The Orange One
New member
Sexy sleeving mate!
HELIOS (Caselabs SMH10 | black/copper | EVGA SR-2 | Geforce Titan) - by alpenwasser
- Thread starter alpenwasser
- Start date
Remmy
New member
Yeah that sleeving looks epic, I'm just being lazy and getting the Corsair braided cables for my PSU lol. I have done some though, I do all my fans, and SATA cables, and front I/O etc.. So I'm not completely noobish :L Getting the USB3 done was nearly impossible though, I got the braiding on fine, but I couldn't get any heatshrink over the MoBo header that would shrink enough so I've had to use electrical tape :s
alpenwasser
New member
That sleeving job is just....STUPID NICE!!! :drool::dribble: Inspirational to say the least. PSU mount is a win, especially to show off the magnificent sleeving.opcorn:
Yeah it does work out quite nicely. Ironically I didn't originally plan on getting this
PSU and the other one would have been mounted differently (long story for another
day).
Yeah USB and that stuff is quite a PITA IMO.
I have to admit that it does take an absolutely ridiculous amount of time, especially
when using the techniques I'm using. Since I'm taking a forced break from college
at the moment (bad health, see intro post for log) part of the reason for all this
intricacy is admittedly just keeping myself busy.
Thanks for the support guys!
alpenwasser
New member
Cable Lacing
Cable Lacing Sketches
Since I've been asked several times now how I did the lacing I've drawn up a few
very rough (and confusing :lol: ) sketches. Since I can't yet do the video this
is all I got at the moment.
Basic Concept
As you can see (I hope), the basic concept is to have a thread running across
the top and bottom of the wire bundle and then do loops around them.
When you do a downwards loop, you go straight down, and when you come back up
again, you change one wire over when you're in the middle. This pulls the next
wire to the ones you've already laced.
(click image for full res)
Front-View Step by Step
Step 1
First you loop the lace around the wire pack like this. Whenever there's a
crossing of wires in the third dimesion, red denotes the wire running in the
foreground.
Magenta represents continuity between steps. This is all just one piece of lace,
not several.
(click image for full res)
Step 2
After that, loop the lace around the vertical end part once and go between the
first pair of wires. This is the loop by itself:
(click image for full res)
And within context:
(click image for full res)
Step 3
After that you go across the package of wires using vertical loops. As mentioned,
you go down straight and when you come back up you switch one wire over.
(click image for full res)
With context:
(click image for full res)
Step 4
At the last pair of wires, instead of going one wire over (there's no wire there
of course
), you go back across the entire package between the two layers, then
loop around the vertical end again (as in the beginning) and go to where the start
of the lace comes out. Then you make a knot.
(click image for full res)
Which then leaves you with this mess:
(click image for full res)
Note: It's quite tricky to keep everything taut all the time. Instead of trying that,
simply tighten down at both ends of the lace between steps (you'll easily realize when
the package is not tightly packed). It greatly depends on what kind of lace you use.
Nylon is very slippery and quite difficult to work with, lacing cord (usually waxed
cotton) is quite convenient.
I will still do a video, but in the mean time this might help a bit. I know it's a
bit messy, but if you don't understand a specific step let me know and I might be
able to draw up a clearer sketch for some more detail of that part.
EDIT: Something I forgot: I usually tie the two ends of the thread to large
paper clips to be able to thread it through the wires. Otherwise this might drive
a person insane. :lol:
Cable Lacing Sketches
Since I've been asked several times now how I did the lacing I've drawn up a few
very rough (and confusing :lol: ) sketches. Since I can't yet do the video this
is all I got at the moment.
Basic Concept
As you can see (I hope), the basic concept is to have a thread running across
the top and bottom of the wire bundle and then do loops around them.
When you do a downwards loop, you go straight down, and when you come back up
again, you change one wire over when you're in the middle. This pulls the next
wire to the ones you've already laced.
(click image for full res)
Front-View Step by Step
Step 1
First you loop the lace around the wire pack like this. Whenever there's a
crossing of wires in the third dimesion, red denotes the wire running in the
foreground.
Magenta represents continuity between steps. This is all just one piece of lace,
not several.
(click image for full res)
Step 2
After that, loop the lace around the vertical end part once and go between the
first pair of wires. This is the loop by itself:
(click image for full res)
And within context:
(click image for full res)
Step 3
After that you go across the package of wires using vertical loops. As mentioned,
you go down straight and when you come back up you switch one wire over.
(click image for full res)
With context:
(click image for full res)
Step 4
At the last pair of wires, instead of going one wire over (there's no wire there
of course
), you go back across the entire package between the two layers, thenloop around the vertical end again (as in the beginning) and go to where the start
of the lace comes out. Then you make a knot.
(click image for full res)
Which then leaves you with this mess:
(click image for full res)
Note: It's quite tricky to keep everything taut all the time. Instead of trying that,
simply tighten down at both ends of the lace between steps (you'll easily realize when
the package is not tightly packed). It greatly depends on what kind of lace you use.
Nylon is very slippery and quite difficult to work with, lacing cord (usually waxed
cotton) is quite convenient.
I will still do a video, but in the mean time this might help a bit. I know it's a
bit messy, but if you don't understand a specific step let me know and I might be
able to draw up a clearer sketch for some more detail of that part.
EDIT: Something I forgot: I usually tie the two ends of the thread to large
paper clips to be able to thread it through the wires. Otherwise this might drive
a person insane. :lol:
Last edited:
alpenwasser
New member
^Thanks mate!
Useful stuff
Happy to help
Yeah it is indeed quite tedious, especially when using Nylon. The waxed cotton cord
I've used for ZEUS is much easier to work with, but is of course a lot thicker.
The other tricky phase is that when you've only done the first few wires and can't
yet tighten things down. It looks like quite a mess in the beginning and only really
takes shape once you've laced a few wires together and it doesn't come loose every
time you're adding a new one.
AverageNinja
Average Penis Too
Cable stitching 
Great job dude!
Great job dude!
alpenwasser
New member
Cable stitching
Great job dude!
Thanks mate!
Did a few more wires over the weekend. However, to my great astonishment I had
to realize that the 80 metres of 16 AWG I had ordered are in fact only about 40 m
long.
I've contacted the company and they swear they sent out 80 metres, which leads
me to believe that the other 40 m got stolen on its way to me. I just don't believe
that they would do this on purpose since if I had realized this sooner I could have
easily given them negative feedback on eBay (they have a great reputation, so
surely they would care about this), and I don't think you would accidentally only
pack half the amount of wire ordered by mistake.
Thievery is not as ridiculous as it sounds. Copper is highly desired by thieves around
here, sometimes they dismantle entire railway copper lines (the ground wires, not
the power carrying ones, of course). And since it is very hard to notice (just look at
how long it took me), if it gets noticed at all, it's quite an easy crime to get away
with (espeically considering nobody would ever seriously investigate something as
small as this).
So, I've ordered 60 m more 16 AWG wire and will continue the cable making when
that gets here (if it gets here :lol: ).
In the mean time I will have to find something else to keep me busy, I'll let you know
what that is when I find out.
OmegaStalker
New member
Happy to help
You considered selling your services
no seriously never seen that thing you do with the thread before would you consider doing it for money (so much innuendo )You considered selling your services
i second that request.
alpenwasser
New member
This is starting to look amazing! Can't wait to see the finished product
Thank you, neither can I!
You considered selling your services
Oh, wow, now you're making me blush guys. :wub:
It certainly would be the ultimate compliment if somebody asked me to do this for
them.
Two potential pitfalls I see at the moment: I will still have to get one more operation
in the coming weeks, and depending on how well that goes I could either be back
home at work/modding quite soon or if it goes sideways I could be out of commission
for an undetermined period of time. So until I know how that's turned out I can't
really know my timetable over the summer and therefore can't guarantee a deadline.
Also, I'm hopefully back at college in fall (late September) and anything I'd do then
would progress very slowly since I won't have much time to do this.
Secondly, considering one wire takes me about 12~15 minutes (cutting, crimping,
sleeving) this might get quite expensive (I might get it down to 10 with practice, but still...).
I don't know how much a normal sleeving job costs, and I certainly wouldn't be doing
this for the money but much more as a favour, but it's still a substantial amount of
time which I could otherwise be using to earn money for college, so I would have to
ask for some compensation for my time. I would of course provide life-time warranty.
Bottom line: I would be honored to do this for somebody, but it wouldn't be cheap, and
I'm currently not sure how my timetable looks for the next few weeks.
But if somebody is really interested feel free to PM me.
On another note: I'm currently working on a video tutorial about the lacing technique
I'm using, and I will probably also do one on the sleeving technique.
obviously we would pay you. I would need to pay 100+ euros for the damn corsair kit just because i would need to import it and i am sure that you could do a way better job. might as well spend a few bucks more and know it goes to a passionate builder.
OmegaStalker
New member
I agree or you could buy like bitfenix extensions and thread them and sell them on for a premium but go and have your operation first and come back to us P.S i hope it does ok
alpenwasser
New member
Terribly sorry, I phrased my answer a bit awkwardly. Of course the original question
was if I would do this for money.
The point I was trying to make was more along the lines of "it will probably be quite
a bit of money", not that I thought you thought it was going to be free.
Sorry about that :lol:
Wow, that's quite a bit. Although comparing it to a custom job like lutro0 offers
them it's still quite affordable (see here for some of his prices). The nice thing
about custom cables is that you can have them exactly in the length and with
the connector layout you need.
While I haven't exactly worked out material costs and all the fine details, I do
think that my prices would probably a bit higher than Lutro0's considering my
technique requires a substantial amount of additional work compared to a
standard custom job (if there is such a thing
).If anyone knows other custom prices feel free to let me know. As said my
primary motivation would certainly not be the money, but I do think that
using other custom work as a gauge for how to price something like this
is probably a reasonable approach.
Well thank you for the very kind words, much appreciated.
In any case, if anyone is really interested in me doing this for them just
send me a PM. I would consider it the ultimate compliment.
EDIT:
I agree or you could buy like bitfenix extensions and thread them and sell them on for a premium but go and have your operation first and come back to us P.S i hope it does ok
Hm, not too bad of an idea me thinks. I'd need to look into that. I'm not
sure if it would be feasible (the melted paracord at the end of the sleeve
actually helps with holding the nylon thread in place, and that support
wouldn't be there if I just threaded some pre-sleeved cables, at least
as far as I can tell at the moment), but I certainly think it is worth looking
into.
And thanks for the nice wishes, I certainly hope it goes well. It would be
nice to be at full mission readiness again after two years of being
compromised.
Last edited:
alpenwasser
New member
