Duct Tape Cable Sleeving

Having messy cables behind your computer or tv set are usually not a pretty site. Some people also recon that messy wires behind a computer blocks the computers rears fans airflow. A solution is to sleeve the cables in a special sleeve or in a sleeve made of duct tape.

This is a very simple build and because it is a very simple build, you will only be needing

- Scissors
- Measuring tape(Not really necessary but I like to build most things to spec or some sort of measurement)
- Duct tape
- 2 or 3 A4 sheets of paper
- A computer or tv set with messy back end.

I started by assessing the mess behind my mock-up computer. This step is done to see how long and wide the sleeve has to to accommodate all the wires.

  Using a tape measure, I decided that the sleeve should be about 600mm and about 2 and a half duct tape widths(125mm). 

Using the tape measure, I cut myself 3 pieces of 600mm in length of duct tape. Once the pieces are cut, I simply stuck them on each other with a 12mm overlap on the center piece of duct tape.

Since duct tape is expensive and I don't want to use it where it is not necessary, I opted for a paper backing to avoid the cables sticking to the tape. I started at one side by setting the paper on the sticky side of the duct tape, leaving about  15mm from the edge of open. I did the same on the open side next to the paper covering the sticky side and leave a edge open.

Once the backing are done' just use the scissors to trim the paper that did not stick to the duct tape.

The next step is to cut the slots where the cables enter the sleeve. Just by holding the flat sleeve next to the cables will give you the general area. Use a pen to mark the areas.
Once the areas are marked use the scissor to cut out slots so that all the cables will fit thought the slot.

By starting at the top working my way down the sleeve, encasing the cables in the sleeve. Once done everything started looking better. Just for the fun of it, I decided to remove a single cable by pulling back the tape, removing the cable and sticking it back together.

Just a added note: Some cables, like a monitor cable will have a little plastic bit at the end, this part could be left outside the sleeve to avoid thick areas and thin areas.