[Old Guide, see updated version] Make and sleeve your own extension cables!

Please see revamped version here: http://forums.evga.com/tm.aspx?m=595753
 
(old info removed)

wow thanks man great guide give him br.

Very nice guide man. Great for someone who may not want to sleeve an entire PSU. Nice work and nice pictures!

Thanks for the kind words.

More kind words from here ! nice guide

Great work, awesome guide. If I sleeve, this is what I'll do!

can you show pics of heat gun you use,thats the worst problem i have?

impressive. But i agree if your not too familiar with crimping and wires esp for an extension cable i suggest buying them off crysis only because you do NOT want to short your gpu/mobo ^^

great write up!

Thanks guys

edit: lol thanks jingiko!

Jeffro:

Very Nice..... thanks

Interesting, thanks for posting.

Thanks for the compliments

And whoa - thanks for the sticky!

definetly deserves sticky,thanks for pic of heat gun i'll pick one up.

Congrats on the sticky dude, this guide is great. I would still be too afraid to do it myself until I practice a bunch. That MDPC sleeving is expensive after all.

Here's to a great guide and your continued business!

Thanks again :)

Jeffro: BTW I got mine at Home Depot for $22.

Drazhar: I have a TON of scrap MDPC sleeving (cut too short and such). PM me if you're interested.

Awesome dude, i know who to talk to whenever i get the money to customize my rig! ;)

Thanks Phoenix, feel free to PM me anytime.

Nice guide

Thanks!

heres a table that shows sleeving size to # of wires each can hold(Crys1s helped me out with this one)
 
1/8" = 1 wire
3/16" = 2 wires /stretched = 1 wire
1/4" = 3-4 wires
3/8" = 6-8 wires
1/2" = 10-16 wires
5/8" = 18-24 wires (best to use two layers of sleeving on the 24pin unless wires are all black)
1"+ = 26+ wires

Question, What guage wire would you use to make a "Y" splitter cable? 18awg looks a bit to big to have two of them crimped on the same pin(s)

ZachA

Question, What guage wire would you use to make a "Y" splitter cable? 18awg looks a bit to big to have two of them crimped on the same pin(s)

22 AWG should work well.

Thanks for posting the table!

Crys1s where do you get your black 18 AWG stranded wires and what's the model/item #?  Do you use 18 AWG on all of your cable work?

This is the manufacturer: link
If you don't need it in bulk, McMaster distributes it for a reasonable price.

I do use 18 awg on all my extension cables.

Actually to all who cares, my father owns an Industrail supply company, He just gave me 500ft of Black and red 18guage wire, and sells it on spools of 100', I can check pricing if your interested, He has 10 different colors of 18guage wire.

@ Crys1s,

No problem man, and I decided to try using 14guage stranded copper wire for my 24pin motherboard, and PCIe 8/6pin connecters, since its the same size as two 18guage wires togeather for cables that dont split off to another connecter

Great guide, Crys1s.  

The only thing you didn't emphasize enough is how difficult (and time consuming) it is to make sure you get all you wires back into the right slots in the connector - especially when you try it the first time.

(note - that wasn't a criticism, just wanting to make sure everyone appreciates there's a lot of labor / know how that goes into the custom service you're offering).

ZachA: I'll PM you as soon as I finish typing this post.

shazza: Thanks for the feedback!

Crys1s_Gam3r

ZachA: I'll PM you as soon as I finish typing this post.

shazza: Thanks for the feedback!

Alright,
 
Wire pricing is $10.50 per 100ft spool of 18guage wire reguardless of color, shipping cost is dependent on how many spools of wire.
Took some pics, ill post them up here when I get home.

shazza53

Great guide, Crys1s.  

The only thing you didn't emphasize enough is how difficult (and time consuming) it is to make sure you get all you wires back into the right slots in the connector - especially when you try it the first time.

(note - that wasn't a criticism, just wanting to make sure everyone appreciates there's a lot of labor / know how that goes into the custom service you're offering).

+1
 
To rewire everything in a PSU and the cost of the tools needed will run you over $200 easily, then you have the time factor in it as well.

Oh man, this is awesome. Thank you for this guide!

Thanks Zach, that's a very reasonable price. I look forward to the pics!

thor88: You're welcome. I just tried out that "di-sleeving" you were talking about, I'll post some pics soon.

Heres the pictures... If you need any one color or another just let me know which one you want. 
 
$10.50 per 100' spool for 18awg
$13.30 per 100' spool for 16awg 
 
If you want anything large like 14 or 12awg I can get the pricing for that as well.
And there is also 3:1 Black and Red heat shrink tubing from 1/8" all the way up to 1-1/2"

Thanks for posting. I'll definitely be contacting you when I need some more wire!

Just out of curiousity where did you get your Industrail hair dryer at?? lol

I ordered everything I needed today to re-wire my whole PSU and should have the goods by Thursday
 
 
4 x Connectx™ T-SATA Female (punch down) - Black (ACR-CB8201) Cap Type End Cap $3.96
1 x Sunbeamtech Power Supply Modding Tool Kit (SB-TOOLKIT) $19.99
5 x Connectx™ Molex 4pin Male Pins, GOLD-plated - 4 Pack (ACR-CB8119) $2.45
5 x Connectx™ Molex 4pin Female connector housing - Black (ACR-CB7525) Molex Pins No Molex Pins $1.95
2 x Connectx™ 6-Pin PCI Express connector housing - Black (ACR-CB4234) $1.58
2 x Connectx™ ATX 24-pin Male connector housing, Black (ACR-CB1219) Molex Pins No Molex Pins $1.98
50 x 0.125 (1/8") PET Cable Sleeving (PET1/8) Sleeve Color Black $14.50
10 x Pro Male 3-Pin Fan Pins - 3 Pack (PINS-4M-PRO) $3.90
5 x Connectx™ Molex 4pin Female Pins, GOLD-plated - 4 Pack (ACR-CB8102) $2.45
10 x Female 3-Pin Pins - 3 Pack (PINS3P) $2.90
5 x Connectx™ Male Molex Housing Black (ACR-CB8539) Molex Pins No Molex Pins $1.95
10 x Connectx™ Female 3-Pin Fan Housing Black (ACR-CB9031) Molex Pins No Molex Pins $3.90
10 x Connectx™ ATX 24 pin Female Pins, GOLD-plated - 24 Pack (ACR-CB8133) $39.90
3 x Connectx™ ATX 20+4-pin Female connector housing, Black (ACR-CB1202) Molex Pins No Molex Pins $3.87
10 x Connectx™ T-SATA Female (punch down) - Black (ACR-CB8201) Cap Type Pass-through Cap $9.90
2 x  Connectx™ PCI-Express 2.0 - 8-pin Female connector housing, Black (ACR-CBXXXX) Molex Pins No Molex Pins $3.98
2 x Connectx™ ATX 8-pin Female connector housing, Black (ACR-CB0618) Molex Pins No Molex Pins $1.58
8 x Connectx™ Low Profile Molex Connector - Punch Down with Cap - Black (ACR-CB8492) Cap Type Pass-through Cap $7.92
10 x Pro Series Male 3-Pin Fan Housing with Hood - Black (CX-M3PIN-BK) Molex Pins No Molex Pins $9.90
4 x Connectx™ Low Profile Molex Connector - Punch Down with Cap - Black (ACR-CB8492) Cap Type End Cap $3.96
50 x 0.125 (1/8") PET Cable Sleeving (PET1/8) Sleeve Color Red $14.50
15 x Connectx™ ATX Male Pins, GOLD-plated - 4 Pack (ACR-CB31021) $6.75
1 x Deluxe Molex Hand Crimp Tool (CRIMPER-DX) $24.95
20 x 0.25 (1/4") PET Cable Sleeving (PET1/4) Sleeve Color Cobra (Red/Black Criss Cross) $11.80
My total came out to be right about $200 for everything, I plan to reuse connecters from my PSU cables that plug into the PSU itself

ZachA

Just out of curiousity where did you get your Industrail hair dryer at?? lol

I ordered everything I needed today to re-wire my whole PSU and should have the goods by Thursday
 
 
4 x Connectx™ T-SATA Female (punch down) - Black (ACR-CB8201) Cap Type End Cap $3.96
1 x Sunbeamtech Power Supply Modding Tool Kit (SB-TOOLKIT) $19.99
5 x Connectx™ Molex 4pin Male Pins, GOLD-plated - 4 Pack (ACR-CB8119) $2.45
5 x Connectx™ Molex 4pin Female connector housing - Black (ACR-CB7525) Molex Pins No Molex Pins $1.95
2 x Connectx™ 6-Pin PCI Express connector housing - Black (ACR-CB4234) $1.58
2 x Connectx™ ATX 24-pin Male connector housing, Black (ACR-CB1219) Molex Pins No Molex Pins $1.98
50 x 0.125 (1/8") PET Cable Sleeving (PET1/8) Sleeve Color Black $14.50
10 x Pro Male 3-Pin Fan Pins - 3 Pack (PINS-4M-PRO) $3.90
5 x Connectx™ Molex 4pin Female Pins, GOLD-plated - 4 Pack (ACR-CB8102) $2.45
10 x Female 3-Pin Pins - 3 Pack (PINS3P) $2.90
5 x Connectx™ Male Molex Housing Black (ACR-CB8539) Molex Pins No Molex Pins $1.95
10 x Connectx™ Female 3-Pin Fan Housing Black (ACR-CB9031) Molex Pins No Molex Pins $3.90
10 x Connectx™ ATX 24 pin Female Pins, GOLD-plated - 24 Pack (ACR-CB8133) $39.90
3 x Connectx™ ATX 20+4-pin Female connector housing, Black (ACR-CB1202) Molex Pins No Molex Pins $3.87
10 x Connectx™ T-SATA Female (punch down) - Black (ACR-CB8201) Cap Type Pass-through Cap $9.90
2 x  Connectx™ PCI-Express 2.0 - 8-pin Female connector housing, Black (ACR-CBXXXX) Molex Pins No Molex Pins $3.98
2 x Connectx™ ATX 8-pin Female connector housing, Black (ACR-CB0618) Molex Pins No Molex Pins $1.58
8 x Connectx™ Low Profile Molex Connector - Punch Down with Cap - Black (ACR-CB8492) Cap Type Pass-through Cap $7.92
10 x Pro Series Male 3-Pin Fan Housing with Hood - Black (CX-M3PIN-BK) Molex Pins No Molex Pins $9.90
4 x Connectx™ Low Profile Molex Connector - Punch Down with Cap - Black (ACR-CB8492) Cap Type End Cap $3.96
50 x 0.125 (1/8") PET Cable Sleeving (PET1/8) Sleeve Color Red $14.50
15 x Connectx™ ATX Male Pins, GOLD-plated - 4 Pack (ACR-CB31021) $6.75
1 x Deluxe Molex Hand Crimp Tool (CRIMPER-DX) $24.95
20 x 0.25 (1/4") PET Cable Sleeving (PET1/4) Sleeve Color Cobra (Red/Black Criss Cross) $11.80
My total came out to be right about $200 for everything, I plan to reuse connecters from my PSU cables that plug into the PSU itself

Heat gun is $20 at Home Depot, it's in the paint aisle. Lmk how it turns out! 

can someone link me to where i can buy those pins and connectors? i cant find them anywhere
thanks

.

Crys1s_Gam3r

Pins at Newark.com, molex part # 38000038 and 38000040
Connectors from AC Ryan, distributed through frozencpu/performance-pcs

Performance Pc's has EVERYTHING you need

1 question. can i use the connectors that came with my power supply after i take the pieces out? or do i HAVE to buy new ones?

boogiebear

1 question. can i use the connectors that came with my power supply after i take the pieces out? or do i HAVE to buy new ones?

you can use the ones you have, just make sure to be very carfully when you remove the connecters from the pins...

Crys1s_Gam3r

Thanks guys

edit: lol thanks jingiko!

Jeffro:

What model is this one?  looks like the HT1000, but I wasn't sure. 

You're correct, it's the HT1000. Nothing fancy but it works fine.

thx for this

Nice work.  I personally prefer Teflon insulated wire - it's much tougher, can take a lot more heat, and has a nicer look & feel to it than PVC insulated wire.  On the downside, it's expensive, harder to strip, and not a flexible.  The conductors in Teflon insulated wire are also silver-plated and conduct a little better than plain copper.  I crimp and solder (Metcal) my connections, and the Teflon doesn't burn/melt like PVC.  I also like to use hot melt glue in some connector sockets to further secure the connectors and help the pins stay aligned.  I also find fiberglass cloth wire sheathing has a much nicer look and feel to it than plastic sheathing.  Fiberglass cloth is non-shiny, very flexible, completly opaque, and can take much more heat then plastic.  It's doesn't expand, but I like that.  I also recommend polyolefin heat shrink tubing instead of PVC.  I been doing my own cabling for years.

hey this is a great guide. it will help me a lot when i do my fans.

thank you.

Thanks for all the feedback.

mcochris: Interesting info, thanks. I'll look into it when I buy more wire.

I need a spool of black 18awg. Is it silver multistrand like Corsair uses on their power supply cables?

I thought this thread was stickied?

Shawnoen: PM replied

drdoomuzi4u: It was . When the DIY guide index was put up, this got taken down.

look nice

Thanks. Here's some more pics of extensions I've done:

this is awesome. thank you for this guide!

If you don't mind me asking, what is the length of the heatshrink on those extensions? And how far up on the pin is the heatshrink on?

Fantastic!  I especially like how you got the heatshrink to be so uniform in length and shrunken size.  I know that's hard to achive!  I'm not a fan of the plastic sleeving, I've mentioned the fiberglass before.  But that's a personal thing.  It kinda buldges up near the connector on some of thoses pics.  That's just the nature of the material when bent, not any dings on your excellent craftsmanship.

You may want to experiment with putting some hot melt glue in the cable end of connector wells.  The glue hides the hole and physically/visually mates the connector to the individual cables.  If you overfill the conenctor hole a little, that can look good.  The glue bulges up a little and looks like the cable is molded to the connector.  I've used this technique on 4-pin molex conenctors and it worked well.  It also helped keep the molex pins centered, I was always having trouble mating connectors becuase the pins didn't line up.  You have to mate the M/F conenctors prior to adding the glue so the the pins are aligned and the glue does not make it ways into an areas that would prevent future connector mating.

I used hot melt because it cured quickly and was thick so it didn't flow much.  If the glue is too fluid (e.g. cheap superglue), it may flow down into the contact pins/sockets.  It worked on the 4-pin molex connectors, but the ATX and PCI connectors may have smaller holes and you may not be able to inject glue into the connector wells.  I used to just stick the point of my glue gun it each of the four corners on each connector well (with wire inserted) and inject some glue.  As the glue cured it would wrap itself around the wire and sink a bit into the well.  When it dried, it looked great.  It worked better than I expected.  I never experienced any problems with the "glued" connectors.

For example, on those PCI power connectors pics you provided, you can see where the heat shrink does not completely hide the transition from sleeving to pin.  The glue trick could hide that.  And it would keep the pins from moving around, so they would always be centered in the connector well, no matter how the cable was flexed.  Like soldiers standing in formation.

Anyway, free ideas, take 'em or leave 'em.  I looked for an sample of my "handy work", but I didn't make that many (it's takes alot of time) and I couldn't find one that's not installed.  If you provide a pay-for service, please PM me.  Thanks again for the wonderful pics!

wizpug

this is awesome. thank you for this guide!

Thank you, and you are most welcome! I'd love to see pics of your results.

just a noob

If you don't mind me asking, what is the length of the heatshrink on those extensions? And how far up on the pin is the heatshrink on?

The heatshrink is 0.5" exactly:




Feel free to ask more questions

mcochris

Fantastic!  I especially like how you got the heatshrink to be so uniform in length and shrunken size.  I know that's hard to achive!  I'm not a fan of the plastic sleeving, I've mentioned the fiberglass before.  But that's a personal thing.  It kinda buldges up near the connector on some of thoses pics.  That's just the nature of the material when bent, not any dings on your excellent craftsmanship.

You may want to experiment with putting some hot melt glue in the cable end of connector wells.  The glue hides the hole and physically/visually mates the connector to the individual cables.  If you overfill the conenctor hole a little, that can look good.  The glue bulges up a little and looks like the cable is molded to the connector.  I've used this technique on 4-pin molex conenctors and it worked well.  It also helped keep the molex pins centered, I was always having trouble mating connectors becuase the pins didn't line up.  You have to mate the M/F conenctors prior to adding the glue so the the pins are aligned and the glue does not make it ways into an areas that would prevent future connector mating.

I used hot melt because it cured quickly and was thick so it didn't flow much.  If the glue is too fluid (e.g. cheap superglue), it may flow down into the contact pins/sockets.  It worked on the 4-pin molex connectors, but the ATX and PCI connectors may have smaller holes and you may not be able to inject glue into the connector wells.  I used to just stick the point of my glue gun it each of the four corners on each connector well (with wire inserted) and inject some glue.  As the glue cured it would wrap itself around the wire and sink a bit into the well.  When it dried, it looked great.  It worked better than I expected.  I never experienced any problems with the "glued" connectors.

For example, on those PCI power connectors pics you provided, you can see where the heat shrink does not completely hide the transition from sleeving to pin.  The glue trick could hide that.  And it would keep the pins from moving around, so they would always be centered in the connector well, no matter how the cable was flexed.  Like soldiers standing in formation.

Anyway, free ideas, take 'em or leave 'em.  I looked for an sample of my "handy work", but I didn't make that many (it's takes alot of time) and I couldn't find one that's not installed.  If you provide a pay-for service, please PM me.  Thanks again for the wonderful pics!

Thank you Chris! You seem to be very knowledgeable in this field. Interesting idea with the hot glue, I'll definitely have to try that out someday. My only gripe is in it's advantage -- it would be near impossible to remove the wire, when I needed to. Just today, for example, I got some cables I back from a customer, to "adapt" them to different PSU (modular cable, not extension). Basically just rewiring, but it would have been very frustrating if they were held in with glue.

BTW - I've also been experimenting with methods to ease the sleeve/connector transition. You can't see it in the last pic because of the angle, but the sleeve actually goes about 0.5mm into the connector. The result is a clean, straight, no bulge entry. I would take some better pics but it was shipped out this morning (enjoy eppopipe! ).

Once you get to 50 posts, check out my FS thread (linked in sig image) -- pictures of every cable I've ever sold are there.

-Martin aka Crys1s

Thank you!(I personally don't like it when people use what I consider to be too much heatshrink[like an inch]). You don't have any issues with it holding, do you?

just a noob

Thank you!(I personally don't like it when people use what I consider to be too much heatshrink[like an inch]). You don't have any issues with it holding, do you?

I agree 100%.

EDIT: Ah I see what you mean now. I did have one wire that needed to be shipped back to me and reshrunk, that's out of over 700 wires though so I think the odds are in my favor.

Like, when you go to bend the cable to hide it behind the motherboard tray, the heatshrink won't loose its grip, will it(I suppose this means no hanging from the psu sleeving either then? )

just a noob

Like, when you go to bend the cable to hide it behind the motherboard tray, the heatshrink won't loose its grip, will it(I suppose this means no hanging from the psu sleeving either then? )

No, it's very secure. Just make sure you heat it long enough, to maximize the amount it shrinks/"grip"

Alright then, thanks for that info, it should come in very handy when I get a new psu/sleeving(from MDPC-X of course)