Making my own cables

  • Thread starter Thread starter porphyrous
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porphyrous

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Hello all....

I have a rack that most of my equipment is in. I have crappy, mostly 6 foot and longer cabling. I'd like to shorten things up (less opportunity for interference) but premade cables don't exist shorter than that really.

So I thought of making my own cables.

What do I need? I'd like to have nice quality, so what kind of components should I buy? Mostly I need 1/4" mono cables.

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So shorten things up.

If you don't need the length you have now, cut them to length and solder new ends on them.

RS has all the gold ends you'll ever need. 1/4" phone plug, RCA phono plug, XLR, etc.

I like Nuetrek myself. No one knows who makes connectors for RatShack.
 
I'm a Switchcraft guy myself. Get yourself a 30 watt soldering iron, some rosen core solder and go for it. Any one who wants audio as a hobbie or profession should know how to make cables. Making your own custom sized snakes is too cool for school.
 
Yes, make your own. I use Neutrik or Switchcraft connectors and Canare Starquad for mic or 1/4" balanced cables.
 
It's hard to teach the art of soldering over the internet.

It ain't hard to do though. When you get that 30W iron home that Trac suggested, make sure both parts are clean. Heat the part you want the solder to flow to. Don't hold it on the component waiting for the lead to heat up. I mean make sure the component is there on the pad, but don't put the heat on it directly

Man this hard. I used to teach his shit, but it's had to do if I can't show you.

Once the destination(for lack of a better term) for the solder is hot enough it will flow freely, by this time the lead for the component must also be hot enough as well. Put just enough solder on the joint to make a good joint. When the joint is cool it should be shiny and smooth with no black crud around it. The solder should be "wicked" up the lead just a bit.

Some one else jump in here please. I can't teach Soldering 101 over the internet. I hope I helped though.
 
Continueing right along:D Tin everything you're going to solder together. What this means is, say i'm putting a mono 1/4" connector on a cable. First cut and strip the wire conductors to size. Take your soldering iron and heat one of the conductors when it's hot enough, start feeding solder to the wire, not the iron. When it's hot enough to melt the solder, it's start "wicking" it up into the wire. Once the tip of the wires are tinned, tin the pins on the connector in the same way, heat them with the iron and when hot enough feed solder onto the pin until it's coated with a bit of solder. Now while the connector is still hot and the solder on it is molten, place the tinned wire into the solder on the connectorand pull the iron off. Don't move it or blow on it while the solder is hardening. If you do it right, it'll look shiny. If it's a bad joint, it'll look frosted (a cold solder joint).
Note: be carefull when you're heating wire and connectors to be quik so as not to start melting insulation and such.
 
A good book to have in your arsenal is the Yamaha Live Sound Handbook. It goes over the proper wiring for most of the cable situations you run into.. 1/4" TR, 1/4" TRS, 1/4" TRS to XLR, how to wire a balanced to an unbalanced, etc etc etc.. or et al.. whatever...

I've made a bunch of cables. Most of them work great, but I found one just the other day that was picking up spanish speaking radio... nice... anywho, you also need to use the right impedence cable for the right task. In other words, instrument cables shouldn't be used for speaker cables even though the connectors are the same.
 
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