Zip Ties

Christmas in the Shire

Christmas in the Shire

Apprentice elf
Joined
Dec 10, 2010
Messages
88
Location
Sutherland Shire, Sydney NSW
Just a quick question on zip ties. I'm looking to mount my digital strip onto 25mm conduit and I was wondering if the colour of the zip tie makes an effect on the digital strip when illuminated.
I have a bunch black zip ties I was thinking of using. My gut feeling was to use white zip ties, as they would reflect the colours better where back would absorb the light and you would see small dark patches along the length of the strip.
What are other people’s thoughts and experiences?
Craig (Christmas in the Shire)
 
Zip Ties

The important thing is to use UV stabilised zip ties, others will perish in the sun quickly.

My local electrical store only sells black UV stabilised ties, so I used them and during the show you can't tell they are even there.

Here is a test video if my 2D tree with black zip ties http://vimeo.com/53145536
 
Don't use white ones!!!. They don't last in the sun at all
 
I've used all sorts of colours all over the display, doesn't matter once the lights are going and you're standing back admiring. I find I tend to notice them more if I don't cut the excess off and there's a tab sticking out. I've got red, yellow, white, black, blue . . . what ever colour was available.
 
My coloured ones seem to last long enough (about 40 days). After that everything is cut up and thrown away, and a new batch purchesed the following year.
 
I fitted white cable ties originally because i didnt want the black cable tie showing. I have found that these will have to be replaced after this year due to the UV damage, but then this will be the third year in use, so not too bad
 
Black ones are the only ones that are UV Stable. From my experience you cant see the cable tie at all unless you are really close to the strip, but from a distance they become invisible.

Cheers
 
The other important thing is to zip the light strip by placing the zip tie right on the cut line / solder pads, this way the ties aren't obstructing any light or damaging any components.
 
DannyP said:
Black ones are the only ones that are UV Stable. From my experience you cant see the cable tie at all unless you are really close to the strip, but from a distance they become invisible.

Cheers
Click to expand...
Careful on that statement as it is not true. You can buy many different color ties that are UV resistant along with chemical resistant.
Panduit is a large manufacturer of a lot of different materials of ties such as Tefzel and Halar ties. Of course not many of us are going to pay over $100 for a bag of 100 ties either !
For most of the ties that people in this hobby buy though you will find that 99% of the time if a tie is UV resistant, then it will be black. But it is always a good idea to check to be sure. Just thought that it should be known that you can find other colors for UV ties.
 
I use all black 8 inch and packs by the 1000's.. Just bought 3 more packs to start my next project with. They are like 19 bucks at Home Depot and 21 bucks at Lowes.

Jeff
 
Ive used a lot of the cheap cable ties from Woolies, the quality has appeard to be much better than my chinese ones which started deteriating after 1 season, the woolies ones seem to last a lot longer
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top