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Hints, Tips and Solutions (Do NOT post requests for help here) If you have any useful general hints and tips for vintage technology repair and restoration, please share them here. PLEASE DO NOT POST REQUESTS FOR HELP HERE!

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Old 15th Sep 2014, 12:16 pm   #21
ThePillenwerfer
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Default Re: Fabric-Covered Cable on the Cheap.

You could just re-use the inner cores out of a modern cord so there'd be no problem about putting a plug on.

As Nick says above, 550 lb paracord is a bit thick and something thinner would be better if you've got it.

- Joe
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Old 15th Sep 2014, 7:39 pm   #22
oldphoney
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Default Re: Fabric-Covered Cable on the Cheap.

Quote:
You could just re-use the inner cores out of a modern cord
I'd love to do that, but where I live, it's really hard to come by proper station cable.
For installations, a lot of electricians now use cat 5 cable. But I'm not sure how comfortable I feel having these fragile wires inside a fabric core that is meant to flex as the phone gets used. For this reason the idea of choosing a silicone cable of the correct gauge sounds good — just not sure what gauge would be adequate. Would you have any thoughts on this?
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Old 15th Sep 2014, 9:49 pm   #23
ThePillenwerfer
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Default Re: Fabric-Covered Cable on the Cheap.

The trouble is that anything thicker than proper telephone or cat 5 wire won't go into an RJ11 plug; the overall diameter can only be a millimetre. Cat 5 wire is 24 AWG/0.5mm/0.2mm² with 0.25mm thick insulation.

If you're happy to have a round section cord, as opposed to a plaited one, you could cut the ends off a cheap USB cable and feed that through some paracord. I say "Cheap" not just on grounds of economy but the cheap ones tend to thinner than the better quality ones.

My attitude with such jobs is that I'm doing it for myself so it doesn't matter if it fails either immediately or in the future. At least you've learnt what doesn't work and you can try something else.

Cheers

Joe
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Old 16th Sep 2014, 7:06 pm   #24
McMurdo
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Default Re: Fabric-Covered Cable on the Cheap.

Another couple of sources of fabric-covered wire are modern 'vintage look' guitar leads (single core screened) and 'retro look' USB cables available in a variety of braided cloth colours and patterns.
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Old 17th Sep 2014, 8:04 am   #25
oldphoney
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Default Re: Fabric-Covered Cable on the Cheap.

@ThePillenwerfer
@McMurdo

Thanks for sharing these tips guys — learning heaps.
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