Custom cables from scratch.

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Verass

Weaksauce
Joined
Nov 11, 2012
Messages
106
Hello everyone,

I am looking to make some custom length and custom sleeved cables for my pc and I ran into a dilemma. I can find pins, sleeving, molex removers, molex parts and everything else needed for sale, however, I can not find the freaking actual wires that run from psu to pc components.

So I was hoping someone in here could give me a few sites to look at for buying those cables.

I am not a pro at this but do want to make this a nice little project for myself :)
 
You can use any wire you want. Manufacturers use stranded copper wire with a PVC coat because it's inexpensive. Usual gauge is 16 to 18, cheap low power PSUs can use 20 gauge. It's usually refered to as "stranded hookup wire". There are lots of places that sell it, I'd recommend looking at some of the electronic sites like allelectronics.com or Goldmine electronics. If you need to make thinner wires, try getting some aviation surplus teflon coated silver wire from Ebay. It's thinner because the teflon coating doesn't need to be as thick as PVC. The downside is that it doesn't come in as many colors, is stiffer, and the teflon is a little tougher to remove.
 
Fenris_Ulf said:
You can use any wire you want. Manufacturers use stranded copper wire with a PVC coat because it's inexpensive. Usual gauge is 16 to 18, cheap low power PSUs can use 20 gauge. It's usually refered to as "stranded hookup wire". There are lots of places that sell it, I'd recommend looking at some of the electronic sites like allelectronics.com or Goldmine electronics. If you need to make thinner wires, try getting some aviation surplus teflon coated silver wire from Ebay. It's thinner because the teflon coating doesn't need to be as thick as PVC. The downside is that it doesn't come in as many colors, is stiffer, and the teflon is a little tougher to remove.
Click to expand...

Thanks for the tip!
 
Electronics supplies, auto parts stores, hardware stores, and electrical supplies all sell hook-up wire, but the last two sources may not have colors other than black, white, red, and green.

PVC is by far the most common type of insulation, and it's what the power supply makers use. There's also Teflon-coated PVC, but it's probably too stiff to be convenient.

Some computer parts are best obtained from non-computer sources.
 
Verass said:
Hello everyone,

I am looking to make some custom length and custom sleeved cables for my pc and I ran into a dilemma. I can find pins, sleeving, molex removers, molex parts and everything else needed for sale, however, I can not find the freaking actual wires that run from psu to pc components.

So I was hoping someone in here could give me a few sites to look at for buying those cables.

I am not a pro at this but do want to make this a nice little project for myself :)
Click to expand...

Your wire will be dependent on which method of sleeving you are doing.

I personally sell custom wire in 18awg and 16awg made just for heatshrinkless style.

However 2 HUGE factors about heatshrinkstyle sleeving is your wire OD and the type of heatshrink you use.

For example you will want a wire that has a small OD in 18awg and a heatshrink in 3/16in 3:1 an a thin-wall without adhesive or 1/4in 4:1 with a thin-wall without adhesive. The idea is you want as much room inside of the connector when you put the crimp/wire/heatshrink/ and part of the sleeve inside of it. If any of those are wrong it will be almost impossible to get a clean look.

I plan on carrying the perfect wire and heatshrink in my shop soon for heatshrink method.
 
Lutro0 said:
Your wire will be dependent on which method of sleeving you are doing.

I personally sell custom wire in 18awg and 16awg made just for heatshrinkless style.

However 2 HUGE factors about heatshrinkstyle sleeving is your wire OD and the type of heatshrink you use.

For example you will want a wire that has a small OD in 18awg and a heatshrink in 3/16in 3:1 an a thin-wall without adhesive or 1/4in 4:1 with a thin-wall without adhesive. The idea is you want as much room inside of the connector when you put the crimp/wire/heatshrink/ and part of the sleeve inside of it. If any of those are wrong it will be almost impossible to get a clean look.

I plan on carrying the perfect wire and heatshrink in my shop soon for heatshrink method.
Click to expand...

Got it, thank you for the advice!
 
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