Australia's Science Forum

Hi all,
I'm wondering how everyone stores their alligator wires?
I'm in the process of re-arranging my prep rooms, hopefully to be more organised and user friendly!
At the moment they hang on wire coat hangers, but they get into a terrible mess!
Appreciate all ideas

Hi remlap12

You could bundle them together with a bulldog clip in the middle with a piece of string looped through the clip and then hang the string from a nail.

I have a board about a meter long mounted on the wall that has slots sawed into it. The connecting leads hang off that. You can fit about 10 per slot. I store the alligator clips in a separate container. Works well.

We have 8 prac groups in each class, so I've put 8 leads into the rectangle take away containers. They nearly always come back in a mess that I have to sort out, but at least it is easy to stack them neatly on the shelf once I've tidied them up. I like the clip idea, though.
All my leads are now just banana plugs which slot into alligator clips if they need them. I store the alligator clips in tall specimen jars - at least 16 to a jar, so there is enough for the 8 leads.

Ive found the best way to store them is attached to a wire coathanger. Keeps them untangled and you can see easily how many are on the hanger. Then just hang the coathanger up. Easy Peasy.

I wrap them around themselves in groups of 8 (or whatever number you need). It makes it easy to store them and to send out. You have to sort them back out when they come back, but sometimes the boys at least try to copy. I don't have the space to hang them!

Yes we also use the wire coathanger. Clip the bottom alligator clip up the wire so they do not get tangled.

I use these storage boxes I got from Bunnings. The teacher gives each group a drawer which has leads,light bulbs and a switch. Then checks them as they are returned. I keep the same colour lead in each drawer so it is easy to see if they have been completely messed up.

We use wire coathanger as well and hang it at the back of emergency shower in each lab.

I use freezer bag ties, to bundle wires in groups of 8 and 16.

Hmm....My wife is a Physics teacher and dodgy leads are one of her pet hates ....which becomes a problem of mine ...strangely enough... ...whinge ..whinge ..".Oh really darling ...you spent the whole period walking around each group trying to work out why there light bulbs won't light up and in 99% of the cases it was due to dodgy leads "

So then we had a quandary......She out of her own pocket purchased some really good quality gold plated banana plugs and some really good quality flexible lead and I made ( at home in my spare time ( before I was a Lab Tech ...well I was a TV technician ) ..... ...a class set of 64 leads ) . She keeps these in bundles of eight in a bag . Each lesson she tells her students about how precious her leads are ( and that her husband spent many hour making them so that they would have the best chance of understanding electrical principles ) " and if they want to spark them together and wear off the gold plating " they can but they will end up like all the other crappy leads that the students in other classes have to use . ......so far these leads have lasted about 6 years and are almost in the same condition ...she has clip on banana to crocodile clips when it is needed .

The other classes have to use the standard leads . These have a crocodile clip at one end and a banana at the other .( This is because I share this job ) These are clipped onto coathangers . I try to replace the Crocodile ends as often as I can .( I am not the main purchasing officer ) I have two main sets , one for light bulbs and switches which I try to encourage the teachers to use only for this so they stay clean . The crocodile clips which are showing signs of corrosion are downgraded to the electrolysis experiments where they are clipped onto "things that make them go Hmmm"

Thanks for the ideas everyone! Some great food for thought!
Cheers

We are in a dither with ours also .. We only have the leads - they dont have alligator clips on them ... So I have bundled 5 each into a pullback clip - however its not working ... and grabbing a bundle of 5 and looping into themselves unravel ... Just seeing if any other ideas are out there ... K8

Wiltronics supply super quality, very flexible 4mm stackable banana leads in a variety of colours and lengths.
Yes they are a bit expensive but worth every cent, never had one fail. Just send alligator clips out if required. The leads come back in a big bunch but are really easy to untangle without the clips on them. I just store in big bunches on coat racks, too easy! I would never use home made leads ever again.. Grr
The product code is LE5410

Lorikeet wrote:We are in a dither with ours also .. We only have the leads - they dont have alligator clips on them ... So I have bundled 5 each into a pullback clip - however its not working ... and grabbing a bundle of 5 and looping into themselves unravel ... Just seeing if any other ideas are out there ... K8

Ok so a year later and I am no longer doing this - gave up they are now all piled in a large box as some teachers want 5 some want 8 some want 10 etc ... so when they order takes 5 mins to count out bundles needed and when they come back in a big mess thats how they are put away till next order ... LOL