Cable Ties also known as zip ties are fasteners that bundles your cables and wires together to keep them organized and prevent damage. Cable ties are so called because they were designed to hold bundles of cables together, or to fix a cable or a bunch of cables to something so that the cable/cables were not just loose on the floor or loosely draped across whatever there was in the path of the cable run.But that’s not all that a cable tie can do. Lets see what are the other uses of cable ties.
Soon the humble cable tie was no longer used just to hold cables but found it’s way into many other industries from forestry to packaging. I don’t think that there is an industry that has not or does not use cable ties somewhere.
Removing broken cork from a wine bottle
If you have no corkscrew on hand or have somehow broken the cork trying to get to your wine, all you need to enjoy it is a few large cable ties.Create a loop with two or three medium- or large ties, push the cork down into the bottle and use the loop to fish out the floating cork (or bits of cork). It can take some practice to figure out how to wedge the cork between the two sides of the loop, and it requires some force to pull the cork out, but it works surprisingly well.
Child Safety
If you need to keep children out of a cabinet or two, you don't need to purchase a child lock, at least not for a temporary solution. Just run a cable tie through two adjacent handles or around two knobs and pull tight. You'll need to cut the tie off to access the cabinet later, so it's not a great long-term solution. But it will keep the little hands out in a pinch.
Tamper Indicator
Using the same idea, you can use cable ties as a tamper indicator for a number of things. Run a cable tie between the loops on two zippers of a backpack or duffel bag when traveling. Run one through the zippers of your tent door when you're away from your campsite. Or drill a hole through the handle and lid of a storage bin to "lock" it. While these ties won't do much for theft prevention -- anyone with a knife, scissors or even fingernail clippers can still get into your stuff -- just having them in place will act as a deterrent or a quick indicator that someone has messed with your stuff.
Keeping plants inplace
For plants that need to be staked, you can help keep them upright as they grow with cable ties. Loosely wrap a cable tie around your tomato plant or a small sapling and a staked rod. You may also want to staple the cable ties in place to keep them from sliding up and down the stake.Just remember to not tie the plant too tight, to give it room to grow and move freely. And also remember to remove or adjust the ties as the plant grows.
Unclogging Drains
You can also use cable ties to clear out a clogged drain.If you've got an extra long cable tie, you might be able to get by with just one. If all you have is smaller ties, you'll need to string a few of them together to reach the clog. In most cases, you need between 18 inches (45.7 centimeters) and 2 feet (61 centimeters). But if needed, you can always add length by adding more ties.After you've connected all the ties, you need a pair of scissors or cutting pliers to create diagonal cuts along the length of the bottommost tie. The cuts should be angled upwards and staggered. Then bend the edges made by the cuts outward with a pair of pliers to create barbs.Feed this down into the drain and, assuming the clog has been caused by hair or other small buildup, it should grab or jostle loose whatever is clogging the drain and remove it when you pull the ties back out.
For decorations
For hanging temporary decorations, cable ties are a fantastic option. The standard black or white may not blend in with the decorations very well, but cable ties now come in an array of colors. Green goes particularly well with Christmas decor. Brown and orange might go better with Thanksgiving decorations. Cable ties are particularly great for hanging wreaths, string lights and garland.
Traction
If your car is stuck in the snow and you've got a handful of cable ties on hand, they might just help you get unstuck, as Instructables user movemaine shows. Use the smaller ties to create grips or treads on the larger ties, which you will wrap around the wheel and tire.These makeshift "snow chains" certainly aren't a replacement for the real deal and they will likely break off shortly after your car gets moving. But they're essentially a less rugged, DIY version of these emergency anti-skid chains.
Conclusion:
Cable ties are originally used to hold bundles of cables together to keep it tidy but as it goes along and as men became more resourceful there are numerous amazing ways to use cable ties. In this article we have mentioned seven unexpected uses of the cable ties and it will shock how it can be very useful in our daily lives.
Reference:
https://www.cnet.com/home/smart-home/unexpected-uses-for-cable-ties/
https://www.justcableties.co.uk/the-uses-of-the-cable-tie/