Home made cat5 cables.

[surreal]

So I'm like watching Fingers make some cable for our network...

Good Grief! Why didn't I think of that??

Use a pair of hemostats to hold your wires.

You can then trim them all the same length, and feed them into the clip in order no problem!


(OK, am I the only person that struggled getting those into the clip in the right order? OR even getting it to work for that matter! I finally gave up and just bought some )

[BobOmega]

wow i just did this yester and today. i just hold the wire while i get the wires in the right order and push em in to the jack.
i got a radioshack crimper cutter and i've notice when i try to strip the outer cover off it normally cuts one of 2 of the little wires.
not bad the one wire i fixed so far wroks just as it did before i hacked the end off. (the old jack was broken) if ya got any good tequnies(sp i know thats wrong) for me that would be nice?

[surreal]

BobOmega, when I get back I'll post some pics for you later today.

[EndobioticChaos]

Yep, I got a couple good techniques that work well. First, you're gonna have problems stripping it with that big cutter. Pick up a smaller wire stripper for about $10 (Klein makes the absolute best electical hand tools...) and use the cutting blades on that to carefully cut the insulation. The key, regardless of which cutter you us, is to just score the insulation - don't cut it all the way through. Score it, and then use a little force to pull it off. Or, if you don't want to spend the exra $$ on another stripper, you could always just use a Stanley knife (also known as a box cutter...), but this method is more dangerous to yourself... it's a lot easier to cut yourself with a knife than with a wire cutters.

And a little tip on making it easy to get the wires in the end in the correct order: once you have it stripped, get your wires in the correct order. Pinch them between your thumb and finger, and slide your thumb and finger down them a few times to get the kinks worked out. (Bending the wires back and forth a few times while you're holding them all in the correct order also helps get them straightened out.) Then, cut off the excess wire, at a slight angle. A slight angle makes it much easier, as you can start the longest wire first on the one side, and then the others usually follow very nicely as you slide the wire in and a bit to the side.

Also, ALWAYS make sure you have some of the outside insulation in the clamp. It's not good for the clamp to be gripping only the wires.

[BobOmega]

i figured that the striper was what was wrong. i found that only closing it a little bit on the cover and twisting the wire so it gives to a score most of the way around. and it doesn't recut the wires. other then that little biff i didn't screw up to bad for my first attempt.
and they DO go in this order right? brown brown/white green blue/white blue green/white ornage ornage/white? (clipey part facing you.) well my guess is that that is how it goes beacuse thats how the other end was..... but just checking

[EndobioticChaos]

Well, that all depends on the wiring standard you're using: T568A or T568B. For short distance, like up to 6 feet, anything will work, as long as you get both ends the same. I'm not sure what the correct hookup for the A standard is. We use the B standard because it's the newest one. The correct hook up for the B standard, looking at it from the side opposite the clip: orange/white--orange--green/white--blue/white--blue--green--brown/white--brown.

Edit: Just thought I'd add, I've found that for stripping the outer insulation, a cutter with slightly curved blades works best. One with blades that meet like this: ()

[EndobioticChaos]

Yeah, electrical work is something I know quite a bit about - way more than I care to. Spent about 3 years too many doing residential electrical. I could wire your whole house for you, top to bottom, and it'd all be according to code, and it'd all work correctly... EXCEPT for the simple fact I have absolutely no desire to do it.

[BobOmega]

is there a major diffrence in the 2 wiring types?

i was just going by what the wires were and the wiring diagram at littlewhitedog.com. (reviews other how to make a cross over cable if you wanted to know where the diagram is)

also i think next time i make one i'll use a wire cutter to strip the insulation. (for a long time i used to use sisors to strip reg wires so i'm fairly sure i can handle it with cutters).

[caddmannq]

Hey! I never tried the hemostat trick

I have an Ideal Telemaster (kind of a cheapo at about $25), which always nicked the conductors when stripping. A couple layers of tape on the blade stop fixed it, until the back blade cut through them. Then *NicK*!

Finally, I took the blades off and re-ground them just slightly, and that solved the problem.

I use the "B" scheme too, and have made cables 200 ft. long, that work well, even when draped around flourescent lights. I could never get a "straight" cable to work over about 8 ft., even in the best environment. Evidently, the cable interferes with itself.

[BobOmega]

straight cable ? as in?......