Thread: Power Cable Pics

This will have pics from 2 different builds but the process is the same.


I had 2 wires that were either positive or common with tape of some color to keep track that they were always opposite each other when twisted.
The wires above were twisted and taped. The wire extending out of the wrapping were untwisted from what is inside the taped area.

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More to come. Company just showed up and I need to play host.

I realized that I have limited pictures of construction. The picture above is from a pair of interconnects I was just beginning to construct. I shows the markings and a twisted quad but the quad doesn't have a ground necessary for a PC. Nor has the braid shield gone on.


Here I have taped the 4 wires so that the common and positive are opposite each other. The colored tape makes it easy to be sure that the wires stay opposite each other the entire length.

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This is what the cable looks after the hand twisting and taping every 8" so you know that the common and positive are always opposite each other.
When hand twisting you can only twist about 10"-12'' and then you must untangle and straighten the wires the rest of their length. This is annoying but important.

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This is how the twist looks when finished.

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This is the jig I cobbled together to do the tighter twist with a drill. There is no way you could hand twist the wire tight enough.


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Originally Posted by brad225

This is how the twist looks when finished.

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This is the jig I cobbled together to do the tighter twist with a drill. There is no way you could hand twist the wire tight enough.


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Nice job!!

That is all of the pictures of the interconnects I was building in the first pictures.

This is now an 8M power cord I built when I moved my preamp and DAC to the front of the room. 8M made for many issues at the beginning for the same processes. It is absurdly long.



This is tape wrapping after the ground wire was added next to the twisted wires.

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This is with the copper shield on.

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This is the last picture I have. I guess I was too interested in getting finished and installing.

This is the 8M PC i made coming out of the floor box that is connected to PVC conduit that runs under the floor to where the other front end equipment is. It plugs into a Shunyata Hydra. You can see the cable goes into a mahogany box I made and is connected to a Hubbell Hospital grade outlet. The pre and DAC plug in there. The next PC I build will be for the preamp. I will try to slow down and take more pics.

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Thanks Brad! It really does take time and skill to build quality cables from scratch. Love your jig.

Brad, how many hours of your time would you say it took to build that 8' PC including specing parts and ordering time? Just curious what you put into the effort. Great work!

There is a PVC box. That was the most difficult part was making the front thin enough to get receptacles to come through.

Total electrical draw is 2 amps for both pieces plugged in. I realize that doesn't always matter. The box was for appearance. Didn't want to run anything I made inside the walls even though it would be accessable.

Originally Posted by Shadowfax

Brad, how many hours of your time would you say it took to build that 8' PC including specing parts and ordering time? Just curious what you put into the effort. Great work!

It was an 8 meter cable. I probably spent 8-10 construction hours I would guess. That is not including the box on one end. Most people would probably use an IEC connection for a piece of equipment.

Ordering time is dependent on who things come from. I could literally be a couple of days to 5 weeks.

Originally Posted by brad225

It was an 8 meter cable. I probably spent 8-10 construction hours I would guess. That is not including the box on one end. Most people would probably use an IEC connection for a piece of equipment.

Ordering time is dependent on who things come from. I could literally be a couple of days to 5 weeks.

Thanks Brad, mixed my feet with my meters. I also meant the time you took ordering, not how long delivery took but no worries. You just made me appreciate the cost of good cables more.

The actual designs is one my EE friend has built for himself and sold to others.
That made sourcing quite easy. I would say the total cost was about $700. Not cheap but, for
8 meters I think quite reasonable.

Originally Posted by brad225

The actual designs is one my EE friend has built for himself and sold to others.
That made sourcing quite easy. I would say the total cost was about $700. Not cheap but, for
8 meters I think quite reasonable.

Wait - you mean it cost more than 50 cents to make a cable like some people claim?! Say it isn't so!!! j/k. Looks really good and certainly fun doing DIY cables. I've done it before and it was really educational.

Originally Posted by brad225

The actual designs is one my EE friend has built for himself and sold to others.
That made sourcing quite easy. I would say the total cost was about $700. Not cheap but, for
8 meters I think quite reasonable.

I am tacking on $500 for labor at $50 per hour.