DIY cable gallery and discussion

[Doodski]

Now you can use the 1st connector to practice upon, set the iron temperature and find the preferred tip size for your needs. Get everything setup and confirmed to work while you perform the operations of assembly and make a diagram of how to cut the various leads so the wire naturally runs to the solder joint. The simple diagram with dimensions will make things way easier to get it right.

 

[Bob-23]

The solder iron is 60W; is that on the low side required for lead-free? It indicates a max temp of over 800F.

The melting point of lead-free is higher than the melting point of leaded solder. - Even with leaded solder one of my regulated Ersa stations (60W, good quality) may struggle when there's lot of metal involved e.g. a groundplate. When there's a lot of metal, heat can be dissipated so that it's not fully available there where it's needed: at the solder joint. And the longer you hold the iron tip to the metal, the more of the heat can dissipate. So, it's not only the potential temperature the iron is capable of delivering, but also the capability of the soldering station to keep the high temperature on the wanted high level even when (much) heat gets dissipated - you may call it 'recovery time'. (Here the wattage, and the construction of the iron/station comes into play. ) So a 'strong' iron may be able to supply enough heat to compensate for dissipation - within certain limits, of course -, and it may be able to heaten up the joint and the solder quickly, in a very short time (too short for much of the heat to get dissipated, too short for 'plastic' to melt.) What I get from research and talking to people: 80W minimum for lead-free is recommended.

so I ordered another

It's a hard beginner's task. If you learn something in the hobby: it's patience and perseverence. You have to discover the properties of the materials involved, you have to develop your own technique. Trial and error. And pause (!) if your tired and concentration decreases - then things go wrong. The flux-pen btw. opens may up a possible modification of the soldering technique by setting one hand free, in particular when dealing with connectors: you may put solder on the iron (which you usually never do, exept for improving heat transfer), apply sufficient flux to the pre-tinned connector, and hold the pre-tinned cable in one hand, and the iron in the other.

 

[doctorjuggles]

Got a few more finished projects to share with those who are interested

 

[Wortifer]

Man thats great work @doctorjuggles! Where do you procure most of your supplies? I have made a bunch of xlr interconnects, think I'll try my hand at headphone/iem cables. I love these kinds of hobbies.

 

[doctorjuggles]

Man thats great work @doctorjuggles! Where do you procure most of your supplies? I have made a bunch of xlr interconnects, think I'll try my hand at headphone/iem cables. I love these kinds of hobbies.

Thanks @Wortifer.
Yeah, you should definitely give it a go.
In terms of where to source things, it really depends on where you are and what you're after. If you're UK based I have some recommendations, but if you're US based they'll be fairly useless (but don't despair because the US will have far more choice than the UK, I'm sure we have plenty of users in here who could help)

 

[RHO]

@doctorjuggles What size Paracord did you use for the Sennheiser HD6x0 cable? I tried to sleeve single litz but with a 4 strand braid could not get it to fit in a 4.4mm pentagon jack. The total diameter is too thick.

 

[doctorjuggles]

@doctorjuggles What size Paracord did you use for the Sennheiser HD6x0 cable? I tried to sleeve single litz but with a 4 strand braid could not get it to fit in a 4.4mm pentagon jack. The total diameter is too thick.

I use paracord 275. Usually that's a pretty tight fit, anything above that is likely to be too thick

 

[RHO]

I use paracord 275. Usually that's a pretty tight fit, anything above that is likely to be too thick

I do have some type 275. Still doesn't fit.
I'll try to measure the diameter of the cable entrance on the pentacon plug. Maybe it is smaller than on the ones you have.

 

[andrewjohn007]

Hey doctorjuggles - Thank you for starting this thread as I couldn't agree more with your sentiments. That being the case I had to toss my (relatively amateur) hat in the ring. This is one of my earliest builds which are some basic DIY speaker cables. These were made using two patterns of West Coast Paracord, 7 Strand Type III 550, FosPower Banana Plugs, Purple Fox 3:1 heat shrink and Southwire 14 AWG stranded primary wire. (All ordered from Mr. Bezos' little online store). The build process in this case was super easy and looks so much nicer IMHO to standard speaker wires. Not to mention, it make the cables a joy to move and reposition given the ease at which they can be pulled around obstacles and across floors. As you stated building cables can be very enjoyable and somewhat addictive. I guess it takes a special nerd to really dig it... Thanks again for breaking the ice and starting the thread.

 

[doctorjuggles]

Love the choice of paracord @andrewjohn007!

I've moved to selling custom cables, hence no longer posting in here in case it's viewed as advertising. But I love seeing everyone else's builds and I still love making these. My day job means I never get to make a "thing" that exists, it's all just numbers on a screen, so I think this fills an important part in my life, hence my own passion.
Keep 'em coming!

 

[RHO]

I do have some type 275. Still doesn't fit.
I'll try to measure the diameter of the cable entrance on the pentacon plug. Maybe it is smaller than on the ones you have.

So I measured them and they are exactly 6mm.

 

[sngreen]

Got a few more finished projects to share with those who are interested

Nice looking cables! Do they sound different or are they each for different cans?

 

[Brad1138]

Hi everybody,

I build a new NF Cable with RCA with smoked oak. I also love the look from cotton sleeves. for me it looks good and it also sounds good (balanced)

cable: RG142
sleeves: cotton sleeves in red, white and black
splitter: selfmade smoked oak
connectors: ELECAUDIO TE-RC85S


View attachment 58741

On someone's recommendation I bought RG142 for my first try at making my own RCA cables. (paid $6/ft... )
Only after getting it, I did some more research, and it is 50 ohm, where 75 ohm seems to be more common for DIY RCA cables.
Any reason to be worried about his recommendation?
I am using KLEI Copper Harmony RCA connectors.

 

[Dongulus]

On someone's recommendation I bought RG142 for my first try at making my own RCA cables. (paid $6/ft... )
Only after getting it, I did some more research, and it is 50 ohm, where 75 ohm seems to be more common for DIY RCA cables.
Any reason to be worried about his recommendation?
I am using KLEI Copper Harmony RCA connectors.

The 50/75 ohms are the characteristic impedance of the cable. This is a figure which characterizes an electrical signals ability to travel through the cable which is typically measured at 100s or 1000s of MHz. Since even the highest audible frequency is many orders of magnitude lower than this your cable will effectively perform at the DC resistance which apparently is 19 ohms/1000ft

 

[wacomme]

If I want to start making my own cables - perhaps interconnects would be easier than headphone cables - where do I begin?

 

[RHO]

If I want to start making my own cables - perhaps interconnects would be easier than headphone cables - where do I begin?

Do you know how to solder?

 

[jhaider]

If I want to start making my own cables - perhaps interconnects would be easier than headphone cables - where do I begin?

IMO by buying the appropriate crimp tooling or brushing up on soldering skills, and finding a label maker that prints on heat shrink as well as a heat gun. The two most sonically important things about an interconnect are integrity of the connections and that it’s plugged in to the correct jacks on each end.

I recently made some cables for our 2-channel system. (The others in the picture came with my NC400 monoblocs. I added heat shrink on the connectors to color code.) Bulk cable and connectors are a mix of Canare and Liberty AV “MHR” mini coax (their “Bargain Bin” section sells the connectors and strain relief for almost nothing.).

I used the Canare cable stripper (TS100 or something like that - it’s expensive but fast to use and perfect at the job; one can get by with a less fancy tool). To crimp I used the Canare crimp tooling (made by Pressmaster in Sweden) and Rennsteig tooling for the MHR. I labeled them with a Phoenix Contact Thermofox and their heat shrink cartridges. An expensive heat gun doesn’t make a difference for this simple task. A $15 box store one with the curved heat shrink extension is basically as good as my Steinel. Additionally, I used the cable and strain reliefs to color code - orange for coax digital, CEA standard colors for L/R/subs.

 

[wacomme]

Do you know how to solder?

Not yet. But I can learn.

 

[Doodski]

Not yet. But I can learn.

I suggest you find a old circuit board from something and use it to practice soldering. It's not difficult it just requires a little time to get some practice in. Headphone wires are generally pretty small and can be tedious and frustrating even for good solderers.

You will need:
Soldering iron.
Soldering sponge for tip cleaning. (sometimes comes with a soldering station.)
63/37 solder.
Liquid rosin flux is handy to have but solder usually has it inside.
Wire stripper.
Small sharp hand tools that can be useful for manipulating and moving the small wires around sometimes.
Perhaps a open window to exhaust the fumes and smoke through.

 

[wacomme]

I suggest you find a old circuit board from something and use it to practice soldering. It's not difficult it just requires a little time to get some practice in. Headphone wires are generally pretty small and can be tedious and frustrating even for good solderers.

You will need:
Soldering iron.
Soldering sponge for tip cleaning. (sometimes comes with a soldering station.)
63/37 solder.
Liquid rosin flux is handy to have but solder usually has it inside.
Wire stripper.
Small sharp hand tools that can be useful for manipulating and moving the small wires around sometimes.
Perhaps a open window to exhaust the fumes and smoke through.

Thank you. Learning to solder sounds like the place to begin. Do you have any soldering iron recommendations?