I prevent my cables from fraying with a ballpoint pen

Hey, PCWorlders! A while ago I wrote an article on how I repair my frayed cables with cheap heat-shrink tubing that I buy on Amazon, but that’s more of a fix once my cables have already been damaged.

Nowadays I try to avoid my cables getting to that stage in the first place. I’ve learned a neat trick for that. It’s especially great at preventing fraying at cable ends, where I find it’s most common. The trick is so simple, but it extends the lifespan of my cables 10-fold. And all I need to pull it off is my cable and a ballpoint pen.

What to do:

• Get the cable you want to protect and a ballpoint pen.
• Unscrew the ballpoint pen and remove the coil inside.
• Now gently wrap the coil around the part of the cable you want to prevent fraying (be gentle to prevent the coil piercing the cable at the ends). As I mentioned, you might want to position it up near the connector where the cable gets bent a lot and is most at risk of damage. The coil will prevent excess bending and help keep fraying at bay.

Dominic Bayley / Foundry

Note: This trick works best with thin rather than thick cables.

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