Thinking of Making My Own Patch Cables

robinbowes

Octafish said:

Cheers, not seen one of those before. Where do you get it from?

I think it came with a Lava Solderless cable kit, but they should be readily available.

R.

robinbowes

Octafish said:

Cheers, not seen one of those before. Where do you get it from?

https://lavacable.com/collections/pedalboard-kits/products/yellow-stripping-tool

robinbowes

@Octafish ;

https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/192777854352

Octafish

robinbowes said:

@Octafish ;

https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/192777854352

Great, have ordered one, thanks

robinbowes

Octafish said:

robinbowes said:

@Octafish ;

https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/192777854352

Great, have ordered one, thanks

You can get 3 for only 39p more

english_bob

ICBM said:

The biggest problem - especially with pancake plugs - is getting enough heat in quickly enough to the ground connection to avoid a dry joint, but without melting the cable and shorting it. It's a fine line sometimes... but once you find it, no problem.

I hadn't really appreciated how much of a pain doing this with pancake jacks was until I did my last batch of cables  (for my ES-5) with some straight REAN plugs. So much easier.

Sassafras

Helps if your soldering iron is at least 40 watts with a broad chisel tip to get heat into the pancake jacks quickly enough.

lukedlb

It took me a whole day to do my pedalboard. I recommend writing down the order; you cannot believe how many times I forgot to thread on the other parts of the jack before soldering. 
There is a technique to slipping on the rubber parts down the cable that should be a lot easier than the frustration I experienced: I managed to destroy all the skin on my thumb print. 
I went with Reference cable and the plugs they have. 

english_bob

lukedlb said:

It took me a whole day to do my pedalboard. I recommend writing down the order; you cannot believe how many times I forgot to thread on the other parts of the jack before soldering. 

That should definitely have been on my top tips list. I've been using pancake jacks for years where this isn't an issue, so when I did a load of straight jacks I kept forgetting. So annoying.

ICBM

Octafish said:

Getting heat into pancake jacks can be tiresome, but he biggest pain for me is stripping the outer sleeve of the cable without cutting through loads of strands of the ground wire. I have wire strippers that are fine for the inner cable. Any tips, am I missing something or is it just a case of cutting carefully with a craft/stanley knife?

I do it with a Swiss Army knife (small blade) while bending the cable over my finger - the idea is not to cut completely through the plastic, but deep enough that the bend then makes it split down to the shield wires.

lukedlb

I use a Stanley knife to cut through mine with lighter pressure than you think. 

Octafish

ICBM said:

Octafish said:

Getting heat into pancake jacks can be tiresome, but he biggest pain for me is stripping the outer sleeve of the cable without cutting through loads of strands of the ground wire. I have wire strippers that are fine for the inner cable. Any tips, am I missing something or is it just a case of cutting carefully with a craft/stanley knife?

I do it with a Swiss Army knife (small blade) while bending the cable over my finger - the idea is not to cut completely through the plastic, but deep enough that the bend then makes it split down to the shield wires.

Ah ok, never thought of bending it. Have now ordered one of the little gadgets recommended by robinbowes.

Sassafras

I use these for cutting through the insulation:

Roland

I roll the cable over a Stanley knife blade. This cuts into, but not through the plastic outer layer, exactly where a want the cut. Then I bend the cable. Sometimes the plastic layer splits. Sometimes I have to encourage it with the blade.

57Deluxe

ICBM said:

Octafish said:

Getting heat into pancake jacks can be tiresome, but he biggest pain for me is stripping the outer sleeve of the cable without cutting through loads of strands of the ground wire. I have wire strippers that are fine for the inner cable. Any tips, am I missing something or is it just a case of cutting carefully with a craft/stanley knife?

I do it with a Swiss Army knife (small blade) while bending the cable over my finger - the idea is not to cut completely through the plastic, but deep enough that the bend then makes it split down to the shield wires.

...can you photo this for us all please??

ICBM

57Deluxe said:
...can you photo this for us all please??

I'm not sure how it will help... just bend the cable over your index finger with it held down with your thumb and middle finger. Hold the knife in the other hand .

mattismetal

soma1975 said:

Those nice new Squareplug SP400s looks very well designed to make soldering as easy as possible. 

They are fantastic... The best pancake style jack's I've ever used.
I also got some non eutectic solder which I found much easier to use.

57Deluxe

I just ordered 10 straight and 4x 90 degree metal jacks to makeover some old (cheap) cables and get them useful again for keyboards and 'non essential tone' guitar usage. Total price of order with delivery was just £4.18

robinbowes

57Deluxe said:

I just ordered 10 straight and 4x 90 degree metal jacks to makeover some old (cheap) cables and get them useful again for keyboards and 'non essential tone' guitar usage. Total price of order with delivery was just £4.18

I'm not convinced those plugs will be particularly good quality.

R.

Danny1969

I've started using thinner diameter cable for pedal patch cables, on a pedal board you don't want thick robust cable as it tends to want to lift pedals in the air as it exerts force on the jacks. I use a 4.2mm cable that takes up less room and is more suited for the job. 

On some of the cheap pancake jacks you can solder the hot to the solder tag and solder over the rivet joint straight onto the actual metal of the jack it's self to bypass the rivet failure point. The pancakes on my own board were 59p each and are fine when soldered like this