Does anyone know how to solder cables?

S

Sagar

New member
Hi Gang.

In my never-ending quest to make my studio better, I've been interested in making my own XLR and 1/4" cable. I've heard that I can save a lot of money that way as well-- just buy raw hi-quality cable stock and then custom-fit it to my needs byi soldering the plugs on.

I've gone as far as investing in a decent soldering iron, but the guy who led me down this path moved to San Fran!

Can anyone steer me to "Soldering your Own Cable 101"?

Thanks for your help!!

Cheers,

Sagar
 
Sorry coda - co to rain on your parade. but if you are willing to put the time into soldering you cables you are in for saving tons of $$$ or £££ wherever you live, and probably you can get WAY better quality as you will have the money for better cable and connectors. im not a good solderer. but im sure if you take the time to search some DIY homebuilder site, or fix it man site they will have a soldering tutorial.
 
<BLOCKQUOTE><font size="1" face="Verdana, Arial">quote:</font><HR>Originally posted by Sagar:
Hi Gang.

In my never-ending quest to make my studio better, I've been interested in making my own XLR and 1/4" cable. I've heard that I can save a lot of money that way as well-- just buy raw hi-quality cable stock and then custom-fit it to my needs byi soldering the plugs on.

I've gone as far as investing in a decent soldering iron, but the guy who led me down this path moved to San Fran!

Can anyone steer me to "Soldering your Own Cable 101"?

Thanks for your help!!

Cheers,

Sagar<HR></BLOCKQUOTE>


Hi Sagar, here's one of the things that I did that helped ALOT.

Go buy some 1/4" Jacks (all you need is 1 really, but I did 2)
and 1 Male XLR Jack and 1 Female XLR Jack

Go to Radio Shack and buy one of their Plastic Experimenter's boxes.
Drill holes in the box to Mount these Jacks all on the top of it.

Now, what you just made was a "Holder" to hold the pieces that you are solding!

You can plug a 1/4" plug into the 1/4" Jack, and it will hold it while you're soldering your cable to it.

You need to get you a little "Soldering Station"; it's like a coil on a base that holds the Soldering Iron while you aren't using it.


I always "pre-tin" my Cables, that is-get the Solder on the Copper wire. let it cool, then put it in place.
You heat the Jack up some.
Then Apply the Solder, and allow the solder to flow so that it looks smooth.
Remove the Iron, and let the piece sit for a minute or two.

I've soldered so much, that My Cables look exactly like The Pro's!

I've made probably Miles of Microphone Cables, and I haven't bought a patch Cable in Ages.
You won't save a "Ton" of money-but what will happen, is that eventually (once you've learned to solder really well)You'll wind up with Top grade Cables with Top grade connectors for the price of Cheap ones.

For starting out-I would suggest that You stick with 1/4" ends that you can buy in Bulk from places like Parts express.

Buy a couple of packs, and some cable, and try it.
Hell, all you're gonna do is waste a few bucks on the ones you screw up, and actually-you can just take them apart, and start over!
Remember-this is a learning process. Once you learn to Solder correctly, It's just one more tool in the old tool box.
Hell, I've had to rewire a PA on the spot before, and being able to Solder efficiently saved the day!

Good luck,

Tim

ps. Just Remember that Soldering Iron is HOT, so just be careful!

check out Parts Express before you go to Radio Shack. Sometimes stuff is alot cheaper, and you can also get all of the NAME brand parts (like Neutrik,Switchcraft,etc.. )
http://www.partsexpress.com/
 
You know you have a "cold" solder joint if it has a Frosty look to it. A good solder joint should have a shiny, wet look. A cold solder joint is no joint at all and we all know that not having a joint is a bad thing.

[This message has been edited by Track Rat (edited 06-25-2000).]
 
Thanks for the advice!

I guess I just don't know what to connect to what! I mean, I know that there must be three points of contact between an XLR wire and the connector, but what are they? How do I know if I've overdone it with the solder, or if I haven't used enough. I learn from pictures, but I can't seem to find any on the Web about this.

I guess I can just fire-up the gun and see what happens, but I'm hoping for a more directed approach.
 
Well, It hit me last night after I posted this, that I still probably didn't give you the Information that you're looking for, So I'm going to Make a Page on Soldering, andi'll will Include some Diagrams, to show you.
I've done quite a bit of internet/Computer art (Logos and Graphics for webpages). I can't "draw" or paint, but I 'm pretty good with the PC!

When It's finished, I'll post the address here,and I will include the current model Number's and parts to build the Box I described above, along with #'s of 1/4" and XLR ends (such as Parts Express #xxxxx-xx, or Radio Shack #xxx-xxx)

The page should be done in a day or two.

Tim
 
Hey, thanks Tim!

I didn't mean to put you to work, but I gotta admit that a website with pix and labels is exactly what I was looking for.

Thanks so much for putting this together. I can't wait to see what you come up with! (And you can be sure that I will be using it step-by-step when I fire up that soldering gun for the first time)

You. Are. The. Man.

Cheers.
 
Sagar, Here's the link to my homepage.

Simply go here, then Click on Soldering 101 (it's in White).

And just think, I made this page just for you! hahaha
Good luck. This one is dealing with Guitar/Patch cables only. I'll try and have a Mic cable one up tomorrow. I already made the Graphics for it as well-and they look pretty good, even if I do say so myself!!
hahaha i had a "graphic fest" today, and made a bunch of Graphics.

Tim
http://www.angelfire.com/fl/Brownsound/index.html
 
Al-riiiiiiiiiiiight!!

I can't wait to check it out. I'm going to buy some cables on my way home from work & try following the steps on your site.

I'll let you know how it goes!!

Sagar
 
Thanks you thats a very good site,it would be greatly appreciated if you did one covering trs and xlr cables as well,thanks again
 
Tim, you did a really nice job on that...cool!

I don't know about starting off a newbie at soldering with jacks mounted in a plastic box though...if he doesn't post back here then you can expect a letter from his lawyer with the headline "Toxic Fumes" :)
 
<BLOCKQUOTE><font size="1" face="Verdana, Arial">quote:</font><HR>Originally posted by Dragon:
Tim, you did a really nice job on that...cool!

I don't know about starting off a newbie at soldering with jacks mounted in a plastic box though...if he doesn't post back here then you can expect a letter from his lawyer with the headline "Toxic Fumes" :)<HR></BLOCKQUOTE>

Hi Dragon.
First, I LOVE this site!!!
I've been trying to figure out How *I* could contribute, and I saw Sagar's post, and I thought to myself "A-HA!! there it is!"
I've done a ton of soldering in my time!!

Well, I thought the Plastic might be easier for him to Drill. Actually, I personally would suggest a Metal experimenters box that RS sells for under $10.00-it's a vented unit.
But I had to use a Dremel Mototool to cut through the Metal.

All it's used for is to hold the Plugs in place as you solder them.
It finally dawned on me to build this thing after about 10 years of Soldering! DUH! hahahah Can we say Genius?! Hahaha It must have been all the fumes from Soldering!

I'm going to make several of these pages, one each for:
TRS-TRS
TRS-XLR
TRS-Y cable/ Patchpoint Insert
XLR Microphone cables.

Tim
 
Wow!!

Who would've thought that there was such an interest in making your own cables?

For those of you watching at home, I am going to leave in about an hour and pick up some raw cable stock and a bunch of jacks. I will follow the instructions to the letter & let you all know how it goes tomorrow!!

(That is, unless the fumes overtake me. Did you see the little guy with the googly-eyes? That might be me in a few hours...)

Out.
 
<BLOCKQUOTE><font size="1" face="Verdana, Arial">quote:</font><HR>Originally posted by Sagar:
Wow!!

Who would've thought that there was such an interest in making your own cables?

Out.<HR></BLOCKQUOTE>


Hi Sagar,

Yeah, there are alot of people who would like to try their hand at it-but just don't know how to start.
Radio Shack has a few books that are somewhat useful, such as the Forrest Mimms' Getting Started in Electronics.

If you go to the Bottom of the Soldering 101 page, there is a link to page 2, which is diagrams of XLR and TRS cables.

I did not show how to Make a "Y" however-I still haven't been able to make a "Y" end.
What I had to do was buy a Box, and use Stereo plug-a pair of Mono plugs.

I'm designing a Box right now that will be 16 TRS patches to mono 1/4" patch points, since my entire Recording Rig is Rackmounted.

Here's the Link as well:
http://www.angelfire.com/fl/Brownsound/soldering102.html

Good luck!

Tim
 
Hey Tim--

Just wanted to let you know that I just set up my soldering workstation. Things got a bit crazy last week, and as a result, I have not yet had the chance to sit down and try your instructions.

<no flakes allowed!>

I will take my stab at it tomorrow & let you know how it goes.

Cheers.
 
Alright, everyone. Here's how my first forays into the world of soldering went. I hope you're taking notes... =-)

I set up my workstation with the same materials (more or less) that Tim recommended. I picked up half a spool of some good Mogami cable, some balanced and unbalanced plugs and assemblies. I dusted off my Weller soldering kit which had never seen the light of day until then. I set up shop in my garage and printed out Tim's directions.

Go.

For starters, I did not have a plastic box of the kind Tim recommended. Where would I stick the plugs while soldering them? I found a Hinkley & Schmidt's cardboard box that served the purpose. I simply punched each plug into the wall of the box, where they remained stable throughout the soldering process. Stripping the wire was easy-- I only broke it once. When I pulled back the rubber sheath, however, I discovered that instead of the hot wire and shield, I had *two* wires and the shield. 'A-ha', I thought. 'I must have purchased balanced wire.' No sweat-- I just snapped off the white wire and only worked on the red one.

Tinning the tip of the soldering gun was easy-- that solder went up in a whiff of smoke right away! When I inspected the tip of the gun, it reflected a nice silvery color. Tinning the wire and the jack were tougher though: no matter how long I kept the hot soldering gun on the surface of the wire and jack, they never became hot enough to melt the solder by themselves. I always needed to put the solder right onto the surface of whatever I wanted to tin and then touch it with the tip of the iron. Messy, but workable.

Getting the wire on the right place in the jack *and* managing to place the solder and soldering iron on top proved a challenging task-- I needed a third arm! Sometimes, there was enough solder from the tinning of the surface so I could simply melt it and press the wire into the liquid with the tip of the gun. It took a few turns to figure out how to get the barrel assembly on the wire before I figured it out.

In the end, I was successful in making a barrel-less unbalanced 1/4" cable about two feet in length. I took my prized possession into my studio and used it to patch my Roland XP-50 into my reverb via the patchbay.

Success!

It took a small wrench to remove the jack from the patch point (no barrel, remember?), but aside from that, I was pretty happy about being able to make my own cable.

I plan to take some time tonight to make some custom-length guitar & bass cable, and then I'm going to mess around with making my own balanced lines since that is the cable stock I bought. (Any instructions, Tim?)

Thanks so much for your help, Tim. Your instructions were very clear and easy to understand. I can already feel the money I'm going to save by having this skill. Any idea why I was not able to get the solder to melt directly from the surface heat of the jack and wire? I always had to use the tip of the gun to achieve this.

Cheers.
 
<BLOCKQUOTE><font size="1" face="Verdana, Arial">quote:</font><HR>Originally posted by Sagar:
Alright, everyone. Here's how my first forays into the world of soldering went. I hope you're taking notes... =-)

I plan to take some time tonight to make some custom-length guitar & bass cable, and then I'm going to mess around with making my own balanced lines since that is the cable stock I bought. (Any instructions, Tim?)

Thanks so much for your help, Tim. Your instructions were very clear and easy to understand. I can already feel the money I'm going to save by having this skill. Any idea why I was not able to get the solder to melt directly from the surface heat of the jack and wire? I always had to use the tip of the gun to achieve this.

Cheers.<HR></BLOCKQUOTE>

I'm glad my instructions were easy to follow-My Dad always said I should have become a professor, because I go out of my way to explain things. What's the point in telling somebody how to do it, if you don't make it easy to understand. You might as well say nothing! Hahahaha

Are you using a Soldering GUN or a Pencil?
Guns are alot harder to use for electronics.
They're heavy and bulky.
I use to have a Soldering GUN that I spent alot of money on, and it was a waste. Now I use a RS Pencil type, that I bought for under $20.00.

Did you "pre-tin" the Jacks? (I'll have to go re-read your post.

This is where my little "Jack holder" helps, the cardboard box was a good idea though.

I have some stuff up for Balanced cables, as well as a headphone extension box, so that you can use XLR cables for headphone extensions.

Don't worry, with some practice, you'll be making cords like a pro in no time!
I would definitely suggest the Pencil Soldering Iron. Mine is a # 64-2080; which is no longer carried. The new version is # 64-2071, which sells for $7.99, and extra tips are less than $2.00
The holder/tip cleaner is about $6.50 or so

Tim

(ps. you could have just put the red and whites together, thereby doubling the amount of wire carrying the signal.) ;)
 
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