Some good quality cable making do-dads

  • Thread starter Thread starter Mongoo
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Mongoo

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I'm going to buy ruffly 300+ feet of bulk cable and was wondering if anyone could post some links or give out brands/models for some quality cable making gear.

I figure I'm going to need:

- Wire Cutter
- Wire Stripper
- Solder
- Welder (I have one but I'm not sure if its any good)
- Heat shrink
- Flux? (Don't really know what this is)
- Hemostats (again, don't know what this is)

Any help would be great.

Thanks

Mongoo
 
When making audio cables a welder and heat shrink are not things that I would include on my list.

You WILL need plugs/jacks/connectors and a table mounted 'third hand' comes in mighty handy as well. This is a simple thing with two alligator clips mounted to a base --- it holds the wires in place while you solder.

You don't say whether you are trying to make speaker cables in which case you should buy unsheilded cable, or instrument cables in which case the cable should be sheilded.

Either way, Google up a good retail musical electronics supply house and you should be able to find everything there. I got my last 'third hand' at Radio Shack.

Hemostats are surgical tweezers that look more like scissors and lock together. The third hand serves the purpose that a hemostat would serve.
 
Making cables is pretty easy and cheap. Here's a site:

http://www.recordingwebsite.com/articles/cables.php

I'd get a cheap combination stripper/cutter. Mine is a Craftsman from Sears, which is probably far from the best but has a lifetime, no questions asked exchange policy.

Use rosin core solder. The kind from Radio Shack, not the thick stuff in the plumbing section. A cheap low wattage soldering iron will be fine, and you can use it for electronics work if you ever want to get into that. The big guns are too hot for electronic components. Just make sure you have a stand for whatever you get, because you won't be able to just lay it down when it's 400 degrees.

Heat shrink is nice but not required if you solder neatly. Flux is not used with this kind of soldering. Hemostats, also called forceps, are little surgical clamps that can be useful for holding wire, but anything will do. You'll find at some point that you could use one more hand to hold everything, but you will probably be able to rig something.
 
Yeah, I'd skip the heat shrink personally. As far as the welder, that would be overkill, bigtime. I use a soldering station made by Weller, it works great.

A clamp is very important, as it will help you hold the connectors in place while you work on them. I use a panavise. Origianlly I used the alligator clips but things kept slipping and it was overall a hassle. The panavise has really allowed me to speed things along.

Neutrik connectors are excellent and easy to work with. I use various cables depending on what I'm doing, but usually it's Canare cable. I've also used Horizon and Connectronics cable.
 
For making a bunch of cables at once I made a little jig out of a piece of 2x4 with holes to hold 1/4" jacks and XLR plugs so I could have 10 in a row, all ready to solder.
 
you probably should also get a DMM (Digital Multi Meter). This way you can make sure you soldered the cables correctly. You don't want to wire an XLR cable, close it all up, and find you switched the hot and cold pins on one end. Also, I thought the Flux was the melted solder...am i wrong? So in short what you'll need (or what i use):

-A soldering iron (around 35W will do)
-wire strippers and cutters
-needle nose pliers
-a screwdriver
-DMM
-solder (60/40 rosin core)
-20-23ga. 2 conducter/shielded mic cable for balanced
-XLR Male/female, 1/4" TRS or TS, RCA connectors...etc.
-something to hold the connectors (you also can get a block of wood and cut holes in it to match the size of both connectors and stick them in there)
-a sturdy surface to work on
 
bennychico11 said:
Also, I thought the Flux was the melted solder...am i wrong?
Click to expand...

Flux is a paste which prepares the surfaces and helps the solder bond. If your using rosin-core solder (which you should), the 'rosin-core' is actually the flux and no extra will be needed.
 
Good suggestion about the cable tester, that should be required equipment when making cables. Sooner or later you will get the wires crossed. Not sure if a digital multimeter is necessary though. I use the EbTech Swizz Army cable tester, a great piece of gear.
 
yeah, you can just get a cable tester if you want. however the EBTech sells for around $120 bucks. You can get a DMM for about 50 bucks...AND be able to test any other audio gear, batteries, wall outlets, circuit boards and components, etc.
 
That's list price on the EbTech I think. You can find it for less, but there certainly are less expensive alternatives. The point I think is to have some way of testing the cables after they are made, that's important.
 
Solder Pot!

If you have a lot of soldering to do, get a SOLDER POT. Strip all your wires beforehand, all the same way, and then just dip them in the pot with a single hand - very quick and very even tinning of your wires. The POT comes in very handy for pre-tinning XLR plugs also - just dip and you're done. If you have a lot of work to do, this is the quickest and easiest way to go.

No need for a soldering station - might look great with its little red rocker switch and different heating options (which you don't need anyway), but for this application, your money's better spent on something that will ease the workload, like the solder pot.

40 watt soldering iron (no more, no less) for making the final connections.
A 'soldering gun' looks cool, but not really suited to this kind of task. Plain old 'wand' type works best.

As for strippers, I like to use two kinds:

Crimp tool type - gives you a series of holes for different wire gauges. The only way to strip a shielded cable.

Gun type - great for the inner conductors as they are so quick. They will wreck a shield though, hence the need for both types.

Silver 4% (lead-free) solder is nice, but a little trickier to work with. Plain old 1mm solder is fine.
 
Solder and flux

No need for flux, unless you're plumbing pipes.

Most any electrical solder contains flux already, which makes the solder flow more readily around its contact area at melting point.
 
The secret life of solder pots (cont)

Another thing to consider is this:

The of the trickiest things about soldering is the fact that you have to:

1. hold the connector
2. hold the wire
3 hold the soldering iron
4: hold the solder


If you are making up XLR cables particularly, the solder pot shines in this respect.
 
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