psu wire mod advice/help

han_solo · 14 Apr 2009 at 11:30

hi there,

I'm looking to shorten some of the cables to my psu.. i was wondering if it would be ok to just cut out a length of cable and just connect (twist together) the bare wires and then use electrical tape over it?

Doing it this way would negate the need to buy expensive crimping tools and crimps.

Any tips or handy hints most appreciated!

thanks!

Kennysevenfold · 14 Apr 2009 at 14:36

you could, wouldnt trust it to just be "twisted" together, would have to be soldered then taped

han_solo · 14 Apr 2009 at 15:15

hey thanks for replying!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

ah i see... soldered and then use electrical tape. makes sense!

Would this affect (increase?) the electrical resistance in any way? Maybe right but would insignificant??

Googling doesn't get me any results at all... i'm surprised i'm not finding any threads/info on this as i would have thought people would be doing this all the time to reduce clutter in their PCs as well as help reduce temps (by improving air flow etc).

Kennysevenfold · 14 Apr 2009 at 15:31

han_solo said:
hey thanks for replying!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

ah i see... soldered and then use electrical tape. makes sense!

Would this affect (increase?) the electrical resistance in any way? Maybe right but would insignificant??

Googling doesn't get me any results at all... i'm surprised i'm not finding any threads/info on this as i would have thought people would be doing this all the time to reduce clutter in their PCs as well as help reduce temps (by improving air flow etc).

i cant see this causeing any problems, all your doing after all is removing a streach of wire, and connecting it back up

im sure you will be fine.

DigitalReaper · 14 Apr 2009 at 15:55

Soldering is the way to go, second only to re-crimping. Also use heatshrink instead of tape, it makes a much much neater joint and won't come undone in a warm case.

han_solo · 14 Apr 2009 at 16:28

I was thinking about using heat shrink to do that but i wasn't sure if it had the necessary properties as electrical tape?? Or maybe i could use some electrical tape first and then slap on a nicely fit heat shrink?

or that's overkill?

I did look into re-crimping. The crimps are cheap enough but the crimper is a totally different price range (especially when your average RJ45 crimper is about 3-4 times less!).

DigitalReaper · 14 Apr 2009 at 16:43

Heatshrink does an excellent job of insulating joins on its own. Tape has a habbit of losing its stickyness in warm environments such as inside a PC.

Just remember to slide the heatshrink onto the cable _before_ you solder, you wouldn't beleive how many times i've forgotten to put the heatshrink on first...

han_solo · 14 Apr 2009 at 19:27

Thanks for the info and the great tip DigitalReaper!