DIY cable recomendation

[vincitsemper]

Hello Cats,

Things must be good in Devon, you sound positively cheerful.

No measuring devices here, mate,so it's a matter of trial and error and asking here if I get stuck! So far it has all worked out reasonably well.

Cheers,

Victor.

[cats squirrel]

Hi Victor,
things going well in Devon, business doing very well.

To keep this on topic, I'll just add I've bought a lot of cables recently, including the stuff recommended by the OP. It has a 7 wire core, three silver coloured, and four copper coloured, to keep both camps happy, I suppose. All cable is shielded, even the mains cabling, twin and three core, and the FM aerial cable has braid and foil shielding. There is a pylon carrying VHT in the next field, so I'm not taking any chances. Luckily, the FM transmitter line of sight does not go near it.

London must be quiet, what with the games going on!

[vincitsemper]

Cats,

I also bought some of the cable suggested here. This one: Patch-Cable-/150550553495?pt=UK_Computing_Sound_Vision_Audio_Cables_Adapters&hash=item230d832397#ht_1305wt_902

Unfortunately I have yet to test either of them due to being sidetracked by a couple of other projects.

Yes, London is semi-deserted. Seems not everyone is sharing the Olympic excitement.

Cheers,

Victor.

[Black Stuart]

Cat,
if you buy cables rather than making them - why are you posting on a DIY cable thread - LOL.

And yes you need to be specific to be taken seriously, throwing out stupid snidy comments, when really you cannot input anything useful is about your mark.

Banging a wall in Wales and then complaining that your t/table jumped - absolutely hilarious or sad depending on how you look at it.

[vincitsemper]

Wales? Bit of trolling going on here. Cats, you always seem to elicit controversy!

Ba, I have just started to get on with soldering. Had to get rid of the the lead free solder as I just found it too hard to work with.

I also took your advice and bought a helping hand tool. It does make things easier.

Cheers,

Victor.

[cats squirrel]

Cat,
if you buy cables rather than making them - why are you posting on a DIY cable thread - LOL.

what's the stuff called that one can buy which is just a length of wire, covered with braid/foil, which one then puts some kind of termination on? I call it cable. Here's a pic of the cable I have, including two shielded mains cables (twin and three core), FM aerial cable, loudspeaker cable, and two types of interconnect cable, both screened.

together with the little device I think Victor is talking about.

And yes you need to be specific to be taken seriously, throwing out stupid snidy comments, when really you cannot input anything useful is about your mark.

no, for the final time, I don't need to be specific, my belief is that sometimes one needs shielding, other times, one may get away with it. This is a generalization, and therefore is not specific.

Banging a wall in Wales and then complaining that your t/table jumped - absolutely hilarious or sad depending on how you look at it.

what on earth are you on? I live in Glorious Devon, you need to get out more.

Hi Victor, may be a troll, lets give him/her the benefit. Original thinkers always court controversy, something about 'rocking the boat'. But in this case, I think the engineers are with me, even HiFi World has said the same thing. If you are having trouble melting the solder, you might need a hotter iron, BTW, but an artist working in your medium would know that, I guess |I use 99.3% tin, 0.7% Copper, and a 30 watter does it for me.

[vincitsemper]

Cats,

I couldn't find anything about you buying ready made interconnects or banging walls in Wales, hence the troll comment. Either way a bit of respect would not go amiss, seems some folk get really excited and brave when sitting in front of a computer screen.

Anyway, after various attempts, and failures, I bought some 60/40 solder and things are going a bit better with the soldering.

The lead free solder kept making a mess and not sticking to anything but various parts of my body!

I have a friend who works for Van Dam, not Jean Claude, and he too told me that lead free solder is a pain to work with. So there you go.

In all honesty, I am better at hammering metal than soldering it.

Useful thread.

Cheers,

Victor.

[awkwardbydesign]

I have a (cheap) solder station, with adjustable temp. Maybe more heat would make silver content solder easier? I find I can solder both types equally. Badly!
None of the cables in the above picture look pretty enough for me to play with. I've just realised I'm a sad person.

[Dimal]

I have a (cheap) solder station, with adjustable temp. Maybe more heat would make silver content solder easier? I find I can solder both types equally. Badly!
None of the cables in the above picture look pretty enough for me to play with. I've just realised I'm a sad person.

You've hit the nail on the head, you know...

It's all about the heat applied, and how the temperature is maintained throughout the soldering session, no matter what type of soldering job you're attempting. From your description, I'd say that your Iron isn't up to the job and to give yourself a better chance, maybe visit an electronics store and explain your requirements to a (hopefully) knowledgeable PBTC, and identify something that is within your budget.

It'll make your cable-making life much easier and more enjoyable to do...

Mal.

[awkwardbydesign]

I have a (cheap) solder station, with adjustable temp. Maybe more heat would make silver content solder easier? I find I can solder both types equally. Badly!
None of the cables in the above picture look pretty enough for me to play with. I've just realised I'm a sad person.

You've hit the nail on the head, you know...

It's all about the heat applied, and how the temperature is maintained throughout the soldering session, no matter what type of soldering job you're attempting. From your description, I'd say that your Iron isn't up to the job and to give yourself a better chance, maybe visit an electronics store and explain your requirements to a (hopefully) knowledgeable PBTC, and identify something that is within your budget.

It'll make your cable-making life much easier and more enjoyable to do...

Mal.

Of course I know! Pretty cables are also more enjoyable too. I sleeve mine with multicoloured polypropylene boat rigging. Oops, I've done it again!

[vincitsemper]

No one likes an ugly cable,your mods sound great!

By the way, after buying one soldering iron after another in the hope that my soldering would improve I finally realised that cleaning the tip and tinning it made all the difference.

I am now using a cheap soldering iron, low melting temperature solder and a hand free thingy. Much easier than using lead free solder and an oxidised tip.

Spent a whole night watching instructional videos on youtube. Now, that is sad!

Cheers,

Victor.

[cats squirrel]

not as sad as making them..........

sorry, should have advised on cleaning tip.

[vincitsemper]

Youtube has taught me a lot,I just hope that I am not going to get into the habit of calling it "soddering".

Cheers,

Victor.

[drfosters]

Hey Vincent, how you doing? Survived the influx of tourists?

I just read thru the thread and was forced to reply to your last post. You writing "soddering", has just brought back loads of (bad) memories of my youtube-video-soldering-days I used to have this co-worker that would try and borrow my soddering iron, and I would be like say SOLDERING go****it or I ain't giving it to you brrrr.....

Enjoy!