non-obvious spots are tape measures and those things you
hang name bades/door passes off.  Try measuring the force on one of them one
day  :).

Downside is getting the force 'just right', you need the vacuum cleaner
style, negator spring with a clutch.  Window blinds use a different method
but a similar result.

Tony

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