So today I was in ACE Hardware’s electrical section and walked past an extension cord reel. This reel was $9.99 and was able to stand on its own, a big plus for my intended use.

It was designed to hold 150′ of electrical cord, so I figured that it could hold at least 175′ of XLR cable.

Well, I got home tonight and wrapped up some 50′ cords. I am connecting the cables together, end to end, so they can up spool as one strand.

I was able to easily wrap up 6 50′ cables.

My next move is to buy a few more spools and wrap cables of the same length around each of them.

This should prove to be a very easy way of cabling a gig. The spools are also VERY compact.

Hope someone else finds this helpful.

EDIT (September, 10, 2008):

I have decided not to connect them together, but to simply wrap the ends of 2 cables together so that one cable will pull off the spool, rather than continue to unspool the rest. I expect a “Kleenex” type action.