Glowing DIY cord locks

DIY cord locks. Make your own from soft fishing beads and have them glow in the dark.

I sew up bags for most of my DIY backpacking items. So when a package of small commercial cord locks did not turn up in time for my projects I tried to use some soft luminescent 12mm diameter fishing beads that I had on hand. The hole was too large to lock on the fine nylon cord that I use for drawcords. My next trick was to cut them in half, along the axis of the hole, using a sharp knife and water & detergent as a lubricant to make the cutting easy.

I tried to drill new and smaller holes in the halves, but the drill went through and back out again without leaving a significant hole. So if you know me by now, you know I love fire, so I heated a piece of 2.7mm diameter fencing wire and easily burned a hole through each half.

The magic cord lock pull-through

Now the next trick was to get the two pieces of cord through the hole. For this, I use the fine wire that can be stripped out of those little plastic-coated freezer bag ties. You know the ones that accumulate in the kitchen draws because no one ever uses them except if you tinkerer like me.

I fold the fine wire in two and thread the pointy ends through the hole in the half bead, leaving a loop through which to thread the two ends of the drawcord can be passed through. Then gripping the pointy ends of the wire with pliers the four thicknesses of the cord are pulled through until only two cords remain in the hole. Then the ends of the cord are knotted together to form a stop. Some examples of the uses of the DIY cord locks are shown in the photo below.

Conclusion

The glowing DIY cord locks work so well that I have never used a commercial one since, even after the package eventually arrived.

Tim