Assembling Cat 5 Cable; There's gotta be a better way!

[LawyerRon]

OK,
I've got the Cat 5 cable, I've got the crimping tool, Electronic line tester, and I've got the little plastic end thingys. I've got to believe there's an easier way to assemble these cables! Trying to get all 8 wires lined up perfectly is making me nuts! What's the fast way to do it? Should I only worry about 4 wires for my home LAN?

[HAL9000]

Ron, here is what I do and I can rip these things off in no time.

1) Strip back the outer insulation a good 3 inches and separate the 4 twisted pairs.

2) Un-twist one pair and do not go below the insulation, then straighten out that pair beteen your finger and thumb. I find it works best by pulling in one direction (which puts a slight curl in it), then back the other way. You should be able to get the pair very straight. Do this for the remaining 3 pairs.

3) Arrange the wires in the proper order while keeping any crosses over each other as close to the insulation as possible.

4) Give it another pull like you did with the pairs.

5) Cut it all off about 3/4" from the insulation. Now they should stay somewhat aligned while you slide the end on.

It takes some practice, but I've got it down to about 30 seconds per end. I did screw up a lot in the beginning though.

[glc]

Ron - I am a professional, and I don't even think of doing my own CAT5. I buy premade cables - a bag of ten 10 footers costs us about $20. If I need wiring done inside the walls, I call the electrician we deal with. We tried to do our own CAT5 on one job, and it was a disaster - proved to us that premade cables and/or the electrician's fees are cheaper in the long run.

[HAL9000]

Especially on short cables. We purchase lengths of 3', 6', and 10' from Startech. Our cost on the 6' cables is less than $3.00. It costs me $9.95 for a pack of 10 RJ-45 ends (gets considerably cheaper if I want to buy large quantities), so that's $2.00 for the ends, another $1.00 if I want the boots for a finished appearance, plus the cost of cable and my time to make them. I can't compete with three bucks.

[bob]

The connectors are clear. Look at a correct crimped end.

Use that as a measuring guide to know how much of the outer insulation will need to be removed.

As Hal says remove extra outer insulation - straighten the wires - line them in the right order - push them together the same width that they will be in the connector - cut off extra wire (right angle/evenly) to the same length as the wires you see in the end that is already crimped.

Now it is ready for a perfect fit. Enjoy.


BTW there are stranded cables and solid core. The connectors for stranded will not work well for solid core wire. The connectors for solid will work for both.
The stranded connectors have two points (on one sheet of copper) that stick into the wire strands. Look from the side to see. The solid have what looks like three points that actually are two sheets of copper (one has two points the other has one in the center) that wrap around the solid core.


[Edited by bob on 04-24-2001 at 03:35 AM]

[LawyerRon]

Thanks for the tips. I had two 75 foot runs so I wanted to assemble my own cables.

[ja83]

CAT-5 Color Order:

OrangeWhite
Orange
GreenWhite
Blue
BlueWhite
Green
BrownWhite
Brown

Just to let anyone wondering what the order is.
Now a crossover cable is a little different.

See Ya

[HAL9000]

That's one of the acceptable orders. What I really would like to know, is one pattern better than another. If you look at the twisted pairs, each pair has a different number of twists per inch.

[mairving]

Click to view
Check this out from Linksys. You can't get any clearer. It doesn't matter which cables go which way but it is best to use industry standards. It just helps keep things a bit better organized and helps if you are working on a cable that you don't know how it was wired.

Ron, if you are going 75ft, it might be time to put in a couple of jacks. It will look a bit better.

[moonlight burner]

Great picture !

moonlight burner

[LawyerRon]

mairving,
The problem I was having was keeping the wires in the correct order when I would slide them into the connector. I guess it just takes some practice as this is the first time I've assembled cables. The chart you posted matches the order I used. One of my best friends is a Dentist and he loaned me the crimping tool, the electrical tester thingy (LIFESAVER), and gave me a spool of cable and ends. He's pretty good at assembling the cables as he's wired his Dental office and set everything up on a LAN. He showed me how to do it once and made it look easy.

[HAL9000]

It just takes practice Ron. That's why I always leave plenty of extra when I'm sorting the order. Once that's done, I pinch off the appropriate amount between my thumb and finger and cut of the excess. Then I take the connector and slide it on. MOST of the time, everything stays in place.

[LawyerRon]

Thanks Hal, I've give it another try this weekend.

[Parangles]

Look out for a bad fit with the plug into the NIC. Seems like there is a mismatch between some brands of cards and plugs.The little tab on the plug doesn't engage on mine. Constantly having to go behind and push it it.
Maybe bad alignment of the card in the bay- will pull it one of these days.

[AndyM]

Ron,
Check this reading out also. This guy says to be careful about untwisting too much. I'm doing the very same this this weekend. But I'm putting in female RJ45 outlets in the individual rooms then bringing them back to a male adapter for insertion into the router.

http://www.duxcw.com/digest/Howto/ne...ble/cable1.htm

HTH.

[HAL9000]

Parangles, that's not all that uncommon. When I make a new cable, I usually bend the tab perpendicular to the plug, then back to about 45'. They are quite flexable and I have yet to break one doing this, but the plug goes in with a definite click.

[mhayes]

Hi Ron,

I know you're probably done already but I thought I would post this link as well for anyone who wishes to learn more about cabling.

http://home1.gte.net/res025bi/phnehome/phnehome.htm

Also if you go to the Panduit website or the Fluke there are guides and tutorials available, that explain not only how to but why.

[LawyerRon]

Thanks Mike,
I'll check that site out as I have to re-do a couple of cables. I was pressed for time so I temporarily crimped them (the wrong way) by leaving the inner wires about 3" long, separating them and inserting them in order into the plug. I did this just to get everything working which it does. Now that I have everyone's input, I want to go back and crimp them the right way.

AndyM,
That's for the link too, it's very helpful.