How do you sleeve Molex power cables?

[FluffyNuggets]

No idea how you go about sleeving them since they have connectors going down the cable. Do you just sleeve up to each Molex connector and then heatshrink it? I'm not looking to terminate any of the connectors. 

 

I plan on doing custom MDPC sleeving in a week or two and want to make sure I have a good idea what I need to do. 

 

Thanks!

[Hyrikan]

Do you just sleeve up to each Molex connector and then heatshrink it? I'm not looking to terminate any of the connectors. 

 

That's how I do it. just pull the connecors off, sleeve right to the edges of them, heatshrink the end and then start a new sleeve on the other side of the connector.

[FluffyNuggets]

That's how I do it. just pull the connecors off, sleeve right to the edges of them, heatshrink the end and then start a new sleeve on the other side of the connector.

Sweet, I'm glad it's that simple. I was worried I'd have to do something crazy in order to do it! Any other cable I should be worried about? I know the 24-pin is gonna be time consuming but everything else seems pretty straight forward. 

 

Also, how much heatshrink do you think I need? I already placed my order yesterday for 150 pre cut pieces but I'm worried it's not gonna be enough. Also bought around 80 meters of sleeving which I hope is enough even though he recommends around 100 meters of sleeve.

[Altecice]

Yeah sorry to Hijack the thread but See Sata ribbons and molex ribbon cables. where there are 4-5 on one cable. it looks like after the first where two wires come out of the connectors (one going back the way and the other to the next sata/molex ) how do you sleeve them? Or do they split and then reattach together?

[Hyrikan]

Yeah sorry to Hijack the thread but See Sata ribbons and molex ribbon cables. where there are 4-5 on one cable. it looks like after the first where two wires come out of the connectors (one going back the way and the other to the next sata/molex ) how do you sleeve them? Or do they split and then reattach together?

 

You just put the sleeve over the pins. When you've pulled the connectors off, there's only a small pin left for each cable. You can easily bend the pin in the direction that you're pulling the sleeve and put the sleeve over it. Like this:

 

 

Also, how much heatshrink do you think I need? I already placed my order yesterday for 150 pre cut pieces but I'm worried it's not gonna be enough. Also bought around 80 meters of sleeving which I hope is enough even though he recommends around 100 meters of sleeve.

 

I usually order about 10 cm per meter sleeve that I use. But if you have precut pieces you could just count the number of pieces you need and order like 10% more to prevent running out of them if something goes wrong.

[FluffyNuggets]

You just put the sleeve over the pins. When you've pulled the connectors off, there's only a small pin left for each cable. You can easily bend the pin in the direction that you're pulling the sleeve and put the sleeve over it. Like this:

 

 

 

I usually order about 10 cm per meter sleeve that I use. But if you have precut pieces you could just count the number of pieces you need and order like 10% more to prevent running out of them if something goes wrong.

So for 80 meters would 150 pieces be enough? It seems like a ton but things like the Molex power connectors require quite a bit. The 24-pin is probably over 50 pieces alone if I only mess up a couple! Worse comes to worse, I could just not heatshrink a couple things that are out of sight to save some for things that are visible. 

[Hyrikan]

So for 80 meters would 150 pieces be enough? It seems like a ton but things like the Molex power connectors require quite a bit. The 24-pin is probably over 50 pieces alone if I only mess up a couple! Worse comes to worse, I could just not heatshrink a couple things that are out of sight to save some for things that are visible.

 

Yeah as I dont know how long your cables are I can't really tell you how much you will need. But If you are going to sleeve the system you have in your sig:

 

48 for the 24-pin, 32 for the Graphics Card, 16 for the Processor, at least one Sata harness and one molex harness so again about 40 for the sata harness and 32 for the molex harness (assuming those are the standard 4 connector per harness). If I add those up i'm at 168 and that's minimum. So you are a bit on the short site for the heatshrink pieces.

[FluffyNuggets]

Yeah as I dont know how long your cables are I can't really tell you how much you will need. But If you are going to sleeve the system you have in your sig:

 

48 for the 24-pin, 32 for the Graphics Card, 16 for the Processor, at least one Sata harness and one molex harness so again about 40 for the sata harness and 32 for the molex harness (assuming those are the standard 4 connector per harness). If I add those up i'm at 168 and that's minimum. So you are a bit on the short site for the heatshrink pieces.

Crap, I knew I should have bought more. It was kinda expensive as is with the euro to dollar conversion. I think I'll just not use heat shrink on anything that's not visible since it's just a waste anyways. Maybe I'll not use heat shrink on the cables that plug into the bottom row on the PSU since that will save a bunch. 

 

I can just melt the end of the heat shrink and pinch it with my fingers and put it in the cable right? Or should I just buy some cheap heat shrink online and melt it down to the cable and then cut it off and put the cable in?

 

So it would be heat shrinkless on the connectors going into the PSU and the ends will all have it. You think that would look good? MDPC is not available to order right now so I can't order more if I tried, and I really don't want pay shipping for more since that will cost more than the actual heat shrink. 

[Hyrikan]

@FluffyNuggets

I don't know how the situation is over the ocean, but here in Germany you can get heat shrink in every good sorted electronic or DIY-shop. Maybe just look there.

You could go heatshrinkless, but i wouldn't recommend it as the sleeve isn't really fixed at one side and therefore can "climb up" the cable.

[FluffyNuggets]

@FluffyNuggets

I don't know how the situation is over the ocean, but here in Germany you can get heat shrink in every good sorted electronic or DIY-shop. Maybe just look there.

You could go heatshrinkless, but i wouldn't recommend it as the sleeve isn't really fixed at one side and therefore can "climb up" the cable.

Well I was watching some videos of this Lutro (sp) guy doing it and it seems pretty good. 

 

What he does is puts heat shrink over the end, heats it up pretty good (more than normal) and that will melt the ends of the sleeve together to the cable. Then you just cut the heat shrink off and put the cable in the pin. 

 

I think that's the technique others use that go heatshrinkless. If not, I'll just do the PSU connector ends with the cheaper stuff or some of the other non visible ends. 

[Hyrikan]

 

What he does is puts heat shrink over the end, heats it up pretty good (more than normal) and that will melt the ends of the sleeve together to the cable. Then you just cut the heat shrink off and put the cable in the pin. 

 

Ok I can't really imagine that . Could you post a link to the vid please? I'm interested.

[Smooth.]

lutro0 made a video about it

[FluffyNuggets]

Ok I can't really imagine that . Could you post a link to the vid please? I'm interested.

http://youtu.be/-rmj5B8z1Os

 

This guy did it will MDPC sleeve using this method

http://www.overclock.net/t/1211251/heatshrink-less-mdpc-sleeving-d-updated-2-12-2012

[FluffyNuggets]

lutro0 made a video about it

Haha, beat me to it. 

[Hyrikan]

@FluffyNuggets

Oh damn. If you use this method (which btw is really clever) you need a lot less heatshrink then i thought (For Molex and Sata). You can calculated with 25 for sata and 20 for molex so your 150 should be just fine. If it isn't what you can do is cut the heatshrink pieces in halves for the parts that aren't visible and use the halves (shouldn't really matter that much in those spots and at least they're secured).

[FluffyNuggets]

@FluffyNuggets

Oh damn. If you use this method (which btw is really clever) you need a lot less heatshrink then i thought (For Molex and Sata). You can calculated with 25 for sata and 20 for molex so your 150 should be just fine. If it isn't what you can do is cut the heatshrink pieces in halves for the parts that aren't visible and use the halves (shouldn't really matter that much in those spots and at least they're secured).

You think I should just use this method for everything and forget the heatshrink? It looks really good, like the link from the guy that did it to MDPC sleeve. 

 

I'm just wondering if I should apply it to all the ends because those are the ones being tugged on a lot, mainly the PCIE cables. I'm not sure if the sleeve would pull out from the PSU end since it doesn't really get tugged on all that much. 

 

I guess if I do what you said and only do it to the Molex and Sata cables I should be fine. I'll just do those last to make sure I have enough for everything else. I think I'll just go your route instead to be safe! The sleeving isn't cheap so I don't want to screw up stuff I didn't need to. 

[Hyrikan]

You think I should just use this method for everything and forget the heatshrink? It looks really good, like the link from the guy that did it to MDPC sleeve. 

 

I'm just wondering if I should apply it to all the ends because those are the ones being tugged on a lot, mainly the PCIE cables. I'm not sure if the sleeve would pull out from the PSU end since it doesn't really get tugged on all that much. 

 

I guess if I do what you said and only do it to the Molex and Sata cables I should be fine. I'll just do those last to make sure I have enough for everything else. I think I'll just go your route instead to be safe! The sleeving isn't cheap so I don't want to screw up stuff I didn't need to. 

 

No I'm not referring to the method without heatshrink, sorry forgot to point that out. I was referring to his method to sleeve the Molex/SATA-cables (applies to both of them). He uses only one heatshrink for the connectors in the middle, while I use two. I'm still no big fan of the no heatshrink method, but you can certainly go that way if you run out of heatshrink. For myself I will hold on to the "safe" method with heatshrink.

Furthermore as you said you should imho only use this method on parts that aren't stretched or get tugged on frequently, as I doubt that "molten" sleeve will survive this kind of strain.

[FluffyNuggets]

No I'm not referring to the method without heatshrink, sorry forgot to point that out. I was referring to his method to sleeve the Molex/SATA-cables (applies to both of them). He uses only one heatshrink for the connectors in the middle, while I use two. I'm still no big fan of the no heatshrink method, but you can certainly go that way if you run out of heatshrink. For myself I will hold on to the "safe" method with heatshrink.

Furthermore as you said you should imho only use this method on parts that aren't stretched or get tugged on frequently, as I doubt that "molten" sleeve will survive this kind of strain.

yeah that's what I was thinking about doing. I'll just do the shrinkless way for the HDD, SSD's, and other fixed cables. No point wasting the heatshrink when I don't need to! Like I said, I think I'll just sleeve the most important stuff first and see how much I have left. 

 

The only visible cables, besides on the actual PSU, is two PCIE cables, 24-pin, 8-pin. All my HDD's and SSD's are in the back of the SM8 behind the motherboard. I may heatshrink my UV cathode lights just because those are very visible by the front window.