Tips on making own LAN Cables?

FatRakoon

FatRakoon

FatRakoon

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I have been half heartedly doing this for some time now.

Mnay years ago I wired up my entire home with ethernet, and what I did, was use the sockets and so it was fairly straight forward and so nothing was a biggie to me.

Now, I have over the years bought myself a coupple of crimps that let me make up my own Ehternet cables, and I have had varying levels of failure, from plain and simple "Nope - its not working" all the way to "Cough Cough, open the window to clear the smoke". but very rarely have I actually made a calbe that has been perfect and I ended up just buying a cable of a good enough length.

Now, I have all the tools ( I think ) that are for making up a cable, but I make so many mistakes, that I end up by the time the calbe actually works, I have wasted half dozen plugs and about 6 inches of cable.

Has anyone any tips of advise or heck, even a link to a perfect step by step for noobs guide to making up Ethernet cables, then I would be in your debt.

Thanks.
 
I seriously doubt you every managed to 'smoke' a cable unless you deliberately connected it to something other than an Ethernet socket. Even PoE isn't cause that sort of event.

Although I can, and do, make my own Ethernet cables it's only in special circumstances. I carry several lengths of good stranded Cat5e with the rest of my tools but it's very rarely used. Good quality patch cables are so cheap it isn't usually worth the effort unless it's the only option.

Assuming all of the parts and tools are of decent quality the only thing that can really go wrong is not getting all of the wires in the correct order. Just double check before crimping and use a cable tester afterwards.
 
Of course I was joking with that! - I was in fact remembering a picture I saw a while back, where Homer simpson had a box of corn flakes in one hand, a jug of milk in the other, and there was a bowl with flames coming from it on the table and he had a puzzled look on his face! - thats me that is! LOL

Ok, well there is a few things I need to say here, but yes, cables are ridiculously cheap and thats absolutely true I fully admit that, and in 95% of all needs, a ready made purchased one is more than good enough, lets not cut the mustard.

The thing is, that I want to re-do my entire network, and this time I want to do it with ZERO excess cable.

When it comes to how I did the sockets etc, there was no waste because I had the cable following the wall and its hidden by trunking and at most, I have an inch slack maybe between sockets, its very efficient, but Im looking at some of the cabling here, and there is more loops than a fairground ride in here and its all from different things... I can see quite clearly, that just around the cables that I have near my feet and then over near the Server and also near the Media center, I would save myself a few dozen feet of cabling ( And no, I dont think Im joking either ) That said, in m yliving room alone, there is currently 8 Systems connected to 2 different switches, and thats how sad my life is it the moment, but hey ho!

Now, in a small moment of me typically being me, I have been analysing my cables and I have just done a small and simple mistake, and on verifying this mistake I did indeed see how much of a pleb I have been.

I have not been swapping over the Green+White and the Blue+White.

I keep running my cables through the tester and wire 2 never shows up as connected and then 3,4,5,6 seem random and only 1,7 and 8 seemed to be reliable but this seemed to be the case for all of them.

I just sat myself down and went through it all V-E-R-Y slowly and also another thing that I keep on doing, that I really need to slap myself fo,r, is that I strip each wire individually and then one by one, I feed the wire into the lug, hoping that he ones I have already done, dont pop out.

Again, this time I just gave myself about half an inch and I kept the wires unstripped and as straight as I could, and in the right order, pushed them all in and they looked good, so I crimped them and tested and viola! - I bloody did it.

I just grabbed a couple from the now huge pile of duff cables and I just snipped the both ends off, not going to argue over whether one or the other end is good, I redid them both and FFS blow me down, that also worked now too!

Long strory made still long, just a little bit shorter, I have just fixed up 7 cables and they are all good. I knew it was all down to technique and also of course the fact that I neded to swap the BLU+WHT with the GRN+WHT but the tester is showing me a nice 1-8 lights all in the correct sequence.

Anyway, many thanks mate.
 
I don't make them up nearly so often now so.

My 3 bits of advice

1. Use a reference such as a colour print out or just an end from a working cable. I'm moderate Duetan which is a measure of my colour blindness and I can struggle sometimes with greens and brown so find a reference helpful. I rarely make mistake now.

2. Get a decent tool as more of then than not the cheaper tools just don't crush the glass end properly and the cables pull out too easily.

3. Grow a long thumb nail as this really helps when trapping and inserting the cables in the glass end once stripped and arranged probably the most useful tip :)
 
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Tip number one.
Use decent cable.

CCS (Connectix) cat5e. Solid core

It's a dream to work with.


^Don't grow a long thumbnail, that's disgusting!
 
Uhtred said:
There are some cable types that are harder than others. I find solid core quite tricky
Click to expand...

Crimping solid core is quite tricky - as it's not really meant for patch cables, it's meant for patch panels and keystone jacks.

Couple of tips though:

1. Don't buy cheap cable - the cheaper cables have thinner jackets and thinner insulation on the conductors, which mean that the rj45 connectors don't have as much grip on the cable

2. Don't buy cheap tools - poor tools either don't strip the sheath cleanly, or don't cut the conductors straight

3. Don't buy cheap (or the wrong sort e.g. Cat6 for Cat5e cable) RJ45 connectors - whilst they all look the same, and can normally be made to work, getting the right sort, or some slightly more expensive ones can make things easier, as they are generally shaped slightly better.
e.g. if you need to crimp solid core, then use the appropriate connectors (see: http://www.cableorganizer.com/articles/difference-between-solid-stranded-rj45-plugs.html)

4. As bimbleuk says, keep a working (ideally premade) cable for reference.

5. Trim more of the outer sheath than you actually need to - e.g. you only need about half inch exposed, but I find exposing a couple of inches, allows you to arrange the conductors in the correct order, then flatten down against something (e.g. worktop), then when you trim to the correct length, they should stay in the right order.
 
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Armageus said:
Crimping solid core is quite tricky - as it's not really meant for patch cables, it's meant for patch panels and keystone jacks.

Never had a problem crimping solid core cables but then maybe your explanation below is why

Couple of tips though:

1. Don't buy cheap cable - the cheaper cables have thinner jackets and thinner insulation on the conductors, which mean that the rj45 connectors don't have as much grip on the cable

3. Don't buy cheap (or the wrong sort e.g. Cat6 for Cat5e cable) RJ45 connectors - whilst they all look the same, and can normally be made to work, getting the right sort, or some slightly more expensive ones can make things easier, as they are generally shaped slightly better.
e.g. if you need to crimp solid core, then use the appropriate connectors (see: http://www.cableorganizer.com/articles/difference-between-solid-stranded-rj45-plugs.html)
Click to expand...

rj45 plugs are different for example cat6 plugs cannot take cat6a solid core cable. The wires are much thicker and won't fit into the wire guide that come with plugs.

However I have managed to crimp cat6 cable into cat5e plugs but for the few extra pence just buy like for like.
 
Just get RJ45 "easy fit" two piece connectors, they come with a cable guide that makes life easy. Assuming you have a working crimp tool you should not have issues. £6 for a pack of 50, delivered(from UK), on a well known auction site.
 
philip2009 said:
Assuming you have a working crimp tool you should not have issues.
Click to expand...

And bare in mind even though you can get a crimp tool for £10, don't! I've always used decent ones at work, and once I'd got the knack it was fine.

Bought one from a shop for £10 and it was a disaster. It didn't apply the crimping force evenly so it was pot luck as to weather or not all 8 contacts would terminate.
 
Tip:
Practise a lot, the more you make the better you get. RJ45 ends are cheap and so is the cable, make yourself a lot of cables, go through bags and bags of ends until you are happy with what you produce.

I am 2 years into a job where when I started I struggled to make ends, I can now do it quickly, efficiently and to my eyes, flawlessly. On average I was doing about 6-8 ends per day every day.
 
K.C. Leblanc said:
And bare in mind even though you can get a crimp tool for £10, don't! I've always used decent ones at work, and once I'd got the knack it was fine.

Bought one from a shop for £10 and it was a disaster. It didn't apply the crimping force evenly so it was pot luck as to weather or not all 8 contacts would terminate.
Click to expand...

Mine are cheap and do the job well for home use.
These are what I have:
https://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/B0000AZK4G/ref=oh_aui_detailpage_o01_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1
 
Practice makes perfect,decent tools and cable helps and watch a ton of other people doing it on youtube.
 
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