DIY Cable Gallery!! - Page 765

They're litz wire, so each strand of copper is enamelled, so they are insulated from each other. It lowers the self-inductance of the wire, but makes it a pain to solder.

You will need to tin the wires by themselves prior to connecting them to a plug.

Easiest way I've found to strip very fine-stranded litz wire is to use a small butane torch to burn the enamel off. Heavier wire you might be able to do it by thoroughly tinning the cut end of the wire (rather than the side) and letting the heat from the iron do the job.

is there any chance hurting the cable by over-heating it, whether it's litz, stranded, or solid?

Yes, but you will melt off the enamel of the litz wire before you can anneal the copper. The enamel is really thin and while it's enough to interfere with tinning, it's barely there and is usually designed to burn/evaporate/shrink away without damaging the metal.

The thicker insulation used for wire and cable jackets won't go as easily, and usually isn't meant to.

I've made several cables, and wired a few amps using my favorite (Cardas) wire, and here's how I do it.

 

I fan the wire out, lay it flat on my table, and use an Xacto knife to gently scrape the enamel off one side, then flip it over and do the other side.

 

Then I twist the wire together back together, put a bit of Cardas paste flux on the freshley scraped part, and apply heat from my iron.

 

Next, I apply a generous amount of solder and leave the iron on it to burn off the remaining enamel (Cardas uses Teflon sleeving so it doesn't shrink back

too much). Then I use the iron tip to wipe off the excess solder and burned off enamel. I should mention that I have my iron turned up quite high.

 

Labor intensive, but I feel that it is worth it. BTW, as far as I know, the Cardas #24 chassis wire is the same wire that's in the 4 x 24 cabling. I've stopped

using the 4 x 24 stuff and just use the chassis wire. I loosely braid it and cover it with multifilament nylon. It's more flexible, and considering how the

price of the 4 x 24 stuff is heading into the stratoshpere, a heck of a lot cheaper. I know that I lose the shielding doing it that way, but I haven't noticed

any problems with hum at all.

 

FWIW

I haven't worked with the Cardas wire specifically, but if you deal with litz wire on a regular basis, a solder pot is invaluable.  Heat her up, dip and drag, and you are done.  Stripped and tinned in one move.

I've looked into them, but never felt the cost was worth it for me.

I don't know what I have since I got it as a hand me down from a friend, but it looks similar to this:  http://www.amazon.com/Tenma-DR-7339NB-150W-Soldering-Pot/dp/B008DJRSM8

 

Don't know how it compares to the ones that cost in the hundreds, but if you make a lot of cables, this and a proper heatgun are great investments.

Thanks liamstrain! I actually live just a few minutes from Morro Bay so I can just walk in! I bought some small black Pailiccs and some neutrik plugs (3.5mm and mini-xlr), but Supra's look pretty sweet especially with the 80's style looking MDR-V6's

 

Wow! That's a lot cheaper than the pots I had seen. Thanks for the link.

Soldering Pots work beautifully.

Any suggestions for a cable I can use for my ATH-M50? I'd prefer something similar to the stock M50 cable, thanks in advance.

Quote:

Are you making one yourself?

If you're looking for a cable/wire similar to the stock, Mogami has some similar looking black pvc ones.

I know this post is a few months, but I am very interested in making a similar cable. It looks very clean!

 

I am looking at the clear 3:1 heat shrink on AVOutlet and I was wondering if you remember the diameter needed to do something like this, Fraggler? Is this just a single layer of heatshrink? Is the heatshrink at both the A and B end the same diameter but just shrunk down more on the smaller B connector?

 

Also, what braiding method is used here?

 

Cheers!

-jeremyzone