Fabric-Covered Cable on the Cheap.

[ThePillenwerfer]

Inspired by a thread in the Wanted section.

A cheap way to make fabric-covered cable is to buy some paracord, which is available in a wide range of colours, pull the middle strands out and replace them with hook-up wire. The required number of cores can then be twisted/plaited together.

- Joe

Looks good, and may qualify as double insulated too.

[Dave Moll]

I shall have to look out for "paracord".

[Nickthedentist]

Does Paracord come in different gauges?

How easy is it to remove the inner core? Can the latter be used to "fish" the replacement wire through?

Nick.

[ThePillenwerfer]

What-ho, Nick.

The middle strands pull out very easily and I had no trouble pushing the wire through in it's place.

The standard stuff is ⅛" thick but when the middle has been removed the outer braid can be bunched up a bit to make a slightly fatter tube or stretched to make it narrower.

- Joe

[Nickthedentist]

Thanks, Joe, I'll get some for my electric clocks.

Where do you get yours? eBay or somewhere specialist?

Nick.

[camallison]

Nick,

Many camping/hiking shops sell it as replacement cord for jacket cords.

Colin

[ThePillenwerfer]

There's a huge range of colours available on e-Bay, including many emetic ones. I've got some brown on order from the Far East. The stuff I used for the photo this morning was from Poundland.

I started thinking about it to make telephone handset cords. For those I'd use the Red, Green and White cores out of an old round-section line-cord along with an unmodified length to provide the ties.

I tried making a video of how to do it but it's too dark.

- Joe

[Dave Moll]

Telephone handset cords sound an excellent idea, and it would make a good use for one or two line cords I have with snipped ends. I also look forward to mastering the plaiting technique - I've done it many decades ago, albeit with only three strands, so it shouldn't be too difficult.

[Mike Phelan]

Looks like a great idea, Joe.

[vidjoman]

I've just seen on eBay ~ 3 core .5mm in 4 colours @ £4.50 per metre inc postage in UK.

[Nickthedentist]

I presume you mean cable (rather than Paracord)?

I've just bought a 15' length of Paracord in my choice of colour for £1.89 including postage. It's arrived and looks promising.

N.

[AC/HL]

Ready made cable is rather missing the point of the thread I would have thought.

[Nickthedentist]

True, but if it's cheap, then I suppose making one's own becomes less attractive.

I will report back once I've made up some using Paracord.

Nick.

[ThePillenwerfer]

I've had a bit of experience with ready-made stuff and found it to be very stiff. The inner plastic insulation is funny stuff, presumably it's toughened as the fabric doesn't provide any meaningful mechanical protection, and is hard to strip. It also seems that three-core is much more readily available than two.

I'm not saying that decent stuff isn't available but at the price I'm loath to risk it, especially as I've got plenty of single-core flex laying about and can make up a cable of whatever number of cores I wish. Plus it's more fun that buying it.

- Joe

[Nickthedentist]

I intend to use silicone-insulated wire in mine if I can. Silicone insulation isn't as slippery as PVC or whatever the ready-made stiffer stuff uses, so I'm wondering whether it might be tricky to thread through the Paracord. Maybe some talc might be helpful.

It will only be single-insulated (don't think the fabric really counts) so it will be for my own personal use in "safe" locations where it won't be trampled on, chewed by babies etc.

Nick.

[Nickthedentist]

OK, mixed success!

I cut my 15' length of Paracord in two and dug out my red and black reels of 0.5mm2 silicone-insulated wire from CPC:
http://cpc.farnell.com/pro-power/bsr...78?Ntt=cb10278
http://cpc.farnell.com/pro-power/bsr...?Ntt=bsr39+red

I threaded the red wire through one half with great ease by carefully attaching it to the inner cores with a neat turn of good quality Sellotape and fishing it through. This took literally 2 minutes.

I decided to be "clever" with the black, and simply pulled out and discarded the inner cores, leaving just the limp fabric covering. What a nightmare! Half an hour later, I managed about 4' of manual feeding before something snagged and I gave up.

I then twisted the two cores together, leaving the loose ends dangling down the stairwell as I worked.

The end result, apart from being a bit, er, short, is great, although the evenness of twisting is slightly iffy in places.

I would certainly do it again, but DO retain those inner strands to help pull the wire through!

If I'd done it properly, I reckon a 2m length of 2-core twisted cable with nice, flexible silicone insulation in the old colours would work out at very roughly £3.75 including VAT and p&p. plus 15 minutes of work. So not a great cost saving, but there is the flexibility and colour advantage compared with buying modern purpose-made stuff.

Nick.

[ThePillenwerfer]

The paracord I've got on order was £2.67 for a hundred feet, roughly thirty metres.

I got some silicon wire off e-Bay recently which was £1.18 for two three-metre lengths, one black, one red.

So, putting these two items together, I got get a three metre length of two-core for about £1.72.

Another thing that could be made the same way is fabric-covered screened cable for things like connecting gramophones to wirelesses. I'm not aware of anybody selling that ready made.

All good clean fun.

- Joe

[Nickthedentist]

Yes, definitely harmless fun.

I have to say that the stuff I made looks good but somewhat too thick.

[oldphoney]

That's a terrific idea — been wondering what to use for phone cords. And I've got plenty of paracord lying around at home.

There are actually several types of paracord. The most common is the 550 but in the past I've also bought some 750 which has a larger diameter.

One question: for the silicone wire to pull through the paracord, what would be the right gauge to get for telephone handset cable — or outlet to telephone? And would that wire crimp okay in a RJ-11?